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The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea of expatriate adjustment through naturally occurring data. Specifically, through an investigation of three e‐mails sent to the author by a friend, Doug, the paper explores the notion that adjustment is a fluid concept and that through qualitative research methods it is possible to appreciate the expatriate experience in the context of an expatriate's “whole life” of experiences. This is in contrast to positivist approaches to the study of adjustment which offer limited snapshots of adjustment at particular moments in time.

The paper investigates three e‐mails sent by Doug to the author. The e‐mails constitute a form of naturally occurring data, and through forms of narrative analysis the e‐mails are able to be examined to throw light on the process of expatriate adjustment.

The paper highlights ways in which qualitative research methods generally, and specifically when used in relation to expatriates, enable a fuller understanding of the processes of “adjustment” that expatriates experience and its relationship to their life as a “work in progress”. This type of research approach and analysis complements the more positivist study of expatriates. In some aspects it supports research findings on adjustment, but it serves to humanize the independent expatriate and their experience.

The research is a case study of only a single subject. The paper suggests the potential for using naturally occurring data in the study of expatriates and independent expatriates in particular.

Stories of the experiences of expatriation offer insightful and “real” access to the lived experience of the expatriate. In this sense, they can be much more powerful than other forms of cross‐cultural training.

The paper highlights the importance of naturally occurring data and the need to consider “whole lives” in the past and present, of research “participants”.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of regulatory foci (promotion focus and prevention focus) to expatriate adjustments (general, interaction, and work adjustments) and explore whether mentoring functions (psychosocial support, role modeling, and career development) moderate the aforementioned relationship.

Using 141 questionnaired primary data (response rate 32.25 percent) gathered from at least six months experienced expatiates of multinational companies in six industries, this study adopts regression method to examine the moderating effect.

This study found that promotion focus was positively related to the interaction and work adjustment, respectively; prevention focus was positively related to the general, interaction, and work adjustment, respectively. Psychosocial support function moderates the relationship between promotion focus and general adjustment. Career development function moderates the relationships between promotion/prevention foci and work adjustment.

According to the interactionism perspective, behavior is a result of the interaction between personality and situational influences, has a long history in social and personality psychology. This study extends this perspective to the interactive effects of mentorship (situational factor) and expatriates’ regulatory foci (personality factor) on expatriate adjustment.

This work sheds new light on the roles of gender, age and expatriation type—self-initiated expatriate (SIE) vs. assigned expatriate (AE)—by applying the transactional theory of stress and coping (and a validated measurement tool) to the expatriation experience.

Based on quantitative data from 448 expatriates, the authors examined the coping mechanisms (cognitions and actions) employed by senior and younger expatriates, females and males and SIE and AEs when they face hardships while working abroad.

Younger expatriates display less active problem-solving coping, planning, and restraint and consume more alcohol and drugs. Female expatriates express their emotions and use social support more than their male counterparts. SIEs rely on emotional social support more than AEs.

Recognizing that individual repertoires of responses to expatriate challenges are bounded by personal characteristics—such as age, gender, and expatriation type—should improve efforts to support expatriates. This research suggests that expatriate support should be tailored. It offers indications on who needs what.

This work provides a fresh perspective and new insights into classic topics (age, gender, and expatriation type). Individuals react differently abroad. They have different resources and face different demands (to a certain extent) that lead to different coping reactions. Older people manage their emotions better, and female expatriates and SIEs gather and use support; these abilities are assets abroad.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of home and host country leader–member exchange (LMX) on expatriate voice and determine whether perceived organizational support (POS) moderates the relationship between home or host country LMX and expatriate voice.

This study surveyed 300 expatriates (expatriation of at least six months) working for Taiwanese banks. The participants had expatriated to Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, the USA and Vietnam. Convenience sampling was adopted.

Based on an analysis of 132 expatriates working for Taiwanese banks, home and host country LMX were positively related to expatriate voice. Moreover, host country LMX accounted for more variance in expatriate voice than home country LMX did. Financial POS moderated the relationship between home country LMX and expatriate voice. Career POS and adjustment POS moderated the relationships between home and host country LMX and expatriate voice.

In the field of expatriate management, whether expatriate voice is influenced by home and host country LMX requires further exploration. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the effects of home and host country LMX on expatriate voice in host countries, as well as the moderating effect of POS on the aforementioned relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between regulatory foci and expatriate adjustment and further compares the differences in the aforementioned relationship between promotion focus and prevention focus.

This study adopts a convenient sampling method to survey expatriates who work for multinational enterprises and have been expatriated for at least six months.

Based on an analysis of 158 Taiwanese expatriates in Mainland China, Thailand, India, Saudi Arabia, and so forth, this study found that promotion focus was positively related to the expatriates’ office interaction adjustment and work adjustment; and prevention focus was positively related to the expatriates’ general adjustment, office interaction adjustment, and work adjustment. Moreover, expatriates’ prevention focus accounted for more variance in the expatriates’ general adjustment, office interaction adjustment, and work adjustment than did that of expatriates’ promotion focus.

Personality traits are regarded as among the most important antecedents of expatriate cross-cultural adjustment. This study suggests that expatriates’ regulatory foci could perhaps explain their adjustment issues in the host country. However, it seems no study has explored the role played by expatriates’ regulatory foci in expatriate adjustment.

The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature concerning expatriates on overseas assignments. Based on an exploratory study examining the experiences of independent expatriates (IEs) in China, this paper seeks to add to the currently limited understanding of IEs by focusing on the particular issue of IE staff turnover in the Sino‐foreign Higher Education sector.

Using the “Snowball” technique, a questionnaire survey is carried out electronically with 48 completed questionnaires received, representing 18 nationalities residing in 12 countries. A supplementary case study is also conducted on three Chinese institutions offering UK programmes.

This paper presents findings suggesting that IEs in China are more likely to move between jobs in different organisations within a shorter space of time than their counterparts in other countries. Possible contributing factors include the IEs' initial expectations, their experiences in the early stage of relocation, their ability to adapt to the local culture, and contractual arrangements. This paper also suggests that to reconcile the IEs' individual need for flexibility and their employing organisations' need for certainty and continuity, employers should consider taking a number of practical steps, such as language and culture training, shadowing and maintaining accurate written records.

This paper is relevant to any Chinese organisation that is relatively inexperienced in employing expatriate staff.

The purpose of this paper is to add to knowledge on the environment of self‐initiated expatriates and the importance of family in determining expatriate retention. It seeks to explore the role of family in an environment vastly different to that of previous research, one where expatriates are outnumbering citizens four to one. Further, the paper aims to explore familial adjustment differences that emerge amongst the different demographic segments within this expatriate majority environment.

The analysis is based on survey data obtained from 364 self‐initiated expatriates. Beyond a thorough demographic analysis providing additional background, data to test hypotheses were analyzed using SPSS and, where suitable, independent samples t‐test or one‐way ANOVA.

Evidence was found of what can be described as an environment easing expatriate adjustment as well as questioning the impact of many of the problems previously identified in literature on expatriates. Findings show an environment where some of the stressors associated with living abroad have been mitigated and family has more or less become a motivation to stay rather than to leave. In addition, the demographic analysis of expatriate faculty adds to knowledge about the globalization of higher education.

Definitions of what constitutes a hardship posting for expatriates may need to be revisited, taking into account national demographic characteristics. Current thinking on the expatriate family should also consider different settings where family may actually be a motivation to remain.

This paper provides a new perspective, as previous literature suggested family to be almost exclusively a reason for expatriate difficulties. Further, little focus has been made on countries where expatriates represent a large share or the majority of the population such as in several of the Arabian Gulf countries.

The purpose of this study is to (re-)evaluate the explanatory power of the stressor–stress–strain model and its' current operationalization by examining the influence of general and interaction adjustment and the mediating effect of general satisfaction on expatriates' and spouses' intention to prematurely return from an assignment or overseas location. Though expatriates' premature return intention has been well examined in prior literature, this is the first study to focus on spouses' premature return intention from the expatriate's assignment.

To evaluate the hypotheses, a sample of 104 expatriates and a sample of 64 spouses were collected and analysed utilizing structural equation modeling.

The results show that adjustment, as the opposite of distress, is not a direct negative driver of expatriates' nor spouses' premature return intention. Instead, the findings underscore the relevance of the general satisfaction with the international assignment (IA) as a mediator for both expatriates and spouses, which emphasizes the importance of attitudinal factors in the model. Overall, the results indicate that adjustment, in particular interaction adjustment, might not be a timely measure of distress anymore.

In order to reduce expatriates' and spouses' premature return intention multinational corporations should aim at maximizing satisfaction levels during the IA. To achieve this, both should be included in the selection process prior to the IA to tailor support mechanisms to satisfy their expectations.

This study is the first to investigate the premature return intention from the expatriates' and spouses' perspectives, while (re-)evaluating the explanatory power of the stressor–stress–strain model at present.

Drawing on expectancy value theory (EVT), this paper examines knowledge exchange between expatriate and host country national (HCN) dyads to understand whether receivers' perceptions about senders' motivation to transfer knowledge and perceived value of the knowledge jointly affect receivers' motivation to learn and, in turn, facilitate their knowledge acquisition and sharing.

Latent moderated structural (LMS) equations were used to analyze data from 107 expatriate–HCN dyads working in the Asia Pacific region.

In general, whether senders are expatriates or HCNs, only when receivers perceive that (1) knowledge to be transferred is valuable and (2) senders are motivated to transfer, receivers are likely to be motivated to receive knowledge transferred from senders and, in turn, acquire and share knowledge with senders.

This study is one of the first in the expatriate and knowledge transfer literature to address the mixed findings between senders' motivation to transfer and receivers' knowledge acquisition and sharing by drawing on EVT.