A Critical Review of Expatriate Adjustment Research Through a Multiple Stakeholder View: Progress, Emerging Trends, and Prospects

Abstract

This article is a critical review of the expatriate adjustment literature that focuses on studies that have considered other stakeholders in addition to expatriates themselves. To highlight current knowledge in this area, the most important, implicit assumptions that scholars seem to have made and that may have restricted the theoretical and empirical advancement of the literature are delineated. By focusing on these assumptions, this article underscores the importance of other stakeholders in influencing or being influenced by expatriates. This article also highlights three theoretical perspectives as exemplars to extend the existing literature. By so doing, this review identifies gaps and stimulates new research directions on expatriate adjustment.

Enhancing Social Integration and Work Performance: The Role of Expatriates’ Significant Other

“…the inability of spouse and children to adapt to the host country's culture (Flynn, 1995;Takeuchi et al, 2002;Tung, 1987) and lack of ability to adapt to the various aspects of the host country (Pomeroy, 2006). Previous studies (Black, Gregersen & Mendenhall, 1992;Takeuchi, 2010) have shown that the need to improve the ability to predict success of international assignments is vital because of the fact that many global assignments fail. These failures ranged from monetary expenses, negative company image, stalled career progression and psychological barrier to take up future assignments (Black, Gregersen & Mendenhall, 1992;Hemmasi, Downes & Varner, 2010).…”

“…These failures ranged from monetary expenses, negative company image, stalled career progression and psychological barrier to take up future assignments (Black, Gregersen & Mendenhall, 1992;Hemmasi, Downes & Varner, 2010). Takeuchi (2010) asserts that despite being extensively researched for the past few decades, most of the expatriate-related research has been predominantly 'expatriate-centric' and have neglected other expatriate stakeholders that include accompanying spouse, HCNs and the parent company or MNCs. Therefore, this research endeavors to increase the possibility of ensuring expatriation success by focusing on the influential role that the accompanying expatriate spouses or the expatriates' 'significant other' could play in creating a more harmonious and conducive environment to foster better social and work relationships between the expatriates and the host country nationals whilst in the host country.…”

Introduction

“…The emphasis here is on broader HR issues than expatriate management, refl ecting how the fi eld of IHRM has evolved from its early focus on the selection and training of expatriate managers to encompass a much broader spectrum of topics and issues. However, international assignment issues still fi gure prominently in this book, owing to their importance in the global coordination and integration of resources and operations and the continuing stream of research on expatriation (see Caligiuri & Tarique, this volume;Takeuchi, 2010;Thomas & Lazarova, this volume).…”

Antecedents of Expatriate Performance in Short-term Assignment : An empirical study on the relationship between Individual Factors and Expatriate Performance in Short-term Assignments

“…International assignment has become a significant concern for both MNCs' business and individual's career growth, therefore necessary efforts have to be taken in order to reduce expatriate failure and to ensure expatriate success [1,5,6]. Since the cost of expatriates are very expensive which cost up to three to five times compared to local assignments [1], organization need to make sure that their expatriates will produce better outcomes.…”

“…Literature on expatriate outcomes has great attention from the scholars [6][7][8][9][10][11][12], however more complex and sophisticated analysis is needed especially on different perspectives, additional types of international assignments, and organizations [2]. One of the most recent models is the adjustment-performance relationship model [13], which explores some possible relationships between Performance, Adjustment and Antecedents.…”