Satisfaction with an expatriate job

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on satisfaction with an expatriate job and how such satisfaction is linked to leadership. Specifically, this research examines how two different kinds of distances – physical distance and functional distance – between an expatriate and his/her supervisor are related to satisfaction with the expatriate job. Design/methodology/approach The study was conducted among 290 Finnish expatriates. Moderated hierarchical regression analysis was conducted in order to test the research hypothesis. Findings The results show that low functional distance with a supervisor is related to greater satisfaction with the expatriate job. The physical distance is not directly connected to expatriate job satisfaction, but the common effect of the two types of distance shows that among those whose functional distance is low, working in the same country with the leader is linked to greater expatriate satisfaction than recorded among those who were physically distant. Interestingly, expatriates with high functional distance are more satisfied with the expatriate job if they work in a different country to their supervisor. Originality/value This study makes a contribution in three areas; first, it addresses the understudied phenomena of international work-specific job satisfaction, specifically satisfaction with an expatriate job. Second, it provides new knowledge on the outcomes of leader distance in the context of expatriation, a work situation that is inherently related to changes in physical location and to organizational relationships. Third, it contributes to leadership literature and highlights the importance of the conditions and the context in which leadership occurs.

International business travelers' job exhaustion: effects of travel days spent in short-haul and long-haul destinations and the moderating role of leader-member exchange

“…Our finding that a high-quality LMX was related to lower general job exhaustion and IBTExh (H2) aligns with those of previous studies conducted in a domestic context that directly connect the level of LMX with employee wellbeing (Agarwal et al, 2012;Dulebohn et al, 2012;Li et al, 2012;Tanskanen et al, 2019). The concept of the LMX also seems to be relevant to the study of leadership in the context of international work, which often entails supervisor and subordinate working at a physical distance (Golden and Veiga, 2008;M€ akel€ a et al, 2019;Nurmi and Hinds, 2016). Therefore, IBTs' job exhaustion future studies should pay more attention to aspects related to LMX among IBTs, such as relationship development and organizational outcomes.…”

“…Leader-Member Exchange quality was measured with an eight-item LMX scale based on the validated LMX-UVA scale (M€ akel€ a et al, 2019;Tanskanen et al, 2019). Sample items include these: "We trust each other" and "We can genuinely listen to each other's opinions."…”

“…The impact of leadership on, for example, job resources, and well-being outcomes should be more JGM 9,3 thoroughly studied (Bakker and Demerouti, 2017). Therefore, one important job resource to study is the way in which people are led in organizations (Breevaart et al, 2015;Schaufeli and Taris, 2014) and the essential role of leadership has also been recognized in the context of work that forces supervisors and subordinates to work at a physical distance from each other (Antonakis and Atwater, 2002;Bligh and Riggio, 2013;M€ akel€ a et al, 2019;Zander et al, 2012), that is also the case for international business travel. A functioning dyadic relationship with one's supervisor is perceived to be a particularly valuable resource and has the potential to mitigate emotional exhaustion (Huang et al, 2010;Lai et al, 2018;Thomas and Lankau, 2009).…”

The three-phase expatriate cycle of developing global human resources in the banking industry in Taiwan

“…Organisations should strengthen the repatriation process by incorporating adjustment for the repatriate in terms of working environment, socio-cultural environment Three-phase expatriate cycle and family (Cole, 2012;Gorp et al, 2017;Sarkiunaite and Rocke, 2015). Only by aiming for mutual satisfaction and crafting a win-win scenario for both parties, can the organisation create the biggest value (Farndale et al, 2014;Haslberger and Dickmann, 2016;Mäkelä et al, 2019).…”

Bridging distance through zooming? The use of virtual assignments in multinational corporations

“…The control variable gender (1 = male; 2 = female; 3 = non-binary) was added, as it has been used in previous empirical studies on international assignments (e.g. Mäkelä et al ., 2019; Paulus and Muehlfeld, 2017). In addition, it was controlled for the time spent on current international assignment (1 = “less than 6 months”; 2 = “between 6 months and less than 1 year”; 3 = “between 1 and less than 2 years”; 4 = “between 2 and less than 4 years”; 5 = “4 years or more”), as prior studies indicate that language skills and adjustment to another context develop over time (Paulus and Muehlfeld, 2017).…”