Expatriate effectiveness: from conceptualization to operationalization

Abstract

Expatriate effectiveness has been studied extensively in the expatriate literature. Despite its popularity, the construct has not been well-defined or properly operationalized. Adopting a performance perspective, we conceptualize expatriate effectiveness in terms of task, contextual, and adaptive performance. The relative importance of each type of performance may vary across expatriate jobs and over the course of the expatriate’s tenure. We propose six operational and implementation guidelines for expatriate effectiveness measurement in the contexts of the nature of the expatriate job, the prioritized performance at each stage of adjustment, rater sources and capabilities, rater culture, frequency of evaluation, and the fit between measurement methods and criteria. We contribute to cross-cultural management research by providing a thorough description of the criterion issues in this literature, offering a conceptual framework to differentiate and integrate a variety of constructs that reflect different aspects of cross-cultural effectiveness, and calling attention to the influential role of measurement operations and implementation for the validity of research studies.

Intention for international assignment among workers in Ghana: Modelling the role of motivators, demotivators and cultural disposition

“…These are job-related factors comprising r ole conflict, role novelty, role clarity and role direction, organisational factors including organisational culture novelty, social support from co-workers and superiors, and logistical support. Other categorisations were positional factors —hierarchical level, functional area and assignment vector; non-work factors -culture novelty and spouse/family adjustment; and individual factors including self-efficacy, relational and perceptual skills, previous international assignments, and language fluency [ 27 ]. If these factors are not framed well in an organisational policy and managed well, employees will not be motivated to take up an international assignment.…”

“…Meanwhile, earlier studies by [ 17 – 23 ] have focused on cultural adjustment and expatriate performance, job satisfaction, expatriate’s spouse adjustment; and [ 22 , 24 ] on job insecurity, expatriate’s benefits. Though [ 24 – 27 ] delved into an intention to accept an international assignment, these studies were conducted from the organisational approach. Thus, individual and contextual (Ghanaian) perspectives were either not addressed or not adequately addressed.…”

Guest editorial: Careers of self-initiated expatriates: exploring the impact of context

“…Beyond micro-level economic influences, many other factors are present at the organizational level (meso level) that impact expatriation's processes, experiences and outcomes. For example, Chen et al (2022) offered a concept for expatriate effectiveness in terms of task, contextual and adaptive performance, highlighting the importance of measurement in a cross-cultural environment. Finally, few research efforts have examined wider contextual issues concerning expatriation with respect to factors outside of the organization.…”