Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the significance of cross‐cultural training and career attitudes for expatriation career move in the context of China, whether cross‐cultural training is perceived necessary, and the consequence of providing such cross‐cultural training.

Data were collected from 82 expatriates from a Chinese firm, some of whom were expatriated to a foreign country and others who were expatriated from foreign countries to China.

Expatriates adjusted well, and having a protean career attitude was a decisive factor. While the impact of cross‐cultural training prior to departure was not statistically significant, it was well received and considered important.

A limitation is the limited sample size. Implications are presented for conducting cross‐cultural training.

Developing cross‐cultural training programs could add value to the firm and its people.

Using a particular Chinese firm the paper highlights the value and necessity of cross‐cultural training for successful expatriation.

When critically reviewing the empirical research on the relationships between personal characteristics and successful foreign assignments it is revealed that the extant empirical research suffers from several limitations. The aim of this article is to shed additional light into the relationship between expatriate personal characteristics and job performance, circumventing the identified limitations of cross‐sectional design, use of self‐evaluations and inappropriate measures of success.

The empirical study is based on longitudinal data. Trained psychologists carried out a psychological assessment of the expatriate prior to the assignment. Performance data were provided by both the expatriate and the expatriate's superior.

The obtained results support the importance of communicational ability for expatriate success, whereas stress tolerance and relational ability were not found to be significantly related to success.

The study was conducted in only one multinational company and the country of origin of all studied expatriates was Finland. Another limitation of this study is the relatively limited number of personal characteristics studied and the use of only one superior performance evaluation per expatriate.

Based on the results it is recommended that companies systematically assess the personal characteristics of candidates before deciding on an expatriation, especially the communicational ability. Minimising the use of self‐evaluations in research is strongly advised.

This article contributes to the literature by providing a longitudinal study on the relationship between expatriate personal characteristics and performance.

Retailers have demonstrated mixed results during international expansions. However, home market saturation and the economic climate are forcing more and more retailers to look beyond their borders for revenue. A critical participant in the internationalizing effort is the expatriate manager. Unfortunately the literature is unclear and at times conflicted over how to select and prepare expatriate management for their leadership role. Therefore, this study was designed with the purpose of uncovering various factors which may lead to expatriate retail management success.

Based on the lack of unanimity in the literature this study adopted a qualitative research methodology in order to develop some consensus regarding successful expatriate leadership attributes. Grounded theory was employed utilizing extensive in-depth interviews as the primary data gathering and analysis tools.

A multi-dimensional construct emerged from the data requiring all dimensions to be utilized for a successful retail expatriate assignment. The construct of “Universal Leadership”, is proposed as formative, comprised of reflective sub-dimensions; Ability, Adaptability, Ambassadorship, and Awareness (Self), which we refer to as the Four A's, for successful expatriate management assignments. Several propositions are put forward as suggestions for future research in the use of the universal leadership model for both selection and training of retail expatriate managers.

The study develops a theoretical platform for expatriate leadership success allowing for cultural and business variation. Awareness is introduced as a critical attribute in achieving success as an expatriate success. The universal leadership model proposes attributes beneficial for training and also selection which is critically under examined in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the success factors needed for the development of global human resources from both the organisation’s and expatriates’ perspectives in emerging eastern economies. Specifically, this study focuses on pre-expatriation preparation, during-expatriation adjustment and post-expatriation repatriation.

In total, 23 Taiwanese personnel contributed to this case study. Data collected from the focus group discussion and open-ended asynchronous email interviews was analysed using the content analysis approach.

The results of this study revealed four main selection criteria for the selection process and five desired preparation methods from the organisation and the expatriates’ perspectives.

This study makes two main contributions to cross-cultural related global human resources research. Firstly, this study deepens understanding on the pathway to developing culturally intelligent global human resources for successful mission accomplishment from both the organisation and expatriates’ perspectives based on a three-phase expatriation process in emerging eastern economies. Secondly, this study provides an insight into the best practices that HR practitioners can use in developing global human resources for expatriation.

The paper seeks to illustrate that a holistic selection, training, and organizational support approach encompassing variables such as the expatriate's family status, emotional intelligence, dietary and exercise habits, and his/her learning orientation is needed to enhance the odds of the expatriate's success.

The argument brought forth in this article is the product of a literature review drawing upon multiple streams of current research.

The holistic approach to expatriate selection, training, and organizational support detailed in this paper should be employed by multi‐national hotel corporations.

This information should benefit hoteliers since the industry is currently experiencing a high rate of expatriate failure.

No research to date has addressed the issue of expatriate failure from this holistic viewpoint.

As well as normal job‐related skills the expatriate and the host‐country organization must master cross‐cultural skills. Expatriates experience an adjustment process which is influenced by several antecedents. Recommends focusing on four different but interrelated adjustment processes. The level of adjustment and expatriate success is hypothesized to have positive correlation. Presents a wave‐curve hypothesis to illustrate the relationship between expatriate adjustment, expatriate work commitment, and expatriates′ decision to leave prematurely.

This paper aims to discuss the importance of cultural intelligence for expatriates and offer several recommendations for human resources professionals to help enhance expatriates’ performance.

The paper is based on a review of relevant literature and in-depth interviews with 12 experienced expatriates who had collectively completed 39 assignments across 26 different host countries. The participants represent ten ethnicities and seven industries.

The expatriates used all four types of cultural intelligence while on assignment and found those to be critical for their success.

Human resources professionals are advised to actively screen for cultural intelligence when selecting expatriates for assignment; develop expatriates’ cultural intelligence in a holistic, ongoing manner; and involve external professionals as needed to support expatriates’ success.

Much of the past research on intercultural adaptation and cultural intelligence has been quantitative in nature and based on student populations. This paper provides detailed insights in the participants’ own words regarding the way cultural intelligence promotes intercultural adaptation and success on assignment.

This paper proposes a methodology for governing expatriate assignments in the context of corporate‐level objectives.

The approach taken is to envisage expatriate managerial assignments within the theoretical framework of agency theory and the knowledge‐based view of the firm. The paper begins with the view that knowledge acquisition and integration is a primary goal for most expatriate assignments. The relationship between expatriate managers and multinational corporation (MNC) headquarters from an agency perspective are considered and the notion of a “knowledge contract” as a means of governing that relationship is discussed. Four corporate‐level international strategies available to MNCs (global, international, transnational, and multidomestic) are then examined and the extent of agency problems under each strategy is discussed.

The paper makes specific predictions about the type of knowledge contract that is most likely to address agency problems for each corporate strategy.

This research extends agency theory by introducing the knowledge contract as a means of managing agency concerns. This offers a broader range of contract alternatives, moving researchers beyond traditional agency theoretic prescriptions. The research also contributes to the literature on expatriate management by integrating assignment success with research on corporate‐level international strategy. Few authors have recognized organizational strategy as an important unit of study in international human resource management. Doing so, however, has yielded a unique set of contingency relationships that would otherwise be obscured.

Integrating anxiety and uncertainty management (AUM) theory and theory of organizing, this study aims to contribute to the knowledge management literature by examining the interdependent and bidirectional nature of knowledge transfer between expatriates and host country nationals (HCNs). Specifically, the authors investigate how receivers’ cognitive response to senders’ behaviors during their interactions becomes an important conduit between senders’ behaviors and the successful transfer of knowledge.

The authors used the actor partner interdependence model to analyze data from 107 expatriate-HCN dyads. The authors collected the responses of these expatriate-HCN dyads in Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and India.

Receivers’ interaction anxiety and uncertainty, as a response to senders’ relationship building behaviors, mediate the relationship between senders’ relationship building behaviors and successful knowledge transfer. When senders are expatriates, senders’ communication patience and relationship building behaviors interact to reduce the direct and indirect effects of both receivers’ interaction anxiety and uncertainty. However, when senders are HCNs, the moderation and moderated mediation models are not supported.

The study contributes to the knowledge management literature by investigating knowledge transfer between expatriates and HCNs using an interpersonal cross-cultural communication lens. The authors make refinements to AUM theory by going beyond the sender role to highlighting the interdependence between senders and receivers in the management of anxiety and uncertainty which, in turn, influences the effectiveness of cross-cultural communication. The study is also unique in that the authors underscore an important yet understudied construct, communication patience, in the successful transfer of knowledge.