Sailing through the COVID-19 pandemic: managing expatriates' psychological well-being and performance during natural crises

Abstract

PurposeThe unprecedented challenges brought about by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic affected people's lives worldwide. The purpose of this study is to propose a conceptual model to explain how natural crisis events, such as COVID-19, cause stress and influence the psychological well-being (PWB) and performance of expatriates.Design/methodology/approachThe model presented in this conceptual paper is based on Bader and Berg's (2014) two-stage stress emergence and outcome model developed to study expatriates' performance in terrorism-endangered countries. The authors apply their model to natural crisis events and provide propositions to explain the postulated relationships.FindingsThe proposed model delineates the stressors that emerge from psychological and situational factors, and how they impact the PWB and performance of expatriates. The article emphasizes how resilience, social network, and support from the organization, supervisor, and family can help mitigate the adverse effects of stress on the PWB of expatriates. Furthermore, keeping in mind the prevailing situations due to COVID-19, the authors shed light on the indispensability of virtual collaboration in ameliorating expatriates' performance in challenging times.Practical implicationsImplications are discussed for organizations in devising plans and strategies to deal with unforeseen crisis events.Originality/valueThis study extends the expatriation literature to the events of natural crisis by incorporating the stress emergence-outcome model. In doing so, the authors identify the factors relevant to natural crises and apply them to understand how they could impact expatriates in such times.

Exploring Perceived Organisational Support and Resilience as Antecedents of Expatriates’ Work and Non-Work Spheres Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic

“…Although organisations should provide sources of support that restore expatriates' well-being during a crisis (McNulty et al, 2019;Tripathi & Singh, 2021), we could not confirm a significant relationship between POS and perceived non-work constraints. This finding can be explained by the fact that even if organisations can provide instant support for expatriates (Chan et al, 2019), the former are only able to provide effective support mechanisms for the expatriates to conquer work constraints instead of non-work constraints surrounding travel, leisure, and social events during the pandemic.…”

“…As time passes, expatriates become familiar with such SOPs in the non-work domain, which do not seriously spill over into their adjustment abilities in the work domain. When expatriates start to adapt to new work protocols, they feel less overwhelmed as they might have greater flexibility at work in the new normal (Tripathi & Singh, 2021). Hence, there is no negative spillover effect discovered in the expatriates, where limited non-work activities may jeopardise their work.…”

COVID-19 related stressors and mental health outcomes of expatriates in international construction

“…For expatriates from international construction companies, they have to face the public workplace stressors mentioned above. At the same time, due to the high risk of the international construction industry and the working environment of uprooting, especially the impact of COVID-19, stressors include both from the pandemic (27), family (28), and workplace (29).…”

Expatriates on the run: The psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on expatriates’ host country withdrawal intentions

“…Research on expatriation, broadly defined as a process whereby individuals relocate temporarily to a host country for work with or without support of an employing organization, in high-stress environments has been growing of late ( Faeth and Kittler, 2020 , McNulty et al, 2019 ). It is notable though that such research on the “dark side” of expatriation has thus far predominantly focused on expatriates working in different parts of the world known and/or expected to be ‘hostile’ and ‘dangerous’, and where the sources of stress are manmade (e.g., terrorism or civil unrest), and thus at least partially avoidable (for a similar point see Tripathi & Singh, 2021 ). At the same time, extant research on expatriation in high-stress environments where stress is caused by ongoing and unexpected natural crises remains limited ( Fee, 2017 , Tripathi and Singh, 2021 ).…”

“…It is notable though that such research on the “dark side” of expatriation has thus far predominantly focused on expatriates working in different parts of the world known and/or expected to be ‘hostile’ and ‘dangerous’, and where the sources of stress are manmade (e.g., terrorism or civil unrest), and thus at least partially avoidable (for a similar point see Tripathi & Singh, 2021 ). At the same time, extant research on expatriation in high-stress environments where stress is caused by ongoing and unexpected natural crises remains limited ( Fee, 2017 , Tripathi and Singh, 2021 ). When relocating to contexts known to be dangerous or hostile, expatriates can mentally prepare for it, but little is known how unexpected natural crises impact expatriates and their responses.…”