Expatriate contact with a local host: an intervention to increase social support

Abstract

Social capital is a crucial factor for expatriates to employ as they cope with the demands of an international assignment. This longitudinal study used a mixed method approach to examine the social support benefits of expatriate contact with a local host. Western expatriates in the Netherlands were randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group (n = 33), that had contact with a Dutch host during 9 months, and a control group (n = 32) with no host. Qualitative methods such as interviews and diaries were included to shed light on the various types of social support that occurred. Results show that local hosts offered all four types of social support: social companionship, informational support, emotional support, and instrumental support. Furthermore, expatriates with a host increased their social capital; they received significantly more social support from host nationals than did those without a host. This study shows that HRD professionals may develop the social capital of expatriates by bringing them into contact with a local host, which can produce more social support from host nationals. Increased social capital may lead to a higher performance at both the individual and organisational levels.

Going abroad to play: Motivations, challenges, and support of sports expatriates

“…Furthermore, some of the perceived challenges are particular to the sports expatriate population. While every expatriate has to build a new social network when moving abroad (van Bakel, van Oudenhoven, & Gerritsen, ), it might be more difficult for sports expatriates to build a new social network outside of their immediate work environment due to their time schedule; they often have practice when others are off work, and have to play games in the weekend. Future research should examine in more detail how sports expatriates can build new social networks when abroad, since social support has been found vital for expatriate adjustment (Wang & Kanungo, ).…”

The Role of Online Discussion Forums in Newcomers' Labour Market Integration in Canada

“…This study advances international business research by contributing to global migration and international careers research, which have been identified as key areas for investigation by international business scholars (Caligiuri and Bonache, 2016;Doh, 2015aDoh, , 2015bDoh, , 2017. In particular, this study contributes to literatures on newcomers' adjustment and labour market integration (e.g., Farh et al, 2010;Guo and Al Ariss, 2015;Sidani and Al Ariss, 2014;Sambasivan et al, 2017;Tung, 2016), newcomers' adjustment and online technology use (e.g., Mikal et al, 2013Mikal et al, , 2015Nardon et al, 2015), and newcomers and social support (e.g., Podsiadlowski et al, 2013;Stroppa and Spieß, 2011;Van Bakel et al, 2017) by showing that online discussion forums facilitate exchange of social support online, which can help newcomers with adjustment and integration in the new country's labour market.…”

“…The various information sources can be grouped into four main categories: social networks (e.g., friends and family), formal sources (e.g., government organizations), media (e.g., ethnic television), and information and communication technologies (e.g., the Internet) (Caidi et al, , 2010Podsiadlowski et al, 2013;Van Bakel et al, 2017). The following sections discuss each of the four categories in more details.…”

“…However, newcomers do not rely only on strong social ties. Especially in the initial stages of migration, newcomers often do not have well developed strong social networks in the new country (e.g., local friends) and have to rely on whatever social networks available to them, if any (Caidi et al, 2010;Farh et al, 2010;Reitz, 2005;Van Bakel et al, 2017). Newcomers generally have to seek information from both strong and weak ties as the strong ties often do not have all the needed information that weak ties (e.g., government employees) do have (Caidi et al, 2010;Courtright, 2005).…”

“…This study draws on extant literature on newcomers' adjustment and labour market integration (e.g., Adelman 1988; Black et al, 1991;Farh et al, 2010;Guo and Al Ariss, 2015;Sidani and Al Ariss, 2014;Tung, 2016), information practices of newcomers (e.g., Caidi et al, , 2010Savolainen, 2007Savolainen, , 2008Savolainen, , 2016, online knowledge exchange, sharing and construction (e.g., Chalkiti and Sigala, 2008;Griesbaum et al, 2015;Nonaka, 1994;Nor et al, 2010), social support (e.g., Cutrona, 1990;Cutrona and Russell, 1990;Farh et al, 2010;Podsiadlowski et al, 2013;Stroppa and Spieß, 2011;Van Bakel et al, 2017), and online technology affordances (e.g., Majchrzak et al, 2013;Treem and Leonardi, 2012) to contribute to an emerging literature concerned with online technology use and newcomers' adjustment (e.g., Mikal et al, 2013Mikal et al, , 2015Nardon et al, 2015) and international careers (e.g., Al Ariss et al, 2013Ariss et al, , 2014Al Ariss and Syed, 2011;Cascio and Boudreau, 2016;Fang et al, 2013;Farh et al, 2010;Kuhn and Mansour, 2014).…”