Work values of immigrant professionals: the New Zealand context

Abstract

Despite their perceived significance for national economies, adjustment of immigrant professionals to a host culture has not been examined in depth from their own, dynamic, perspective. In particular, how do immigrant professionals from different ethnic groups differently experience adjustment, over time, within a single host country? This study overcomes several past limitations affecting research into cross-cultural adjustment to conclude that although there are inter-cultural similarities, differences also warrant attention as they impact perceived degree of adjustment. Analyses highlighted differences in both adjustment processes and factors as perceived by participants during their adjustment period, leading to changes in their understanding, perception and attitude towards their job in the host country. Although the same sets of work values act as enablers and constraints for all three examined cultural groups (British, Chinese and former Soviet in New Zealand), each group focused on specific dimensions and categories. The main enablers for work adjustment for all of the groups featured competence in terms of using their own skills and having positive achievements. The contributions of this research include ascertaining enablers and constraints that influence work adjustment of immigrant professionals, highlighting differences across groups and over time during the first four years in the host country.

Keywords:

• Immigrant professionals
• cross-cultural adjustment
• work values

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, AME. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).