German Expatriates Research Articles

How do German and French expatriates develop social networks?

PurposeThis exploratory research aims to identify the types of social networks established by German and French expatriates.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use the concepts of social capital and social networks, as well as the societal and cultural approaches, to investigate the way expatriates develop their social networks. The authors' empirical study is based on 40 semi-structured interviews conducted with German and French expatriates.FindingsThe authors' findings show that German expatriates mainly establish professional networks, whereas their French counterparts also focus on personal networks. They further indicate that managing social capital lies within the individual responsibility of German expatriates, whereas it is part of higher education institutions in France.Originality/valueThe authors highlight the way German and French expatriates manage their social networks and provide novel insights into the role played by higher education systems and the cultural characteristics of their home country context.

Domov jako turistický cíl v době studené války. Nostalgický turismus vysídlených Němců z Československa po roce 1945 a jeho konstrukce v sudetoněmeckém mediálním diskurzu

The study deals with the phenomenon of nostalgic tourism of German-speaking inhabitants who were forcibly displaced from Czechoslovakia after 1945 and travelled to their old homeland during the Cold War period. The first legal individual and later also organised trips to Czechoslovakia date back to the second half of the 1950s; these were a reaction both to the slightly liberalising Czechoslovak tourism policy and granting of entry visas to western-European foreigners, and to the improving economic situation of German expatriates in the Federal Republic of Germany. Attention will be paid to specific features of these travels, whose final destination was the former home behind the Iron Curtain, their historical transformations, and the media construction in the Sudeten-German discourse of that time, which reveals nostalgic tourism

Intercultural sensitivity of expatriate human resource managers towards training practices in their host countries

ABSTRACT This article investigates the intercultural sensitivity of expatriate human resource (HR) managers, with a specific focus on training practices at an intermediate skill level. The pape, therefore, contributes to the literature on expatriates, with a specific emphasis on the particular relevance of intercultural sensitivity in training in multinational companies. Using a qualitative approach, including expert interviews with German expatriates in subsidiaries in India, China, and Mexico, combined with a deep analysis of the data, we were able to reveal the perceptions of expatriates. Our results show a mixed picture of intercultural sensitivity towards training culture in their host countries through three different types of expatriates’ perceptions. Hence, our results lead to the conclusion that multinational companies might focus on this aspect by putting more emphasis on intercultural sensitivity of their HR managers in foreign subsidiaries, to improve the performance of their subsidiaries long term.

ERNST TOLLER'S LETTERS FROM EXILE, 1933–1939

ABSTRACTThis article examines Toller's experiences in exile, with particular attention given to the genre of letters. Based on his correspondence from exile, the paper aims to trace the disparity in Ernst Toller's experience of life away from his homeland, focusing on his time in New York but also comparing it to the other locations: London and Hollywood. The editing of his letters has shown that Toller's experience of exile differed greatly from that of other German expatriates. There is no evidence that New York became a new home to him; neither topography nor people are described in detail. He hardly ever writes about his everyday life, and neither the content nor the style of his letters shows any significant difference from those written before his exile. This may of course be due to the fact that Toller's life was a succession of extreme situations: war, imprisonment, political persecution and separation. In conclusion, the article also discusses the Briefe aus dem Gefängnis, published in 1935, and argues that, not least because of their publication context and their paratext, they also sit within the context of the exile experience and represent an engaged commentary on the National Socialists’ seizure of power in Germany.

Paris Calligrammes par Ulrike Ottinger

Reviewed by: Paris Calligrammes par Ulrike Ottinger Maria G. Traub Ottinger, Ulrike, réal. Paris Calligrammes. Int. Jenny Agutter, Fanny Ardant. Zero One, 2020. The decade known as the “sixties” was a period of intellectual activity and social unrest, fomenting upheaval and breaks with tradition. Arriving in Paris as a hitchhiker, Ulrike Ottinger, an artist from Germany, accepts transport from a group whom she suspects are bank robbers. Her entry into Paris is thus heralded by adventure and surprise. In his Saint-Germain bookshop, “Librairie Calligrammes,” she meets Fritz Picard, a German expatriate, who becomes a good friend and literary mentor. He includes her in his intellectual social circle, and suggests books for her to read. Picard’s guest book is a virtual who’s who of renowned artists, writers, thinkers, and journalists working in or visiting Paris and having stopped by his shop. Titled film sequences showcase meetings or work sessions with famous artists and memorable events. In one, we observe Ulrike’s studies under Johnny Friedlander, noted expert on the art of etching. Welcomed as his guest at family dinners, she met many artists. Living in Saint-Germain, she encountered Raymond Duncan, brother of dancer Isadora Duncan. Raymond habitually dressed in a toga he had woven for himself, following his philosophy of life: one should limit one’s needs to what one could make. From one eccentric’s lifestyle, we move to that of Algerian immigrants in the bidonvilles at the outskirts of Paris, followed by scenes of the October 1961 protest which began peacefully but morphed into a brutal and bloody conflict. The protests against the French involvement in Vietnam as well as the student protests of 1968 appear in film clips that give visual testimony to the efforts of bringing about change, either peacefully or violently. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the well-known student leader challenging the educational system, is shown as a provocative spokesperson in the footage. Culturally, we are treated to clips of world-class performances at the Odéon Theater, celebrities attending film premieres and noteworthy museums. Ottinger shows samples of Pop Art or Nouvelle Figuration which became part of her own work. From this perspective, the phenomenon of Dadaist influence is apparent in her way of portraying images and scrapping traditional approaches. Presenting an array of historical photographs and documentary footage, we follow experiences and influences in Ottinger’s life in Paris. A poetry reading of Walter Mehring’s work concerning the persecution of German writers by the Nazis is a long, plaintive cry against suppression. Not only exploring intellectual and cultural circles in the city, she also observed and discussed political and social incidents, as well as iconic Parisian places such as Les Halles, which has unfortunately disappeared. These dimensions of the film make it an historical time capsule. The information this film provides both visually and verbally is useful for the study of French civilization. A drawback is the lack of in-depth coverage of any one issue. Used in the classroom in short clips, it provides immersion into the decade’s zeitgeist. As a documentary, it is an interdisciplinary tool for history, political science, or art and film classes. [End Page 219] Maria G. Traub Neumann University (PA) Copyright © 2022 American Association of Teachers of French

Clash of Cultures? German Expatriates' Work‐Life Boundary Adjustment in South Korea

Managing work‐life balance abroad is considered as one of the key challenges associated with expatriation. That is particularly true when the enactment of the work‐life boundaries of expatriates' home and host countries diverge. Drawing from boundary theory, we investigate whether and how expatriates experience cross‐cultural challenges in terms of their work‐life boundaries abroad. We interviewed 28 German expatriates in South Korea because both cultures differ substantially in terms of their preferred work‐life boundaries. Our study shows that perceived work‐life boundary pressures in the foreign environment and willingness to adjust to the local work‐life boundary culture vary substantially among expatriates. Based on a function of these two forces, we develop a typology of four work‐life boundary adjustment styles and relate them to work‐life balance satisfaction. Furthermore, we identify individual and organizational factors that influence expatriates' work‐life boundary adjustment styles. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Clash of cultures? German Expatriates’ Work-Life Boundary Adjustment in South Korea

Managing the work-life interface abroad is considered as one of the key challenges associated with expatriation. That is particularly true when work-life balance cultures of the expatriates’ home a...

Expatriates’ willingness to adjust their symbolic leadership abroad. An analysis of how culture affects expatriates’ use of symbolic interaction

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relation between perceived cultural distances and the willingness to adjust symbolic leadership by expatriates. Further, it is asked whether this adjustment has the potential to increase their acceptance as leader by the foreign workforce.Design/methodology/approach– The research derives testable propositions from symbolic leadership theory and the theory about cultural distance and transfers them into a structural equation model in order to identify the impact of cultural distance on expatriates’ adjustment effort. Therefore, an empirical investigation among German expatriates in the Philippines was conducted.Findings– The study contributes to the understanding of symbolic leadership in several unique ways. It is found that there is a relationship between perceived cultural distance and a willingness for symbolic leadership behavior in order to reduce social sanctions caused by unappropriated symbolism. The study shows that willingness to adopt foreign symbols does not lead to an increased acceptance.Originality/value– This research implies that the willingness alone is not sufficient if the appropriate cultural knowledge and required skills do not exist. Thus, this study points to the importance of expatriates’ cultural knowledge for the success of foreign assignments.

Made in Meiji Japan

In the study of German expatriates in Asia, the active participation and input of local host societies has often been ignored. Using an influential group of Germans in Meiji Japan (1868 -1912) and their relationship to the host society as a case study, this essay argues that "Germanness", a concept that has been long regarded as the exclusive domain of German nationals, was subject to global influence, articulated, created, and imagined by those who wanted to define it for their own interests and agenda. In Meiji Japan, the appropriation and embodiment of Germanness by German-educated Japanese elites (not a quality exclusive to ethnic Germans) functioned as scaffolding for the enduringly positive image of Germany throughout the tumultuous decades of the 1890s and 1900s, while dislodging German professionals from their privileged positions in Meiji Japan.

The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Los Angeles (review)

Reviewed by: The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Los Angeles Jaquelin Pelzer The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Los Angeles. Edited by Kevin R. McNamara. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. 248 pages, $85.00/$24.99. As the essays in this special issue of Western American Literature attest, Los Angeles has provided writers, visual artists, musicians, and filmmakers with an abundance of material for their art over the years. Yet the city, whose most prevalent international identity—as Hollywood—remains tied to artistic endeavors, gets consistently maligned as a place without culture. The sixteen critical essays in The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Los Angeles showcase the myriad reasons why LA has been a source of such artistic fecundity and how it proves to be an immensely rich site for literary scholarship as well. Edited by Kevin R. McNamara, the volume's essays trace literary LA from the earliest documents of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de Los Angeles, founded in 1781, to the contemporary work of novelists, poets, nature writers, and more. Topics range from historic categories in the first half of the collection to the more in-depth surveys of specific genres [End Page 331] in the second half; this arrangement provides the reader with a base knowledge before delving into specifics. Beginning with McNamara's sweeping overview of the work in the collection and the literary geography of LA, the essays in the first half cover literature of the Californios whose letters and testimonios tell the stories of the city surrounding the US takeover in 1848; the influential work of early Anglo writers, such as Helen Hunt Jackson and Charles F. Lummis; the growth of the city through the population booms of the 1920s and '40s and the effect of this tremendous influx of people on representations of LA in the literature of the time; and the emergence of the suburbs in World War II, followed by the explosion of suburban culture in the 1950s, discussing (as do several other essays) D. J. Waldie's The Holy Land (1996). This first section of the book also gives attention to the importance of non-Anglo-American literature, especially in twentieth-century Los Angeles, with chapters devoted to literature by African American Angelenos and British and German expatriates; an intriguing essay by James Kyung-Jin Lee looks at the relationship between Asian American and Latino literature of the last century and the first decade of this century. (Herein lies one of the few criticisms of the collection: although Latino literature receives significant treatment in Lee's essay and is discussed in a majority of the other essays, the magnitude of Latino contributions to literary Los Angeles seems to merit a separate essay of its own. Also missing is an essay specifically dedicated to the contributions of LA's women writers, as well as more essays written by female scholars.) In its second half, the collection moves toward the examination of specific genres, such as science fiction, nature writing, detective novels, the Hollywood novel, and poetry, as well as the treatment of LA on the silver screen. Of particular interest to WAL readers may be Julian Murphet's essay on "The Literature of Urban Rebellion," which looks at three significant moments of urban rebellion in the city's history—the 1943 Pachuco Riots, the 1965 Watts Rebellion, and the 1992 Justice Riots—and the powerful literature that resulted from these events, including the dramatization of the Pachuco Riots by 2010 WLA Distinguished Achievement Award recipient Luis Valdez. Furthering the work of previous scholarship on literary LA, such as David Fine's Los Angeles in Fiction (1984) and Imagining Los Angeles (2000), The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of Los Angeles focuses on the writers and writing produced in LA and on the appearance of the city itself in literature, with the bulk of the essays narrowing in on literature written and set in Los Angeles. The essay collection also features a bibliography for further reading and an extremely useful timeline that includes a dozen pages of significant events in the city's history and literary development. With a goal to introduce students of...

Cultural Intelligence of German Expatriate Spouses in Shanghai, China - Preliminary Findings

The article analyses the influence of spouse’s cultural intelligence (CQ) on behaviour in a foreign national culture. Plenty of publications on expatriate managers exist but hardly any paper covers the impact of spouses on successful expatriation. The authors hypothesised that a high CQ of the spouse leads to high cultural adaptation and support for the expat manager which in turn leads to successful expatriation or at least no premature return. The analysis suggests that not only people have to adapt to different cultures but also the way in which CQ is measured. Time spent abroad is one additional important parameter to be considered. The authors aimed at providing a CQ framework within the Chinese context and encourage other researchers to adapt CQ tests to their cultural setting. The findings of this research are based on a very small sample and therefore may be classified as preliminary. However, the authors are confident that conclusions and recommendations hold up against a larger sample from different national cultures.

Valuing Japan-based German expatriate and local manager's functions: do subsidiary age and managerial perspectives matter?

Managerial functions valued by expatriates and reasons for appointing host country managers were examined in an exploratory, multimethod (interview and questionnaire) study with expatriates and local managers as the respondents. Based on theoretical perspectives of agency theory, transaction costs theory, resource-based views and organizational learning theory, changes in the valuation of these functions were hypothesized and examined for subsidiary age and nationality of the respondent. Expatriate and local managers' views supported previous research on certain management functions but differed on others (e.g. management development). The data indicated curvilinear relationships for a number of managerial functions between nationality of top manager and age of the subsidiary. Strategic factors were analysed by subsidiary age and nationality of the respondent manager to understand more about maturity of host company operations and strategic orientations. The results indicated the growth in the strategic functions of technological leadership and market development/branding in older subsidiaries. Implications of the results were discussed.

Expatriates and the institutionalisation of HRM practices

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an in‐depth description of the process of institutionalisation and development of human resource management (HRM) practices in subsidiaries of German multinational companies in Russia.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on nine case studies of Russian subsidiaries including 26 interviews (13 German expatriates and 13 local employees), participative observations and document analyses. The data analysis follows a qualitative methodology.FindingsThe study provides four patterns of institutionalisation processes of HRM practices. They stress the importance of personal, institutional and contextual factors for the institutionalisation of HRM practices. Moreover, the key role of expatriates with their specific value orientations and behaviour in this process is highlighted.Research limitations/implicationsOne suggestion for further research would be to replicate the study quantitatively (in order to get more cases) as well as qualitatively (to get broader inter‐cultural data). Furthermore, it would be valuable to take a more long‐term focus to examine the described institutionalisation paths in the long run.Practical implicationsThe paper highlights the importance of personal characteristics of expatriates that are often underestimated in companies' selection procedures. Moreover, the connection between the parent company's strategy and the pattern of institutionalisation of HRM practices should make the company management reflect upon the preferred pattern before taking the basic decisions. Taking into account the strong economic relationship between Russia and Germany and the expected further development of joint activities, the paper provides also important insights for the use of German expatriates in Russia.Originality/valueThis paper improves our comprehension of the complex process of implementation and institutionalisation of HRM practices abroad. Moreover, it contributes to the HRM literature as it employs the concept of “transnational spaces” as an alternative and additional approach to explain this process. The resulting patterns may not be restricted to the Russian case only but should be adaptable to other emerging countries as well.

Informal networks as “global microstructures”: the case of German expatriates in Russia

PurposeMultinational companies are considered “driving forces” of globalization and “prime movers” of global sociation. Yet the problems, conflicts, and contradictions in the implementation of global strategies at the micro level – as well as the real possibility that such implementation will fail – are virtually ignored in macro‐sociological studies. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to address this neglect by focusing on a micro level examination of the contribution of expatriates in their interactive role as facilitators and managers, and, their informal social networks.Design/methodology/approachThe interpretation of how global structures are concretely organized and sustained is based on case studies and interviews with German expatriates in Russia. The article examines two particular aspects: the contribution of expatriates in their interactive roles, on the one hand, and their informal social circles, on the other. The analytical framework draws on the concept of “global microstructures”.FindingsExpatriates must maneuver between the conflicts and contradictions that surface from the three‐way relationship between head office, branch office, and the market, and their respective local institutionalized pressures. It is argued that such conflicts and contradictions cannot be resolved within the formal structure of organizations and that, as a result, they are shifted to the level of interpersonal interaction or to informal networks. Global reach as well as microsocial foundations therefore characterize the expatriate's action system.Research limitations/implicationsSince the study is restricted to German expatriates in Russia, further comparative research is needed to sustain the findings for other institutional and cultural settings.Practical implicationsThe findings raise awareness both of the contradictory demands expatriates are confronted with in their everyday work as well as their unique resources. They could contribute to better management training and preparation for expatriates prior to their move abroad.Originality/valueThe paper presents a micro‐sociological view on how systemic integration is actually achieved through a globally stretched as well as locally specified network of interaction. It could be valuable for international strategy definition as well as for personnel managers, and future expatriates themselves.

Expatriate Power – a counteractive factor of intercultural Learning?

Due to the advancement of globalization, overseas assignments are becoming increasingly necessary for the coordination of international subsidiaries or to guarantee the transfer of knowledge, among other things. However many of these assignments are unsuccessful in that either the business expatriates return earlier as planned or they do not perform as well as expected. Multiple reasons for the failure of such assignments have been identified, most of which are related to the ability of an individual to adapt to the host culture and culture learning. In this article it will be argued that power may affect the quality and nature of an expatriate's culture learning and thus may undermine the chance to adapt adequately. The article presents first results of a case study regarding German expatriates of five organizations in Mexico. The data displays evidence that power may restrict sanctions of host country nationals (HCNs) of an expatriate’s culturally inappropriate behaviour. This tendency appears to be reinforced by the high value placed on power distance and an emphasis on hierarchical structures within an organization.

Hans and Wolfgang Experience American Culture

Two German expatriates are assigned to a newly formed strategic alliance with a company in the United States. They experience difficulty with American culture and the culture of the organization. Although they achieve some success in their assignment, the two men leave the company a year early and return to Germany. The case explores possible areas of conflict between German and American culture.

Cultural distance asymmetry in expatriate adjustment

PurposeThe current literature implicitly assumes a symmetric impact of cultural distance (CD) on expatriate adjustment. By using distance as a predictor of adjustment, the literature has rendered the direction of the flow irrelevant: a US expatriate in Germany is presumed to face the same hurdle as a German expatriate in the USA. Not only is there no evidence to justify that suggestion, but logic and related findings suggest just the opposite. The aim of the present paper is to test the proposition that such impact is asymmetric, that is, the impact of CD is contingent on the direction of the assignment.Design/methodology/approachUsing a two‐flow sample of US expatriates in Germany and German expatriates in the USA, we examine and compare the psychological and socio‐cultural adjustment of each group of executives.FindingsControlling for the length of assignment, we find that German expatriates in the USA were better adjusted, both socio‐culturally and psychologically, than American expatriates in Germany. These results support the asymmetry hypothesis and call into question previous findings attesting to the relationship between CD and expatriate adjustment.Originality/valueThe paper offers new insights into the concept of CD and the findings may amount to a potentially fundamental contribution to the literature with important implications for the theory and practice of international human resource management.

The Politics of Cultural Mediation: Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven and Felix Paul Greve (review)

Reviewed by: The Politics of Cultural Mediation: Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven and Felix Paul Greve Martin Kuester (bio) Paul Hjartarson and Tracy Kulba, editors. The Politics of Cultural Mediation: Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven and Felix Paul Greve University of Alberta Press 2003 (Canadian Review of Comparative Literature/Revue Canadienne de Littérature Comparée 29:1). xxxvi, 212 This collection of essays on cultural mediation brings together scholarship by Canadian and German specialists on two German expatriates who, to a larger or smaller extent, left their mark on the two anglophone North American literatures. The lesser-known but perhaps more exciting figure is Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, the 'Baroness' who - as Paul Hjartarson and Irene Gammel show - played a provocative role on the New York Dada scene of the 1910s and 1920s, mixing with artists and writers such as Marcel Duchamp and William Carlos Williams. On the other side of the Atlantic, she had been a member of artistic circles in Munich and Berlin together with her sometime husband Felix Paul Greve, the other figure on whom this volume focuses: the debt-ridden writer who faked a suicide and built a new existence for himself north of the forty-ninth parallel under the name of Frederick Philip Grove, interestingly insisting on using the same initials, FPG, on both sides of the Atlantic. After the useful introduction by the editors elaborating on the concept of cultural mediation by making use of contemporary practitioners such as Salman Rushdie, the book consists of three parts, each of them offering different facets of the act of 'bearing' culture across boundaries and of 'being borne' across cultures. The first and second parts focus on the Baroness and FPG respectively in the context of cultural mediation in Europe and North America, and the third one consists of a key text on cultural mediation by Greve himself. The first of three essays on the Baroness is 'Limbswishing Dada in New York,' a lively and fascinating description of her gender performance and her 'performative trajectory from Europe, through NewYork and back to Europe' by Irene Gammel. Then Richard Cavell studies Freytag-Loringhoven's poetics and its German origins in 'Baroness Elsa and the Aesthetics of Empathy,' and finally Klaus Martens's 'Two Glimpses of the Baroness' [End Page 550] offers new and stimulating insights into Elsa's theatrical background in Germany and into her modelling herself after the German actress Else Lasker-Schüler. In the essays on FPG, Jutta Ernst deals with his role in Germany as a cultural mediator (translating authors such as Gide and Wilde) trying to establish himself in the artistic world by making his name and work known in literary magazines. Pointing forward to the final part of The Politics of Cultural Mediation, Morris then traces the influence of Oscar Wilde, whom Greve had translated into German, on FPG's later fiction, especially on Settlers of the Marsh. Paul Hjartarson finally interprets the process of Grove's own cultural Canadianization against the background of the political and historical situation in the early twentieth century. The third and last part of the volume reprints Felix Paul Greve's essay 'Randarabesken zu Oscar Wilde,' giving us - side by side - the German original and Paul Morris's reliable but not always literal (is, for example, the Ahasveruszeichen, the mark of Ahasuerus, really the same as 'the mark of Cain'?) translation 'Oscar Wilde: Marginalia in Arabesque.' This turns out to be a programmatic text which gives quasi-prophetic glimpses of the future Frederick Philip Grove, being on the one hand a model text of cultural mediation by presenting Wilde to a German audience, and undergoing, on the other, the process of cultural mediation itself by being translated into English by Paul Morris. Here, however, the reader has a chance of following up the process of mediation because the text is given both in the German original and in Morris's translation. Interestingly enough, Greve sees Wilde as the model of the 'deracinated' or entwurzelte artist who, in striving to develop new roots in a new country, is the ideal cultural mediator. All in all, despite a few minor typographical errors, especially in the German text...

Global careers in French and German multinational corporations

This paper sheds light on an apparent paradox: managers continue to accept offers of international assignments even though they tend to view them as a risky career move. Based on a review of the literature and a survey of expatriate managers of 20 French and 30 German companies on assignment in 59 countries, the paper examines the nature of the expatriate career concept, the career development implications of international assignments, and the effectiveness of corporate expatriate career management and repatriation systems. Most of the research on the career implications of international assignments has been conducted using the US samples of expatriates. By exploring expatriate career issues in a cross‐national sample of French and German expatriates, this study seeks to yield new and significant insights into whether the emerging concept of boundaryless careers is beginning to take hold in countries other than the US, and whether there are cross‐national differences in the nature of the expatriate career concept. The findings show that many expatriates are frustrated with how their companies manage their international assignments, especially the long‐range planning of their repatriation. However, there are clear differences between the French and German expatriates in terms of repatriation concerns. Despite widespread dissatisfaction in both groups, the German expatriates seem relatively nonchalant regarding their repatriation. This finding can be explained by the fact that the German expatriates are more willing to leave their companies upon return than their French counterparts, thus showing strong evidence of a “boundaryless career” orientation. An important finding is that companies that fail to take an integrated approach to international assignments and do not have effective international career development and repatriation systems, tend to end up with highly dissatisfied managers who, depending on their nationalities, may be quite willing to leave their companies upon repatriation.

Unravelling Adjustment Mechanisms

Expatriate adjustment has been a prominent theme in international management research; nevertheless, the mechanisms of adjustment have rarely been investigated. This article addresses the issue by introducing a conceptual framework that integrates the theoretical notion of adjustment `modes' used in expatriation research with empirical descriptions of adjustment behaviours from the literature on intercultural management. The article further reports on a qualitative, in-depth study of German expatriates in the People's Republic of China. Participants detailed the differences they perceived in the new environment, as well as ways of adjusting to them. These included changes of expatriates' norms of interaction, the implemention of new working methods in the Chinese workplace, and the acquisition of new living habits. Perceived environmental conditions and adjustment behaviours were contingent a number of factors, such as education and job level of Chinese colleagues. Conclusions are drawn and implications for organizational practice and future research are made.