Does Support Provided by Assigning Organisations Match Expatriate Expectations?
Overview of Research Study Investigating the Relationship between Expectations and Adjustment to International Assignments:
This study was conducted by Louise Wiles as a piece of original research into the experience of ‘trailing partners’ living in Portugal in 2002.
Participants were found through the local expatriate organisation ‘International Women in Portugal, IWP’ and also through the International Schools in the Lisbon area.
Of 85 questionnaires distributed, 55 were completed and returned representing a 65% response rate, 4 were incomplete and so 51 in total were included in the final analysis.
Purpose of the study:
The study investigated what level of influence organisational support and social support networks have on the adjustment of ‘trailing partners’ to their new lives abroad.
Background:
This study was divided into two parts:
Part one:
Previous research studies have shown that organisational support provided to both the transferring employee and the trailing partner/family can help ease the adaptation process.
However, support from organisations cannot be infinite. Organisations are restricted by budgets and financial constraints and are becoming ever more conscious of the need to keep the costs of foreign assignments down.
The requirements for organisational support will vary depending on a range of factors and these may include:
- Family circumstances.
- Location of assignment.
- Personality of assignees.
- Existence of language barriers.
- Previous expatriate experience.
Because of these different factors it is likely that the value that people put on different types of support will vary. Some will also have higher expectations regarding organisational support than others.
This study drew on Expectancy Theory (Furnham 1997) which suggests that where work related rewards are expected and valued and then met by the organisation there will be a positive influence on employee work motivation.
In the context of trailing partners the question asked was as follows:
Will meeting the ‘valued expectations’ of trailing partners mean that they are more motivated to adapt to their new general and interaction environments abroad. So resulting in better adjustment overall?
If this were found to be the case then there would be an argument for organisations taking the time and resources to tailor support provision more closely to the ‘valued expectations’ of assignees.
Part Two:
This study also investigated the value of social networks and their impact on adjustment to living and working abroad. Research has suggested the following:
- Although close relationships with family members and between partners can be helpful in the adjustment process it is unlikely to be sufficient (Weiss 1974).
- That the size of the social network, the breadth of support provided in terms of emotional support, mentoring, advice and also depth in terms of the quality of relationships can impact on general, personal and interaction adjustment (Shaffer and Harrison 2001).
- Relationships with host country nationals are also necessary to help bridge the gap between the two cultures aiding with interaction adjustment.
This study asked:
- Will partners with the greatest network size experience better adaptation?.
- Will partners who have the breadth of support and depth of support described above experience better adaptation?
The Results:
Part One: Valued Expectations.
A weak significant relationship was found to exist between the ‘percentage of valued expectations met by organisational support’ and ‘general adjustment’.
An analysis was made for ‘actual company support provided’ and found a significant relationship to exist between support and general adjustment.
There was also a negative correlation between ‘actual company support provided’ and time taken to adjust, suggesting that the better the level of support provided by organisations the less time it took to adjust to the new environment.
Part Two: Social Networks:
The study found a significant relationship between breadth of social network and general and interaction adjustment.
No relationship was found however between depth of support from host country and non-host country people and general and interaction adjustment.
Discussion:
1 Although the relationship between ‘percentage of valued expectations met by organisational support’ and ‘general adjustment’ was not strong. The weak relationship perhaps suggests that organisations could benefit from relating support provisions more closely to the individual requirements of their assignees. Relating support to what is ‘expected and valued’ by different assignees.
Assessing the need of each family could mean that limited resources are used more cost effectively. It could also mean that families depart on assignment with a more positive attitude towards their new challenge thus effecting their motivation to adjust well.
Managing expectations well can have a positive effect on the way people cope with new challenging situations. Time invested here is time well spent.
2 The overall relationship between valued expectations and adjustment was weak. This may be explained by the increasing trend for employees to view their relationship with employers in a less paternalistic way. They see their relationship with the employer as purely related to employment and career progression and are not so concerned with more paternalistic hand-holding provisions.
However I believe that this is not a universal view, studies subsequent to this one have highlighted how important organisational support is for some people; another reason for finding out about peoples expectations and helping them to manage them realistically.
Many more recent studies show that although many expatriates cope very well with little organisational support there is a minority that do not. For these people the lack of organisational support has a strong influence on their attitude towards, and motivation for, adapting well to their new lives abroad. This has a related impact on the employee and their ability to focus on their own new work and adaptation challenges
3 The weak relationship between valued expectations/company support and adjustment may also exist because assignees have two types of needs, hygiene needs and motivator needs (Herzberg et al 1954).
Meeting ‘hygiene needs’ such as salary, benefits, working conditions, company policy and administrative practices, Herzberg suggests simply prevents the work-force from feeling a sense of dissatisfaction with the work role and situation. It does not actually create any sense of satisfaction, hence perhaps the weak significant link in this study. It would be interesting in a future study to separate organisational provision into these two categories, hygiene and motivator needs.
Of course preventing dissatisfaction is a good reason for supporting expatriates ‘hygiene needs’ especially in the early weeks and months of an assignment.
However, it is the satisfaction of ‘motivator needs’ such as providing challenging roles and engendering a sense of responsibility and achievement, that leads to more positive motivation.
Relating this to the perspective of the ‘trailing partner’; It is perhaps only when additional organisational support is directed towards helping trailing partners to build meaningful portable lives, or find appropriate employment that the real value is felt and then leads to a sense of satisfaction and adaptation to the relocation experience.
It is perhaps therefore beneficial for organisations to provide support in terms of coaching or mentoring to support partners as they create meaningful, contented and fulfilled lives abroad. A study by Harvey, Buckley, Milroad and Novicevic (1999) highlights the positive impact a mentoring programme can have pre assignment and during initial adjustment phases.
4 Re Social support. It is interesting that a significant result was found in terms of the relationship between the breadth of the social network (emotional support, mentoring and advice) and general and interaction adjustment.
This result is consistent with other research findings that suggest that the level of social support and counselling provided in the assignment setting would assist in adjustment (Shaffer and Harrison 2001). The fact that this survey was conducted with many members of a very active and supportive international group (IWP) perhaps also provides an explanation for this finding.
This study was conducted by Louise Wiles in 2002. Louise is now the owner and Director of ‘Success Abroad Coaching’, whose products and services are directed towards helping and supporting expatriates as they relocate and adapt to new lives abroad. Inspiring expatriates to create happy, fulfilled and successful lives abroad.
Useful Definitions:
General Adjustment = Adjusting to the general cultural environment.
Interaction Adjustment = Interacting with host nationals.
Work Adjustment = Adjusting to the new work environment.
Resources:
Furnham, A (1997) The Psychology of Behaviour at Work, The Individual and the Organisation, Hove East Sussex, Psychology Press, Taylor and Francis.
Hertzberg et al (1954) cited in Furnham, A (1997)
Harvey, Buckey, Milroad and Novicevic (1999), Mentoring Dual Career Expatraites: A Sense Making and Sense Giving Social Support Process, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 10:05 October 1999, 808-827.
Shaffer, M.A.,& Harrison, D.A., (2001). Forgotten Partners of International Assignments: Development and Test of a Model of Spouse Adjustment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 2 238-254
