Grasp the whole picture of international assignees `s intercultural sensitivity with adjustment

Building the Global Competence for Asian Leaders Hangzhou, Nov 30th 2010

Xiaojuan Wang &Prof. Dr. Hora Tjitra

Grasp the Whole Picture of international assignees `s Intercultural Sensitivity with Adjustment

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Building the Global Competence for Asian Leaders

Agenda

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1 Popularity of assignees in MNC 3

2 Gap between competence and adjustment literature 4

Literature review about the assignee`s competence (1)A share-holder model

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Literature review about the assignee`s competence (2) 7

3 Adjustment literature: make the complete picture 9

Antecedents of adjustment and intercultural sensitivity 11

4 Assignee`s adjustment process 12

Mechanism(1): stress-coping approach 13

Mechanism(2): social learning approach 15

Mechanism(3): social network approach 19

5 A new model: Link assignee`s adjustment (mechanism) with intercultural sensitivity

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Popularity of assignees in MNC

• Increase in globalization has led to more and more employees been sent on international assignment (Hechanova,2003).

• The number of expatriates has actually dramatically increased in the past 20 years (Harrison et al.,2004; Harzing,2001).

• The use of expatriates will continue to expand in 21st century (Dolins,1999).

MNCs are increasingly using expatriates for traditional control and expertise reasons, facilitate entry into new markets, develop international management competencies , manage development and control subsidiaries (Harzing,2001; Torbiorn, 1994) .

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Gap between competence and adjustment literature

• A successful assignee occupies important role for MNC. Caligiuri (1997) proposed that a successful international assignee should be evaluated in terms of completion of assignment, cross-cultural adjustment and performance.

• Researchers in studying the global leadership competence are only interested in the performance while ignoring the assignee`s adjustment.

• Researchers in adjustment of assignees propose that of the many factors affecting the success of international assignments, cross-cultural adjustment deserves the attention from researchers (Shaffer et al,1999;Shin, Morgeson & Campion ,2007;Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, Shaffer,& Luk,2005; Hechanova, Beehr,& Christiansen,2003).

• It is necessary to get insight from adjustment literature for the researchers in studying global leadership.

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Literature review about the assignee`s competence (1): A share-holder model

• There are two problems with previous study in global competence of international assignees.

• Firstly, the they ignore the role of leaders` own feeling and needs, which in fact have close relationship with outcome variables like performance.

• We need to take a shareholder's perspective (Takuchi, 2010 ) when examine Asian leaders intercultural sensitivity model.

• A new share-holder model linking competence and adjustment research is needed.

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A share-holder model

Parent company

themselvesSubsidiary

• That is to say, outcome variables we care in Asian leadership competence not only include the factors facilitating leaders` performance in meeting the needs of company at home and subsidiary in host country but also contains factors helping the leaders satisfy their own needs . Specifically, the leaders must feel psychological well-being when interaction with the general foreign environment, when interaction with others and in work-place (Black& Stephen, 1989; Black & Mendenhall, 1991).

Assignees must satisfy the needs of the three simultaneously to guarantee effectiveness in HCNs

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Literature review about the assignee`s competence (2)

• Secondly, we have no idea of how the intercultural sensitivity develops and the interaction of factors within the model and out of the model when they are proposed out of the real work-place in cross-sectional design.

– Factors in the model are not developed with the same speed or to the same level. It has more practical and theoretical meaning if we know how the factors in competence model develops and related with other variables.

• Therefore, we need to take a process orientation when examine the competence model of assignees to supplement the previous studies with trait orientation.

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Literature review about the assignee`s competence (2)

• In sum, it is more reasonable to find out the factors not only facilitating fulfilling the needs of the company but that of oneself. Besides, the process-orientation of adjustment research design provides a good chance to give a vivid description of intercultural sensitivity model.

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Adjustment literature: make the complete picture

• Research in this domain care about the expatriates ` psychological well-being in general environment, during interaction with others and work-place (Searle and Ward,1990; Black,1988;Black and Stephens,1989) and propose that whether the expatriates adjust or not determined their performance.

• Osman-Gani and Rockstuhl (2008) argue that the expatriate needs to adapt culturally to perform effectively on the job.

• Other meta-analyse (Bhaskar-Shrinivas,Harrison,Shaffer,& Luk,2005; Hechanova,Beehr,& Christiansen,2003) and empirical studies (Nicholls et al.,2002;Kraimer et al.,2001;Shay and Baack,2006) support it.

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Adjustment literature: make the complete picture

• Adjustment process of the expatriate managers shed light on how their intercultural sensitivity develop, what it consists of , the interaction of the factors and how it related with outside factors, which has implications for practical issues. – Since expatriate`s adjustment is necessary for their high performance, we

have good reason to argue that factors about intercultural sensitivity influence adjustment, they impact their performance as well.

– In addition, what researchers find out about antecedents of expatriate`s adjustment (Fenner and Selmer,2008; Kraimer and Wayne,2004; Peltokorpi , 2008; Arthur & Bennett,1995) suggest component of ICS for assignees as well.

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Antecedents of adjustment and intercultural sensitivity

Studies that include individual differences variables related with ICS demographic variables such as age or gender(Shaffer and Hrrison,1998) ,previous international experiences (Black and Gregersen,1991) and personal flexibility (Arthur and Bennet,1995), need for closure (Nicholls, Rothstein and Bourne,2002), cultural intelligence and cultural competences (Earley & Ang, 2003; Shaffer et al.,2003), various traits (Shaffer et al., 2006), personalities (Ones and Viswesvaran, 1997; Ward et al., 2004;Shaffer,et al.,2003), attitudes (e.g. Shaffer et al., 2006), competences (e.g. Johnson et al., 2006), and abilities and skills (e.g. Black & Mendenhall, 1990; Thomas, 2006; Thomas & Fitzsimmons, 2008).

Factors impact ICS Factors impact adjustment

The findings justify that we should take assignees` adjustment and competence together and it is not reasonable to separate them apart.

Flexibility, need for closure, cultural empathy.

tolerance to ambiguity, et al

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Assignee`s adjustment process

• Oberg (1960) proposed a most discussed U-curve model of adjustment overtime.

• However, Black and Mendenhall (1991) thought the model is confused by many variables mixing together. They use an social learning theory perspective on the adjustment process.

• Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al. (2005) examined the trajectory of adjustment overtime , proposed a “S” model.

• Recently, Friedman et al. (2009) found that adjustment may not always be a single continuous process but instead may sometimes be a discontinuous process of gains and losses–repeated cycles of confusion and clarity.

Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al. (2005)

It is not enough to find the factors influencing assignee`s adjustment and competence. More importantly, we should know the how the factors develop and the interaction of different factors with other contextual variables.

Friedman et al.(2009) 12


Mechanism(1): stress-coping approach

• Studies with this approach emphasize the stress and difficulty working and living in new cultural background and examine the cope strategies that the newcomer`s use to overcome the problems in HCNs.

• “stress is defined by many variables and processes that are reflected in the person's appraisal of a relationship with the environment as relevant to well-being and taxing or exceeding his or her resources “(Lazarus et al.,1985) .

• Coping means individuals “ manage environmental internal demands, and conflicts among them, which tax or exceed a person`s resources ” (Folkman, et al., 1986).

• Coping strategies serve to achieve a fit between self and environment with regard to stressors and feelings of stresses (Berry, 1997;Zimnermann, Holman & Sparrow, 2003;Stahl, 2000; Stahl & Caligiuri,2005; Breiden et al., 2006).

Breiden et al.(2006)

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Mechanism(1): stress-coping approach

• The researchers of studying adjustment look for strategies the newcomers use for solving cultural problems.

– With few exceptions, they prefer context over individual traits in explaining adjustment and propose the latter as the moderate variables.

• Further study should explore the joint effects of individual difference and strategies on the outcome variables.

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Since preferred coping strategies is related with personality differences and other characteristics like cultural values (Connor-Smith & Flachsbart, 2007; Bardi & Guerra ,2010) , we have good reason to propose that the same factors in ICS may have different effects for adjustment and performance using different strategies.

Bardi & Guerra, 2010


Mechanism(2): social learning theory

• The second approach in explaining adjustment of the managers in HCNs is social learning theory (Caligiuri,2000; Searle & Ward,1990; Black & Mendenhall,1991).

– Uncertainty is reduced because expatriates will learn appropriate behaviors through interaction with and observation of HCNs.

• Black and Mendenhall (1991) argued that SLT provides a theoretical explanation of why in general cross-cultural adjustment would exhibit a U-curve pattern.

The more HCNs the expatriate interacts with and the more diverse these contacts are, the greater the repertoire of acceptable behaviors he or she will have to draw on (Caligiuri,2000).

Other researchers explain how the individuals develop ICS with the similar assumption (Hammer, Bennett & Wiseman,2003; Gong & Fan , 2006; Paige, et al., 2003; Friedman et al., 2009), although

they don`t argue it directly.

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Mechanism(2): social learning approach

• Bennett (1986) proposed six distinct kinds of experience spread across the continuum from ethnocentrism and ethnorelativism .

• As individuals ` ability to experience cultural difference in more and more sophisticated way, they are better at interacting with the people in the foreign culture , have less problems in adjustment and more competent in the work-place.

Hammer et al. (2003)

Researchers in this orientation suggest that the factors of ICS are developmental. It carries important meaning for training if we are able to find what factors are more changeable than other. Accordingly, we view the more stable ones as criteria for selection.

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Comparison of the two orientation

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stress-cope orientation social learning orientation

Start from combination of emotion and cognition.

Start from human`s adaption to the new environment .

focus on the impact of the change in life and work on originate mental framework and routines formed during socialization.

Focus on modifying the behavior or acquiring necessitous skills.

Researchers with this approach are negative about the outcome at least when the expatriate enter into new environment.

Researchers are more optimistic about the human`s ability to learn.


Integration of the two orientation

• They are person-centered although the researchers with the first approach propose that they care about the fit between individual and environment.

– Berry (1997) argued the two approach are not contradictive by indentifying three outcomes when the immigrant enter to new culture, namely, “behavioral shifts”, “acculturative stress”, and ”psychopathology”, which were determined by the extent of difficulty of adjustment.

• Researchers in both orientation realize and prove the importance of support from the HCNs in newcomer`s adjustment, but they don`t analyze the support of the HCNs and stakeholders systematically.

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Mechanism(3): social network approach

• The third one used in adjustment literature is social capital theory (Adler & Kwon,2002; Lin,2001).

– Previous studies using stress-coping and social learning orientation have found the role of support from organization, subsidiaries , family and supervisors in adjustment and performance (Kraimer, et at., 2001; Kraimer & Wayne, 2004; Breiden, et al., 2006; Verma, et al., 2009; Caligiuri, 2000).

Osman-Gani and Rockstuhl (2008) describes the relationships that an expatriate has with other people in his or her network as direct channels for the flow of social resources in the form of informational, instrumental, feedback, and emotional support.

Liu and Shaffer(2005) proposed that the basic elements of social capital are conceptualized in terms of social resources, contact opportunities, social structure, trust, norms, purposive actions and networks (friends, acquaintances, colleagues and members) .

Liu & Shaffer(2005)

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• Other scholars investigate how social network and social capital of expatriates influence the expatriate’s cross-spanning activity, different types of performance, adjustment and job (Au & Fukuda,2002; Liu & Shaffer, 2005; Wang,2002; Wang & Kanungo, 2004;Wang & Nayir, 2006).

– For example, Wang and Nayir(2006) found the network patterns the network is important for the European expatriates in China to psychologically function well in the local environment.

Takeuchi (2010) further broadens the scope beyond social network within subsidiaries and proposes a multiple stakeholder view, focusing on how expatriate adjustment is affected by and can affect three key stakeholders: family , host country national and parent organization. He thinks that previous studies are predominantly “expatriate-centric” and has neglected other “stakeholders” .

Takeuchi (2010)

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• Compared with the other two approaches, social network approach put emphasis on the role of context related variable in expatriate leader`s adjustment and performance.

• Some researcher try to find the individual difference of ability in building and using social network for expatriate effectiveness. – Osman-Gani and Rockstuhl (2008) identify the antecedents of social network

such as neuroticism, extroversion, openness, self-efficacy and mega-cognition. – Farh et al. (2010) presented a five-stage process model to show how

expatriates form adjustment through facilitating support ties in a culturally unfamiliar context and provide propositions about how the progression of each stage is influenced by various expatriate-,actor-,and context-related factors.

• Research in this orientation tells us that ICS doesn`t guarantee assignee`s adjustment and performance, either function alone without interaction with contextual factors. Therefore, when we examine the issue, we must put the abstractive factor in the realistic context to understand their importance.

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Comparison of the three orientation

Approach stress-coping approach social learning theory

social network approach

Basic assumption Individual suffer stress in new environment because of uncertainty and anxiety, instinctively to reduce the negative emotion

Individual needs to learn in order to adjust to the new environment.

Individuals are social beings, depending on each others. They need resources and information to survive and develop.

Focus Individual emotion Individual behavior Social support

Individual variables

Perceptional skills, ICS, tolerance to ambiguity, dual identity , coping strategies, flexibility

Learning orientation, extraversion

Relational skills, flexibility, emotional stability, openness

Important others Support from parent organization, subsidiaries, family(group level )

(Individual level) Coworkers, subordinates, supervisors (individual level)

Studies Berry (1997); Zimnermann, Holman & Sparrow ( 2003) ;Stahl, (2000) ; Stahl & Caligiuri (2005) ; Breiden et al.( 2006)

Caligiuri (2000); Searle & Ward(1990); Black & Mendenhall (1991); Hammer, Bennett & Wiseman (2003); Gong & Fan (2006)

Au & Fukuda (2002) ; Liu & Shaffer (2005) ; Wang (2002); Wang & Kanungo, (2004);Wang & Nayir (2006)

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A new model: Link assignee`s adjustment (mechanism) with intercultural sensitivity

• The most critical issues lies in how the factors included in intercultural sensitivity interacted with other contextual variables and determine the assignee`s adjustment and performance as time goes by.

Critical factors:Perceptional skills; Self-

efficacy; cultural empathy; learning

orientation et al.

Performance(task related; context

related; self-rated; supervisor

rated); job satisfaction;

overturn; OCB

Adjustment:General

adjustment; interactional

adjustment; work adjustment

LMXPOS

Family factors

TMX

Hypothesized model23


Global Competence for Asian Leaders

Research Partners:

An applied research collaboration supported by the Human Capital Leadership

Institute (Singapore) with the objective to derive a model for Asian leaders, which will

lead to systematic global leadership development programs with Asian

characteristics.

Built on our previous researches on Chinese and Indonesian intercultural sensitivity,

we continue in this study by elaborating the cross-cultural experiences of the

Chinese, Indonesian and Singaporean international assignees and their respective

local co-workers in China and Indonesia. Intercultural sensitivity has been widely

accepted as one of the most significant element of global competencies and one of

the strongest predictor for global leaders and managers accomplishments.

The principal investigators of the project are Dr. Hora Tjitra, Dr. Hana Panggabean,

and the research team of the the Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China), Zhejiang

University of Technology (Hangzhou, China) and the Atma Jaya Indonesia Catholic

University (Jakarta, Indonesia).

Funding Partner:

Zhejiang University

China

www.zju.edu.cn

Zhejiang University of Technology

China

www.zjut.edu.cn

Atma Jaya Catholic University

Indonesia

www.atmajaya.ac.id

Human Capital Leadership Institute

Singapore

www.smu.edu.sgHora Tjitra

Hana Panggabean

Juliana Murniati

Quan HE Jiewei ZHENG

Chaohui ZHANGTeng SHENTU Jia ZHOU

Xiaojuan WANG

Dan ZHAOXixie ZHANG

Sebastian Partogi Yuanbo LIU Tayyibah Mushtaq24

Thank You

Contact us via …

Mail: [email protected]: twitter@htjitraWebsite: http://sinau.me/hcli

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mailto:[email protected]

http://sinau.me/hcli

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Grasp the whole picture of international assignees `s intercultural sensitivity with adjustment

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