Expatriate Academics Research Articles

Digitalization and expatriate cross-cultural adjustment: the role of mobile apps

PurposeThis study explores the role of digitalization, especially mobile apps, in expatriate cross-cultural adjustment. The role of digitalization is under-researched and under-recognized in the current literature on global mobility, but is becoming a significant factor in expatriate cross-cultural adjustment.Design/methodology/approachAs the research is exploratory, it uses qualitative methods, specifically in-depth interviews and rigorous thematic analysis. It is based on 31 respondents from 16 higher education organizations across 10 cities in five provinces/municipalities in China, a country with one of the highest levels of digitalization in daily life.FindingsThe most significant finding is that mobile apps are central to expatriate cross-cultural adjustment in China. Such apps both enable adjustment if used actively and hinder adjustment significantly if resisted or not used effectively. However high motivation is required to cope with the incompatibility between the infrastructure of mobile apps in China and expatriates’ previous experiences.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is based on expatriate academics in China, where digitalization is widespread and local apps rather than international apps are predominant. Hence expatriates may feel a greater impact of digitalization on daily life and work than in less digitalized societies. A major implication is that digitalization should be considered as a potentially significant factor in expatriate cross-cultural adjustment.Practical implicationsHost country governments, employers, app developers and expatriates, all need to consider the use of mobile apps in cross-cultural adjustment and retention of expatriates.Originality/valueThis study identifies the role of digitalization, especially mobile apps, in expatriate cross-cultural adjustment in a highly digitalized environment, which has not been recognized in previous research. It proposes the concept of “digital distance” that should be considered alongside “cultural distance” in the context of expatriate cross-cultural adjustment.

Expatriate academics’ adjustment experience at a higher education institution in South Africa

Orientation: Expatriate academics in higher education institutions (HEIs) face several socio-cultural and integration challenges that significantly influence their adjustment. Insufficient support and a non-conducive environment hamper their well-being.Research purpose: This study aims to describe the adjustment experiences of expatriate academics at a HEI in South Africa. Recommendations are made towards creating an enabling environment in which expatriate academics can better facilitate adjustment.Motivation for the study: This study aimed to compete globally, HEIs appoint international academics with scarce skills to enhance their teaching, learning, and research. Expatriate academics are driven by push and pull factors when accepting international opportunities. Entering an unfamiliar environment, implies disruption on a psychosocial, socio-economic and job adjustment level, and if not well-supported results in maladjustment affecting expatriate well-being and job performance.Research design, approach and method: An interpretive, qualitative approach was adopted. Five purposively selected expatriate academics partook in semi-structured interviews and the data were analysed through content analysis.Main findings: A lack of employer support and cultural diversity factors impede participants’ ability to adjust at work and in the community. Having grit and being resourceful in overcoming challenges resulted in better adjustment.Practical/managerial implications: Facilitating collaborative relationships between expatriates and host country nationals, and using supportive services and resources will enable better adjustment.Contribution/value-add: Expatriate academics share their lived experiences of what hindered their adjustment and several recommendations are made to HEIs and foreign academics towards creating an enabling environment promoting adjustment.

Expatriate Academics’ Positive Affectivity and Its Influence on Creativity in the Workforce Indigenization Context: Revealing the Role of Perceived Fairness

Workforce indigenization in Gulf Corporation Council (GCC) countries is under-researched in international business literature, especially among expatriate academics from the Middle East and North Africa regions working in GCC countries. Therefore, drawing from the social exchange and conservation of resources theories, this study examines the moderating effect of perceived fairness on the relationship between positive affectivity (PA) and creativity in the context of enhanced indigenization of human resource (HR) policies in GCC countries. This study collects data from 228 mobile academics working in Saudi universities. Principal least squares structural equation modeling results show that PA positively impacts creativity. Further, perceived fairness is found to reinforce the connection between PA and creativity. This study’s results indicate that host universities must build appealing HR policies to cope with the diverse challenges related to the indigenization of HR policies. Furthermore, this study highlights the role of positive personality traits in enhancing creativity.

Expatriate academics: what have we known for four decades? A systematic literature review

PurposeThe main objective of this paper is twofold: to analyse the progress of a research stream concerning expatriate academics in the last four decades and to make recommendations for further studies in this field.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, the systematic literature review (SLR) concerning expatriate academics was applied. The search embraced the period from 1980–2022. The review was performed in two interdisciplinary electronic databases: Web of Science and Scopus. The selection process of papers was conducted in steps, as recommended by the PRISMA protocol. The total pool of articles received after the exclusion criteria was 110. The content of each paper was thus extracted and categorised in Excel file: author, year of publication, tittle of article, journal, theory applied, research method, sample size, country/field of investigation.FindingsFor almost three decades this topic was almost absent in the literature of the subject. The most active publication period started from 2009 and since then there have been two “waves” of published articles devoted to expatriate academics: 2009–2014 and 2017–2021. The significant number of studies appeared in Journal of Global Mobility followed by Personnel Review, IJHRM, Higher Education. The thematic analysis revealed six themes which have been already researched on expatriates academics: (1) motives, (2) adjustment, (3) job factors and work outcomes, (4) academic missions, (5) academic career, (6) women and men in academia.Practical implicationsPractitioners and university management might find this article useful as the article allows to manage this pool of international academics more efficiently with mutual benefits for expatriates and organisations. This study may assist the university authorities to develop systemic approach to attract foreign academics; adjust the same in work and culture domain through effective training; support in organisational, financial and career field; create the performance criteria of expatriate work related to three missions: research, teaching and service; introduce metrics and indicators to evaluate the contribution and work outcomes of foreign scientists into the host university.Originality/valueThis review shows that there are many new perspectives and models through which the academic expatriation can be analysed. This paper gives an insight into the academic literature on academics expatriates. The paper is innovative and has contributed to research by doing an SLR in a new area (academic expats) and tackling all the areas that has been covered by academic research so far. New research directions have been recommended for future research, to open the field further.

Expatriate academics: an exploratory study of western academics in the United Arab Emirates

Expatriate academics: an exploratory study of western academics in the United Arab Emirates

Early Career Stage Academics and Their Expatriation Destination: What Drives Their City Choice in Enhancing Regional Sustainability?

Amid a growing interest in how geographical location functions as a motive for self-initiated expatriate (SIE) academics to choose their next employer, more research is needed to understand how academics select a potential location for their expatriation. With the goal of contributing to the literature on SIE academics, this study explores the cues that drive early career-stage academics to choose a destination—Copenhagen or Amsterdam—when accepting an international job offer. The data reveal that four frames drive SIE academics’ meaning-making regarding a potential destination city: positive impression, livable city, familiarity, and political stability and career development expectations. This paper concludes with a discussion of how our findings contribute to the higher education and mobility literature and offers important implications for practice.

SIGNIFICATIONS OF FAMILY SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND FRIENDSHIP RELATIONSHIPS IN AFFECTING EXPATRIATE EXPERIENCE: FROM THE LENS OF MALAYSIA PUBLIC UNIVERSITY EXPATRIATE COMMUNITY

This paper provides an understanding of the social structure, which is seen as a phenomenology that refers to one's thinking about the interpretation and meaning of life experience based on the presence of individuals in economic position, political scenario, statehood, and education system in a country that is not his country of origin. Thus, the interpretation among these independent expatriates is debated by taking into account the role of social structures such as family institutions and the environment of friendship in relation to the significance of expatriate experiences in the host country. In other words, the discussion presented in this paper is to achieve the objective of the study in unravelling the expatriate's interpretation of the expatriate decision, whether it is closely related to the experience of his family members during the expatriate service in the host country.The research was conducted by utilising qualitative methods of in-depth interviews with 30 expatriate academics selected from four Malaysian public universities. The appropriate respondent criteria include the following characteristics, namely (a) has resided for at least a year in Malaysia using a valid employee visa, (b) has been offered a position as academic staff and has renewed his service contract, (c) is an expatriate with his own initiative in expatriating and (d) works full time and is not classified as an exchange staff between universities or those on sabbatical leave.The study results show that the interpretation of family members on the meaning of expatriation experience gives justification for expatriate to remain in the host country. While moral support from friendship provides a positive indication of expatriate’s performance in the context of work throughout performing international duties. Further supporting social networks relationship with the local community is also one of the determinants of expatriate success in adapting to the host country environment.

Adaptation: Retrospection of a Decade

Expatriate adaptation refers to degree of fit between the expatriate's ideal requirements and his new environment. Extant literatures indicate that the success of multinational operations is overall dependent on successful adaptation of expatriates. However, as expatriate adaption evolves as an important subject in international management research, salient emerging issues need to be highlighted for the attention of researchers and industry players. This systematic review aggregates a decade (2012 – 2021) depth research. Systematic search was conducted on Scopus on 28th October 2021 and repeated accordingly on 3rd January 2022. Whence, 2,967 records were extracted. The methodology is based on Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework which emphasizes methodological steps of identification, screening, eligibility and included and ensures transparency and comprehensive reporting for critical judgement. Following the review panel parameters of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 67 articles were explored. Hence, descriptive analysis showed steady rise in research publications. 88% of the records found were empirical. Literature classification and analysis identified six (6) emerging themes including yopatriates, flexpatriates, female expatriates. academic expatriates, dual career couple expatriates, and expatriate hostile environment. We recommend investigation into these emerging themes in order to determine adaptation intricacies in each domain.

Exploring Perceptions of Higher Education Internationalization: An Academic Expatriates' Perspective

The current research explores the perceptions of academic expatriates in the UAE on higher education internationalization. A qualitative approach was applied to this study as it was believed to generate a comprehensive, actual, and thorough understanding of participants' insights on the topic. Thirty academic expatriates were selected to create focus groups to discuss the research question. Focus groups were held semi-structured, allowing researchers and participants to encourage exhaustive discussions on pre-defined questions and beyond. As a result of thematic analysis, seven main themes and 29 related codes were identified. The consistency of coding was calculated using intra-class correlation to achieve the trustworthiness of the findings. Further analysis and discussion allowed researchers to explore the topic in-depth. The research has reflected on the perceived readiness of academic staff in the internationalization of higher education. Individual, institutional, and global factors are among the main variables that affect shaping faculty perceptions on internationalization and their willingness to participate in the process. The main findings of this study are that awareness of internationalization leads to faculty acceptance and engagement, as well as perceptions of challenges related to internationalization. Perceived readiness is also influenced by potential individual opportunities that may result from internationalization.
 
 
 Received: 11 June 2022 / Accepted: 19 August 2022 / Published: 2 September 2022

Interstices: Workplace satisfaction, inclusion, and the cultural adjustment of expatriate academics at South Korean universities nationwide

The number of expatriate faculty members in Korea has been falling since 2013, intimating that Korean universities face a problem with international faculty satisfaction. This research develops a model for expatriate faculty overall workplace satisfaction at Korean universities by integrating acculturation and enculturation theory, social interaction and social connectedness, and workplace inclusivity considerations while delineating between them. Results are based on quantitative analyses of survey data from 318 PhD holding expatriate faculty working at over 50 universities nationwide. Regression results indicate that social interaction, an “identity blind” inclusive work environment, enculturation, and an “identity conscious” inclusive work environment are positively related to overall workplace satisfaction. By comparison, Korean ethnicity is negatively associated with workplace satisfaction, something explained in terms of Korean organizational culture and associated work expectations. Suggestions to facilitate the development of places to integrate and participate within established Korean university organizational cultures are ventured.

Linguistic capital and status: The interaction between language skills, personal reputation, and perceived collaboration performance

AbstractAlthough language has become a central theme in international business and management research, this stream still holds many unexplored research avenues. One area that has attracted some attention, but lacks extensive systematic assessment, is the connection between language and personal reputation. Qualitative research has offered tentative insights suggesting that proficiency in key organizational languages increases the status of individuals over and above their functional abilities. In this study, we use data from 171 pairs of expatriate academics and their local academic collaboration partners. We asked the local academic peers to rate expatriate academics' reputation, their local and English language skills, and collaboration performance. As expected, we found a positive association between academic reputation and collaboration performance. In line with analyses from qualitative research, we show a moderation effect of language skills, where high common organizational language (English) proficiency compensates for a weaker perceived reputation in predicting collaboration performance. Surprisingly, however, there was no moderating effect of local language skills.

Cultural distance or cultural similarity A study of academic expatriates in the UAE

Cultural distance or cultural similarity A study of academic expatriates in the UAE

The Moderating Effect of Psychological Adjustment on Task Satisfaction and Work Adjustment among Expatriate Academics in Malaysia

This study explores the task satisfaction and work adjustment relationship and test the moderating effect of psychological adjustment on task satisfaction and work adjustment relationship among expatriate academics in Malaysia. This empirical study attempts to enrich the understanding of the work adjustment, psychological adjustment and task satisfaction. A quantitative method was adopted in this study and responses from 251 expatriate academics in Malaysia were analyzed using SPSS 20. This result shows that psychological adjustment moderate the relationship between task satisfaction and work adjustment. The result showed that all of the hypotheses were supported. Most of the expatriate academics are satisfied with their work environments and increase their work adjustment. Psychological adjustment support the moderating effect of the study. The result indicate that university top management not only focus on maintaining expatriates’ satisfaction to increase their level of work adjustment but also psychological adjustment which moderate the satisfaction and work adjustment relationship. This empirical study attempts to enrich the understanding of the work adjustment among expatriate academics within Malaysian context. This study adopt a cross-sectional research design and examine the opinions of expatriates at only one point in time. Longitudinal research design should be done for a better result.

THE ABILITY TO COMMUNICATE IN THE HOST COUNTRY’S LANGUAGE: A UNIVERSAL SKILL REQUIREMENT FOR ENHANCING CONFIDENCE AMONG EXPATRIATE ACADEMICS

This paper highlights the association of language use skills with self-confidence as a contributing factor to the determination of expatriate self-adaptability in a foreign cultural environment. The objective of this study was to examine whether the skills of using the local language of the host country are considered as a universal skill requirement for improvisation and self-skills among expatriate academics in Malaysian Public Universities. Utilisation of qualitative methods of semi-structured interviews on 35 lecturers with international staff status in four Malaysian Public Universities which were subsequently processed by inductive analysis for dominant and subdominant thematic classifications. The findings prove that the informants utilised language proficiency as a backup to recognise their ability to respond to external stimuli, thus producing positive value to themselves. The proactive process is done by trying to find answers to change and self-transformation while in a foreign country. Studies linking the elements of confidence and self-identity skills among expatriates are often highlighted, but the approach taken is to put the advantage to be utilised on the part of the organisation and not expatriates as the subject of the study. Therefore, the results of this study fulfil the search for answers regarding their identity as an expatriate, including exploring foreign cultures, releasing the culture of the country of origin, developing a network of contacts and assessing their potential and ability to deal with the challenges of life abroad. The direction of future research refers to the addition of value in the expatriate management literature by making basic concepts of interaction such as language proficiency as an element capable of increasing self-confidence and sketching the career development of self-initiated expatriates.

Why and for whom are we decolonising global health?

The growing calls to decolonise global health are welcome but also worrisome. Suggestions for decolonisation vary greatly, with a common view to shift power to local ownership but without clear plans on how to make this suggestion a reality. Many researchers are calling for global health research to be led by local leaders in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), with expatriate academics providing peripheral support rather than the other way around.1 Others call for radical transformation as the only reasonable response to addressing the complexity of reforming global health research when many leaders in global health have built their careers in institutions that advance and sustain white supremacy.

Influence of Self-Esteem, Perceived Social Support and Psychological Morbidity among Expatriates During COVID-19 Pandemic

Self-esteem and perceived social support play an important role in psychological morbidity of an individual. Along with preexisting conditions, the unfortunate spread of COVID 19 pandemic has caused panic and worry. So far, research on expatriate academics has remained negligible. Support provided through social contacts in the host environment has long been recognized as critical for expatriate adjustment, the validity of which is examined. Internet technologies are changing the way individuals form and interact with social contacts and access social support. These technologies have the potential to offer expatriates new sources and means for accessing social support. Age and education level attained by the expatriates are explored as to how significantly they could act as moderators in the relationship between expatriates and society. Through this research we aim to understand the relationship between self-esteem, perceived social support and psychological morbidity among expatriates from gulf countries during covid 19 pandemic. We also use this research study to understand the relationship between psychological morbidity and self-esteem among expatriates from gulf countries during covid-19 pandemic. For this a correlational study is done using convenience sampling. The study was conducted among 60 adults of age group 35 to 55. Convenient sampling method was used to select the participants into the study. Participants were recruited to study based on the inclusion and exclusion of the criteria. The sample for the study included 60 adults and three questionnaires regarding self-esteem, perceived social support and psychological morbidity were administered to them. Appropriate statistical tools are used for the analysis of the study.

Strangers in the Foreign Land: Exploring Cultural Minority Global Professionals’ Career Satisfaction

Integrating trait activation theory and job embeddedness theory, we examined the influences of cultural intelligence, organizational and community embeddedness, and host country community diversity climate on cultural minority professionals (CMGPs)’ career satisfaction. Based on two distinct samples of CMGPs (169 Asian American Professionals in Study 1; 147 self-initiated expatriate academics in Study 2), we found that CMGPs’ cultural intelligence enhances CMGPs’ organizational and community embeddedness, which in turn increase CMGPs’ career satisfaction. We further found that low host country community diversity climate facilitates the importance of CQ as a predictor of CMGPs’ organizational and community embeddedness. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

Research productivity of self‐initiated expatriate academics: Influences of job demands, resources and cross‐cultural adjustment

AbstractResearch on academic expatriation has rarely investigated the drivers of academic performance in a foreign cultural environment. This study focuses on research productivity as a crucial facet of performance and integral part of academic jobs. Drawing from the job demands‐resources model, we position perceived organizational support and the number of doctoral students supervised as resources and teaching and service load as demands of self‐initiated expatriate (SIE) academics' jobs. Most importantly, we suggest that being cross‐culturally adjusted is a vital personal resource living and working in a foreign country and that cross‐cultural adjustment moderates the effects of demands and resources. The analysis of combined survey and publication data from 208 SIE academics in natural sciences indicates that the number of doctoral students supervised increases research productivity, while teaching load reduces it. Moreover, findings show that cross‐cultural adjustment amplifies the effects of demands and resources. The implications of these findings are discussed.

FENOMENOLOGI INSTITUSI KEKELUARGAAN DALAM PENTAFSIRAN DAN MAKNA PENGALAMAN HIDUP: KEUPAYAAN ADAPTASI KELUARGA SEBAGAI PIHAK SIGNIFIKAN PENENTU KEJAYAAN TUGASANAHLI AKADEMIK EKSPATRIAT DI INSTITUSI PENGAJIAN TINGGI MALAYSIA

This paper provides an understanding of the social structure seen as a phenomenology that directs one’s thinking in relation to the interpretation and meaning of life experiences in family institutions where family adaptation is a significant factor in determining the success of expatriate academics. The objective of the study was to unravel expatriate interpretations of expatriation decisions, where such interpretations were debated and taking into account family adaptability as a significant party in determining the success of the assignment of academics who have continuity with the experience of expatriate institutions in the host country. The research was carried out by utilising qualitative methods of in-depth interviews with 20 expatriate academics selected from three Malaysian Public Universities. While the appropriate criteria for respondents include the following characteristics, namely (a) has resided for at least one year in Malaysia using a valid employee visa, (b) has been offered a position as academic staff and has renewed a contract of service, (c) a self-initiated expatriate in undertaking expatriation and (d) work full-time and is not classified as an inter-university exchange staff or on sabbatical leave. The study found that the family factor is the influence of the career environment of an expatriate academic while serving in Malaysia. This is seen as a valuable input for the expatriate academics in adapting to the career of the country’s higher education arena while encouraging retention of expatriate academics in the higher education industry in Malaysia. Two new findings were presented namely (i) moral and emotional support systems which give positive indications of international assignment success, and (ii) support of the relevant social networks with local communities as one of the determinants of expatriate success adapting to the host country environment.

FALSAFAH PELAN STRATEGIK UNIVERSITI AWAM MALAYSIA MELALUI PENGALAMAN AHLI AKADEMIK EKSPATRIAT DALAM MENGORAK REPUTASI UNIVERSITI SEBAGAI HAB KECEMERLANGAN AKADEMIK DI PERSADA ANTARABANGSA

The Malaysian Education Development Plan 2015-2025 (Higher Education) has been specifically formulated by outlining ten (10) leaps to achieve continuous excellence in the higher education system in Malaysia thus becoming a hub of academic excellence on an international level. In line with that, the objective of the study is to trace the experience of international human capital in helping to shape the involvement of the reputation of Malaysian public universities on an international level. However, the debate that leads to the recruitment of international human resources is said to have no long-term impact on the development of a university. The discussion in this paper explores the experience of international human resources in making positive contributions to public universities in line with efforts to strengthen its position and status as a prestigious educational institution, in line with the contemporary transition of higher education. The narrative approach utilises a selection of original dialogues and involves 20 expatriate academics who meet the criteria of residency with a work visa, having the status of a self-initiated expatriate, are not classified as inter-university exchange staff, nor are on sabbatical leave. The contribution of this study is able to shift the contextual focus of the internationalisation literature of higher education institutions which was previously said to focus on generating income of a university, to a valuable human resource experience in contributing to the involvement of the university’s reputation globally. The findings of the study also insert an advanced dimension by presenting a detailed understanding of human resource mobility as well as introducing a new dimension that offers a deeper understanding of the university’s reputation involvement on an international level. This study seeks to offer specific evidence of how expatriate academics evaluate their expatriation experience by selecting a public university as a career place. While the results of the study are expected to be useful information for public universities in implementing alternative strategic planning policies for the future, further determining the scenario of Malaysian higher education.