Organizational expatriates and self-initiated expatriates: differences in cross-cultural adjustment and job satisfaction

Abstract

Reflecting on recent trends in the international labor force, this study investigates and compares organizational expatriates (OEs), who are dispatched by their companies to international posts, with self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), who by their own volition move and work abroad. Findings from a survey of 57 OEs and 124 SIEs in Tokyo show several differences in individual- and job-related factors, cross-cultural adjustment and job satisfaction between OEs and SIEs. More specifically, mediation analyses show SIEs to have higher interaction adjustment because of their longer stay in the host country and higher host-country language proficiency. However, SIEs have lower job satisfaction because they work more often under host-country national supervisors.

Keywords::

• cross-cultural adjustment
• Japan
• job satisfaction
• organizational expatriate
• self-initiated expatriate

Notes

^1. Cultural empathy refers to sensitivity toward the feelings and thoughts of people from other cultural backgrounds. Open-mindedness represents an open and nonjudgmental attitude toward other people. Social initiative refers to proactive strategies in social situations and interpersonal relations. Emotional stability reflects the ability to regulate emotional reactions even under difficult circumstances. The original MPQ scale also included flexibility. Flexibility refers to the ability to adjust one's behaviors where necessary. However, in line with prior research that criticized the validity of this dimension (e.g. Ponterotto et al. 2007), we did not include flexibility in our analysis.