Impact of a local host on the intercultural competence of expatriates

Abstract

Intercultural competence is an essential asset for those who live abroad or who work with people from different cultural backgrounds. This longitudinal study examines the impact of contact with a local host on five attitudinal and behavioural aspects of intercultural competence. Sixty-five Western expatriates in the Netherlands were randomly divided into two groups: an experimental group (n = 33) that had contact with a Dutch host during nine months, and a control group (n = 32) with no host. The Multicultural Personality Questionnaire was filled in at baseline and again after nine months. A local host buffered a decrease in both attitudinal (Open-mindedness) and behavioural (Social Initiative) aspects of intercultural competence; although, in the case of Open-mindedness, this decrease was only buffered for expatriates with a partner. No effect was found for Cultural Empathy, Flexibility, or Emotional Stability. The article concludes by discussing the various merits of contact with a local host as compared to cross-cultural training.

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

“…To foster the integration of foreign talent into the environment and team, one recommendation would be to establish a buddy system, by pairing a local player with a foreign one. Such a system has shown to provide benefits to expatriates in terms of adjustment and intercultural competence (Van Bakel, Gerritsen, & Van Oudenhoven, , ). Equally, it could be a possibility to identify host families within the reach of the club community to host foreign players and introduce them to the local language and culture for a few weeks—as happened to Marissa K.—before finding appropriate individual housing.…”

The effect of study abroad on intercultural competence: a longitudinal case study of international postgraduate students at a British university

“…In fact, in their meta-analysis of definitions and conceptual models of IC, Spitzberg and Changnon (2009) discovered over 300 different conceptual approaches to IC. In the present study, the term 'IC' is employed as it is thought to be the most widely used in the literature (Van Bakel, Gerritsen, and Van Oudenhoven 2014). For this study, IC refers to individual abilities and predispositions needed to 'perform effectively and appropriately when interacting with others who are linguistically and culturally different from oneself' (Fantini and Tirmizi 2006, 12).…”

The Importance of Relationship Quality: Maximizing the Impact of Expatriate Contact with a Local Host

“…Van Bakel et al () showed that expatriates with a local host improved more on their interaction adjustment with host nationals in general than those without a host. Contact with a local host was also found to buffer a decrease on attitudinal (Open‐Mindedness) and behavioral (Social Initiative) aspects of intercultural competence (Van Bakel, Gerritsen, & Van Oudenhoven, ). This indicates a beneficial impact of contact with a local host, although it was not as expected because there was no improvement in attitude and skills.…”

“…When expatriates move abroad they leave behind a large part of their social network, which could partially be filled by the local host. Indeed, Van Bakel, Van Oudenhoven, and Gerritsen () found a significant positive impact of contact with a local host on the social support expatriates received from host nationals in general.…”

“…Whether this is the case will be investigated in the present study. We will take the same dependent variables into account as were used in Van Bakel et al (, 2011, 2014), which focus on adjustment, performance, intercultural competence, and social support.…”