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Organizational expatriates and self-initiated expatriates: who adjusts better to work and life in Japan?

2009; Routledge; Volume: 20; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09585190902850299

1466-4399

Vesa Peltokorpi, Fabian Jintae Froese,

Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior

Abstract Expatriates are often presented in the cross-cultural adjustment literature as a homogeneous, broad population. However, recent research that makes a distinction between organizational expatriates (OEs), those who are dispatched by their home companies to international posts, and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs), those who themselves make the decision to live and work abroad, has identified differences between the two groups. The present study compares the cross-cultural adjustment of these two groups of expatriates. Survey results of 179 expatriates in Japan show that SIEs are better adjusted to general aspects of their host country and interactions with host-country nationals than OEs. Suggestions for practice are provided. Keywords: cross-cultural adjustmentJapanorganizational expatriateself-initiated expatriate Acknowledgements We thank Ingmar Björkman for his comments on a previous draft of this study, and all those people who helped us to collect the data and participated in this study. Fabian Jintae Froese gratefully acknowledges financial support from Korea University (New faculty research grant, no. K0719081). Notes 1. Overseas work experiences of self-initiated expatriates (Lee 2005 Lee, C.H. 2005. A Study of Underemployment among Self-initiated Expatriates. Journal of World Business, 40: 172–187. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) have been described in previous studies as overseas experiences (OEs) (Inkson et al. 1997 Inkson, K., Arthur, M.B., Pringle, J. and Barry, S. 1997. Expatriate Assignment versus Overseas Experience: International Human Resource Development. Journal of World Business, 2: 351–368. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Inkson and Myers 2003 Inkson, K. and Myers, B.A. 2003. "The Big OE": Self-directed Travel and Career Development. Career Development International, 8: 170–181. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]; Myers and Pringle 2005 Myers, B. and Pringle, J.K. 2005. Self-initiated Foreign Experience as Accelerated Development: Influences of Gender. Journal of World Business, 40: 421–431. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]; Vance 2005 Vance, C.M. 2005. The Personal Quest for Building Global Competence: A Taxonomy of Self-initiating Career Path Strategies for Gaining Business Experience Abroad. Journal of World Business, 40: 374–385. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) and self-initiated foreign work experiences (SFEs) (Suutari and Brewster 2000 Suutari, V. and Brewster, C. 2000. Making their Own Way: International Experience through Self-initiated Foreign Assignments. Journal of World Business, 35: 417–436. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). 2. In 2004, registered foreigners accounted for 1.97 million of Japan's total population of 127.4 million (Tezuka 2005 Tezuka, K. 2005. Foreign Workers in Japan: Reality and Challenges. Japan Labor Review, 2: 48–71. [Google Scholar]). Most of these foreigners were special permanent residents (465,619), permanent residents (312,964), and long-term residents primarily from Chinese and Korean families that have lived in Japan for several generations. Only 145,570 foreigners were living in Japan with a working permit. 3. Perceived underemployment refers to an individual's perception that he is working in an inferior, lesser, or lower quality type of employment or in a situation where individuals feel that their skills and abilities are not fully utilized (Lee 2005 Lee, C.H. 2005. A Study of Underemployment among Self-initiated Expatriates. Journal of World Business, 40: 172–187. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).