An investigation into the individual and organizational correlates of expatriate success, satisfaction and organizational commitment

Abstract

Global competition and emergence of new world markets have made it imperative to identify and develop managers who can effectively cope with culturally dissimilar environments. Expatriate managers live far away from their homes, adapt to alien settings, interact with culturally diverse constituents, continually respond to fast changing market requirements and must be effective in their responses to various stakeholders. Financial investments made by typical organizations to enable expatriate assignments are high and often so is the failure rate of such assignments. Research has shown significant relationships between manager satisfaction and organizational commitment.

Past research findings indicate that successful expatriate managers share some common personality traits and attributes. Past research also suggests that the success of expatriate assignments, at least in part, is related to organizational practices. However, most such research has been conducted in piece-meal fashion. Few studies have looked at the impact of organizational and individual attributes on the satisfaction and commitment of the expatriate manager and on the outcome of the assignment integrally.

The present study attempted to formulate and test an integrative model of expatriate success, satisfaction and commitment. Eleven hypotheses linking manager and organizational variables to project success and expatriate manager satisfaction and commitment were formulated and tested using a survey of 126 expatriate managers employed by a global pharmaceutical company. The survey was followed by a series of telephone interviews which offered further corroborative evidence of their attitudes before, during and after the assignments. This study also aimed to assess the impact of foreign assignments on expatriate manager Satisfaction by using instruments specifically developed by the researcher for this purpose.

Overall, the present findings offer support for the integrative conceptual model developed in the study. The present data suggest a mediating role of adjustment in the relationship between aspects of the manager's personality and satisfaction. Implications of the present findings for theory and practice are discussed. The final chapter of this dissertation discusses short term tactical actions and long term strategic changes on the part of employers to motivate and retain expatriate managers.