Expatriate Adjustment of Spouses and Expatriate Managers: An Integrative Research Review

An integrative review of recent research substantiates previously anecdotal evidence indicating that expatriate experiences of the expatriate manager and spouse differ both in degree and kind. In global transfers, the spouse is often more immersed in the local culture than either the manager or the children. The spouse is less sheltered from the foreign environment, must often deal with a different stratum of society, yet receives less in-country support and is often even excluded from initial selection and training. The adjustment challenges for the spouse are therefore both different and greater. Research evidence supports not only the notion of spillover effects among the various dimensions of expatriate adjustment but also a crossover effect from one family member to another. Most often it is the spouse who is the key. Not surprisingly, therefore, the single most frequently reported reason for failure in an international assignment (when defined as a premature return) is an inability or unwillingness of the spouse to adapt. Most attempts to model the expatriate experience have done so primarily from the perspective of the expatriate manager. Only recently, however, has the experience of the spouse been studied directly and a conceptual model, utilizing identity disruption theory, been developed to explain the spouse's foreign adjustment experience. The Expatriate Manager Most attempts to model expatriate adjustment to these foreign assignments have done so primarily from the perspective of the expatriate manager/employee. From this perspective adjustment to international assignments has generally been considered to be a multidimensional construct consisting of three aspects or dimensions of adjustment: (I) work adjustment (i.e. adjustment to the new job requirements), (2) interaction adjustment with individuals in the foreign country (i.e., socializing with host-country nationals), and (3) general adjustment to the foreign culture and living conditions abroad (Black, 1988). Based on an extensive review of the then extant domestic and foreign work adjustment literature; Black, Mendenhall and Oddou (1991) proposed a comprehensive integrated model of international adjustment. This model focuses on several major sets of factors that influence these three dimensions as determinants of adjustment. These factors were divided into two categories based on where they appear in the process. The first category represents those factors which are related to anticipatory adjustment: that is, factors prior to departure that have been found have an impact on the adjustment process. Individual anticipatory factors, for example, include the extent and relevance of pre-departure training, the existence and similarity of previous international experience and whether or not prior to departure managers had accurate expectations regarding the expatriate experience. Organizational anticipatory factors, on the other hand, relate to the effectiveness of selection mechanisms and criteria. The second category of factors relates to in-country adjustment: that is, post-departure adjustment to the host culture. With regard to in-country adjustment, the proposed Black et al. (1991) integrated model was expanded by Shaffer, Harrison and Gilley (1999) and some aspects of the model were tested. The factors tested in that study were: (1) job factors, (2) organizational factors, (3) positional factors (4) nonwork factors, and (5) individual factors. The following are examples of findings by Shaffer et al. (1999) and others regarding these factors. Job Factors Job factors refer to a specific set of tasks and duties performed by a given individual. Job factors obviously have their greatest impact on the dimension of work adjustment and various job factors can have either a facilitating or inhibiting effect. Work role transition research in particular has focused on job factors that inhibit work adjustment; such as: role conflict - conflicting signals about what is expected in the new job (Black and Gregersen, 1991 b), and role novelty - differences between the previous and the new job roles (Nicholson and Imaizumi, 1993). …