Insider or Outsider? Social Categorization of Expatriates and Host Country Nationals’ Turnover Intention

Abstract

We examine how expatriates diminish host country national (HCN) employee turnover intention by enhancing perceived upward mobility and task autonomy. HCN perspectives on expatriate managers’ social engagement and cultural separation predictably impact local employees’ perceptions of upward mobility and task autonomy, which, in turn, influence HCN turnover intentions. We test this research model with data collected from 495 Chinese managers and employees working in 19 foreign-invested companies in mainland China. The test results of the structural equation model show that upward mobility fully mediate the effects of perceived social engagement on turnover intention, while task autonomy partially mediates mediate the effects of cultural separation and perceived social engagement on turnover intention. Accordingly, in the context of China, the results suggest that expatriate managers socially engage/culturally approach their Chinese employees to reduce employee turnover intention.