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MANAGEMENT OF
CULTURE SHOCK
The rise of globalisation has led to many changes in the nature of how businesses operate including an increasing
number of long-term international assignments, which remains for many organisations a challenging problem to the
present day. The aim of this paper is, therefore, to provide readers with the general overview of the existing research
and ndings regarding the topic of cross-cultural adjustment of the expatriates leaving for a foreign assignment and
their suitable management procedure in regards to the most effective ways of how different aspects of cross-cultural
adjustment could be increased, and thus success of the expatriates in the foreign assignment maximised.
MAREK KOCAK
10.2478/cris-2014-0011
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THE IMPACT OF CULTURE
The nature of today's business environment is becoming more globalised and interconnected on the inter-
national level than ever before (Giddens, 1999; Friedman, 2005; Inkpen and Ramaswamy, 2006). On one
hand, this globalised business environment provides organisations with unparalleled opportunities, whereas
on the other hand, it also offers tremendous challenges due to a higher level of complexity, which results from
conditions of multiplicity, ambiguity, and interdependence (Lane, Maznevski, and Mendenhall, 2004). Within
many organisations, there can be seen increased multiculturalism and thus increased interaction between
employees of different cultures. The culture in the context of this discussion could be dened as follows:
Culture is an integrated system of learned behaviour patterns that are character-
istic of the members of any given society. Culture refers to the total way of life of
particular groups of people. It includes everything that a group of people thinks,
says, does, and makes - its systems of attitudes and feelings. Culture is learned and
transmitted from generation to generation (Kohls, 1996, p. 23).
To put it briey, culture could be understood as a shared meaning system (Fisher, 2009). It implies that the
environment, which is more prone towards increased interaction between employees of different cultures, is
more open to, and in some cases, directly requires an increasing number of short-term business trips to foreign
countries or even long-term foreign assignments. These international assignments are, however, very benecial
both for expatriates as well as for the organisations. According to the research done by Oddou and Mendenhall
(1991), foreign assignments increase expatriates global perspectives, increase the ability to communicate more
effectively with people from culturally diverse backgrounds, or better comprehend business trends.
Benets for the organisation that are arising from international assignments may include intersubsidiary
communication and coordination (Boyacigiller, 1991; and Rosenzweig, 1994) due to the corporate phi-
losophies and vision, which are likely to be transferred together with the expatriate. Similarly, Boyacigiller
(1991) argues that the use of expatriates can help the organisation to form links with host-country gov-
ernments, local businesses, or other interest groups. This form of connection is likely to provide the or-
ganisation with a competitive advantage over competition, especially when the organisation is the rst one
among competitors to make this form of connection, and thus likely to gain the 'rst mover advantage'.
For these reasons, it could be argued that the success of an expatriate in a foreign assignment increases an
organisation's overall efciency as well as protability.
However, due to the effect of globalisation, which increases the interconnectedness and interaction of dif-
ferent cultures, and thus seems to converge behaviour among countries, one might mistakenly come to the
conclusion that the effect of the difference of cultures is insignicant for an expatriate and thus negligible.
This kind of reasoning is, however, awed and Schneider and Barsoux (2002) argue that cultural differenc-
es are not disappearing in the process of globalisation, instead the problem may be in the inability to rec-
ognise the presence and the force of the culture. Similarly, the survey of 12,000 world managers done by
Harvard Business Review indicates that "the idea of a corporate global village where a common culture of
management unies the practice of business around the world is more dream than reality" (Kanter, 1991).
The success of international assignments is,
nevertheless, to a large extent affected both by
the native culture of an expatriate and the culture
to which an expatriate is assigned.
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Thus, not only are there different national cultures in different countries that need to be taken into consid-
eration as they play a role in the success of an expatriate, but also different styles of management need to
be taken into account and applied to t the specic organisational culture which is always to some extent
inuenced by employees' national cultures. Similarly, the factors of the individual expatriates that are likely
to have an effect on the success of an assignment needs to be thoroughly evaluated. For these reasons,
there exists cross-cultural management, which could be understood as follows:
Cross-cultural management is the study of the behavior of people in organizations
located in cultures and nations around the world. It focuses on the description of
organizational behavior within countries and cultures, on the comparison of or-
ganizational behavior across countries and cultures, and, perhaps most importantly,
on the interaction of peoples from different countries working within the same
organization or within the same environment (Adler, 1983, p. 226).
However, the existing research indicates relatively large differences between the existing practices (or lack of
practices) of cross-cultural management by organisations and what is generally agreed to be the most suc-
cessful set of practices that maximise the success of an expatriate in a foreign assignment. The cost of largely
ignoring and not implementing such practices is certainly not negligible. Various studies have found that
between sixteen and forty percent of all expatriate managers who are given foreign assignments end these
assignments early due to their poor performance or their inability to adjust to the foreign environment (Black,
1988; Dunbar and Ehrlich, 1986) and as much as fty percent of those who do not return early function at
a low level of effectiveness (Copeland and Griggs, 1985). Black and Gregersen (1991, pp. 462-463) further
argue that "the cost of ineffective expatriates may well be higher than the costs of 'failed' expatriates". Failure,
therefore, could be also considered to include factors such as stresses, strains, and underperformance of the
expatriate, negative outcomes of repatriation, negative effects on the expatriate's family, the career prospects
of expatriate's partner, or negative view about the prospect of overseas postings in the future (Harzing, 1995).
Therefore, once the appropriate practices are implemented, the failure rate as well as the ineffectiveness
of the expatriates who are having difculties with adjustment could be lowered and thus related costs of
such failure or low efciency reduced. The following overview is thus a summary of the most important
theory necessary for understanding cross-cultural adjustment, and the practices the existing research found
effective in the maximisation of the success and effectiveness of foreign assignments.
CULTURE SHOCK
When an expatriate is entering a new environment, there is always a certain degree of uncertainty about
what behavior is acceptable. According to Oberg (1960), such uncertainty is due to the loss of all familiar
signs and symbols of social intercourse (both in the work and non-work environment), most of which are
not carried out on the level of conscious awareness. The reason for not consciously carrying these cultural
signs and symbols, and thus not realising the loss of these culturally inherited habits, stems from the fact that
culture has a major role to play in the way an individual's psychology is shaped due to human ethnocentric
nature (Berry, et al., 1997). In other words, it is not only cultural differences as such that contribute to the
culture shock, but also each individual's psychology which is by default predetermined by our own culture to
unwittingly see and judge the outside world through the lenses of our own culture. Because particular beliefs,
perceptions, thoughts, and feelings (broadly called basic underlying assumptions) operate at an unconscious
level (Thomas, 2008); some degree of culture shock is, therefore, always inevitable. To get a better notion
of this complex idea, the core of the problem could be pointedly illustrated in a quote by Eagleton (2000),
"one's own way of life is simply human; it is other people who are ethnic, idiosyncratic, culturally peculiar."
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This implies that even though an expatriate takes proactive measures both in the form of studying the
new environment in advance as well as in trying to perceive new environment non-judgmentally, the
individual will always face stress, uncertainty, and the differences of behavioural expectations, both due
to imperfect knowledge of the novel culture as well as an unawareness of their unconscious cultural
programming, resulting in some degree of culture shock.
The physical, psychological, and behavioural reactions caused by culture shock occurs when expatriate's
"cultural clues, the signs and symbols which guide social interaction, are stripped away" (Piet-Pelon and
Hornby, 1992, p. 2), and thus "the expatriate is not (fully) able to understand any type of feedback from the
novel environment due to the lack of (complete) knowledge of a novel culture" (Louis, 1980). The symp-
toms of culture shock can include homesickness, increased irritability, the feeling of helplessness, exagger-
ated concern over drinking water, food, and bedding, or excessive criticism of local customs or ways of
doing things (Oberg, 1960). The cross-cultural adjustment could be then understood and measured as the
degree of psychological comfort with different aspects of a new country (Black, 1988; Nicholson, 1984).
Oberg (1960) postulated that a degree of psychological comfort with a host country could be divided
on four phases: honeymoon, crisis (sometimes called also shock), recovery, and adjustment. Based on
these four phases the degree of adjustment could be assessed. The rst phase may last from a few days
up to six months depending on the circumstances. But generally researchers agree that the honeymoon
phase is relatively short (Gullahorn and Gullahorn, 1963; Harris 1979; Moran, 1989; and Torbiorn, 1982).
During this stage an individual is fascinated by the new environment (Adler, 1986). The second phase -
crisis - starts when an expatriate starts to cope with the real conditions of the foreign environment. Due
to the difculty of an individual adjusting to the foreign environment, one reacts as being hostile or even
aggressive towards the foreign environment. This negative attitude is then further exacerbated by the
indifference of host nationals towards the difculties of the expatriate due to the lack of understanding of
the expatriate's problem(s). It is usually at this stage when the success of an expatriate is decided. Oberg
(1960) argues that when an expatriate is able to overcome this stage, he/she is able to stay in the new en-
vironment. Conversely, however, when an expatriate is unable to overcome this stage, he/she leaves the
country before he/she reaches the nervous breakdown. This "breaking point" is on the cross-cultural ad-
justment timeline more clearly specied by Black (1988) who argues that the culture shock as such appears
specically between the second and the third stage "when the person has received the maximum amount
of negative feedback but as yet has very little idea as to what the appropriate behaviors are". In the third
phase an expatriate begins to be open to the new cultural environment although he/she can still experi-
ence some difculties. Lastly, in the fourth stage an expatriate completely accepts the foreign country and
its customs as another way of living and begins to enjoy them.
CURVES OF ADJUSTMENT
Various adaptation development models have attempted to describe degrees of the different stages of
cross-cultural adjustment. The most prominent from them are the "U-curve" by Lysgaard (1955) and "W-
curve" by Gullahorn and Gullahron (1963). U-curve describes the four phases of cross-cultural adjustment
as postulated by Oberg, whereas W-curve diverges from U-curve after the stage of culture shock, which is
followed only by initial adjustment from which the degree of adjustment is again decreased due to mental
isolation, which then denitely succeeds in a high level of adjustment due to the expatriate's acceptance
and integration into the new environment. For a better picture of the variances between the two curves,
the graphical depiction of the two curves could be seen on p. 67.
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THE W-CURVE HYPOTHESIS MODEL
GULLAHORN AND GULLAHORN
Figure 1: U-curve model by Lysgaard
Figure 2: W-curve model by Gullahorn and Gullahorn
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However, although according to Dutton (2011) the existing research indicates that different stages of
cross-cultural adjustment are the real phenomenon, broadly empirically accurate, Churn (1982) argues
that the research support for the U-curve model is inconclusive. In addition, Ward et al. (2001) and Ward
et al. (1998, p. 290) went as far as rejecting the U-curve model of sojourner adjustment completely. Simi-
larly, Bernando (2006) and La Brack (2013) recommended, based on an exhaustive review on the validity
of the 'curves', to stop using the models, as they have not withstood critical empirical testing and research.
The rejection of adjustment curves could be based on the grounds of ndings such as of Churn (1982)
and Stening (1979), which indicate that the level of anxiety and the length of experienced anxiety are likely
to differ for individual expatriates. In addition, different patterns of adjustment have been also found
between work and non-work environment of expatriates, as well as between expatriates and their spouses
(Briody and Chrisman, 1991; Nicholson and Imaizumi, 1993).
These different patterns of adjustment between expatriates as well as their spouses could be explained by
the differences between various factors such as the ability to speak language, individual factors, foreign
work experience(s), expectations and requirements, demographic factors, the differences between job
and organisational factors (e.g. job level, cross-cultural training or lack thereof), and due to the differences
between environmental factors (e.g. cultural novelty, social support).
Importantly, although it might seem intuitively appealing, it should not be deduced from the curves that
the lower the amplitude of the curve the better the performance of an expatriate. The research done
by Thomas and Lazarova (2006) actually indicates the contrary. Specically that the highest-performing
expatriates usually experience the most severe culture shock and thus have the most difcult adjustment
process. Likewise, steep amplitude of the curve (or in other words the severe shock) should not be under-
stood as an indicator of high-performance in an expatriate as the steep curve is not a reason itself for high
performance, but merely a consequence of desirable attributes that enable expatriates to be effective in
a new environment (such as perceptual skills or others' orientation) which have a simultaneously negative
effect on the culture shock. Therefore, it could be argued that organisations should proactively help to
decrease an expatriate's culture shock, but not infer an expatriate's unsuitability for the foreign position
from the high aptitude of the cross-cultural curve.
Thus because the curve would differ in each individual, it implies that for ensuring the possibly the smooth-
est cultural transition of an expatriate the different aspects and stages of cross-cultural adjustment should
ideally be closely analysed as there might occur specic problems that would diverge from the specic
curve of adjustment. By doing so, identied problems can be proactively tackled in advance. Thus the
psychological discomfort of an expatriate could be further reduced and their chances in succeeding in the
foreign assignment would be maximised. Failing to recognise these nuances or more signicant differences
in behaviour between each expatriate would mean for an organisation to diverge from an optimal cross-
cultural management strategy and thus decrease in its efciency.
DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF CROSS-CULTURAL ADJUSTMENT
As already mentioned, the reduction of culture shock can be seen as the process of cross-cultural adjust-
ment (Black, 1988; Black and Gregersen, 1991; and Churn, 1982) where the cross-cultural adjustment
could be understood as the degree of psychological comfort with different aspects of a host country
(Black, 1988; Black et al., 1991; Oberg, 1960; and Nicholson, 1984). Aspects to which the degree of
psychological comfort could be related, however, among many researchers differ. Although it was
thought in the past that cross-cultural adjustment is one-dimensional phenomenon (Gullahorn and Gul-
lahorn, 1962; Oberg, 1960; and Torbiorn, 1982) where the degree of adjustment could be measured
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by job satisfaction (Abe and Wiseman, 1983; Hammer, Gudykunst and Wiseman, 1978; and Torbiorn,
1982), life satisfaction (Cui and Van den Berg, 1991), ratings of depression (Armes and Ward, 1989),
or organisational commitment (Wanous and Lawler, 1972; and Reichers, 1985). More recent research
indicates that cross-cultural adjustment could be also understood as a multidimensional phenomenon
(Black, 1988; Black and Stephens, 1989).
According to this research, cross-cultural adjustment could be divided on three main dimensions or
sometimes referred as facets. The rst facet is connected to work adjustment. This facet includes adap-
tation to job roles and task as well as to novel work environment. The psychological uncertainty result-
ing from this facet of adjustment can be effectively reduced by similarities in various types of policies,
task requirements, and procedures between the parent company and host subsidiary to which the expa-
triate was assigned (Black et al., 1999). The second facet is called interaction adjustment and relates to
the level of comfort arising from the interaction with host nationals including both work and non-work
environments. The third facet is then called general adjustment and according to Black (1988), refers to
general adaptation to living in the particular novel culture. According to Black and Stephens (1989), this
facet includes various factors level of health care, cost of living, or housing conditions.
Generally it could be said that a degree of psychological comfort could be enhanced by learning about
appropriate, less appropriate, and inappropriate types of behaviour. Factors that generally facilitate cross-
cultural adjustment could be seen as those that reduce the degree of an expatriate's psychological dis-
comfort, whereas factors that increase the degree of an expatriate's psychological discomfort reduce the
ability to adjust (Black, 1988; Brett, 1980; and Church, 1982).
However, from the point of view of cross-cultural adjustment as being a multifaceted phenomenon, it
could be argued that it is important to take into account different facets of an expatriate's adjustment
and enhance an expatriate's appropriate types of behaviour in each specic facet of adjustment in order
to maximise the overall reduction of an expatriate's level of psychological discomfort. This argument is
supported by the ndings of Black (1988) who found that specic facets are very strongly related to the
general adjustment of an expatriate.
In line with this logic, it could be argued that because the curves of adjustment unite different facets of
adjustment into one unifying curve; such a curve would be of very little help when trying to facilitate an
expatriate's adjustment by identifying root cause(s) of expatriate difculties in each facet of adjustment
as such information would not be obtainable from the curve. In other words, whereas the aptitude
of the curve would provide information about the expatriate's time and severity of the difculty with
adjustment, the curve would fall short in providing information about the extent to which these difcul-
ties can be attributed to each facet of adjustment. Arguably then, more an effective alternative could
be to use specic curve for the description of each facet of adjustment. By doing so, the problem(s) in
each particular facet would be more transparent, and thus proactive measures to reduce or completely
eliminate such problems could be more accurately and effectively applied.
The reduction of expatriate's difculties with adjusting relating to each specic facet of adjustment could
be done while being in the country and going through culture shock and different stages of cross-cultur-
al adjustment, which could be generally called in-country adjustment, and prior to entering the country
called anticipatory adjustment. The theory seems to agree that organisations can proactively accelerate
the process of cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates by implementing suitable selection mechanisms
and criteria (Black, 1988; Thomas, 1998), applying appropriate cross-cultural training (Worchel and
Mitchell, 1972), and using suitable organisational (Stroh et al., 1994; Torbiorn, 1982) and job factors
(Nicholson, 1984; Thomas, 1998; Tung, 1981).
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The failure rate of expatriates is extraordinarily high even despite the fact that it is generally the more suc-
cessful domestic employees who are sent abroad (Tung, 1981). This rate of failure is primarily due to the
fact that often the same selection mechanisms and criteria are used for selecting both expatriates as well as
domestic employees with the identical or similar title. The primary decision criterion used by rms in se-
lecting employees for foreign assignments used to be technical competence (Bormann, 1986; Hays, 1971;
Howard, 1974; Ivancevich, 1969; Miller, 1975; Tung, 1981). Surprisingly, however, more recent research
indicates that very little has changed as technical competence and managerial performance in the domestic
setting still lead the list of selection criteria and other criteria that could play a signicant role in the ex-
patriate's performance and overall success in the foreign assignment, are still generally neglected (Ander-
son, 2005; Graf, 2004; Tye and Chen, 2005). However, the idea of not distinguishing between selection
practices of domestic employees and expatriates, by relying mainly on technical expertise and managerial
competence for both cases, is arguably not very well-founded as requirements for the performance for
expatriates and domestic employees are likely to differ (Lee, 2005) as well as factors affecting their success.
Firstly, domestic employees and foreign expatriate have different expectations and requirements about the
job position that organisations should during the selection process take into consideration. According to
Stahl, Miller, and Tung (2002) unlike with domestic employees, a signicant factor in the expatriate's deci-
sion to accept an overseas assignment is the enhancement of an international career, especially then, when it
comes to an expatriate's rst posting. Similarly, Tharenou (2003) agrees that individuals with high outcome
expectancies, but interestingly also with few family concerns such as the employment of the spouse or chil-
dren's schooling, would be more receptive to a foreign assignment. Not recognising these expectations and
requirements can lead to decreased satisfaction of an expatriate and thus increased probability of failure.
Secondly, when selecting potential candidates for a foreign assignments, an organisation needs to be aware
of the effect of novel environment on an expatriate. The main difference in the work environment is that
it will generally consist of more host nationals rather than compatriot expatriates. Therefore, the organisa-
tional culture of the expatriate will more reect a host culture than the expatriate's domestic culture (Louis,
1980) and an expatriate will have to adapt to such behaviours, norms, and values. It is important to note,
however, that not all the expatriates will experience the same level and length of anxiety during the cross-
cultural adjustment (Churn, 1982; Stening, 1979). Some expatriates may return home early, some may not
achieve the mastery stage in the new environment, whereas others may complete the foreign assignment
without really adjusting (Thomas, 2008). Therefore, organisations during the selection process should ide-
ally also concentrate on selecting candidates with specic abilities and skills that will decrease and shorten
the experienced level of anxiety with the new culture and thus maximise the probability of the success in
the foreign assignment.
These individual factors can be according to Mendenhall and Oddou (1985) divided on self-efcacy, re-
lational skills, and perceptual skills. The rst set of skills called self-efcacy or in other words self-oriented
skills are according to Mendenhall and Oddou (1985) and Bandura (1977) important as an expatriate pos-
sessing this skill has an ability to believe in oneself and one's ability to succeed in novel environment, despite
this new environment being for an expatriate very uncertain (Black et al., 1991). Therefore, possession of
this skill leads to learning new behaviors that better correspond to the expectations of the expatriate. This
in turn will decrease the level of uncertainty of the expatriate and thus facilitate a degree of adjustment.
The second set of skills called relational skills are important for the expatriate in order to provide informa-
tion about what is expected from him in the novel environment. According to Mendenhall and Oddou
(1985), the greater level of relational skills an expatriate possesses, the easier it is for him/her to commu-
nicate with host nationals. Logically, the more an expatriate communicates with host nationals, the more
SELECTION MECHANISM AND CRITERIA
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information about types of appropriate behaviours in the novel environment he/she receives (Black et
al., 1991), and thus can adapt accordingly. This is because information received from this communication
reduces the uncertainty associated with the new environment. In fact, there could be found a positive
relationship between time spent with host nationals and the degree of general cross-cultural adjustment
(Black et al., 1991). The third set of skills that falls into category of individual factors are perceptual skills.
These skills help the expatriate to better understand and separate appropriate behaviours in the host
country from less appropriate or inappropriate ones (Black et al., 1991). It implies that by having a high
degree of perceptual skills, an expatriate can decrease the uncertainty connected to a novel environment.
To summarise individual factors, it could be said that candidates with a higher ability to manage psycho-
logical stress, communicate effectively, and a higher ability to establish personal relationships were more
likely to succeed in the foreign assignment. In addition to the consideration of expatriates' expectations
and requirements and individual factors, there are also other relevant factors that need to be taken into
consideration during the selection process in order to maximise the success of an expatriate, such as pre-
vious foreign work experience, ability to speak a foreign language, and demographic factors.
Previous foreign work experience was also found to be an important uncertainty reduction mechanism
(Dawis and Lofquist, 1984; Nicholson, 1984; Torbiorn, 1982). Interestingly, however, according to Black
(1988), an expatriate's previous foreign work experience is only positively related to work adjustment for
expatriates, but not to general adjustment. This nding could be, however, considered to be in a disagree-
ment with the ndings of Dunbar (1992) which found that expatriates with previous work experience
are more likely to use appropriate intercultural behaviours (which are arguably also helpful in facilitating
general adjustment). Torbiorn (1982) also found that the length of previous foreign work experience
seems to have no effect on current foreign adjustment, whereas other studies indicated that the amount
of previous foreign experience is positively related to adjustment as well as to job satisfaction (Naumann,
1993; Parker and McEvoy, 1993; Taukechi and Hannon, 1996). The research of Black and Gregersen
(1990) even argues that previous foreign experience can be negatively related to particular attitudes of
expatriates, such as the amount of discretion that expatriates feel they have in performing their jobs.
Therefore, the existing research suggests that the intuitively appealing notion that previous foreign ex-
perience is straightforwardly positively related to all facets of adjustment as well as to the success of all
expatriates equally is perhaps an oversimplication. Based on the ndings, it could be argued that similarly
as there are differences between expatriates in experienced degrees and lengths of adjustment to the new
environment, there could be also found differences between expatriates in benets that previous foreign
work experience(s) has given to them, either due to different abilities of expatriates to learn and benet
from the experience or due to the differences in the characters and lengths of foreign work experience
between each individual candidate.
Another relevant factor for expatriate success is considered by many researchers to be the ability to speak
a foreign language. There has been found a positive relationship between foreign language uency and
the degree of interaction with host nationals, and to a smaller extent with adjustment, satisfaction, and
commitment (Church, 1982; Thomas and Fitzimmons, 2008). It could be also argued that the ability
to speak a foreign language slightly increases an expatriate's performance as there was found a moder-
ate relationship between foreign language uency and expatriate performance (Mol et al., 2005). The
positive effects of the knowledge of a foreign language are often (at least partly) attributed to benets
of so-called social currency (the ability of expatriates to make conversation about everyday things such
as weather, local restaurants, or ways of commuting), which can, according to Brein and David (1971),
facilitate expatriates' interaction with host nationals.
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However, another explanation could be that the ability to speak is not the primary reason for the expatriate
success, but that it could rather be the willingness to communicate that leads to a higher degree of interac-
tion, and the knowledge of the language then merely enables such communication. In such a case, foreign
language uency would be by itself an insufcient factor predicting success unless it was combined with the
expatriate's willingness to communicate. This explanation could be supported by several empirical studies
that found the ability to a speak foreign language by itself as an ineffective predictor of the success of an
expatriate (Benson, 1978). Therefore, it could be concluded that organisations should during selection
process not only concentrate on the foreign language uency, but also on the expatriate's willingness to
communicate in a novel environment and the importance of these factors could be assessed in regards to
the character of the assignment such as required intercultural interaction.
In order for a selection mechanism to be successful, organisations should also consider demographic char-
acteristics of expatriates such as age, educational level, length of time an expatriate has worked for an
employer, or the existence of spouse, or eventually family, as these factors have been found to play both
positive and negative roles in the success of a foreign assignment. The following is the summary of the
research ndings done by Thomas (1998). It was found that age has both positive and negative effects on
particular aspects of foreign assignment. On one hand, there was a positive correlation between the age
and organisational commitment, job satisfaction, and work adjustment. On the other hand, however, there
was found a negative correlation between the age and general satisfaction, willingness to relocate, and in-
tent to leave. Similarly, the length of time a potential expatriate has worked for their employer was found
to be positively correlated to job satisfaction, but negatively correlated to intent to leave. The ndings also
indicate that educational level positively correlates with general adjustment and interaction adjustment,
but negatively correlates with job satisfaction, work adjustment, and commitment to the organisation.
Eventually, the selection process should also take into account factors such as the existence of a spouse
or eventually family of a potential expatriate that would be leaving with an expatriate as their inability to
adjust is the number one reason for the expatriate's inability to succeed in the transition (Hays, 1971;
Torbion, 1982; Tung, 1981). The extensive study of expatriates of various nationalities by Arthur and
Bennet (1995) indicates that expatriates themselves are also well aware of this issue as they identied
family situation as the most important characteristic relating to success in the overseas assignment. On
the other hand, however, if an adjustment of a spouse is successful it can increase an expatriate's work
performance and job satisfaction (Thomas, 1998).
It could be argued that in order to reduce the spouse's inability to adjust, and thus simultaneously minimise
the most likely reason for the expatriate failure, organisations should include in the selection process also
factors inuencing the spouse's or family's ability to adjust. Therefore, the above described selection cri-
teria should not only apply to an expatriate, but also to their spouse and other members of the family who
are entering the new environment with an expatriate. Obviously then the above described criteria should
not be applied uniformly to all the members of the family, but rather relevant criteria should be tailored
to t each specic member of the family, such as expectations and requirements about job position would
be largely irrelevant for a spouse unless he/she will work in the novel environment, whereas individual fac-
tors such as self-efcacy might be even more important to him/her than for an expatriate as he/she will
be more likely isolated in the novel environment and thus his/her ability to believe in succeeding in the
new, uncertain environment may play a more crucial role in the adjustment than in the adjustment of an
expatriate. Once the relevant criteria relating to a spouse or family is thoroughly applied the chosen family
members will arguably have better ability to adjust to a new environment than family members of a can-
didate who are lacking skills that selection criteria found relevant. As a result the spouse's or family's high
ability to adjust would be then negatively correlated with the expatriate's intent to leave (Thomas, 1998);
therefore, the success of an expatriate will be further increased.
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To summarise selection mechanism and criteria, the existing research indicates that organisations still gen-
erally use the same selection mechanisms and criteria (consisting of technical competence and managerial
performance) for selecting both expatriates and domestic employees. This goes contrary to the plethora
of existing research pointing out other factors that have a signicant benecial effects on the expatri-
ate's performance and overall success in the foreign assignment and which should thus be included in the
selection criteria as well. These factors include an expatriate's expectations and requirements, individual
factors, previous foreign work experience(s), foreign language uency, and demographic factors. Further-
more, because the spouse's inability to adjust is the number one reason for the expatriate's failure in the
assignment, it is argued that described selection criteria should not be limited only to an expatriate, but
should also include spouse and family. In such a case, however, relevant criteria need to be tailored to
each specic member of a family, rather than applied uniformly. It is essential that all the above-described
factors are not underestimated and are properly considered during the selection process, as they are the
rst important precondition for the subsequent success of an expatriate. Also, it is necessary to consider
these factors at this stage, as they cannot be (e.g. previous foreign work experience), or can hardly be (e.g.
foreign language uency) positively inuenced to a signicant extent by subsequent cross-cultural train-
ing. Although selection mechanism and criteria are limited in its nature, they should be considered as an
important acquirement of control of factors that lie beyond the control of cross-cultural training (which is
further described below) but, nevertheless, play a signicant role in the success of an expatriate.
CROSS-CULTURAL TRAINING
Similarly, as in the case of selection mechanism and criteria, although the positive effects of cross-cul-
tural training are well known and agreed by different studies (e.g. Beffus, 1988; Black and Mendenhall,
1990; Brislin, MacNab and Nayani, 2008), organisations often fail to provide training whether it be due
to insufcient time prior to expatriate departure, or simply due to a lack of belief in the effectiveness
of such training (Enderwick and Hodson, 1993; Tung, 1981). Nevertheless, the theory seems to agree
that the organisation should not only apply appropriate selection mechanisms and criteria to decrease
expatriate failures and inefciencies, but also proactively accelerate the process of cross-cultural adjust-
ment by understanding and implementing appropriate cross-cultural training as the research supports
the conclusion that there is a positive relationship between cross-cultural training and cross-cultural
adjustment (Befus, 1988; Early, 1987; Gudykunst et al., 1977; Mitchel et al., 1972; O'Brien, Fiedler and
Hewett, 1970; Steinkalk and Taft, 1979; Worchel and Mitchell, 1972). Similarly, there could be found
a positive relationship between cross-cultural training and cross-cultural skill development (Black and
Mendenhall, 1990) and cross-cultural training and performance (Earley, 1987; Katz, 1977; Leey 1985,
1986; McDaniel, McDaniel and McDaniel, 1988; Nayar et al., 1968; O'Brien, et al., 1970; Randolph,
Landis and Tzeng, 1977; Salisbury, 1971; Worchel and Mitchell, 1972). However, cross-cultural training
has an impact on an expatriate's performance only to the extent that that performance has a culturally
related component, which nevertheless studies found in most cases (Black and Mendenhall, 1990) as
there are mostly expatriates working with other employees of different cultures and within a novel en-
vironment. Finally, there is also a positive relationship between cross-cultural training and subsequent
success in foreign assignments (Brein and David, 1971; Church, 1982; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985).
Based on these ndings and on meta analysis of Deshpande and Viswesvaran (1992) and of Morris and
Robie (2001), it could be concluded that the empirical evidence supports the idea that cross-cultural
training has a positive impact on cross-cultural effectiveness. In other words, cross-cultural training
limits some risks of an expatriate's failure. This failure, Harzing (1995) argues, could be also considered
to include factors such as stresses, strains, and underperformance of the expatriate, or a negative view
about the prospect of overseas postings in the future.
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As there is no research indicating otherwise, it could be argued that the research uniformly indicates
that cross-cultural training reduces the degree of psychological comfort with different aspects of a host
country, or in other words, cross-cultural training positively inuences expatriates' cross-cultural adjust-
ment. But although cross-cultural training seems to be in general effective, different aspects of such
training need to be understood and taken into consideration, because as it was described more in detail
above, cross-cultural adjustment is considered by some to be a multifaceted construct (Black, 1988;
Black and Stephens, 1989) with expatriates adjusting to work, to interaction with host nationals, and to
general environment (Black and Stephens, 1989). All of these factors determine the extent of success of
the expatriate's cross-cultural adjustment and thus his or her success in a foreign assignment.
Surprisingly, however, despite the agreed positive effects of cross-cultural training on the effectiveness
on expatriates, there is relatively little known about the effects of different training types (Thomas,
2008). Black and Mendenhall (1989) argue that by drawing on social learning theory for guidance by
Bandura (1997), specic training methods should be applied to each specic expatriate based on the
difculty of his or her particular situation (such as degree of cultural novelty, required intercultural
interaction, or job novelty). Training methods could be then divided based on the degree of required
participation on factual (e.g. books, lectures), analytical (e.g. culture assimilators, classroom language
training) and experiential (e.g. eld trips, role playing, and interactive language training) from which
analytical is the least participative and experimental the most. According to this theory then, the more
demanding the situation is for an expatriate, the more participative cross-cultural training should be ap-
plied. Applying an experiential method in the most demanding situations seems reasonable, especially
in the light of the ndings of Brislin et al. (2008) who found experiential training to have the best results.
Similarly, as in the case of the type of training, there is also some uncertainty regarding the appropriate
timing of training (Thomas, 2008). Grove and Torsion (1985) argue that in-country training is likely to
be more effective after the arrival to the novel environment, when expatriates have a corresponding
frame of reference as well as the highest motivations to learn. The existing limited research generally
supports the idea of in-country training as being more effective than pre-departure training (Eschebach
et al., 2001; Feldman and Bolino, 1999; Selmer, 2001).
However, the existing research indicates that pre-departure training should not be completely disre-
garded. This is due to the ndings indicating that pre-departure training provides an expatriate with
accurate information which lead to realistic expectations (Caligiuri et al., 2001; Meglino and DeNisi,
1963), which were consequently found to be positively related to positive outcomes such as to all facets
of expatriate adjustment (Black, 1990) and job satisfaction (Feldman and Thompson, 1993; Stroh et al.,
1994). Thus pre-departure training is important in a way that it leads to pre-departure knowledge about
the host country so an expatriate can reduce the uncertainty of the new environment by anticipating
environmental differences (Gullahorn and Bullhorn, 1963).
Although cross-cultural training of the expatriate seems to be effective, such training should not apply
only to an individual expatriate, as they often are not isolated individuals without spouses or families
(Harvey, 1985). Furthermore, despite the important effect of expatriate's cross-cultural training on
cross-cultural adjustment, the failure of an expatriate to living and working in an overseas environment
is not the most common reason for the expatriate's inability to succeed in the transition (Tung, 1981).
As it was already mentioned above, it is, perhaps paradoxically, the expatriate's family, or spouse's in-
ability to adjust which is the number one reason for the expatriate's inability to succeed in the transition
when the expatriate is leaving with the family or spouse (Hays, 1971; Torbion, 1982; Tung, 1981). This
is due to the ndings of previous research which indicates that "the adjustment of the spouse is highly
correlated to the adjustment of the expatriate and the adjustment of the spouse and the expatriate are
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positively related to the expatriate's intention to stay in the overseas assignment" (Black, 1989). As there
is problem with a spouse's or family's inability to adjust and also there exists evidence suggesting that
cross-cultural training facilitates cross-cultural adjustment (Black and Mendenhall, 1990), it could be
argued that when an expatriate is leaving for an assignment with a spouse or family, cross cultural train-
ing should also include them, as an expatriate's spouse or family's ability to adjust to the changes of new
environment has signicant impact on the expatriate's transition at work (Black, 1988).
However, if the family's or spouse's adjustment is indeed related to an expatriate's adjustment, it is cru-
cial to understand specic factors accelerating their adjustment and thus adapt cross-cultural training
accordingly. Black and Stephens (1989) argue that whereas expatriates adjust to work environment,
general environment, and interaction environment, spouses adjust only to interacting with host nation-
als and to the general foreign environment. Therefore, an expatriate's training should focus on all facets
of adjustment, whereas a spouse's or family's cross-cultural training should concentrate only to interac-
tion adjustment and general adjustment.
FACTORS INFL. THE EXPATRIATE AFTER ARRIVAL TO THE NOVEL ENVIRONMENT
The review so far has only described those ways of how an organisation can reduce an expatriate's psy-
chological discomfort with a host culture that could be implemented prior to entering to a novel environ-
ment although they have an effect on an expatriate's in-country adjustment. Firstly, it was discussed that
an organisation needs to implement specic selection procedures that will choose from the candidates
those expatriates that have specic characteristics that will make them most likely to succeed in the foreign
assignment. Secondly, it was explained that these chosen expatriates, with the highest preconditions to
succeed, need to undergo cross-cultural training possibly with their families or spouses (though cross-
cultural training will differ between the expatriate and spouse, or family to concentrate on specic needs).
©HONGQI ZHANG/123RF.COM
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However, although the selection process combined with appropriate pre-departure training is important in
order to minimise psychological stress arising from a novel environment, Xia (2009) argues that by doing
so culture shock will not be completely avoided and moreover the period after entering the novel environ-
ment is more crucial for the expatriate when it comes to cross-cultural adjustment as the expatriate needs
to transform gained knowledge from cross-cultural training into practice (Cushner, 1994). Therefore, it is
reasonable to argue that in-country adjustment should be also carefully considered and planned by organi-
sations when sending its employees on foreign assignments.
Once an expatriate has arrived to the novel country and works in the new environment, there could be
various factors that can speed up, slow down, or even completely prevent the expatriate from adjusting
to the novel environment, despite previous successful selection process and cross-cultural training which
is usually more general in nature and thus have mostly positive effects on non-work factors. Therefore,
several other factors (or some aspects of these factors) are important to consider by an organisation
once the expatriate arrived to the novel environment as these factors can either further facilitate or in-
hibit adjustment of an expatriate. Factors with such a potential could be considered to fall in the category
of job factors and organisational factors. From the point of view of job factors, there could be found
particular job factors that have the potential to facilitate work adjustment. Role clarity is, for example,
important for an expatriate as the existing research indicates that it reduces the amount of uncertainty
connected to the work situation (Black, 1998; Nicholson, 1984; Pinder and Schroeder, 1987); therefore,
it facilitates adjustment at work (Nicholson, 1984). Karasek (1979) and Kahn et al. (1964) argue that
role exibility, another job factor, makes the transition easier as it enables expatriates to make the role
more controllable, predictable, and familiar.
Some job related factors were also found to inhibit an expatriate's adjustment. These include role novelty
(Burr 1972; George 1980; Minkler and Biller 1979; Pinder and Schroeder, 1987) which could be dened
as the difference between previous role and new role, role ambiguity (Harvey 1982; Pinder and Schroeder,
1987), role conict (Kahn et al., 1964), the amount of ambiguity (Thomas, 1998) and role overload (Kahn
et al., 1964; Karasek, 1979; Tung, 1981). Interestingly, although the inuence of job factors mainly affect
the expatriate work adjustment in the foreign assignment, there were also found some spillover effects
of job factors on other facets of adjustment (Thomas, 1998). Thus, the proactive measures taken by an
organisation to enhance positive job factors (i.e. factors that have the potential to facilitate adjustment)
and reduce negative job factors (i.e. factors that are considered to inhibit adjustment) will decrease the
expatriate's failure mainly due to enhancing his or her work adjustment (Black, 1990), but partly also due
to the positive effect of work adjustment on other facets of adjustment.
When it comes to organisational factors, organisational culture novelty is expected to increase the uncer-
tainty connected to the work environment (Churn, 1982; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985). Logically then,
the greater the difference between the expatriate's original organisational culture compared to the organi-
sational culture to which an expatriate has been assigned, the more difcult the international adjustment
for an expatriate would be (Black et al., 1991). The uncertainty arising from the organisational culture
novelty could be reduced by social support from co-workers and possibly superiors from the novel envi-
ronment that would provide an expatriate with information relating to the description of acceptable, less
acceptable, or unacceptable behaviours in the new organisational setting (Pinder and Schroeder, 1987). In
a similar vein, a parent company can facilitate the adjustment of an expatriate by remaining in contact with
an expatriate by various ways, such as by visits to headquarters, or by some form of distant communication,
as the amount of contact with a parent company was found to be positively related to some of facets of
expatriate adjustment (Black, 1990).
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CONCLUSION
This research overview presents numerous benets international assignments bring to both expatriates as
well as organisations. However, it also indicates cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates to be a complex long-
term process accompanied by different physical, psychological, and behavioural reactions. Such reactions
were found to be a result of increased uncertainty about the accepted behaviour in a novel environment and
its effects on an expatriate's psychology. These effects were found to be in the initial stage generally positive;
however, the psychological uncertainty was found to gradually lead to the stage of so-called culture shock,
which an expatriate can overcome and get to the stage called adjustment and subsequently to the stage of
mastery. Although these stages were attempted to be described by various adaptation development models,
they have not withstood critical empirical testing and thus are argued to be either inconclusive or suggested
to be completely rejected. In order to minimise costs connected with an expatriate's failure to adjust to novel
environment, or his low level of effectiveness due to a complete inability to adjust, different methods facilitat-
ing expatriates cross-cultural adjustment were proposed. Firstly, these methods concentrated on the selec-
tion process consisting of criteria such as expectations and requirements, individual factors, previous foreign
work experience, ability to speak foreign language demographic characteristics, and the existence of a spouse
or family. Subsequently, various effects of cross-cultural training and its appropriate use on an expatriate and
family were discussed. Lastly, factors inuencing the expatriate and the spouse after arrival to the novel envi-
ronment were analysed concentrating specically on job factors and organisational factors.
The above-described procedures can, however, only serve as a rough outline to cross-cultural management
despite being empirically supported by the research done in different countries. It is crucial to understand
that this is due to the fact that each country is in some ways different from any other country, and thus
unique. Therefore, this uniqueness of an expatriate's home country and novel country which an expatriate
is entering would always to some extend affect the expatriate. Based on inductive reasoning it is because of
this uniqueness of every country that the theories describing more generally cross-cultural adjustment and its
management cannot be taken for certain (unless the theory is specically derived from and supported by the
empirical evidence of the expatriate's home country and the novel country that an expatriate is entering). but
can only be considered as probable on the two specic cultures. Similarly, described procedures should be
tailored in a way to reect specic requirements and characteristics of each individual assignment.
Another factor falling into organisational factors that organisations should consider is providing an expatri-
ate and possibly also his family or spouse with logistical support such as housing, grocery stores, schools, etc.
This recommendation is based on the ndings indicating that logistical support has a potential to reduce
uncertainty relating to such issues (Copeland and Griggs, 1985; Tung, 1988) and thus have a positive effect
on interaction and general adjustment (Torbiorn, 1982). Certain types of logistical support would be then
especially determinant of spouse adjustment as inadequate living conditions would likely create uncertainty,
especially when the spouse would tend to spend a signicant amount of their time engaged in such activities
(Harvey, 1985). Such company assistance was found to be positively correlated to an expatriate job sat-
isfaction (Stroh et al., 1994), and limited research also indicates such support to be a notable predictor of
a psychological adjustment of a spouse (DeCieari et al., 1991). Obviously then the research indicates that
because there are likely to be differences in expatriates' family situations, gender of an expatriate (Caligiuri
and Lazarova, 2002), or work situation of a spouse (Harvey, 1997), the organisational support needs to be
tailored to t specic support requirements of each expatriate and family rather than to be applied universally.
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