Situated Learning and Expatriate Adjustment: The Case of a Technical Community

Abstract

Adjustment to the new context has been the most central concept examined in expatriate research. Recently, however, the theoretical foundation guiding expatriate adjustment studies has received much critique. In this article we propose that rather than grounding new theoretical thrust on the same underlying theory as used previously, theoretical renewal may be found in applying a new perspective. More specifically, we explore if situated learning theory could provide useful novel insight that have not materialized when basing theoretical notions on social learning theory. We use an ethnographic study of how a group of expatriates in technical positions interact and collaborate with local workers. Our findings indicate that this theoretical lens can reveal the influence of group dynamics in expatriate adjustment and work place learning that would have been ignored using the original perspective.