Western Business Expatriates' Coping Strategies in Hong Kong vs the Chinese Mainland

Abstract

Two groups of western business expatriates, one in Hong Kong and one on the Chinese mainland, mainly from the US, France and Britain, responded to a survey regarding their ways of coping. It was found that the expatriates used overall more problem-tban symptom-focused coping strategies. Surprisingly, more symptom-focused coping was used in Hong Kong than on the Chinese mainland while the extent of problem-focused coping was almost identical for the two locations. As could have been expected, the British expatriates used more problem-focused coping than the other two nationalities in Hong Kong as they could have felt more emotionally attached to the former colony, and hence regarded themselves capable to handle their adjustment stress in a constructive manner. On the other band, the French expatriates obviously did not feel that way, since they used more symptom-coping strategies than the others in Hong Kong. The French managers also used more symptom-focused coping strategies on the Chinese mainland than the other expatriates. Implicationsfor international business firms and future research of these findings are discussed in detail.

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“…It is clear that not everyone handles moving, change, or uncertainty with ease; not everyone makes friends easily or is able to rough it in a lesser developed country; and not everyone can live in limbo. Researchers have accordingly focused on the adjustment of the expatriate employee to the foreign work experience (Selmer 2000(Selmer , 2001(Selmer , 2002(Selmer , 2004(Selmer , 2006Kraimer, Wayne and Jaworski 2001;Shaffer, Harrison, Gilley and Luk 2001;Takeuchi, Yun and Russell 2002a;Van Vianen, De Pater, Kristof-Brown and Johnson 2004;Haslberger 2005;Harrison and Shaffer 2005;Mezias and Scandura 2005;Breiden, Mohr and Mirza 2006;Shaffer, Harrison, Gregerson, Black and Ferzand 2006).…”

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“…For example, one study (Feldman and Thomas, 1992) found that the symptom-focused strategy of palliative coping (e.g., engaging in drinking or sleeping to minimize intense feelings) was negatively related to intent to remain on the assignment. Another study of expatriates working in China investigated the role of problem-focused strategies (i.e., tolerance, problem-solving, involvement) and symptom-focused strategies (i.e., dreaming of being home, spending time with other expatriates) as they related to adjustment (Selmer, 1999). Results showed that problem-focused coping strategies were positively related to work and nonwork adjustment, whereas symptom-focused strategies were negatively related to nonwork, interaction, and psychological adjustment.…”

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