Public sector expatriate managers: psychological adjustment, personal characteristics and job factors1

1. Disclaimer: The Department of Defense Office of Freedom of Information and Security Review (OFOISR) has cleared the open publication of this article. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the US Government.

Abstract

Although public sector expatriates are becoming increasingly common, research on them is very limited. There is reason to believe that the situation for expatriates from the public sector may be different than for those from the private sector. This study investigated US Department of Defense administrators assigned to US embassies worldwide. Results showed that self-efficacy, role clarity and role discretion had a positive association with the psychological adjustment of the respondents while role conflict and role overload only had a marginal negative relationship with the criterion variable. On the other hand, neither international experience nor the effectiveness of preparatory training had any association with the psychological adjustment of respondents. Surprisingly, these findings suggest a similar picture for the expatriates from the public and private sector. Implications of these findings are discussed in detail.

Keywords:

• international experience
• job factors
• preparatory training
• psychological adjustment
• public sector expatriate managers
• self-efficacy

Notes

1. Disclaimer: The Department of Defense Office of Freedom of Information and Security Review (OFOISR) has cleared the open publication of this article. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defense or the US Government.