Organizational expatriates and self-initiated expatriates: who adjusts better to work and life in Japan?

Expatriates are often presented in the cross-cultural adjustment literature as a homogeneous, broad population. However, recent research that makes a distinction between organizational expatriates (OEs), those who are dispatched by their home companies to international posts, and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), those who themselves make the decision to live and work abroad, has identified differences between the two groups. The present study compares the cross-cultural adjustment of these two groups of expatriates. Survey results of 179 expatriates in Japan show that SIEs are better adjusted to general aspects of their host country and interactions with host-country nationals than OEs. Suggestions for practice are provided.     

An empirically-derived multidimensional measure of expatriate success: reconciling the discord

This paper examines the discord surrounding how expatriate success, or effectiveness, is defined. We review the many ways that success has been conceptualized and then seek to reconcile these differences by presenting a multidimensional measure of success, based on data collected from 118 expatriate respondents worldwide. A series of factor analyses, along with reliability and item analyses yielded nine measurement scales which included cultural adjustment, work-related adjustment, career development, HQ-subsidiary coordination, assignment completion, professional/skill development, shaping and controlling the subsidiary, satisfaction and overall assignment effectiveness. The process by which these scales were developed is described in the paper and all items and scale reliabilities are presented.     

Career success for international professional women in the land of the equal? Evidence from Norway

This study investigates the career success of international expatriate women in Norway. Norwegian and international women were compared on both objective and subjective career success. Participants were 125 Norwegian women and 168 international expatriate women who answered a 58 item questionnaire. Although Norwegian women achieved higher career success than the expatriate group, these effects disappeared for objective career success when expatriate women had a high level of education, high English language competency and motivation. Motivation, self focused conflict resolution and language competency were positively associated with subjective career success. Results suggest that although being foreign can be a disadvantage in Norway, expatriate women can overcome this liability through investment in education, language and motivation. Implications for international expatriate women are discussed.     

Corporate Strategies for Managing Climate Risks

This paper focuses on organizations and their management of climate risks. Climate risks stem from continued changes in climate means and the increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. We ask whether companies also apply the usual process of corporate risk management to climate risks. In seeking to answer this question, we review several literature streams in order to set out an initial theoretical reflection. Based on this we conducted an exploratory case study with 11 electric utilities. Our results illustrate that these companies perceive climatic changes as a material issue for their business. However, management has restricted knowledge about such climatic changes and thus cannot precisely determine the potential negative impacts on business activities. As a consequence, the companies have implemented a climate risk management that does not differ from the usual process of managing other business risks. Our results further illustrate that there is some variation in how individual firms manage climate risks: While risk identification and risk assessment are equally important for all electric utilities, there are differences in how management determines the direction of the individual response to climate risks. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

How does perceived underemployment influence expatriate job-related outcomes? A moderated mediation study

Abstract

Although research has investigated the consequences of underemployment in domestic settings, research on the effects of underemployment among expatriates remains limited and has yielded inconsistent results. From a theoretical perspective, there is a need for a better understanding of the mechanisms through which underemployment affects various work-related outcomes and to account for potential contingencies. Drawing on the person-job fit literature and research on organizational identification, we theorise and empirically examine how and under what conditions underemployment influences expatriate performance. Using an original primary data-set of 103 Japanese expatriate managers in the UK, we find that underemployment affects expatriate work outcomes by increasing expatriates’ maladjustment and that this effect is moderated by the level to which expatriates identify with their organization.     

Biological Adaptation in Human Societies: a ‘Basic Needs’ Approach

The groundzero premise (so to speak) of the biological sciences is that survival and reproduction is the basic, continuing, inescapable problem for all living organisms; life is at bottom a survival enterprise. It follows that survival is the paradigmatic problem for human societies as well; it is a prerequisite for any other, more exalted objectives. Although the term adaptation is also familiar to social scientists, until recently it has been used only selectively, and often very imprecisely. Here a more rigorous and systematic approach to the concept of adaptation is proposed in terms of basic needs. The concept of basic human needs has a venerable history – tracing back at least to Plato and Aristotle. Yet the development of a formal theory of basic needs has lagged far behind. The reason is that the concept of objective, measurable needs is inconsistent with the theoretical assumptions that have dominated economic and social theory for most of this century, namely, valuerelativism and cultural determinism. Nevertheless, there have been a number of efforts over the past 30 years to develop more universalistic criteria for basic needs, both for use in monitoring social wellbeing (social indicators) and for public policy formulation. Here I will advance a strictly biological approach to perationalizing the concept of basic needs. It is argued that much of our economic and social life (and the motivations behind our revealed preferences and subjective utility assessments), not to mention the actions of modern governments, are either directly or indirectly related to the meeting of our basic survival needs. Furthermore, these needs can be specified to a first approximation and supported empirically to varying degrees, with the obvious caveat that there are major individual and contextual variations in their application. Equally important, complex human societies generate an array of instrumental needs which, as the term implies, serve as intermediaries between our primary needs and the specific economic, cultural and political contexts within which these needs must be satisfied. An explicit framework of Survival Indicators, including a profile of Personal Fitness and an aggregate index of Population Fitness, is briefly elucidated. Finally, it is suggested that a basic needs paradigm could provide an analytical tool (a biologic) for examining more closely the relationship between our social, economic and political behaviors and institutions and their survival consequences, as well as providing a predictive tool of some value.     

组织变革对组织存活的影响研究——基于组织生态学的视角

20世纪以来,科学技术的快速发展,促进了全球经济的增长,给组织带来了发展的机遇,但是市场环境的剧烈动荡,使组织面临巨大的市场挑战和风险。组织为了生存,必须进行变革,但变革的高风险和高成本又反过来影响了组织生存。因此,组织变革与组织存活的关系是一个值得探讨的话题。目前,此问题的研究主要集中在两个视角:适应视角和生态学视角。其中,生态学视角是一种新的分析视角,为组织变革理论的研究提供了重要借鉴。     

Hedonic adaptation and satiation: Understanding switching behavior in the restaurant industry

The role of satiation as a determinant of restaurant patronage has been the subject of increasing research attention. The purpose of this research is to further consider the relationship between satiation and switching behavior in the restaurant industry. Specifically, we seek to address the mediating mechanism of service quality in this framework. Based on the related tenets of diminishing marginal utility and hedonic adaptation, we propose that satiation and service quality are inversely related. The results of an empirical analysis confirm that as consumers become satiated with food, atmosphere, and restaurant service, perceptions of these three facets of overall service quality are diminished, leading to decreased satisfaction and switching intentions. In addition to the practical implications of these results, the finding that satiation directly impacts service quality represents an important step in the overall task of understanding the effects of satiation in determining restaurant patronage behavior.     

英语委婉语的顺应性动态研究

委婉语是语言表达的一种常见形式。在言语交际过程中,它既要顺应交际双方的心理世界,也要顺应交际双方共处的物理世界、社交世界,且是一种动态的顺应过程。这样,才能使言语交际相互顺应。     

汉译英文电影片名对观众的心理顺应

一部英文电影在面对中国观众的时候,语言和文化的差异会使其难以被理解和接受,而首当其冲的就是这部影片的片名。让观众被吸引并愿意走进影院观看这部影片,这是汉译英文片名的目的。因此,在汉译英文电影片名时应顺应中国观众的心理因素就显得极为重要了。本文围绕汉译英文电影片名时对观众审美和消费这两种主要心理因素的顺应,讨论分析了其重要性和方法。