No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
Conceptualising the identity of Third Culture Adults (TCAs) in the GCC: implications for labour markets and organisations
... Many rentier states have a high proportion of expatriate workers, and the UAE is no different. Similarly to cities in the Asia-Pacific region such as Singapore and Hong Kong, global cities in the Gulf Cooperation Council attract both low-and high-skilled migrant workers (Benuyenah and Mustafa, 2024). In fact, in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, Emirati national citizens made up almost 20% of the population in 2016, while in the commercial center emirate of Dubai less than 10% of the population was Emirati in 2017 (Gallagher, 2019). ...
This study delves into the lives of transnational families in the UAE, exploring their complex identities using a visual research approach known as the Collage Life Elicitation Technique (CLET). Both the topic and the methodology are framed within a theoretical lens of Verstehen (understanding) with a view to further exploring the lives of transnational families in the context of a pragmatic phenomenology and within the setting of the UAE as a rentier state. The lives of families such as these are characterized by a cross-cultural lifestyle, high mobility and expected repatriation. This paper presents narratives of eight transnational families in the UAE as expressed by the mother of each family unit, and seeks to expand on how these mothers view the identity of their families as expatriates living in the UAE. Findings indicate that these families navigate an intricate world where they are neither entirely of their host country nor of their passport country. The family unit plays a pivotal role in these families’ lives, acting as a bridge between their host culture and their home culture, serving as a nucleus for their evolving identities.
There is a growing number of various ethnic groups in Finland. The attitudes and categorizations that host country nationals have and make regarding migrants is frequently researched. The attitudes that migrants have towards other migrants has, however, been much less researched. This paper provides an in-depth analysis that considers what factors are behind the attitudes that migrants form of other migrants and how these impact categorizations and hierarchies. The empirical research material of this study is based on 77 qualitative interviews with migrants living in Finland, carried out in 2018–2019. In the analysis, various theories of minority relations are applied.
The research finds that migrants evaluate other migrants according to their perceived advantageousness and, based on these evaluations, they form hierarchies, which are to some extent ethnic. Perceived advantageousness is based on being integrated (especially in economic terms), hard-working, non-threatening, pliable, similar to Finns (or an ideal of perceived Finnishness), “white”, and not being dependent on welfare benefits. As a fear of being lumped together and then discriminated against, migrants emphasise their distinctiveness from other migrant groups in a subjugating manner. Certain characteristics tend to be ascribed to certain backgrounds and ethnicities and, thus, migrant groups become categorized according to their positions in a hierarchy. Not being advantageous is attributed to personal shortcomings and even ‘racial’ attributes. A shared commonness of the majority population is presumed and functions as the underlying assumption which guides the idea of how and what people should be like in order to fit in.
Purpose
This study explores local Qatari job seekers' and employees' perceptions of the workforce nationalization strategy to address an inadequacy in the workforce nationalization literature in Gulf Cooperation Council countries. It also unpacks the factors that attract or discourage local job seekers and employees when considering a new job.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 28 local job seekers who were either currently unemployed or employed and seeking another job at the time of the interviews.
Findings
The data revealed that nationals perceive Qatarization as a means to replace expatriate employees with nationals, particularly in the public sector and leadership positions. This misinterpretation of the strategy leads to complications, such as the waithood phenomenon and a sense of entitlement for guaranteed employment. The findings also provide insights into nationals' attitudes toward employment, including job attraction and discouraging factors.
Research limitations/implications
The results provide policymakers with insights into the misinterpretation surrounding nationals' perceptions of workforce nationalization and remedies for better implementation of the strategy.
Originality/value
The study addresses two clear gaps in the workforce nationalization literature: (1) examining how nationals perceive the workforce nationalization strategy and (2) unpacking the factors that make employment attractive or unfavorable for nationals.
Low fertility rates and an aging society, growing long-term care needs, and workforce shortages in professional, industrial, and care sectors are emerging issues in South Korea and Taiwan. Both governments have pursued economic/industrial growth as productive welfare capitalism and enacted preferred selective migration policies to recruit white-collar migrant workers (MWs) as mobile elites, but they have also adopted regulations and limitations on blue-collar MWs through unfree labor relations, precarious employment, and temporary legal status to provide supplemental labor. In order to demonstrate how multiple policy regulations from a national level affect MWs’ precarity of labor in their receiving countries, which in turn affect MWs’ im/mobilities, this article presents the growing trends of transnational MWs, regardless of them being high- or low-skilled MWs, and it evaluates four dimensions of labor migration policies—MWs’ working and employment conditions, social protection, union rights and political participation, and access to permanent residency in both countries. We found that the rights and working conditions of low-skilled MWs in Korea and Taiwan are improving slowly, but still lag behind those of high-skilled MWs which also affects their public health and well-being. The significant difference identified here is that MWs in Taiwan can organize labor unions, which is strictly prohibited in Korea; pension protection also differs between the nations. Additionally, an application for permanent residency is easier for high-skilled migrant workers compared with low-skilled MWs and both the Korean and Taiwanese immigration policies differentiate the entry and resident status for low-skilled and professional MWs from dissimilar class backgrounds. Policy recommendations for both countries are also discussed.
Providing employment to nationals in an economy where more than two-thirds of the population comprise foreigners has been a struggle for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Of the various tactics used by the GCC countries to nationalize their workforce, the quota system policy has been the most popular one. This study examines the integrative scholarly research on the quota system that has been reported to date and proposes a framework for discerning the role of the quota system in implementing the nationalization strategy as a tool, a facilitator, an inhibitor, and an assessor for nationalization. We conclude with several recommendations that policy makers and organizations can adopt to improve the efficacy of the quota system.
International labor migration is the unique reality of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. Despite seemingly open migration policies and reforms, the GCC states recently engaged in international and domestic policies to manage the migrant population better. Considering the dependency of Gulf states on migrant labor and the constant increase in migration to these states, this article aims to understand the policies pertaining to the presence, conditions of residence, integration, and socioeconomic rights of the migrant labor force. After an overview of migration trends and patterns in the GCC states, the article examines the migration policy framework that regulates and governs migration in the GCC. It also highlights the recent reforms and initiatives taken by the GCC states and a few sending countries which have impacted the migration flows, migrant rights, and development benefits of migration. Finally, the article concludes with a discussion on policy challenges and provides recommendations as a way forward.
What is the role of non-state actors in the international politics of labour migration in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries? This paper employs a ‘migration diplomacy’ framework in order to examine the politics of regional mobility while interrogating the assumed centrality of the state in this process. It focuses on labour migration into the United Arab Emirates and draws on a range of primary sources in order to identify four types of non-state actors that seek to maximise their interests within the workings of Emirati migration diplomacy: public-private partnerships, namely the Tadbeer (‘procurement’) centres; corporations within the Emirati construction sector; business elites managing subcontracting companies; and, finally, non-governmental organisations and foreign consulting firms. The paper identifies how each of these four sets of actors pursues strategies that are able to strengthen, supplant, or undermine the state’s formal migration diplomacy aims. Furthermore, the Emirati case debunks the myth of the state as a centre of power in Gulf migration management via the kafāla (‘sponsorship’) system. Overall, the paper demonstates how a range of non-state actors can navigate migration management policymaking, thereby underlining the complexity of Gulf migration diplomacy.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the rationale for using social engineering as a tool to impact the nationalization of workforce in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Design/methodology/approach
Interpretative and exploratory approaches have been employed for this research. Accordingly, the study has extensively reviewed government documents, reports of international organizations and relevant academic literature, including journal articles, conference papers and unpublished dissertations.
Findings
The findings show that the UAE Government has initiated multiple policies and programs to enhance participation of indigenous Emiratis in the burgeoning labor market which has been hitherto dominated by the expatriates. However, while the Emiratization programs are on the verge of fulfilling the targets in the public sector job market, significant gaps exist between the targets and accomplishments in the private sector, causing policy concern.
Originality/value
This paper links theoretical insights from the social engineering model used in the social sciences research to analyze the dynamics of workforce nationalization. The study will be helpful to inform further empirical research in this area.
The UAE has witnessed an unprecedented economic and cultural development since its foundation in 1971. Foreign labor and investment play a central role in this development, yielding a sharp imbalance between the Emirati and the foreign population. No less than 85% of highly transient foreigners strongly impacts the local linguistic landscape, with many languages competing in the public sphere. English occupies a special role in this multilingual texture, as it is used as a foreign language, a second language, and a lingua franca. It occurs in its standardized varieties, but also in several non-standard forms, as foreign labor is recruited from places formerly under British or American influence. Based on a new questionnaire study of 689 university students, we explore the tension between English and Arabic, the prominence of English, the increasing use of English as a home language, and the emergence of a new variety of English: ‘Gulf English’.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of organisational culture (OC) on leadership styles in Nigerian universities. The study utilises the cultural dimensions theory (Hofstede’s insights) and the social exchange concept as theoretical lenses to examine the phenomena.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an exploratory qualitative approach, 40 interviews were conducted with senior academics and non-teaching staff working in Nigerian universities.
Findings
The findings reveal hierarchical, patriarchal, servile, and interdependent values as the underlying characteristics of organisation culture, shaping the choice of leadership styles in the management of Nigerian universities. As a result, it emerged from the study that positional, formalised exchanges, paternalism, relational approach and gendered reactions to leadership were typically adopted in university administration in this context.
Research limitations/implications
The study relies on a small qualitative sample size, which makes the generalisation of findings difficult. However, the study provides a good understanding of cultural hegemony, framing leadership styles different from those of western cultures.
Originality/value
The findings of this study help to bridge the research gap concerning the implications of OC, and its influence on leadership behaviours in the Sub-Saharan African context. Research within this subfield in Africa is rare. Specifically, the study also enriches our understanding of cultural dimensions, informing the leadership methods adopted in higher education institutions.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how interaction adjustment influences personal development for expatriates and to examine whether the effect differs between adults that have, and have not, lived abroad during their adolescence.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use survey responses from 424 business expatriates in Asia distinguishing between adult third culture kids (ATCKs) that have lived abroad during their adolescence and adult mono-culture kids (AMCKs) who have not.
Findings
The results show that while interaction adjustment generally improves the experience of personal development, this effect is stronger for ATCKs. AMCKs will experience personal development almost independently of their interaction adjustment with host nationals solely due to the novelty of the international experience. For ATCKs, just being in the new country is not enough for them to feel they have developed personally; they need to engage more deeply with the local population to achieve this.
Originality/value
The authors still know very little about ATCKs and about how expatriation during their adulthood develops them personally, given they have already had international experiences at a young age.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how the theory of researcher positionality can help international business researchers and human resource managers clarify the ideal position of the expatriate in relation to host country nationals (HCNs), so that selection and cross-cultural training (CCT) can be more targeted and assignment specific.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper linking positionality theory and the methodological practice of reflexivity from ethnographic research and other social sciences to the research of expatriate acculturation.
Findings
This conceptual paper outlines theory from ethnographic research that, when applied to expatriate selection and acculturation, increases the field’s understanding of the expatriate’s position in relation to HCNs. This theory practically informs selection criteria, CCT programs and support plans as they pertain to specific international assignments. A novel theoretical model is then proposed.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is conceptual in nature. Empirical research is needed to test the value of this paper and its proposed positionality gap model (PGM) model.
Practical implications
The research and conceptual model proposed in this paper has the potential to improve how multinational enterprise (MNE) managers conceptualize expatriate assignments, expatriate selections and expatriate CCT leading to more effective work and value added to stakeholders.
Social implications
The PGM model proposed in this paper highlights the value of HCN’s culture and preferences as input for selection and CCT of an expatriate worker and contributes to the body of literature that views expatriation with multiple stakeholder perspectives.
Originality/value
This paper’s originality stems from the application of a well-understood phenomenon in ethnographic research and other social sciences to expatriate acculturation. The common practice of reflexology and theory of positionality can clarify the ideal position for an expatriate in relation to the MNE and HCNs for both researchers and practitioners.
In this paper, we draw on the construct of regulatory fit in explaining how expatriates manage interactional and work-related discrepancies in diverse cultural contexts. When expatriates go overseas, they are often faced with a set of expectations that are at variance with their home country norms and these differences in expectations generate discrepancies. The emergence of discrepancies in an alien cultural context exacerbates the uncertainties facing the expatriate, though the response to uncertainty varies between expatriates. We posit that expatriates with a promotion-focused self-regulatory system are focused on maximizing gains leading them to manage uncertainty through experimentation whereas expatriates with a prevention-focused self-regulatory system are oriented to minimizing losses leading them to manage uncertainty by persisting with the status-quo. Utilizing insights from motivational science and by linking the self-regulatory processes to the cultural context, we develop a framework and propositions for expatriate adaptation in loose and tight cultures. We present managerial implications of our model and offer guidance for testing the framework.
Purpose
Examine the relationship between CEO leadership behavior and the culture of the organization within the context of Indian organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Two 5-scale questionnaires were completed by senior executives (n=485) whom have interaction with their CEO. The first instrument captured the executives’ perspective of their CEO’s leadership behavior along six dimensions [People Centric, Global Ambitions, Opportunity Sensing, Visionary, Exemplary, and Dependable]. The second instrument captured the executives’ perspective of their organization’s culture along six dimensions [Results Focused, Talent Development, Employee Empowerment, Equity and Fairness, Open Communication, and Decentralization]. These data were analyzed using factor analysis, correlation analysis, and least-squares regression.
Findings
A correlation analysis indicates that a significant relationship exists between several aspects of CEO leadership behavior and characteristics of the organizational culture. Regression analysis indicated that the overall CEO leadership behavior prominently explains (R-squared = .397) the organization’s culture. Notably, two CEO dimensions, People Centricity and global ambition, were found to have an exceptionally high degree of association with the culture of the organization.
Research limitations/implications
There is consistency between findings from Western academic leader-culture research and the same in the Indian work setting. .
Practical implications
Findings of this study can serve as a guidepost for the selection of leaders in an organization.
Originality/value
There is a scarcity of leader-organization research involving national culture features; the Indian context is fundamental to this study and is called for by the growing presence of India-born leadership in Western organizations.
Abstract: This case study focused on leadership in drastic times is addressed to stakeholders in the Middle East and North African area. Challenging times, unique stressors, and radical change may be seen as calling for a renewed focus on authentic leadership. This case study questions whether leadership is perceived as authentic and whether leaders perceive themselves as authentic. As a practitioner researcher, I find that exploring the role of authentic leader in business management is relevant in post modernity worldwide; however, conducting research on authentic leadership is especially vital given the dynamic and negative downward spiral of economic, demographic, geographic, and political factors in the Middle East and North Africa region across the past decade. As a research study, the aim of this paper is twofold: (1) whether followers perceive their leader as authentic; (2) whether leaders perceive themselves as authentic. 90 participants, as members in business units composed of 15, were assigned a business project across ten weeks. The project required that all members participate in collaborative and individualistic time-defined tasks. Data was gathered using a brief survey and short interview once the project was submitted. It was found that followers perceive their leaders as authentic in the Middle East and North African Region (MENA). Moreover, it was found that leaders “know themselves” and act in accordance with their inner thoughts. These findings may be related to the social and economic culture of the surrounding nations and as such the topic of authentic leadership requires further research.
The term “Third Culture Kids” is currently used to describe children who experience a high level of international mobility while they are growing up. It is usually applied to those who are relatively economically privileged and move due to their parents’ career choices, typically in the corporate, diplomatic, military, religious (missionary), or NGO sectors. There is an emphasis on “those raised with an inner expectation of ‘going back’ or repatriating one day” (Van Reken, 2014). Over the last decade or so, the term has garnered attention among the expatriate population and educators in international schools that cater to these children. “Third Culture Kids” and its related term “global nomads” (McCaig, 2002) have been featured in various major international media outlets such as Al Jazeera and the International New York Times (formerly International Herald Tribune) (e.g. Bolon, 2002; Al Jazeera, 2013; Rodriguez, 2013). However, the concept is difficult to apply across disciplines for two reasons. First, it is premised on essentialist categories that reify the boundaries, which define “Third Culture Kids”. Second, the (Anglophone) literature has hitherto overlooked the significance of the specific socio-historical context within which the term “Third Culture Kids” was coined and subsequently popularized. The literature is broadly unreflexive of its own American-centric approach.
Previous research has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of culture and cultural identification to interpersonal understanding. We aimed to apply the ideas from this domain to mental state reasoning, or theory of mind. We thus investigated the relationship between acculturation and inferring the mental states of other people within and across cultures by measuring Caucasian and East Asian participants’ accuracy in inferring the mental states of own- and other-ethnicity targets using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test. As expected, Caucasian participants showed a significant ingroup advantage in inferring the mental states of own- versus other-ethnicity targets but no variation according to measures of acculturation. More important, East Asian residents of Canada showed greater accuracy for own- versus other-ethnicity targets—and their accuracy for Caucasian targets increased as a function of (i) the time they had lived in Canada, (ii) their experience interacting with Caucasians, (iii) increased endorsement of mainstream Canadian values, and (iv) decreased endorsement of their heritage culture’s values. These results suggest that cross-cultural understanding may be malleable to acculturation and cultural experience, highlighting the importance of further research on how people from different cultural perspectives come to understand each other and subsequently ameliorate cross-cultural misunderstanding.
Extensive research on leadership behavior during the past half century has yielded many different behavior taxonomies and a lack of clear results about effective behaviors. One purpose of this article is to describe what has been learned about effective leadership behavior in organizations. A hierarchical taxonomy with four meta-categories and 15 specific component behaviors was used to interpret results in the diverse and extensive literature and to identify conditions that influence the effectiveness of these behaviors. Limitations and potential extensions of the hierarchical taxonomy are discussed, and suggestions for improving research on effective leadership behavior are provided.
Purpose
– The “adult third culture kid” (ATCK) is an individual who has spent significant periods of childhood living outside his or her parents’ culture(s). Research is needed to identify specific experiential variables responsible for the development of components of cross-cultural competencies (CC) in ATCKs. The goal of this study is to gain insight into these relationships and provide a foundation for continuing investigation by examining how early international experience and personality variables impact CC in ATCKs. Specifically, the study examines how four components of early international experience and two characteristics of stable CC impact three dynamic characteristics of CC.
Design/methodology/approach
– Study participants (159) had spent their childhood years living in one or more foreign countries. In all, 54 percent of the sample was women, and the average age was 22 (SD=1.52). None of the subjects had any international work experience, allowing us to look at the impact of non-work experience without the confounding effect found in other research of this type. Data were collected at the beginning and end of a three-week period.
Findings
– There are five important predictors of CC in ATCKs: variety of early international experience (number of different countries lived in), language diversity (the number of languages they speak), family diversity (the number of different ethnicities in their family's background), and the personality trait of openness to experience.
Research limitations/implications
– The generalizability of study findings is limited by the nature and size of the sample. In addition, the single source sample of this study is also a limitation, as single source samples are subject to common method bias. We reduced this potential bias by using a time lag (Podsakoff et al., 2003) to create a temporal separation between the measurement of the predictors and the dependent variables, a procedural remedy suggested by Podsakoff et al. (2003).
Practical implications
– The practical uses for the findings of this study by human resource management (HRM) professionals are in the areas of hiring and assignment of expatriate managers. Study findings provide HRM professionals with an initial set of criteria to assist in the process of identification and training of expatriate managers. Global organizations have traditionally used training to increase the pool of effective global managers. This study provides initial evidence that identification of individuals with early international experiences should prove a useful addition to the process of selecting candidates for foreign assignment.
Social implications
– The practical uses for the findings of this study by HRM professionals are in the areas of hiring and assignment of expatriate managers. Study findings provide HRM professionals with an initial set of criteria to assist in the process of identification and training of expatriate managers. Global organizations have traditionally used training to increase the pool of effective global managers. This study provides initial evidence that identification of individuals with early international experiences should prove a useful addition to the process of selecting candidates for foreign assignment.
Originality/value
– To the best of our knowledge this is one of the first studies to empirically examine ATCKs and provides a starting point for future researchers in this area. Obtaining a sample of ATCKs is extremely challenging.
Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are children who travel with expatriate parents and spend significant portions of their growing years in cultures other than their passport cultures. Such children internalize portions of both the home culture and the host culture, building a new cultural identity that reflects all their experiences without developing a sense of belonging to any single culture. TCKs often have more in common with each other than with peers raised in either their home or host cultures. As they mature and enter higher education systems and the workforce, TCKs present both challenges and opportunities for human resource development (HRD) professionals. This paper reviews the literature on TCKs, focusing on implications for HRD teaching, research, and practice.
Purpose – The paper aims to contribute to the discussion about how SIEs articulate narratives as cognitive efforts to expand, restrict or adapt their repertoire of identities in highly regulated environments.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing from a social constructivist positioning, the paper explores situated social and relational practices using a qualitative framework that relied on primary data gathering through semi-structured interviews. Qatar is a context of particular interest for exploring identity narratives of SIEs given the highly regulated environment and the large numbers of non-nationals within the overall workforce. The study was conducted in an anonymous Qatari public shareholding company.
Findings – Findings suggest that narratives of self are framed in relation to structural constraints and patterns of adaptation. These reveal the interplay between identity, careers and self-initiated expatriation at macro-country and micro-individual levels. As part of these themes, narratives of mobility and opportunity emerged in reference to career experiences and discussions about themselves (lives, identities, and expectations).
Originality/value – The paper contributes to our current understanding of SIEs and encourages us to consider the importance of context in shaping the SIE experience. Similarly, the scarcity of literature about SIEs in GCC countries makes this paper a timely contribution. These contributions have significant implications not only for theoretical discussions about SIEs, but also for discussions on the interplay between migration, identity and global careers.
Sociologists typically assume that immigrants' acquisition of English as a second language follows the opportunities and motivations to become proficient in English, while many linguists argue that second language acquisition may be governed by maturational constraints, possibly biologically based, that are tied to the age at onset of language learning. In this article, I use U.S. census data to investigate the relationship between age at onset of second language learning and levels of English language proficiency among foreign-born adults in the United States. The overarching conclusion is that proficiency in a second language among adults is strongly related to age at immigration. Part of that relationship is attributable to social and demographic considerations tied to age at entry into a new country, and part may be attributable to maturational constraints. 1
“OE” is overseas experience – periods of “working holiday” undertaken by young people autonomously exploring other countries and cultures. This paper investigates OE and considers its effect on career development. OE is a world-wide phenomenon, but has special significance in Australia and New Zealand, where it is undertaken as a “rite of passage” by many young people. The paper reports results from an interview study of 50 OEs undertaken by young New Zealanders. It focuses on predisposing personal and situational factors prompting OE, the unplanned and improvisational nature of OE, the main forms of OE, and its apparent consequences for personal development and subsequent careers. The evidence suggests that OE brings benefits but that the process is complex and unpredictable because of confounding forces such as non-career travel agendas and personal relationships. The special value of OE to careers in current conditions requiring greater self-direction, flexibility and internationalisation is emphasised.
Purpose
Through a large‐scale quantitative study, this paper aims to test and extend the qualitative findings of Richardson and McKenna and of Osland on reasons to expatriate and relate them to work outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Examining how reasons to expatriate may affect work outcomes, quantitative data was collected from self‐initiated expatriate academics from 60 countries employed in 35 universities in five northern European countries.
Findings
Results mostly indicated support for the proposed hypotheses. The most striking finding was the apparently uniformly destructive influence of behaviour associated with escape from one's previous life as a reason to expatriate on all of the studied work outcomes.
Research limitations/implications
The self‐developed scales measuring reasons for self‐initiated expatriates to expatriate may have been inadequate to capture all relevant aspects of their behavioural intentions and the data from the retrospective type of questioning regarding the original reasons to expatriate may have been biased by memory effects.
Practical implications
Any organization recruiting self‐initiated expatriates may want to inquire about the reasons for them to expatriate. Although there may be a plethora of other requirements on job applicants, the findings of this study may be used as contributing to additional hiring criteria.
Originality/value
Most of the fast growing literature on business expatriates has focused on organizational expatriates who have been assigned by their parent companies to the foreign location. However, there is much less research on self‐initiated expatriates, who themselves have decided to expatriate to work abroad.
Globalization and international labor mobility have provided the opportunity for highly qualified people to work in almost any country they desire. The people who take advantage of this opportunity can be categorized as ‘self-initiated expatriates’ (SIE). This study explores the motivation and cross-cultural adjustment of 30 SIE academics in South Korea. The respondents were motivated to expatriate by a desire for international experience, attractive job conditions, family ties, and poor labor markets in their home countries; most of the respondents were well adjusted. Based on our findings, we propose a theoretical framework linking the motivation and cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates.
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to enhance understanding of influences on interaction between corporate personnel and development specialists and line functions associated with expatriating managers. Line managers are expected to accept greater responsibility for people management and development. But line managers' strategies for managing risks inherent in supervising expatriate managers may cause to surface incompatibilities with specialists' corporate “policy conscience” role. A pluralistically inclined perspective on “managerial interest streams” offers insights into inter‐group perceptions and behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
Focusing on organisational actors' interpretations, a non‐standardised survey by e‐mail, covering a small sample of expatriate managers ( n =20) employed in various countries by a large UK‐headquartered healthcare retail group, was complemented by semi‐structured interviews with personnel and development specialists in a further seven large multinational companies.
Findings
Potential tensions around the application of corporate expatriation policy may be attributed to factors “educating” line and specialist orientations to expatriate managers.
Originality/value
The value of the paper is in the development of an original model sketching pluralistically located interaction around expatriation management. While limited to an exploratory empirical investigation, the practical implications derive from specification of opportunities and threats to partnership building between those involved in expatriating managers.
A new theoretical model, which explores the relationship between cultural identity and repatriation experience, was tested among 113 American teachers who sojourned to Japan. Results indicated, unexpectedly, that overseas adaptation and repatriation experiences are not directly associated. Rather, home culture identity strength inversely predicted repatriation distress with repatriates experiencing high distress reporting weak cultural identity. Preliminary findings also indicated that repatriation experience is related to shifts in cultural identity. As predicted by the Cultural Identity Model, ratings of increased estrangement from American culture (subtractive) or feeling “more” Japanese (additive) following a sojourn are correlated with the high repatriation distress. Further, the more the global identity shift, the higher the life satisfaction. An innovative methodology was utilized in this study through the use of internet for participant recruitment and data collection.
Although aspects of social identity theory are familiar to organizational psychologists, its elaboration, through self-categorization theory, of how social categorization and prototype-based depersonalization actually produce social identity effects is less well known. We describe these processes, relate self-categorization theory to social identity theory, describe new theoretical developments in detail, and show how these developments can address a: range of organizational phenomena. We discuss cohesion and deviance, leadership, subgroup and sociodemographic structure, and mergers and acquisitions.
Unemployment pressures among nationals are emerging in the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GCC). 2 At a time when a rapidly growing number of young nationals are entering the labor force and governments are no longer able to act as employers of first and last resort, the non-oil sector continues to rely on expatriate labor to meet its labor requirements in most GCC countries. In this environment, policymakers face the related challenges of addressing unemployment pressures while striking a balance between maintaining a liberal foreign labor policy and a reasonable level of competitiveness of the non-oil sector. Using a matching function framework, this paper examines labor market policies that are likely to expand the ability to hire nationals in the non-oil sector. It finds that an effective labor strategy should focus on strengthening investment in human capital, adopting institutional reforms, and promoting a vibrant non-oil economy.
Immigration and exile can qualify as social traumas. The individual is deprived of a holding, secure environment in which to continue their life. The process of mourning is a necessary step to connect with "going on being." Another psychic experience in migration is nostalgia; it helps the immigrant defend against the aggression resulting from current frustrations. The feeling of nostalgia can also be used to protect the ego from inadequacy. The complex components of nostalgia come from positive ones such as joy and gratitude connected with sadness about the associated loss of security, familiarity, and historical continuity. At other times, nostalgia cannot evolve, particularly in forced migration or exile. In this case, the individual enters a depressed state with accompanying feelings of self-pity, resentment, envy, and guilt, which prevents the mourning process from developing. To deal with these painful experiences, the person resorts to linking objects or linking phenomena that help them continue having contact with the past, while adjusting to their new environment.
This systematic literature review explores studies addressing the objective career success and subjective career success of company-assigned and self-initiated expatriates after their long-term international assignments. Expatriate work is defined as high-density work that affects employee learning and career trajectories. We develop a holistic expatriate career success framework exploring the following questions: 1) What individual career impact results from international assignments? 2) What are the antecedents of such career success? and 3) What are the outcomes of assignees’ career success? A previously neglected range of theoretical perspectives, antecedents, and outcomes of expatriate career success is identified. Subsequently, a threefold contribution is made. First, we extend the conceptualization of international work density to unveil the differences between general and global career concepts. Second, we identify promising theories that have not been utilized in expatriation research, emphasizing context-related and learning theories that chime with the specific nature of global careers. Lastly, we suggest an extensive future research agenda.
The influence of family on expatriates and their families' international assignments experience have been long discussed in various disciplines. We undertake a systematic review of 151 articles on expatriates' families published between 2006 and 2020 in peer-reviewed academic journals in Business and Management, Medicine, Psychology, and Decision Sciences. Adopting a step-wise approach to conduct the review and using Leximancer, we analyze the literature and categorize it into five major themes: family's influence on expatriates; expatriation's influence on expatriate families; family and individual adjustment in the expatriation process; organizational practices concerning family issues in expatriation; and expatriate families' social interaction. This mapping, thematizing and systematic organizing of the literature allows us to identify research areas that have been overpopulated and others that have not received sufficient scholarly attention. By doing so, this study contributes to the literature by providing a multidisciplinary perspective on the issue of expatriates' families. We also present a research agenda to advance knowledge in the field and make recommendations for practice.
With globalization and technological advances, there has been a sharp increase in the number of people living cross-culturally with mobility. With this, the number of children living mobile cross-national lives, often termed Third Culture Kids (TCKs), is also increasing. TCKs are defined as those who have accompanied their parents for work or study overseas during their significant developmental years, before 18. They are often described as people who build relationships to all of the cultures they have lived in, but not having a full ownership in any. To gain an overall understanding of the current research landscape on this population, a systematic review was conducted on the literature of empirical research on Third Culture Kids (TCKs). The search utilized the EBSCO PsycINFO database and focused on psychosocial issues. An initial yield of 399 articles were further curated based on inclusion and exclusion criteria with consensus by two psychology researchers, resulting in 31 research publications. The content analysis review included comparisons across years, types of publications, authors, research design and analytical methods, sample age and definition, and frequency of the domains and themes. This systematic review compiled descriptive tables of studies and reviewed key findings of the three most-researched domains—emotional, relational, and identity development. The paper also highlighted discussions about the lack of standardization in TCK definition, challenges in TCK research, and suggestions for future directions.
Social categorization is a universal mechanism for making sense of a vast social world with roots in perceptual, conceptual, and social systems. These systems emerge strikingly early in life and undergo important developmental changes across childhood. The development of social categorization entails identifying which ways of classifying people are culturally meaningful, how these categories might be used to predict, explain, and evaluate the behavior of other people, and how one's own identity relates to these systems of categorization and representation. Social categorization can help children simplify and understand their social environment but has detrimental consequences in the forms of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Thus, understanding how social categorization develops is a central problem for the cognitive, social, and developmental sciences. This review details the multiple developmental processes that underlie this core psychological capacity.
This study analyzes the influence of identity complexity on the linguistic acculturation expectations that Catalan high-school students hold towards their peers of Moroccan and Romanian origin. It also takes into account social status and cultural proximity, expecting higher expectations of linguistic integration towards Romanians. Using a 5-point Likert scale, 345 autochthonous high-school students were asked about their degree of self-identification with Spain and Catalonia. Then, they responded to several questions concerning linguistic acculturation expectations regarding Romanians and Moroccans. While integration is the most popular profile for all three groups, the bicultural identity group scored the highest, followed by the Catalan identity group and the Spanish identity group ranking last. Bicultural identification was also a significant predictor for all integration measures, as was Catalan identification for ‘integration to Catalan’ and ‘integration to Spanish and Catalan’. However, the distinctions between answers regarding Romanians and Moroccans were scant. We conclude that incorporating the languages
of immigration into a bilingual host society is not only possible, this type of community may even be more welcoming. The potential of working with the concept of identity complexity to decrease black and white thinking and foster tolerance is also discussed.
The term ‘Third Culture Kid’ (TCK) is commonly used to denote children living in a host culture other than their passport culture during their developmental years. However, its meaning in relation to other terminology referring to a similar concept is a source of interest for many stakeholders. This paper opens up opportunities for further exploring and critiquing the definition of TCK, and opening this up to case studies within the context of the United Arab Emirates and more widely. It is critical to clarify the terminology in light of unprecedented levels of international migration throughout the world. This paper reviews the meaning of culture in relation to TCKs, and explores the meaning of the TCK concept as well as a number of other terms used as alternatives to TCK. A contextualization of the literature follows in relation to the researchers’ own lived experiences in the United Arab Emirates. The term TCK can be seen as part of the general stock of theoretical concepts. This paper acknowledges that it cannot catch all nuances of migrant children in the global context.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a wealthy and relatively new country attempting to achieve top tier global status in education. A literature review of education reform efforts in the UAE reveals remarkably limited research on the subject. Existing studies show the a country is struggling to align market-driven academic goals with dominant cultural paradigms. A transition away from a reliance on a formerly lucrative petroleum industry raises the stakes of their academic outcomes. This literature review uses terms explored in Comparative Education such as policy borrowing to explain the government’s approach to reform, and suggests areas for future research.
This paper examines inter-religious attitudes from the perspective of Muslim minorities living in Western Europe. We examine both Sunni and Alevi Muslims of Turkish origin living in Germany and the Netherlands, and focus on their global feelings towards multiple religious out-groups (Christians, Jews, Muslim out-group, and non-believers). We hypothesize that Sunnis would dislike religious out-groups more than Alevis, and that these group differences in religious out-group feelings can be explained by group differences in host national identification and the three B’s of religious commitment: belonging (religious identification), behaviour (religious practices), and belief (liberal values). Sunnis were found to be rather negative towards Alevis, and Alevis were even more negative towards Sunnis. Furthermore, as expected, Alevis had more positive feelings towards Christians, Jews and non-believers, and this was related to their stronger host national identification, lower religious group identification, lower involvement in religious practices, and stronger endorsement of liberal values. We conclude by pointing at the need to distinguish between subgroups of Muslims instead of treating them as a uniform collective.
East and South-East Asia will face major demographic changes over the next few decades with many countries' labour forces starting to decline, while others experience higher labour force growth as populations and/or participation rates increase. A well-managed labour migration strategy presents itself as a mechanism for ameliorating the impending labour shortages in some East Asia-Pacific countries, while providing an opportunity for other countries with excess labour to provide migrant workers who will contribute to the development of the home country through greater remittance flows. This paper examines such migration policy options using a global dynamic economic simulation approach and finds that allowing migrants to respond to the major demographic changes occurring in Asia over the next 50 years would be beneficial to most economies in the region in terms of real incomes and real GDP over the 2007-50 period. Such a policy could deeply affect the net migration position of a country. Countries that were net recipients under current migration policies might become net senders under the more liberal policy regime.
The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.
This study examined the cultural identity of third culture individuals, defined as people who lived outside their passport country during their developmental years. A qualitative approach utilizing in-depth interviews with 19 participants from six different countries and with varied intercultural experiences was employed in order to explore their perceptions of identity, sense of belonging, multiculturalism, intercultural communication competence, as well as positive and negative factors attributed to their experiences of a life on the move. Results show that third culture individuals are more apt to possess multiple cultural identities or a multicultural identity than a confused cultural identity, as previous research had indicated. Additionally, results suggest that while they lack a clear sense of belonging, they are competent intercultural communicators and perceive their experiences as mainly beneficial.
Third-culture kids (TCKs) are adolescents who have lived at least one of their formative years in another country. This study compares survey data collected from British TCKs who were currently living in Hong Kong with those of their adolescent peers living in the UK and Hong Kong. The results unequivocally suggest that TCKs’ perception of being international and their characteristics are different than that of their adolescent peers in the host and home country. More than the other adolescents, TCKs indicated that international experience, parental and institutional education, a second language, neutrality, open-mindedness and flexibility, attitudes towards other systems and cultures, respect for others, tolerance of others’ behaviour and views, all contributed to the perception of being international. Similarly, TCKs had distinctive characteristics in terms of stronger family relationships, enjoying travelling to foreign places, acceptance of foreign languages, acceptance of cultural differences, and future orientation. Implications for international firms of these fundamental findings are discussed in detail.
This study investigated the antecedents and consequences of underemployment among self-initiated expatriates (SBEs). Data were obtained from 302 SIEs from 39 different organizational settings. It was found that a lack of job autonomy, job suitability, job variety, and fit to the psychological contract contributed to underemployment. Furthermore, consistent with previous research, the results suggest that underemployed SIE will exhibit negative work attitudes which may be detrimental to organizational effectiveness. The implications of these findings; are discussed.
Traditionally, one of the most frequently used outcomes of expatriate adjustment research has been premature return of expatriate employees. However, previous research has not considered premature return as an outcome of a particular type of decision that expatriates make. By adapting a decision-making perspective, we extend expatriate adjustment and international assignment literature in several different directions. To do so, we integrate decision-making, dualistic adjustment, the unfolding model of voluntary turnover [Lee, T.W., & Mitchell, T.R., (1994). An alternative approach: The unfolding model of voluntary employee turnover. Academy of Management Review, 19, 51-89.], the evolutionary search model of turnover [Steel, R.P. (2002). Turnover theory at the empirical interface: Problems of fit and function. Academy of Management Review, 27, 346-360.], and the motives approach to turnover [Maertz, C. P., Jr., & Campion, M. A. (2004). Profiles in quitting: Integrating process and content turnover theory. Academy of Management Journal, 47, 566-582.; Maertz, C. P., Jr., & Griffeth, R. W. (2004). Eight motivational forces and voluntary turnover: A theoretical synthesis with implications for research. Journal of Management, 30, 667-683.] to propose multiple decision outcomes, rather than simply premature return, associated with international assignments. The proposed model provides a theoretical framework for considering criteria for examining these outcomes. Propositions and implications for future research and practice are discussed.
This article explores a culturally sensitive topic, envy, among Bolivian migrants in Spain. Following a constructivist approach to emotions, we examine discourses of envy, as they are shaped by the cultural contexts in which they emerge. Our study uses a sample of 30 transnational households and multi-sited ethnography to illustrate the ways emotions and their effects on sociality serve as a mechanism of social control, especially when the boundaries of such a community have been stretched transnationally. Envy is an important component of a belief system central to understanding the emergence, or lack thereof, of trust and solidarity among migrants and can shape the types of social relations and conflicts between migrants and non-migrant households back in Bolivia. These conflicts have been exacerbated by economic instability, high unemployment rates and precarious wages especially for the undocumented migrant community in Spain.
A social identity theory of leadership is described that views leadership as a group process generated by social categorization and prototype-based depersonalization processes associated with social identity. Group identification, as self-categorization, constructs an intragroup prototypicality gradient that invests the most prototypical member with the appearance of having influence; the appearance arises because members cognitively and behaviorally conform to the prototype. The appearance of influence becomes a reality through depersonalized social attraction processes that make followers agree and comply with the leader's ideas and suggestions. Consensual social attraction also imbues the leader with apparent status and creates a status-based structural differentiation within the group into leader(s) and followers, which has characteristics of unequal status intergroup relations. In addition, a fundamental attribution process constructs a charismatic leadership personality for the leader, which further empowers the leader and sharpens the leader-follower status differential. Empirical support for the theory is reviewed and a range of implications discussed, including intergroup dimensions, uncertainty reduction and extremism, power, and pitfalls of prototype-based leadership.
Third culture kids as unique sources: Their intercultural competences and their cultural identities at work
- M De Waal