The Influence of the Spouse on American Expatriate Adjustment and Intent to Stay in Pacific Rim Overseas Assignments

Abstract

Past international human resource management literature has suggested that most American multinationalfirms that employ expatriate managers have difficulty successfully retaining these managers in overseas assignments. Although some scholars have suggested that the inability of the spouse to adjust is one of the major reasons expatriate managers return early from their overseas assignments, few researchers have attempted to verify empirically a relationship between the spouse's adjustment and the adjustment and intentions to stay or leave of the expatriate manager. This study found that a favorable opinion about the overseas assignment by the spouse is positively related to the spouse's adjustment and the novelty of the foreign culture has a negative relationship with the spouse's adjustment. Additionally, the adjustment of the spouse is highly correlated to the adjustment of the expatriate manager and the adjustment of the spouse and the expatriate are positively related to the expatriate's intention to stay in the overseas assignment.

An examination of crossover and spillover effects of spousal and expatriate cross-cultural adjustment on expatriate outcomes.

“…The principal investigator conducted telephone interviews and asked the superior to rate the expatriate on the three work adjustment items derived from Black and Stephens (1989). Superior ratings are generally considered a valid alternative to self-ratings in the performance appraisal literature when the supervisor has the opportunity to observe the employee (Atwater, Ostroff, Yammarino, & Fleenor, 1998).…”

“…The information provided by the spouses may help socialize the expatriate to the host country. Empirical support for this potential crossover effect comes from prior studies (Black & Stephens, 1989;Caligiuri et al, 1998;Shaffer & Harrison, 1998).…”

“…One reason for the high failure rates is the problem with the expatriate successfully adjusting to the foreign culture (e.g., Garonzik, Brockner, & Siegel, 2000). In addition, as Hays (1974) noted some time ago, another contributing factor is the degree to which the expatriate's spouse successfully manages the cross-cultural adjustment process.Despite the gains made in understanding expatriate cross-cultural adjustment, prior empirical research has tended to neglect the role of spouses (Black & Stephens, 1989;Dowling, Welch, & Schuler, 1999). More recently, however, scholars have started to examine the effects of cross-cultural adjustment of spouses on expatriates (e.g., Caligiuri, Hyland, Joshi, & Bross, 1998;Shaffer & Harrison, 1998).…”

Cultural adaptation in different facets of life and the impact of language: a case study of personal adjustment patterns during study abroad

“…However, other researchers (e.g., Church, 1982;Ward et al, 2001) have pointed out that the empirical evidence for the pattern is weak, and recent research by Hotta and Ting-Toomey (2013) indicates that there is considerable individual variation. Other studies, including those carried out by researchers working within education and international business/management as well as psychology (e.g., Black & Stephens, 1989;Selmer & Leung, 2003;Shaffer, Harrison, & Gilley, 1999;Spencer-Oatey & Xiong, 2006;Templer, Tay, & Chandrasekar, 2006;Wilson, 2013), have provided empirical evidence for different domains of adaptation, such as daily life, social life and work/study life, with different levels of adaptation in each. So this raises a number of questions, including the following:…”

Development and validation of a measure of intercultural adjustment potential in Japanese sojourners: the Intercultural Adjustment Potential Scale (ICAPS)

“…Hammer, Gudykunst, and Wiseman (1978) focused on these factors, and also included the ability to manage psychological stress effectively. Black and Stephens (1989) identified general adjustment involving daily activities, interaction adjustment involving interpersonal relations, and work adjustment related to work and tasks. Ward and her colleagues (see Ward, 2001) have broadly divided adjustment into two categories: psychological and sociocultural.…”