DP2021-13

Adjustment of Expatriatesʼ Work
Practices during the Covid-19
Pandemic
Ralf BEBENROTH

Revised March 3, 2022

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Adjustment of Expatriates’ Work Practices during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Ralf Bebenroth (corresponding and single author)
Professor
Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration (RIEB)
Kobe University
Shinkan 304, 2-1 Rokodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japanrbeben@rieb.kobe-u.ac.jp

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Adjustment of Expatriates’ Work Practices during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Abstract
Based on the grounded theory, this paper analyses the behavior of German
expatriates in Japan. The qualitative inductive study generated two general themes:
German expatriates’ adjustments of work practices in Japan and work practices
outside Japan. During the lockdown as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, work
adjustment in Japan brought a sense of isolation and expatriates reported difficulty inhandling their roles. They also complained about the overflow of online meetings.
There were further concerns that cost savings at the headquarters, in line with astronger trend towards digitalization, would lead to a decrease in future expatriate
assignments. Adjustment of expatriates’ work practices outside Japan was framed on
successions and bridge-building activities. Besides others, the Covid-19 pandemic
brought expatriates to feel much closer to the headquarters through electronic
communication, the previously experienced “out of sight, out of mind” syndrome fromearlier assignments became less relevant.
Keywords
Covid-19 pandemic; Expatriate work practices; German expatriates; Japan;
Lockdown

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Adjustment of Expatriates’ Work Practices during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Introduction
Research on expatriates in international management continues to draw muchinterest (Cooke et al., 2019; Bebenroth and Froese, 2020), with many studies
building upon challenges and adjustment issues of work practices (Nadeem andMumatz, 2018; Wilczewski et al., 2019). For example, recent articles have focusedon socialization barriers (Lin, 2018), cultural misinterpretation (Wilczewski et al. 2019)and underemployment issues of expatriates (Kawai and Mohr, 2020). The Covid-19
pandemic brings in an additional driver to work adjustment of expatriates. Workpractices in this unique situation are as yet scarcely analyzed (Campbell and Gavett,2021). The lack of a systematized analysis of the complex role of expatriations during
the pandemic situation limits our understanding on how expatriates modify their work
practice. This research is hence aimed at elucidating critical factors of work practiceadjustments during the Covid-19 pandemic in an Asian setting.
The paper starts with a discussion on the initial framework of Black et al. (1991) who
differentiated expatriates’ adjustment of work practices into three categories, namely
work, interactive, and general issues. The unique Covid-19 pandemic leads theauthor to establish a new framework on critical work practices. Accordingly, thefollowing two research questions are formulated: 1. How do expatriates adapt to work
practices during the Covid-19 pandemic? 2. How can this adjustment be framed?
To address these questions, the author adopted a qualitative, inductive approachbased on six semi-structured in-depth interviews with German expatriates in Japan.
Based on the grounded theory of Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Charmaz (2014),
adjustment issues were framed within two different themes. Coining the term
“adjustment of expatriate work practices during the Covid-19 pandemic”, this study
contributes to expatriation studies in several ways. First, by conducting in-depth
interviews with expatriates, the author hopes that the findings in this study would
corroborate current literature that expatriates are not uniform in nature, butdemonstrate varying distinct challenges and adjustment issues (Black andGregersen, 1991; Black et al., 1991). Second, a systematic classification of work
practices during the Covid-19 pandemic is developed. Accordingly, a narrative arises
where adjustment of work practices is split into two themes: work practices in Japanand work practices outside Japan.
This study indicates that expatriates were isolated owing to restrictions to work from
home, that they disliked the home office, and that they experienced an overflow of
online meetings. On the other hand, adjustments outside Japan enabled expatriates
to communicate electronically much better with headquarters, and also more
frequently with third parties. Thus, this study provides insights into a better
understanding of expatriates’ work practice adjustments during the Covid-19
pandemic.
The paper is organized as follows: After discussing the literature on adjustment
issues as well as the Covid-19- pandemic in Japan, the methodology is presented.

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The main results and discussion follow. Finally, a conclusion summarizes the findingsof this study.

Literature review on adjustment of work practices and the Covid-19
pandemic
The concept of adjustment in acculturation literature (Searle and Ward, 1990) rests
on subjective well-being and life satisfaction with a new cultural setting (Ward et al.,1998). Psychological adjustment is understood as coping with stress factors,
especially having the ability to handle negative psychological consequences of crosscultural contacts and situations (Ward and Rana-Deuba, 1999; He et al., 2019).
Changes and unexpected circumstances in a different cultural setting may cause
acculturative stress, often leading to a decline in mental health while experiencing
increased physical symptoms of stress (Berry, 2006). Psychological adjustment isconceptualized from a problem-oriented viewpoint, focusing on attitudinal factors in
the process of the adjustment (Fenner and Selmer, 2008). Early research by social
theorists indicate that expatriates experience cultural adjustment in various phases(e.g., a honeymoon stage, a cultural shock, etc.) resembling a U-shaped trajectory(Lysgaard, 1955; Black and Mendenhall,1991).
This study reaches back to the initial framework developed by Black et al. (1991) toelucidate adjusted work practices of German expatriates in Japan during the Covid19 pandemic. Their module includes three specific areas of cross-cultural adjustment.
First: work adjustment, defined as the degree of adjustment on the job as well asworking conditions and responsibilities in the host country. Second: interaction
adjustment, defined as interactions of expatriates with the host and the home country
environment. Third: general adjustment, defined as the degree of comfort andfamiliarity of expatriates with living conditions in the host country. In addition, networkties are integrated into this research as they remain a significant characteristic ofexpatriates (Mäkelä, 2007). Although newly established contacts acquired solely
through new media, e.g., online meetings, can be characterized as superficial
relationships, they should not be underestimated. The seminal work of Granovetterand his “weak ties theory” posits that weaker ties that are high in number canoutperform a network of a few strong ties (Granovetter, 1973).
The Covid-19 pandemic had triggered much disastrous effects on Japan businesses(Watanabe, 2020). The Japanese government did not impose strict lockdown
measures similar to those implemented in other countries, e.g., in Germany, Italy or
the UK. The Japanese way of lockdown was referred to as a “state of emergency”. In
the first lockdown period from April 7 to May 25, 2020, a reduction in contact rate of
80% was deemed necessary to control the outbreak (Kuniya, 2020). For instance,
Japanese restaurants were advised to close after 18.00 in the evenings. Before Jan.
21st 2021, the Japanese government could only request shop owners to close; it did
not have the legal authority to mete out punitive measures to those who did notcomply with government guidelines. In Osaka, for example, several pachinko parlors
chose not to comply with governmental requests to close temporarily. It was reported
that the local government in Osaka had no alternative but to resort to publicly naming
and shaming those defiant pachinko parlors to force them to abide by the5government’s bidding (Asahi Shimbun, 2020). The Japanese government advised
people to restrict their contacts and to maintain social distancing (Watanabe andYabu, 2020). It was only when the pandemic situation worsened that a so-called
Covid-19 virus law was finally passed on Jan. 21st 2021. This enabled thegovernment to take action against shop owners who refused to comply withgovernment guidelines regarding Covid-19 restrictions (Nippon, 2021).
For a long time a relatively moderate rate of infections and a low death rate wasreported for Japan. During the study period (Nov. 2020 to May 2021), the number ofaffected people was almost one tenth the number in, for example, Germany(Coronavirus Tracker, 2021). However, even if the number of infected citizens inJapan remained comparatively low, the Japanese government and other institutions
were concerned about the psychological impact of the pandemic to its citizens which
had led to an increased rate of depression, as acknowledged recently by Japanese
researchers (Yamamoto et al., 2020). The small number of infections is a surprise topeople who are not knowledgeable about Japan, a densely populated country.
Moreover, there is a large population of elderly people, and therefore, many high‐risk
individuals over 65 years of age (about 26%). Insiders to Japan, however, know thatJapanese are amenable to social distancing, and that it is not unusual to wear facemasks even long before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Every year,
influenza leads millions of Japanese to wear masks to prevent infection and to avoid
infecting others. Also, each spring is hay fever season in Japan. Many Japanesewear masks during this period because they are allergic to pollen from pine trees(Iwasaki and Grubaugh, 2020). Therefore, the practice of wearing face masks inpublic has been quite widespread well before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Methodology
Context and data collection
German expatriates in Japan offer an interesting context for this study for threereasons. First, there is a long-standing research tradition on Western expatriates inJapan, reaching back to the work of Black in 1988 who investigated American
expatriates in Japan. Similarly, much early research focused on Western expatriate
assignments in Asia and the Pacific Rim (Black and Gregersen, 1991), with aplentitude of studies conducted by Selmer (1999) in Hong Kong. Second, thisresearch corroborates with the segmentation of high and low context cultures (Hall,1976), drawing upon a German low context culture and a high context host country
culture in Japan. Finally, Japan is ethnically a very homogeneous country, andforeigners may find it difficult to adjust to the socio-cultural environment (Fearon,
2003; Yamashiro, 2011; Froese 2010) despite it being an advanced economy.
In order to address the research questions for this study, an exploratory, inductive
approach was adopted to gather data from qualitative interviews (Caligiuri andBonache, 2016; He, An and Berry, 2019). According to Lindlof and Tayler (2002), thein-depth interview constructing grounded theory is an important technique for
qualitative research as rich and detailed data can be collected (Charmaz, 2014).

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Semi-structured interviews were conducted via skype with six German expatriates
located in Japan. Three of the expatriates were recruited by social network and theother three via the author’s personal network. The interviews took between one andtwo hours, and one interviewee was asked twice to respond to additional questions.
This kind of in-depth interviews, or “long interviews” are contended by as follows:“The long interview gives us the opportunity to step into the mind of another person,
to see and experience the world as they do themselves” (1988, p. 9). Having theCovid-19 situation at hand, I believe that such a qualitative approach is best suited inbringing to the surface specific challenges that German expatriates faced with regard
to their work practices in Japan (see Arseneault, 2020, for Korea and Canada). Theinterviews were conducted during December 2020 to March 2021. The number ofinterviews for this research was deemed acceptable. Sinkovics et al. (2009) based
their in-depth research on 9 interviews. Eisenhardt claims that not more than four indepth studies are necessary to retrieve sufficient information according to the extend
theory (Eisenhardt, 1989, b). Wilczewski even based their study on a single interview(Wilczewski et al., 2019) and Charmaz (2014) contends: “…you can decide how
many interviews will suffice for your project” (p. 19)..

Study sample
During the interview process, the author verified that the expatriates were based inJapan, on a management level position, and had several years of management
experience. Three of the interviewees arrived in Japan shortly before Covid-19 was
declared a pandemic. Two others were already several months in Japan before theoutbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the interviewees was a self-initiatedexpatriate (No. 2, certification company) with about 20 years of experience in Japan.
All the interviewees were male, with degrees ranging from BSc from German
universities to a PhD. They were working in IT, automotive, engineering or
certification companies in Japan; all of them worked at different companies (Appendix
1).

Method and data analysis
The interviews captured dialogues on the adjustment of work practices. Theinterviewees, who offered individual insights of the study topic, were considered as
primary sources of detailed content. The interviews were recorded and transcribed
and memos were written by the author when interviewees did not allow recording. Allinterviews were conducted in the German language as it was the mother tongue ofboth interviewer and interviewees. The data coding of all six interviews was
performed manually. The statements in this paper were translated as adequately as
possible to reflect the true feelings of the interviewees. Next, transcripts and memos
were coded following a template analysis approach developed originally for the
grounded theory by Glaser and Strauss (1967). This involved choosing an inductive
approach to collect data which were coded into different themes. The study hence set
out a refined version of the grounded theory by Charmaz (2014) who contends:

7“(G)rounded theory serves as a way to learn about the worlds we study and a methodfor developing theories to understand them” (2014, p. 17).
This technique started with existing and potentially relevant themes, and a flexible
approach to code the themes as they arose. By moving between levels, theresearcher refined and re-evaluated previous theoretical ideas (see findings in Table1). Thus, following the typical template analysis for the grounded theory, the author
began initially coding more than 120 different facets as the first step. As a second
step, the data were categorized into micro themes. Following this, the first order(micro) themes were transferred into higher order (macro) themes. In this step, micro
themes appearing directly from the transcripts were merged with those identified in
the memos. Subsequently, these templates were iteratively revised to saturation until
two overall themes (i.e., adjustment to work practices in Japan and outside Japan)
were reached. The final template showing four macro themes is summarized in Table
1.

Findings
Table 1: Overview of findings based on the final template
Micro themes
Restricting travels andstaying at home
Home office as “teleworking”:
boring in spite of good
housing
Lacking physicalrelationships, overflow of
online meetings experienced
Fear of shrinking expatriate
positions
Increase in digitalization
Diminishing holding patterns
Increasing overlap time forsuccessions
Increasing interactions with
HQ
Increasing interactions withthird parties

Macro themes
Restrictions andinternal changes

Overall themes
Adjustment to work
practices in Japan

Firm changes andadjustments
Successions
Bridge building
activities

Adjustment to work
practices outside
Japan

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Adjustment to work practices in Japan
Restrictions and internal changes
Restricting travels and staying at home
Increasing attention was placed on travel restrictions for expatriates and practicallimitations, resulting in their inability to be physically present at the office (Ryugen,2020). In this way, the Covid-19 pandemic affected work practices of German
expatriates in Japan significantly. Several expatriates expressed surprise at theJapanese government’s way of dealing with the pandemic situation. As an illustration,
German expatriate Interviewee No. 4 expressed his feelings on governmental
restrictions the following way:
“Here (in Japan) there is no regulatory agency running around allotting tickets or fines
or whatever. It works through social pressure. I have to admit that the Japanese are
more disciplined than us (the Germans).”
Research on how other countries responded to the pandemic shows that many
companies offered their expatriate staff a temporary home return or an earlytermination. Nonetheless, the situation also arose where “…many assignees simply
stayed in the host country location and had to adopt 100% virtual working patterns
from one day to the next” (Sahakiants and Dorner, 2021, p. 786). Also, in our
research, all six German interviewees did not use this exit option; they continued tostay in Japan.
The Japanese government attempted to keep the infectivity rate of Covid-19 low by
restricting physical cross-border travels. Restrictions were placed on foreigners’ entry
into the country after April 7th 2020, and again before the Olympic Games were due
to start in Tokyo in July (Japan Times, 2021). However, unlike other G7 countries andeven OECD countries, this ban not only affected tourists or short-term visitors toJapan, but also long-term residents (Bekes, 2020). Interestingly, Japanese
government officials had long argued that there were not enough testing capacities
available, and hence they felt justified imposing restrictions on the re-entry of nonJapanese and other professionals to Japan from early May 2020. As Japanesecitizens did not face any quarantine for the first few months of the pandemic when
they returned to Japan, vociferous complaints of discrimination against non-Japanesearose from the foreign community in Japan (Bekes, 2020). After May 2021, however,Japanese citizens who returned home to Japan had to be quarantined too, just likeany foreign resident with permission to return to Japan.
Interviewee No. 2, a self-expatriated German top manager, reported that he went
back to Germany in September 2020 for a four-week period. He made this trip toGermany as he had expected even greater difficulty with re-entry after autumn (2020)
because of a possible new wave of Covid-19 infections. In contrast, Interviewee No.
3, who had been expatriated to Japan for a 3-year period, decided not to leave thecountry in the summer of 2020 as he did not want to spend three days quarantined in9an assigned hotel close to the airport, and then a further 11 days in isolation at home(should he test negative for Covid-19).
Home office as “teleworking”
Research on remote collaboration shows that the home office was the only way for
expatriates to fulfill their duties at foreign locations during travel restrictions (Caligiuri
et al., 2020). During State of Emergency, all the six interviewed German expatriates
in this study were forced to work from home, an arrangement called “teleworking” inJapan.
In a December 2020 interview, Interviewee No. 1 stated he found himself teleworking
since April 2020. He was assigned as an expatriate to a German automotive
company in Japan, and arrived in late 2019 shortly before the outbreak of the Covid19 pandemic. Teleworking for him started some months after he arrived at thesubsidiary located in Kawasaki, Japan. He mentioned that he had never worked fromhome before in his career. However, from April 2020 onwards, just like all otherexpatriates, he rarely went to the subsidiary office. This meant that he spent almost
all his office time working from his home office. Interviewee No. 1 reported:“...since April (2020) I have not been to the subsidiary office more than once a week,
or even twice a month, sometimes even only once a month. That means, [laughing] I
am basically here all day at my home office, just working on the computer.”
The regular teleworking day was mainly composed of online meetings. These
extensive group meetings, often consisting of 10 to 15 participants and werescheduled over the entire day. Expatriates commonly reside in upmarket areas whenon assignment abroad (Wentland, 2003), this being the case also with expatriates inJapan. However, in spite of the comfortable houses that expatriates occupied, theinterviewees complained that they did not enjoy working from their home offices.
Essentially, the decision to work from the home office was made by the company inorder to curb Covid-19 infection risks. Societal pressure to meet the ambitious targetsof firms to stay isolated in Japan was high.
Lacking physical relationships, overflow of online meetings
The relationship between expatriates and local managers weakened owing to thezero physical contact policy as part of the health protocol during the pandemic. For
expatriates, it was understandably difficult (or even impossible) to compare what
Japanese managers did (or not did!) at their homes. Expatriates could only complain
they had to use the digital media to contact their local managers.
Interviewee No. 2 said that he missed his local Japanese colleagues. He consideredsuch contacts necessary for long-term relationships to keep up group performance at
his firm. In addition, he noticed that the after-work activities of Japanese workers had
also changed substantially during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, he did not

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go out anymore for drinks with colleagues after work. Interviewee No. 5 supported
this observation:“There are no “nomikais” (drinking events) anymore after work. That is because of
the Corona.”
Expatriates in Japan were not the only ones affected by the pandemic. For example,
the introduction of newly arrived expatriates to the new work environment used to bea routine practice for the Japanese staff. Hence, the introduction of a new boss from
Germany would have been a routine procedure. Even family and housing
arrangements for the expatriate manager were seen as routine processes to be
carried out by the Japanese employees. Since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak,however, with no more physical contact between locals and expatriates, many routine
issues needed to be handled by the expatriates themselves (He et al., 2019).
Just like the expatriates, local Japanese managers similarly disliked working fromtheir home office. There were several reasons for their dissatisfaction. Japanesemanagers had difficulty handling their subordinate employees in an efficient mannerwithout being physically close to them. Japanese managers felt they had to bephysically present for their teams to fully understand their needs and requirements.
Before the outbreak of the pandemic, Japanese managers could never haveimagined that they had to stay away from their team and work from their home. It is
undesirable for Japanese managers, as well as for any other employees, to stay athome away from the office. Employees are expected to at least demonstrate theirindustriousness by being present at the workplace. That way, the manager can easily
speak with each employee face-to-face, be able to handle their staff personally andreceive the necessary feedback or concerns. Besides, managers who worked fromhome often hesitated to chastise an errant employee via electronic communication
because no spontaneous feedback was possible. In this regard, interviewee No. 4
mentioned:“Well, we do not fuss anymore with expat-stories. I and most of my colleagues(German, but also Japanese) have to stay at home. But many of us are not happy
about working from home.”
Furthermore, emerging research indicates negative effects of information overload
associated with the overuse of new media (Matthes et al., 2020). Concerns havebeen raised regarding the absence of a separation between private life and work,
which gives rise to the feeling of having to be online and available most of the time
(Campbell and Gavett, 2021). In sum, German expatriates revealed that there had
been an overflow of online meetings.
Firm changes and adjustments
Fear of shrinking expatriate positions
Research has long indicated that premature termination of assignments orunderperformance by expatriates is often caused by poor cultural adjustment(Bonache, Brewster and Froese, 2020). Such premature terminations pose highcosts to headquarters (Collings, Scullion and Morley, 2007; Guzzo, Noonan and11Elron, 1994). However, another reason for a premature return to the home country
can be a directive from headquarters. Also, expatriates may get transferred toanother destination in the global network because their expertise is needed moreurgently there (Caligiuri, 2000). Premature expatriate return, therefore, should not be
automatically associated with expatriation failure (Harzing, 1995). Headquarters
sometimes may have no other choice than to arrange a transfer should the needarise. Also, spouses and family members can influence the performance of
expatriates, the well-being and the timing of return to headquarters. It is, therefore,
not uncommon for expatriates to change their span of assignment to leave earlier
than agreed upon (Lee, 2007). Expatriates might also delay their return toheadquarters for their own personal reasons. For example, a project by Interviewee
No. 1 was originally set up for a time span of two years, ending in Dec 2021. Owing
to family reasons, he requested to further extend his tenure at the Japanese office.
However, the German headquarters asked him to finish his assignment in Japan asscheduled and to return home (to the German subsidiary). The reasons forheadquarters to shorten assignments, or not to extend current assignments, could be
financial constraints due to the economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It isreasonable to assume that headquarters aim to save money by requesting
expatriates to return home earlier (or at least not later than agreed upon). Concern
was expressed by Interviewee 1 that German MNCs might shorten expatriate
assignments, especially when the MNCs experienced high financial losses as theirbusiness operations were curtailed or even shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some of the interviewees speculated that expatriate positions might not be filled
again even after the Covid-19 pandemic was over. Interviewee No. 1 opined that his
headquarters seemed to be downsizing their global expatriation program activities
even when the end of the pandemic was still not in sight. The pandemic had madethe headquarters more aware of cost-saving measures, e.g., by not sending their
managers overseas. It was likely that heavy losses indirectly caused by the Covid-19
pandemic had led many German MNCs to curtail their investment programs. Also,
German expatriate managers might be deemed no longer necessary for Japan-based
subsidiaries. The higher the financial losses suffered by the headquarters, the more
important it would be for headquarters to implement cost-saving measures. This is
likely to be a long-term effect of the Covid-19 pandemic even when the virus nolonger poses a threat to public health globally in the future. In other words, German
headquarters might seize the opportunity to reduce financial costs not only by
shortening existing assignments but also by keeping human resources at its
headquarters. Such a decision might hamper alignment of the subsidiary to theheadquarters in the long run. Concern was raised that German MNCs might beforced to leave their subsidiaries to operate autonomously, relying on locally hired
Japanese staff instead.
Increase in digitalization
This research builds on recent findings by Caligiuri et al. (2020) that employers
worldwide increasingly use digital solutions to support their expatriates atinternational locations (Caligiuri, De Cieri, Minbaeva, Verbeke, and Zimmermann,

122020). In this regard, Sahakiants and Dorner (2021) contend that expatriates should
benefit from using online technology and new media enforced during the Covid-19
pandemic. Nevertheless, research on digital applications for expatriate management
is scarce (Zhu et al., 2018; Sahakiants and Dorner, 2021). Enhanced electronic
communication between subsidiary and headquarters could foster their relationships,
bringing them much closer. The Covid-19 pandemic can be considered as anadditional driver for increasing digitalization (Amankwah-Amoah et al., 2021).
Through digitalization, expatriate mentoring from headquarters to spatially separated
mentees becomes possible (Zhuang et al., 2013). This would essentially be ementoring centered around internet-based technology (Sahakiants and Dorner,2021).
On a positive note for expatriates, the “out-of-sight and out-of-mind” syndrome
diminishes as the closeness of foreign-based subsidiary managers to headquarters
leads to a new balance. Expatriates can gain new experience abroad without losing
contact with headquarters. These tendencies were also expressed by German
expatriates in this study.

Adjustment to work practices outside Japan
Successions
Diminishing holding patterns
Succession of expatriates occurs when the HR decides to bring back expatriate
managers to the headquarters (Bebenroth and Froese, 2020; Bebenroth et al., 2007).
The normal length of an expatriate term is 3 to 5 years arising from the idea that
expatriate managers need to have at least three years to positively influence thesubsidiaries without distancing themselves too far away from headquarters. Also, thistime span is considered adequate to receive sufficient returns on investments.
Interviewee No. 2 confirmed this view with a Japanese proverb: “Ishi no ue ni mo sannen” (translated: “One needs to sit on a stone and wait for three years [before
something pays off”]).
The literature discusses mostly two kinds of expatriate successions. Expatriates canbe replaced by other expatriates or they can be replaced by locals (Bebenroth andFroese, 2020). When locals (in this case Japanese) take over the position, it is also
called job role localization (Pegram, Falcone and Kolios, 2019). It is unclear if
expatriation stints end up helpful or harmful career-wise upon returning to theheadquarters (Bolino, 2007). Some studies have found that expatriates remain in a
so-called “holding pattern” during their international assignments (Itani, 2011). In
such cases, they are not connected anymore to internal issues at headquarters. They
might be disadvantaged compared with other managers at the headquarters who
prefer not to be sent abroad to subsidiaries longer than a few weeks or months.
These managers get promoted earlier than expatriates because they are not “out-ofsight and out-of-mind” as expatriates are (Feldman and Harvey, 1993). Such aholding pattern, therefore, can result in major career disappointments for expatriates(Antal, 2000). Also, studies suggest that younger expatriates face more difficulty

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reintegrating into headquarters, especially in cases of organizational downsizing at
the headquarters (Itani, 2011).
Increasing overlap time for successions
Research suggests that transition periods, also known as overlap time of successors
and incumbents, are of vital importance for a successful handover (Selmer and De
Leon, 1997; Wilczewski et al., 2019). Overlap time is spent on briefings on how to run
the business in the local cultural context, to introduce important stakeholders andgenerally to prepare the successor for a successful handover. In the present
research, all the interviewees agreed that overlap time was an important period in thetransfer of responsibilities. Bigger MNCs sometimes assign expatriates to special
projects where overlap time does not matter. However, the majority of expatriates,
especially at smaller entities in Japan, are sent out to lead the subsidiary as top
managers. In this case the length and quality of overlap time can determine theperformance of the incumbent-successor handover.
Previous expatriate studies suggest that the duration of an adequate overlap timedepends on the firm and the distance between the two cultures. Expatriates to firms
with greater distance take a longer time to get acquainted with the business, while on
average, overlap time takes about 1.5 months (Selmer and De Leon, 1997). During
the present Covid-19 pandemic, there are naturally no successions taking place.
However, when the Covid-19 pandemic is over and the (Japanese) borders re-open,
the issue of successions will gain prominence again. Incumbents have lost time
experiencing being at their own firm because they have spent (at least) more than ayear of their expatriation time at their home office. Therefore, interviewees suggested
that German headquarters give incumbents a longer time to introduce successors to
the local cultural (Japanese) context, especially to introduce successors to importantclients, stake holders and key employees at the local firm itself.
Bridge building activities
Increasing interactions with headquarters
Headquarters send expatriate managers to host countries for strategic reasons(Edstroem and Gailbraith, 1977), the most important of which is control over finances(Bebenroth Pascha and Schuermann, 2007). Nevertheless, here are other strategic
reasons as well (Bebenroth et al., 2007). Expatriates are expected to focus on bridgebuilding activities i.e., linking the headquarters to their subsidiaries and to existing or
potential partners. The interviewees in this study revealed that during the Covid-19
pandemic, they spoke more frequently with their own headquarters rather than withthe local manager. Here is the statement of interviewee No. 6.
“Well, the connection to the headquarters is always important. Of course, we are thebuilder of the bridges between our subsidiary and the headquarters, but
unfortunately, not anymore bridging local partners”.

14However, expatriate-headquarter connections were strengthened during the Covid19 pandemic. Headquarters had more contact with expatriates and also more control
over their expatriate managers as there was easy communication access and, insome cases, even daily online meetings were held.
Increasing interactions with third parties
Business contacts of expatriates within the network with third parties increased
during the Covid-19 pandemic. This included links to managers based at othersubsidiaries outside Germany, e.g., in Korea. Several expatriates conceded,
however, that this widened networking with colleagues all over the world would very
likely not be stable after the Covid-19 pandemic ended. The reason was that there
would be little chance for the expatriates to physically meet in the future. Therefore,
although expatriates in Japan increased their flexible business network worldwide, it
was not deeply rooted but was based on so-called “weak signals”.
Both Interviewees No. 2 and No. 3 reported that they spoke more often to colleagues
all over the world online, including colleagues with whom they had never contacted
before the outbreak of the pandemic. Both interviewees also thought they would nothave spoken to them, under normal (non-Covid-19) circumstances, until in-person
meetings were set up. Interviewee No. 2, a self-initiated German top manager (at aGerman certification company, and who had been in Japan for around 20 years)
realized that not only had his place of work been transferred to his home, but that his
working hours had also increased. He further reported that his erstwhile extensive
travels over the past years came to zero except for a few trips to Tokyo. He spent
most of his time holding online meetings from home with colleagues in various partsof the world, and not just with the headquarters in Germany. He complained thatteleworking was disadvantageous to him as global time differences meant that hehad to be available almost 24 hours a day:“Early in the mornings, my headquarters would call me up all the time – and then in
the evenings, the Americans.”

Discussion
The study was organized following the original framework of Black et al. (1991)
underpinned by the grounded theory, and was based on six qualitative interviews.
The term “adjustment of expatriates’ work practices during the Covid-19 pandemic”
was coined for this study. Specifically, a unique template was derived dividing
adjustment of work practices into two main themes: adjustment in Japan andadjustment outside Japan. The main issues elucidated were travel restrictions,
physical isolation and an overflow of online meetings at the home office, globalchanges, successions, and bridge-building activities.
This research contributes to the literature by offering a comprehensive overview ofGerman expatriates’ work practices during the Covid-19 pandemic situation. The

15

study departed from original framework by Black et al. (1991) comprising threeelements, namely work adjustment, interactive adjustment and general adjustment.
The new framework for this study consists of two overall themes to better fit
expatriates’ work practice adjustments to the pandemic situation, viz. expatriates’
work practice adjustments within Japan and outside Japan.
Also, global changes and adjustments that occur due to a higher rate of digitalization
deserve mention. As pointed out by Amankwah-Amoah et al. (2021), Covid-19 has
led to a faster pace of digitalization at firms. While the digitalization process is seen
as a necessary undertaking by headquarters (Caligiuri et al., 2020), expatriates also
gain the advantage of being brought closer to headquarters. However, concern isalso raised that headquarters might make the change to fully govern theirsubsidiaries online, and stop the practice of sending out expatriates. In contrast to
Granovetter`s research suggesting that many weak ties outperform a few strong
ones, results of the interviewees clearly point out that these new weak ties,
generated by online meetings, would very likely be lost in the near future as soon as
the Covid-19 pandemic is over. This finding adds a new perspective to literature thattends to ascribe a rather passive role to expatriates who are bound by theirnewcomer status at the host country (Mäkelä, 2007).
This research also offers a more nuanced view on depression experienced by
expatriates working in isolation. Besides affective and adjustment disorders found by
Foyle et al. (2007), in Japan, the incidence of depression is on the rise (Yamamoto,2020). Despite expatriates enjoying much better housing than locals, their isolation
remains a concern. Isolation due to confinement to the home office leads also toserious discomfort. Findings of Caligiuri et al. (2020) and Sahakiants and Dorner(2021) are corroborated by the interviewees’ revelation that the transfer of work
practices to the home office leads to isolation and (at the same time) to an overflow
of online meetings that increase stress. This research also validates the findings ofHoltbrugge and Shillo (2008) that virtual assignments which result in a lack of face-toface interaction exacerbates intercultural management problems. In addition, trustbuilding among team members becomes more difficult to manage (Sahakiants andDorner, 2021).
The findings of this study have several implications. First, expatriates felt isolated,even if their housing standard was far above that provided for local managers. Thisimplies that digitalization, virtual meetings, and housing quality could not fullycompensate for the isolation felt by of the German expatriates during the Covid-19
pandemic. Moreover, the expatriates had also to ensure their own physical health.
Although communication with headquarters had increased via the electronic modeand relationships between the two parties had strengthened, the network with local
employees remained (at best) underdeveloped.
The interviewees expressed concern that, following their experience with the
pandemic, headquarters would try to save resources, especially finances, byshrinking expatriation activities and not sending them out again to subsidiaries (atleast for the next few years). While such a move might be partly unavoidable for
MNCs with high financial losses due to the severe economic impact of the Covid-19
pandemic, headquarters should clearly communicate their intentions to managers.

16

The interviewees also suggested that the overlap time of incumbents and successors(expatriates) should be increased to ensure a successful hand-over. Firms areadvised, therefore, to continue expatriation programs to connect strategically withforeign based subsidiaries and to give both parties sufficient time to ensure a smoothtransition.
Shortcomings
This research is not without its limitations. Only six German expatriates wereinterviewed. Even if the author felt saturation in responses after the last interview, ahigher number of interviewees, especially with expatriates of other nationalities, mightshed more insight on this fascinating issue of work practice adjustment.
Nevertheless, it is believed that the number of interviewees is sufficient for thesefindings to be confirmed in future studies, and that Germans (with their low context
culture) represent similar challenges faced by other Westerners, Europeans andAmericans based in Japan. A further weakness of the study is that all the interviewed
expatriates were male and belonging to classical industries for German firms inJapan. Female expatriates, or those in different industries such as banking may
experience the Covid-19 impact differently. Also, several studies have demonstrated
a potential positive influence of the digital media on the wellbeing and adjustment for
the family members of expatriates (Crowne, Goeke and Shoemaker, 2015). This
research has solely focused on expatriates themselves, not their families. Future
research is called for the investigation of these themes on a broader level. The study
would further profit from a longitudinal study design that could provide additional
insights into the process of adjustment during a period with travel restrictions inplace, similar to that experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Conclusion
This research, based on the theoretical frame of Black et al. (1991) as well as on the
grounded theory by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and by Charmaz (2014), highlights“adjustment of expatriates` work practices during the Covid-19 pandemic”, a termcoined specifically for this study. The theoretical framework helped to provide theguidelines for in-depth interviews with six German expatriates on assignments inJapan.
Here, work practices were divided into two dimensions: adjustment of work practices
in Japan and adjustment outside Japan. It was found that during the pandemic, theexpatriates felt isolated in their home offices despite their living in comfortable
houses. There was a physical lack of contact with co-workers, whereas an overflow
of online meetings was common, including those occurring at awkward times of the
day due to differences in international time zones. Otherwise, the expatriates viewed
their adjustment of work practices outside Japan more favorably. This was especiallytrue among interviewees who valued the stronger connection with headquarters thatensued, and who appreciated better digitalization and easier communication throughthe electronic media.

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Appendix 1: German Expatriates interviewed between Dec. 2020 and March
2021
Interviewee No. 1: Automotive company, Kawasaki, project manager, male,Interview: Jan. 2021.
Interviewee No. 2: Certification company, Osaka, general manager, male,(interviewed twice), Interviews: February and March 2021.
Interviewee No. 3: Engineering company, Tokyo, development engineer, male,Interview: March 2021
Interviewee No. 4: Car parts manufacturer, Tokyo, key account manager, male,Interview: Dec. 2020
Interviewee No. 5: IT company, Tokyo, systems engineer, male, Interview: Dec. 2020
Interviewee No. 6: Automotive company, Tokyo, Systems manager-engineer, male,Interview: Dec. 2020
Interview guidelines (translated from German):
1. How do you arrange your regular working day nowadays? Are there anychanges, difficulties or advantages because of the Covid-19 pandemic?
2. How much of your time do you spend in your home-office?
3. What advantages or disadvantages does the home-office provide?
4. Did you have the chance to return to Germany before lockdown was enforced?
5. What do you think is different nowadays compared to a regular assignment(without the Covid-19 pandemic)?
6. Do you think you have to shorten or to extend your stay at Japan because of theCovid-19 pandemic?
7. Do you think your succession personnel might be influenced by the Covid-19
pandemic? To what extent?
8. Do you think the overlap between you and your successor will change, i.e.,
becoming longer or shorter?

18

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