Read the full-text of this article for free

Title: Enhancing Work Group Socialization for Expatriates: A Profile Instrument of Psychological Attributes for Cross-Cultural Adaptation

Authors: Lisa D. McNary

Addresses: Author address listing can be found in the "About the Authors" section at the end of the article.

Abstract: As the global economy expands, American expatriate assignments will continue to increase and yet, the failure rate of expatriate assignments remains high. One critical source of this failure is the lack of cross-cultural adaptation for expatriate candidates that affects their socialization process in the foreign assignment. Yet, cross-cultural adaptation might be as much a psychological attribute as a skill that can be developed in training. Incorporating the literature on several issues including workplace socialization, in-group/out-group bias, and expatriate training, this paper explores the psychological attributes of cross-cultural adaptation. A profile inventory that needs validation is presented to determine whether an expatriate candidate possesses certain critical traits. Black, Mendenhall, & Oddou (1991) recognized the paucity of adequate expatriate research, noting that the existing literature is primarily anecdotal or atheoretical. This paper attempts to fill that void by providing a theoretical framework to study expatriate selection, so that the socialization process is facilitated.

Keywords: Failure rate; expatriate assignments; cross-cultural adaptation; psychological attributes; socialization process.

DOI: 10.1504/JBM.2000.141069

Journal of Business and Management, 2000 Vol.7 No.2, pp.71 - 82

Published online: 05 Sep 2024 *