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    The impact of cultural intelligence in facilitating expatriate performance : the mediating role of cultural adjustment and cultural effectiveness : a 152.800 thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirement of the degree of Master of Management at Massey University
    (Massey University, 2012) Lu, Suhua
    Expatriate studies have primarily focused on cross-cultural adjustment. Meanwhile job performance of expatriates, a critical factor contributing to the success of organisations, has received limited attention. Previous research has acknowledged that cultural issues are one of the main factors associated with expatriate success. The recently developed concept, cultural intelligence (CQ) is a dynamic cultural competency that potentially sheds new light on complex expatriate literature. The primary objective of the present study is to examine the influence of CQ in facilitating expatriate job performance. In addition, the study seeks to investigate the mediating effects of cultural adjustment, job satisfaction, and cultural effectiveness, as well as the impact of social support on expatriate adjustment. A sample of 226 Western expatriates from nineteen countries working for MNCs and resident in China completed the survey. Structural Equation Modelling was employed to test a model illustrating the causal relationship between key elements of expatriate effectiveness. The results of the study indicate that CQ is a significant predictor for cross-cultural adjustment and cultural effectiveness, which in turn affect job performance. Additionally, perceived organisational support was found to be a strong predictor of job satisfaction. Somewhat surprisingly, no direct relationship was found in the present study between job satisfaction and job performance. This research contributes to expatriate literature by providing empirical evidence that CQ is a critical and direct predicting factor for cultural adjustment and effectiveness, and further, indirectly impacts work outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance. This study provides international human resources management suggestions that MNCs should consider CQ as one of the key selection criteria for selecting potential expatriate candidates. Furthermore, the present study asserts that it is critical for MNCs to provide continuing cultural training and organisational support in order to assist expatriates adjust to local culture and thus deliver job performance, as well as enhance their job satisfaction.
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    Exploring equality, justice and identity amongst host nationals and expatriates : Which human factors enable empowerment of Filipino aid workers? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Smith, Nigel Vaughan
    Decent work includes capacity building between expatriate and their host national aid workers. Optimizing empowerment to enable decent work amongst local aid workers may depend on human factors, alongside wider poverty reduction efforts, such as economic and political reform. This study sought to explore which of local:expatriate numerical ratio, expatriate social dominance, strength of Filipino identity and perceptions of workplace justice were predictive of different levels of subjective empowerment amongst aid workers in one particular lower-income, highpoverty country, the Philippines. Responses to an online survey available in both English and Tagalog were obtained from N = 98 employees of diverse locally operating aid organisations in the Philippines during two months in early 2011 (29% male; 71% female; mean age = 35.5 years; all resident in the Philippines). The survey included measures of empowerment (Spreitzer, 1995), estimated local:expatriate numerical ratio, perceived social dominance (Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994), social identity (Ellemers, Kortekaas, & Ouwerkerk, 1999), justice (Niehoff & Moorman, 1993), social desirability (D. G. Fischer & Fick, 1993), estimated local:expatriate salary ratio and a number of demographic control measures (e.g., age, years of relevant work experience, level of education). Respondents chose to participate by clicking a link in an email sent by seven development sector practitioners who agreed to assist the researcher with distribution of invitations to their staff or contact lists. The link opened an online survey hosted by kwiksurveys.co.uk. Data was downloaded from the kwiksurveys.co.uk online database and analysed by the researcher using SPSS. Controlling for age and other demographic variables, the best predictor of enabling empowerment was the fairness of personal interactions (interactional justice; = .331). Interactional justice was also a significant predictor of the perceptions local employees had specifically about their impact in their workplace ( = .295), although this relationship was strongest when employees’ sense of self respect was weaker, implying that a secure social identity may act as a buffer to consequences of injustice, all other things being equal (interaction effect = -.233). Distributive justice predicted iv each of four distinct facets of empowerment (competence; meaning; self-determination i.e., sense of control over one’s work; and impact, i.e., sense of making a difference in one’s work). The overall pattern of results suggests that justice plays a more significant role than either dominance or identity in contributing to empowerment amongst Filipino aid employees. Strikingly, fair interpersonal treatment may matter more than distributive justice. Alongside the effects of justice, expatriate attitudes towards hierarchy and host nationals’ sense of self respect are also significant factors, impacting empowerment in different ways. Given potential distortions arising from unknown response rate and a self-report methodology, further research, ideally with better control of sampling, is suggested. Possible avenues include exploring whether interpersonal treatment may matter more than distributive justice in collectivistic societies; whether self respect may act as a buffer against the effects of injustice; and how social dominance operates outside its traditional research contexts.
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    Investigating New Zealand workers' willingness to provide expatriates with information and social support in the New Zealand workplace : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) van Rooyen, Sarah Hope
    New Zealand organisations are required to ‘import’ expatriates to fill skills shortages in the labour market caused by ‘brain drain’. A major contributor towards retaining expatriates in their New Zealand jobs for as long as possible is the amount of help, such as information and social support, expatriates receive from their local co-workers. The present study set out to explore New Zealand workers’ willingness to provide information and social support to expatriates, and subsequently understand New Zealand workers’ psychological motivations for providing help to expatriates in New Zealand workplaces. Specifically, the present study tested the similarity of expatriates’ countries-of-origin to New Zealand, the social dominance of expatriates’ countries-oforigin and the threat that expatriates pose to finite work-related resources as psychological motivators for providing or withholding help to expatriates. Fifty-six Subject Matter Experts who had approximately 13 years experience with observing relationships in New Zealand workplaces completed an online scenario-based questionnaire. The questionnaire presented seven fictitious expatriates from Britain, Australia, Canada, South Africa, USA, Japan and India, and asked participants to estimate the typical helping preferences of New Zealand workers towards the above expatriates. Kendall’s Tau rank correlation coefficients (!) indicated that, as suggested by the present sample of Subject Matter Experts, New Zealand workers’ willingness to provide information was related to their willingness to provide social support for expatriates from Australia, Canada, South Africa and USA; but not for expatriates from Britain, Japan and India. Overall, as rated by the present sample of Subject Matter Experts, Sign tests indicated that New Zealand workers were most willing to help a) British and Australian expatriates, then b) Canadian, South African and American expatriates, and lastly, c) Japanese and Indian expatriates. Kendall’s tau rank correlation coefficients (!) indicated that the above pattern of preferences for helping was largely influenced by similarity and threat of expatriates; specifically, New Zealand workers, as rated by Subject Matter Experts, were more willing to help more similar and more threatening expatriates. In the present study, social dominance of expatriates’ countriesof- origin was not rated as a significant predictor of New Zealand workers’ willingness to help expatriates. The discussion presents various implications for stakeholders involved with expatriate transfers to New Zealand.
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    Volunteering overseas : motivation, experiences and perceived career effects : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2004) Hudson, H. Sheena
    This study concerns self initiated volunteer expatriation. Drawing on data from interviews and test results from a cohort of 48 New Zealand Volunteer Service Abroad volunteers, it explored their experiences as overseas volunteer development workers. Most literature concerning expatriates focuses on the expatriate assignment of managers. By comparison volunteer development workers remain an under-researched group. Moreover, much of the expatriate management literature and the volunteer development worker literature adopts a positivist approach using quantitative methodologies and large scale studies and consider expatriates from a managerial perspective, leaving the perspective of the individual relatively unexplored. This study seeks to focus on volunteer development workers, using qualitative as well as quantitative methodology and considering individual rather than organisational attitudes and behaviour. As a theoretical backdrop, the concepts of "protean" career, (Hall, 2002), "hero's journey", (Osland, 1995) and "career competencies" (De Fillippi & Arthur, 1996) were used as frameworks to assist understanding. The study was longitudinal, and focused on a one-year cohort (2001) of volunteers who provided information on three occasions - before, during, and immediately after their assignment. The study used a mixed- methodology design i.e. was both quantitative and qualitative using both in depth interviews and psychometric testing. The study suggests alternative ways of exploring volunteer expatriation with a specific focus on repositioning the individual at the centre of the study. The study began by focusing and identifying the personalities, (as indicated by the Five Factor Model NEO- PR questionnaire) career values, (as indicated by the Career Orientation Inventory, previous career, attitudes to career and motivation to volunteer (the last two being assessed by a pre-departure structured interview. The experience of VSA assignments was explored by means of a mid-assignment email questionnaire. A second post assignment interview elicited further data on volunteers' experience of VSA, their evaluation of that experience in retrospect, and their plans for further career development. The NEO and COI were re-administered to check changes over time. The study indicated that self direction, challenge, adventure and personal resilience were dominant themes in the attitudes to career, motivations and experiences of the VSA assignment. Openness and agreeableness, significantly greater than population norms were dominant and stable personality traits. In addition, the study reported volunteers' perceived effects of the VSA experience relating to self and career in the forms of increased technical and personal skills, self awareness and challenges to their values. Such outcomes of the study support the use of the "protean "career model (Hall, 1976; Hall, 2002; Briscoe & Hall, 2003) as a way to understand the career transitions made by the volunteers. It also substantiated Osland's (1990; 1995) notion of the metaphor of the hero's journey as an adventure and framework to understand volunteer expatriation and VSA phenomena. In addition, the outcomes supported a model of understanding career competencies as career "capital" used as a framework to understand volunteer motivation and the VSA assignment experience as a career episode.
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    When all roads lead to Rome: expatriate adjustment in a United Nations Organisation : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Organisational Psychology at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2009) Caie, Linda Jayne Nelson
    Studies of expatriate adjustment have traditionally focused on corporate expatriate assignments where foreign employees are often the only expatriate, or one of a handful in a host organisation. Multicultural not-for-profit organisations such as United Nations organisations have largely been ignored. It was hypothesised that classic predictors of expatriate adjustment – Spousal Adjustment, Culture Novelty and Acculturation Style, and novel variables of Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment would predict Expatriate Adjustment and subsequent Cognitions to Withdraw prematurely from the assignment. 181 expatriates representing 38 countries from all economic levels completed an online survey investigating their experiences on assignment to a United Nations Organisation in Rome, Italy. Black & Stephens (1989) classic scales of Expatriate Adjustment, Spousal Adjustment, Culture Novelty and Cognitions to Withdraw were employed along with Acculturation Style, Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment measures designed for this study. Qualitative data was also collected around expatriates’ cognitions to withdraw from their assignment and reasons to stay in order to gain a richer understanding of the expatriate experience. The best predictors of Expatriate Adjustment and subsequent Cognitions to Withdraw for United Nations expatriate employees in Rome were classic predictor Culture Novelty and novel predictors Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment. Structural Equation Modelling indicated the best fitting model of Expatriate Adjustment and subsequent Cognitions to Withdraw demonstrated moderate fit (!2 = 1045.19, df = 486, p =.000, TLI = .80, CFI = .82, RMSEA = .08) with Culture Novelty predicting General and Interaction Adjustment; Economic Adjustment predicting General Adjustment; and Adjustment Stage predicting General, Interaction and Work Adjustment. General Adjustment was the only significant predictor of Cognitions to Withdraw. Qualitative analysis suggested that the classic adjustment measures used did not adequately capture the experiences of these expatriates and that caution should be taken in generalising the literature to not-for-profit populations. Furthermore the outcomes of this study suggest that the inclusion of novel variables of Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment as predictors of expatriate adjustment could be warranted for future research. Sample size and adequacy of measures both limited the extent to which analysis could be conducted and results generalised. More research into the expatriate experience in the not-for-profit sector is desperately needed.
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    Person-job fit and its relationship with work attitudes: a study of Christian missionaries from Australasia : a thesis presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2007) Manson, Jennifer Margaret
    Do Christian missionaries who exhibit good person-job fit, (‘aligned’ with host nation colleagues and ‘in harmony’ with expatriate colleagues), experience more positive work attitudes? Personjob fit was conceptualized in terms of competencies. Perspectives on what competencies the role of missionary requires were obtained from 3 groups of subject matter experts: host nation colleagues, missionaries, and mission agency leaders. In Study I, subject matter experts (host nation colleagues, n=22, missionaries, n=25, and agency leaders, n=23) rated the ‘Universal Competency Framework’ (SHL) 20-level competencies. Host nation colleagues differed significantly on 3 of the competencies, suggesting that in this sample, the perspective of expatriates on the role of a missionary was not fully aligned with that of host nation colleagues. In Study 2, a sample of 130 current overseas missionaries self-assessed their performance and provided their own ratings of the importance of the competencies used in Study 1. Measures of Person-Job fit (Demands-Abilities fit, Supplies-Values fit and Perceived Performance) were regressed against outcome variables (job satisfaction, work engagement and satisfaction with life). Results indicated that a person’s fit with the job as described by both host nation colleagues (Alignment) and other expatriates (Harmonization) is positively associated with job satisfaction, work engagement and satisfaction with life. These results offer support for competencies as an effective method of describing missionary roles. Possible implications for enhancing the effectiveness and well-being of missionaries, and other aid and development workers, are discussed.