Self-initiated Expatriate Academics Research Articles

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.

Telling tales

Purpose South Africa has witnessed an increase in self-initiated academic expatriates (SIAEs) coming into the country from all over the world. This movement of labour can result in South Africa performing better than any other African country. However, expatriation is accompanied by several challenges which affect both work and non-work scopes. Given that more is needed to understand the lived experiences of the expatriates, especially self-initiated expatriates from and in Africa, the purpose of this paper is to provide the basis for interventions to assist the expatriates in overcoming challenges by understanding their lived experiences. Design/methodology/approach The study used an interpretivist approach to understand the lived experiences of SIAEs. The data were collected through the use of unstructured interviews of 25 expatriate academics within South Africa. The individual narratives were analysed through structural and thematic analysis to develop themes. Findings Through the stories and narratives, the expatriation experience was one framed to be a challenging process. The lived experiences can be grouped into life and career experiences. The life experiences consist of immigration difficulties, family separation, social adjustment difficulties and unavailability of accommodation. Career experiences include remuneration differences, gender discrimination, limited professional development opportunities and communication difficulties, which affect both work and non-work experiences. Person–environment fit did not play a significant role in the experiences of the academic expatriates. Practical implications The findings showed that the lived experiences of SIAEs in Africa were mostly negative. Higher education institutions looking at hiring academic expatriates should assist the expatriates to have better experiences not only for individual benefit but for institutional benefit as well. However, this role is not only placed in the hands of the organisation but may also require individual effort. Originality/value The findings outlined in this study provide a picture of the lived experiences of SIAEs in an African context. The findings are fundamental in understanding this neglected sample group in the extant literature. They also assist in advancing literature and proposing possible solutions. All this is important, given global talent shortages which have warranted the need for highly skilled employees in countries like South Africa.

Cultural intelligence and work engagement of expatriate academics: The role of psychological needs satisfaction

Cultural intelligence (CQ) has received considerable research attention in studies on expatriates. However, most of the studies on this have been conducted on business expatriates, neglecting other types of expatriates, such as self-initiated expatriate academics. The growing number of expatriate academics taking up faculty positions in universities in an upper middle-income economy, like Malaysia, which is known for its complex cultural, racial, and religious diversity, has posed greater challenges to human resource managers of the respective universities. This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of CQ on work engagement (WE) with the presence of psychological needs satisfaction (PNS) as a mediating factor. Using a sample of 152 expatriate academics employed in 20 Malaysian public universities, it is found that PNS partially mediates the relationship between CQ and WE. In other words, the relationship between CQ and WE is both direct and indirect and mediated through PNS. The findings give rise to a number of implications, both theoretical and practical, in cross-cultural management research.

Measuring Multicultural Effectiveness among Self-Initiated Academic Expatriates in Malaysia

Being an academic entity, universities offer a distinct environment with different missions and work tasks as compared to business organizations. Thus far only a minimal amount of investigation has embarked on self-initiated expatriates in the academic field. Therefore, the main aim of the research is to investigate the adjustment of this group of expatriates by focusing on the relationships between multicultural personality skills and the academic expatriates’ personal, professional and social adjustment by utilizing the multicultural personality scale (MPQ). The MPQ consists of five dimensions - cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability and flexibility. Besides MPQ constructs, the study also examines the relationship between language ability and the expatriates’ personal, social and professional adjustment. One-hundred and one questionnaires were distributed to self-initiated academic expatriates (N=101) attached to various academic departments in UUM. Results revealed that open-mindedness and flexibility are significantly related to the expatriates’ personal adjustment, while cultural empathy, emotional stability and flexibility are significantly related to social adjustment. Flexibility is the only dimension of MPQ that predicts academic expatriates’ professional adjustment. Language skills on the other hand, do not show any significant relationship with all three types of adjustments. Apart from the results, the discussions and limitations of the study are also presented in the paper. Keywords: Cross-cultural adjustment , expatriate adjustment, organizational expatriates, self-initiated academic expatriates, multicultural personality questionnaire.

The Impact of Cultural Similarity and Social Network Characteristics on Re-Expatriation Intention Among Self-Initiated Academic Expatriates

<p>This conceptual paper sheds light on re-expatriation intention among self-initiated academic expatriates who have completed their international assignments, and returned their home country and then intended to re-expatriate to have another experience in the host country by their own initiatives. Cultural similarity and social network characteristics which involve size, closeness and frequency appeared to have a significant impact on the expatriates' decisions to move abroad for the first time. Therefore, these variables are predicted in the study to be associated with their intentions to re-expatriate. Push-pull theory is utilized in this paper to better understanding the impact of cultural similarity and social network characteristics on re-expatriation intention among academic SIEs. Thus, this study contributes to fill the gap in literature by addressing the influence of cultural similarity and social network characteristics on re-expatriation intention.</p>

Using narratives to understand the motivational factors and experience of being a self-initiated academic expatriate in South Africa

Orientation: A growing movement of foreign nationals is settling in South Africa. Given this, there is a need to understand not only those factors influencing foreign nationals to settle in South Africa but also their lived experiences as a basis for individual career development.Research purpose: To investigate the expatriation motivational factors and experiences of selfinitiated academic expatriates in South Africa.Motivation for the study: Calls have been made within the careers literature for more empirical focus on understanding career development using some of the neglected sample groups.Research approach, design and method: The interpretive paradigm was adopted to understand the main purpose of the study. Guided by study objectives, unstructured interviews were conducted using a sample of foreign academics working in South Africa (n = 25).Main findings: Individual stories and narratives highlighted that academics relocated for the following reasons: (1) individual preference, (2) economic meltdown and (3) political conditions. Furthermore, the lived experiences of the expatriates reflected discrimination within the workplace and the community of residences in South Africa.Practical and managerial implications: Research findings indicate that the human resources (HR) function can come up with interventions that positively influence the lived experience and career development of foreign academics working in South Africa.Contribution: The expatriate experience framed in this study provides a picture of the career development processes of neglected sample groups in the extant literature. Such an understanding is key in advancing literature and proposing interventions. All this is important given the global trend on labour and skills movement added to the role South Africa plays in the international arena.

Intention to Leave among Self-initiated Academic Expatriate in Public Higher Education Institution

This study seeks to investigate the intention to leave among self-initiated academic expatriate in the public universities in Malaysia. Objectives of this study are threefold. Firstly, to identify the difference in perception of human resource practices, organizational commitment and intention to leave based on demographic background. Secondly, to examine the relationship between human resource practices and organizational commitment with the intention to leave. Finally, to identify the most significant human resource practices that influences the intention to leave. Questionnaire data were collected from public higher education institutions in Malaysia. The subjects are 88 self-initiated academic expatriates attached to various public universities in Malaysia particularly in the Klang Valley. Test of difference and multiple regression analysis methods are used to test the hypotheses. Findings indicated that intention to leave is strongly associated with human resource practices, followed by organizational commitment. The analysis also suggested that training and career development, and challenging opportunity are two elements of human resource practices contributing to intention to leave. The findings implicates the importance of rewards, recognition and job growth opportunities in order to retain the self-initiated academic expatriate. These were some highlights that could be used in strategizing internalisation among public universities in Malaysia.

Attitudes towards culture in the new home: self-initiated expatriate academics in Turkey

The main question of this paper is ‘What are the attitudes of self-initiated expatriate academics towards their host culture?’ This question was explored in terms of whether the expatriates view themselves as separate from or part of the new cultural environment. The question was examined empirically with a qualitatively structured study.. Eighteen participants from 13 countries who are expatriate academics living and working in Turkey were interviewed, and thematic analysis was used to interpret the qualitative data. Communication, religion, food culture, daily life, social relations and structure are the main cultural themes that directly influence the expatriates. The results reveal that participants’ attitude towards each cultural issue can be categorized as being adjusted, exploring or missing home. Self-initiated expatriate academics who feel at home, those who learn new things from the host culture and those who have difficulties, feel themselves as a native, an explorer or a stranger, respectively.

Work engagement and intercultural adjustment

While engagement seems to have promising prospects for predicting organizational behavior in domestic organizations, few scholars have included this in cross-cultural management research. We use survey results from 640 self-initiated expatriate academics in Greater China to study the relation between work engagement and intercultural adjustment. We focus on expatriates in Greater China because in terms of economy, this is a fast-growing area and because, with regard to language and culture, this region deviates substantially from the Western countries that most expatriates there come from. This is not least in relation to age perceptions. Contrary to the dominating theoretical position, we found that the different dimensions of work engagement, namely, vigor, dedication, and absorption, have different effects on intercultural adjustment. Moreover, we found that the effect of job dedication on reducing time to proficiency was stronger for older expatriates.

Context matters: Acculturation and work-related outcomes of self-initiated expatriates employed by foreign vs. local organizations

Research on various outcomes of foreign assignments has seldom involved the specific organizational context. This study examines the acculturation of self-initiated expatriates in local and foreign-owned organizations. Based on the choice-within-constraints framework in new institutional theory, we propose that self-initiated expatriate academics in local organizations are better adjusted to general life and interaction with host country nationals than their counterparts in foreign-owned organizations. We also suggest that, due to limited available human cognitive capacity, the adjustment of expatriate academics with regard to general life and interaction in the two types of organizations has different consequences for work-related outcomes. Specifically, we hypothesize that for expatriates in foreign organizations, general adjustment is positively associated with work-related outcomes while, for expatriates in local organizations, interaction adjustment is instead positively associated with their work-related outcomes. Based on 210 self-initiated expatriate academics in China and Taiwan, our findings generally provide support for these hypothesized relationships. By demonstrating the role of organization type in expatriate adjustment we contribute to the use of social learning theory in this area) arguing that acculturation should not be perceived to occur in a vacuum. Rather the adjustment patterns of expatriates are affected by the social and institutional context.

Expatriate Adjustment: Validating Multicultural Personality Trait among Self-initiated Academic Expatriates

This study looks at the adjustment of self-initiated academic expatriates working at one of the public universities in Malaysia. The main aim of the research is to investigate the relationship between Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) and the expatriate's personal, professional and social adjustment. The MPQ consists of five dimensions - cultural empathy, open-mindedness, social initiative, emotional stability and flexibility. One-hundred and one questionnaires were distributed to self-initiated academic expatriates attached to various departments at the university. Results show that the MPQ predicts all three types of adjustment. Apart from the results, the discussions and limitations of the study are also presented in the paper.

Self-initiated expatriates

Purpose – As it has been suggested that adult third-culture kids may be more culturally adaptable than others, they have been labelled “the ideal” expatriates. The purpose of this paper is to explore the adjustment of self-initiated expatriate academics in Hong Kong, comparing adult third-culture kids with adult mono-culture kids. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use survey results from 267 self-initiated expatriate academics in Hong Kong. Findings – Exploratory results show that adult third-culture kids had a higher extent of general adjustment. No significant results were found in relation to interaction adjustment and job adjustment. The authors also found that recent expatriate experiences generally had a positive association with the adjustment of adult mono-culture kids, but this association only existed in terms of general adjustment for adult third-culture kids. Originality/value – Once corroborated by further studies, this exploratory research project may contribute to the understanding of the adjustment of adult third-culture kids as well as the role of experience and multicultural abilities. Few, if any, prior studies, have examined adjustment of this group of self-initiated expatriates.

Business or Pleasure? Blurring Relocation Categories and Motivation Patterns among Expatriates

Research on international relocations has habitually treated holidaymakers, sojourners, and immigrants as quite discrete categories while developments in global mobility patterns have assumingly amplified blurring of such categories. Based on this point of departure, this article explores boundaries and relations between leisure tourism and international work relocations. The study uniquely examines demographic differences in tourism and work motivation of academics temporarily residing abroad. Data were collected from 428 self-initiated expatriate academics from 60 countries temporarily working at 34 universities in 5 northern European countries. Our findings show that there are indeed tourism motivations among expatriates. We also found that such motives vary between different demographic segments.

Global mobility orientation and the success of self-initiated expatriates in Greater China

We investigated 640 self-initiated expatriate academics residing in Greater China. We examined whether their inherent demographic characteristics (age/gender) and acquired demographic characteristics (marital status/seniority) differentiated their work outcomes regarding job adjustment, time to proficiency, performance and satisfaction. We also explored the associations between global mobility orientation and these four work outcomes and examined to what extent the demographic characteristics differentiated the relationships. Results support most hypothesized differences. We found that a global mobility orientation was associated with all the work outcomes, except satisfaction. For inherent demographic characteristics, we found support for our hypotheses that for individuals with less successful demographics (younger, male), there was a stronger relationship between global mobility orientation and the work outcomes.

Acquired demographics and reasons to relocate among self-initiated expatriates

Organizational expatriates, who have been assigned by their parent companies to the foreign location have been thoroughly investigated as compared to self-initiated expatriates, who themselves have decided to expatriate to work abroad. Consequently, much less is known about the latter type of expatriates. To help alleviate this dearth of research findings, data was collected from 428 self-initiated expatriate academics from 60 countries employed in 35 universities in five northern European countries. Four acquired demographic characteristics were investigated: marital status, nationality, previous expatriate experience and seniority, as well as five individual reasons to expatriate: adventure/travel, career, family, financial incentives and life change/escape. The results indicated support for the research propositions, suggesting that self-initiated expatriates' (SIEs) reasons to expatriate differ in terms of acquired personal characteristics. Implications of these findings are discussed in detail.