Based on the typology of Black and Stephens (1989) (see also Black et al., 1991), there are three dimensions for cross-cultural adjustment: (1) work-adjustment, (2) interaction adjustment and (3) general or cultural adjustment.
Finally, adjustment outcomes include general satisfaction and withdrawal intentions.
General satisfaction assesses individuals’ contentment regarding the assignment, while three dimensions compose withdrawal intentions: withdrawal intentions from the job/assignment, withdrawal intentions from the organization and withdrawal intentions from occupation (Blau, 2000; Carmeli, 2005).
organizational support and expatriates adjustment. Regarding repatriation, research has specifically examined repatriation support practices, which were found to be positive predictors of repatriation adjustment (Suutari and Valimaa, 2002). With regard to the influence of organizational culture, a negative relationship between organizational culture novelty and adjustment was stated (Black et al., 1991) but remains untested, based on the difficulty of distinguishing organizational culture novelty from cultural novelty in general (Bhaskar- Shrinivas et al., 2005). To this purpose, the organizational culture framework of Goffee and Jones (1998) might provide an adequate reference to determine whether organizational culture influences cross-cultural adjustment. According to this model, sociability is defined as a measure of friendliness among group members, while solidarity is defined as a measure of relatedness to achieve common interests. If, as referred, a supportive organizational culture eases cross-cultural adjustment (e.g. Shaffer et al., 1999; Kraimer et al., 2001), one shall expect that an organizational culture high in sociability to positively influence cross-cultural adjustment. This positive influence should persist, regardless of national cultural differences among home and destination countries. Therefore, high sociability at destination would positively influence expatriates adjustment. Conversely, high home sociability would positively influence repatriates cross-cultural adjustment. Moreover, if one accepts organizational and co-workers social support has a spillover effect, high sociability might have a positive influence not only on work adjustment, but also on expatriates and repatriates interaction and general adjustment. Therefore, a high sociability destination company should be positively related with expatriates' adjustment to work and non-work environments as to interacting with locals.
Similarly, high sociability at home shall be positively related with repatriates work, interaction and general adjustment.
With regard to solidarity, it is contend it exists in work and non-work environments, and emerges whenever people share common interests and perceive the benefits of pursuing them collectively (Goffee and Jones, 1998). In the context of expatriation, one would expect solidarity to have a limited influence outside work, because expatriates and locals would hardly share common goals outside the work environment. Therefore, one expects a home and host organizational culture high in solidarity to be positively associated with expatriates and repatriates' work adjustment.
Therefore, the following hypotheses are stated for expatriates (E) and repatriates(R):
H2E: After controlling for national culture novelty, a home organizational culture high in sociability will be positively associated with: (a) Expatriates’ work adjustment; (b) Expatriates’ interaction adjustment, and (c) Expatriates’ general adjustment.
H3E: After controlling for national culture novelty, a home organizational culture high in solidarity will be positively associated with expatriates’ work adjustment.
H4E: After controlling for national culture novelty, a host organizational culture high in sociability will be positively associated with: (a) Expatriates’ work adjustment; (b) Expatriates’
interaction adjustment, and (c) Expatriates’ general adjustment.
H5E: After controlling for national culture novelty, a host organizational culture high in solidarity will be positively associated with expatriates’ work adjustment.
H2R: After controlling for national culture novelty, a home organizational culture high in sociability will be positively associated with: (a) Repatriates’ work adjustment; (b) Repatriates’ interaction adjustment, and (c) Repatriates’ general adjustment.
H3R: After controlling for national culture novelty, a home organizational culture high in solidarity will be positively associated with repatriates’ work adjustment.
H4R: After controlling for national culture novelty, a host organizational culture high in sociability will be positively associated with: (a) Repatriates’ work adjustment; (b) Repatriates’
interaction adjustment; (c) Repatriates’ general adjustment.
H5R: After controlling for national culture novelty, a host organizational culture high in solidarity will be positively associated with repatriates’ work adjustment.
Additionally, the theoretical model tests the outcomes of cross-cultural adjustment. It states that adjustment affects expatriates and repatriates’ general satisfaction (H6 to H8) and withdrawal intentions (H9 to H11).
Regarding general satisfaction, the literature indicates job satisfaction is a positive outcome of work and interaction adjustment (Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005) and is negatively related to expatriates’ intention to return early (Takeushi et al., 2002). Arising from these findings, one expects cross-cultural adjustment to have a positive influence on general satisfaction, that is, well-adjusted expatriates and repatriates are expected to be more satisfied with the assignment.
H6E: Expatriates’ work adjustment will be positively associated with general satisfaction with the international assignment.
H7E: Expatriates’ interaction adjustment will be positively associated with general satisfaction with the international assignment.
H8E: Expatriates’ general adjustment will be positively associated with general satisfaction with the international assignment.
H6R: Repatriates’ work adjustment will be positively associated with general satisfaction with the international assignment.
H7R: Repatriates’ interaction adjustment will be positively associated with general satisfaction with the international assignment.
H8R: Repatriates’ general adjustment will be positively associated with general satisfaction with the international assignment.
With regard to withdrawal intentions, several studies indicated a significant and negative relationship between cross-cultural adjustment and expatriates' intention to return before the completion of the assignment (Black and Stephens, 1989; Gregersen and Black, 1990; Takeuchi, Tesluk, Yun and Lepak, 2005). For instance, Takeuchi, Tesluk, Yun and Lepak (2005) found a negative relationship between work and general adjustment and Japanese expatriates' intentions to return earlier from US, and the results from Bhaskar- Shrinivas et al. (2005) suggest that lower levels of adjustment are related to withdrawal decisions, explicitly the non-work dimension of general adjustment. Therefore, well-adjusted international employees are expected to remain longer in the assignment or present job, in the organization and in their present occupation. The establishment of this distinction between the three dimensions of withdrawal intentions (Carmeli, 2005) is useful to determine the relationships between the research variables. Based on the reported findings, one expects cross-cultural adjustment to be negatively related with all three dimensions of withdrawal intentions, as follows:
H9E: Expatriates’ work adjustment will be negatively associated with: (a) Withdrawal intentions from the assignment; (b) Withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
H10E: Expatriates’ interaction adjustment will be negatively associated with; (a) Withdrawal intentions from the assignment;, (b) Withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
H11E: Expatriates’ general adjustment will be negatively associated with: (a) Withdrawal intentions from the assignment; (b) Withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
H9R: Repatriates’ work adjustment will be negatively associated with: (a) Withdrawal intentions from the assignment; (b) Withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
H10R: Repatriates’ interaction adjustment will be negatively associated with: (a) Withdrawal intentions from the assignment; (b) Withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
H11R: Repatriates’ general adjustment will be negatively associated with: (a) Withdrawal intentions from the assignment; (b) Withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
The model also assumes a negative association between general satisfaction and withdrawal intentions (H12), based on the work of Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al. (2005), who found a negative correlation between general satisfaction and expatriates’ intention to return early.
Therefore, satisfied expatriates and repatriates are expected to reveal fewer intentions to withdraw from the assignment, the organization and the occupation, as follows:
H12E: Expatriates general satisfaction will be negatively associated with: (a) Withdrawal intentions from the assignment; (b) Withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
H12R: Repatriates general satisfaction will be negatively associated with: (a) Withdrawal intentions from the assignment; (b) Withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
Finally, sociability is expected to influence expatriates and repatriates withdrawal intentions (H13). Based on previous research from Carmeli (2005), who found that organizational culture (e.g., job challenge) was negatively associated with withdrawal intentions among domestic employees, it is expected that organizational culture influences withdrawal intentions, after accounting for the effects of the control variables, such as culture novelty, business and respondents demographic characteristics. Specifically, one expects a negative association between sociability and withdrawal intentions, because the existence of strong relationship ties between co-workers shall decrease individuals’ intentions to withdraw.
This influence will be stronger among the members of the company where individuals really
are, so expatriates will be more affected by host company sociability and repatriates will be more affected by home company sociability. Therefore, the following two hypotheses are proposed, for expatriates and repatriates:
H13E: A host organizational culture high in sociability will be negatively associated with: (a) Expatriates’ withdrawal intentions from the assignment; (b) Expatriates’ withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Expatriates’ withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
H13R: A home organizational culture high in sociability will be negatively associated with: (a) Repatriates’ withdrawal intentions from the assignment; (b) Repatriates’ withdrawal intentions from the organization, and (c) Repatriates’ withdrawal intentions from the occupation.
Control variables
As discussed in Chapter II, empirical evidence showed demographic variables such as age, gender, marital status, level of education, years in the organization, job position, language fluency and previous international experience, influence cross-cultural adjustment (e.g., Black et al., 1991; Selmer and Leung, 2003a, 2003b; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005;
Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005; Selmer, 2006b). Therefore, the effects of these demographic variables together with spouse adjustment, cross-cultural training and tenure will be controlled.
4 CHAPTER IV - METHODOLOGY
The preceding chapters reviewed the various theories related to the research questions and presented the research model and hypotheses. It is worth mentioning that many of the theories described were developed from US and Japanese multinationals, which confirms the paucity of research conducted with international workers from other countries.
This thesis thus seeks to provide further insights about the factors influencing cross-cultural adjustment among Portuguese international workers, and empirically test the research hypotheses with an international sample of expatriates and repatriates. It proposes to test the relevance of the dimensions of organizational culture sociability and solidarity as antecedents of cross-cultural adjustment, general satisfaction and withdrawal intentions. Thus, the research model is tested through a qualitative and quantitative approach.
The adopted methodology is described and explained in this chapter. Overall, the chapter contains three sections: section 1 presents the triangulation methodology, its justification and limitations bearing in mind the research problem and literature review; while section 2 and section 3 describe administration procedures, subjects and data procedures for respectively Study I and Study II.