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1.4 Findings and Conclusion
The authors have examined the role played by the expatriate cross-cultural motivation in the effectiveness of expatriate. Supporting the study’s hypothesis, the authors have found that there is a relationship between expatriate cross-cultural motivations and performance of the job through adjustment of work. However, a positive relationship is mediated by work adjustment between job performance and expatriate cross-cultural motivation in less culturally distant and supportive foreign subsidiaries.
The research findings contribute to the literature regarding work motivation and expatriate in multiple ways: the research has enhanced the understanding of expatriate cross-cultural motivation’s function. Moreover, the research findings have indicated that cultural distance and subsidiary support serve as the significant contextual boundary conditions for the impacts of cross-cultural motivation. The research findings have suggested that cultural distance and subsidiary support capture different features of challenges inherent in the assignments that are being conducted on an international platform, and expatriate is helped by the cross-cultural motivation to overcome, not all, but some international assignment’s aspects.
Furthermore, it was suggested by the findings that an important role can be played by the cross-cultural motivation in job performance and expatriate work adjustment promotion. Expatriate effectiveness is less likely to be promoted by the expatriate cross-cultural motivation in culturally distant subsidiaries.
In a nutshell, departing from the expatriate management research’s dominant paradigm, in which individual-level stress and analysis are the main motivations, the authors have attempted to contribute significantly to the literature by examining as well as delineating the factors in the context of expatriates, and that might influence the extent to which work performance and adjustment is affected by the cross-cultural motivation. The research has a unique theoretical contribution to the previous literature, i.e., the relationship between job performance and cross-cultural motivation can be explained by work adjustment. The research’s contribution may stimulate the additional motivation oriented, multilevel research so that myriad influences on performance and expatriate adjustment could be explained in a better way.
Motivation and adjustment of self-initiated expatriates: the case of expatriate academics in South Korea
2. Evaluation
The research has significantly contributed to the expatriate literature; the research regarding the motivations of SIEs (Self-Initiated Expatriates) to expatriate is extended through this study. This research has broadened expatriates’ previous understanding by addressing a more diverse sample than the previous samples. This report, for the first time, measured the in-depth SIE’s cross-cultural adjustments. While analyzing and conducting the interviews to collect data, this research has emerged several linkages between cross-cultural adjustment and motivation to expatriate.
In the literature, the authors have discussed previous respective studies regarding motivation to expatriate and adjustment of an expatriate.
Being an exploratory study, the research is based on qualitative research methods. The authors have chosen qualitative research methods because of the general lack of knowledge and information regarding the adjustment and motivations of expatriate academics in Korea (the research is based in Korea). In the absence of required knowledge, the quantitative research method is rather challenging to apply based on questionnaire surveys and interviews.
30 expatriate academics were interviewed by the authors from October 2008 to December 2008 in Seoul. The authors identified expatriate academics via the list of faculty members provided on each university’s websites, and each expatriate academic was contacted through email or phone calls. Out of the 30 expatriate academics, 24 were willing to participate in the research. Thus, the authors used semi-structured interview guidelines, along with allowing for the other topics’ exploration that seemed to be relevant by the authors. The nature of the questions was left open-ended intentionally so that participants could describe expatriation experience in a way they are comfortable with. 86 percent of the participants were male.
Each interview was transcribed after recorded and imported into NVIVO (qualitative data analysis package). The data was structured into analytical themes and patterns so that the frequency of occurrence could be quantified. Characteristics of dissatisfied, as well as satisfied respondents, were also analyzed.
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2.4 Findings and Conclusion
The research findings have indicated that both pull and push factors give the work motivation to expatriate academics in Korea. The pull factors, such as job conditions and international experience, were found to dominate motivational factors. On the other hand, the push factors such as overseas labor market condition and family are also relevant but less dominant than pull factors. Overall, expatriate academics were identified to be well adjusted relatively in terms of work and general adjustment. On the other hand, they were found relatively less adjusted in the interaction adjustment terms. It was confirmed by the findings of the research that the dominant motivation is a desire to get the international experience of SIEs. Furthermore, it was indicated by the findings that desire to work and stay in a specific region or country is important as well as international experience.
In a nutshell, the study’s findings have provided multiple possible and implementable recommendations for hiring expatriate academics. The recommendations can facilitate cross-cultural adjustment. It is essential to increase the cross-cultural adjustment so that job performance and job satisfaction could be increased, and expatriates’ turnover could be reduced. International labor mobility and globalization have exactly increased the opportunities for enterprising and talented individuals to work abroad in countries. There is a rising number of individuals who become SIEs ultimately, but the research regarding SIEs is still in infancy. The research has contributed and extended the previous motivational and adjustment factors’ understanding of SIEs. A theoretical model is also constructed in the research that links expatriate adjustment and expatriate motivation.
3. Key Similarities
There are multiple similarities between both articles discussed above. Expatriate and cross-cultural motivation are the primary motivations of both studies. Both studies are based on qualitative research techniques. Both of the studies have used a survey questionnaire or interviews to collect the data. Both studies have followed almost the same structure, i.e., introduction, literature review, methodology, findings, and conclusion. Both studies are unique, but their results are more or less similar to the results of both studies in favor of expulsion and cross-cultural motivation.
4. Key Differences
Although both studies are quite similar, there are some key differences as well. Collecting the sample size and place of conducting the research is the first key difference. The first study is based in the United States, while the second study is based in Korea. In the first study, the study sample consists of the 500 fortune United Based multinational companies that dispatch expatriates across the globe in the energy industry. 1,082 expatriates were contacted via e-mail to participate in the web-based survey. While in the second study, the authors interviewed 30 expatriate academics from October 2008 to December 2008 in Seoul. The first study has used more advanced analysis techniques such as HLM (Hierarchical Linear Modeling, Cross-level interactions, and Auxiliary tests, while the second study has classified the factors into pull factors and push factors. The recommendations are provided in the second study.
