The impact of coping self-efficacy and sociocultural adjustment on skill development of expatriates in Taiwan

ABSTRACT

From an expatriate’s viewpoint, an international job assignment is a high-pressure situation that requires them to adjust as expeditiously as possible. Therefore, a considerable strand of the international human resource management (IHRM) literature is dedicated to the subject of expatriate adjustment. Drawing upon Folkman and Lazarus’ coping framework and Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, the present study examines the influence of expatriates’ coping self-efficacy and sociocultural adjustment on their skill development process. Based on the hypotheses, mediating effects of sociocultural adjustment on coping self-efficacy and skill development were also studied. Using questionnaire survey method, data was collected from 161 expatriates currently working in Taiwan. The results highlighted the key role that coping self-efficacy plays in the sociocultural adjustment of expatriates, such that, the individuals with a higher level of coping self-efficacy were found to experience higher levels of sociocultural adjustment. The results further show that this interrelationship also facilitated skill development through the mediating effects of sociocultural adjustment. This study contributes to expatriate literature by showcasing the underlying impact of different factors on skill development and provide insights for skill-building to human resource (HR) managers and expatriates working in Taiwan. Lastly, the author also presents implications, limitations, and future research directions.

KEYWORDS:

• Expatriates
• intercultural studies
• coping self-efficacy
• sociocultural adjustment
• skill development

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge encouragement from colleagues in carrying out this research and also would like to express gratitude to all the participants who voluntarily took part in this study.

Disclosure statement

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

Institutional review board statement

The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of China Medica University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan (Registration No. CRREC-110-122).

Additional information

Funding

The author would like to thank the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan, for funding this project (MOST 111-2410-H-324-001).