Xinxin Kong

Date of Award

9-2023

Degree Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Advisor(s)

Zhaohui Hong

Second Advisor

Jinjie Wang

Abstract

The continuous development of the Chinese economy has made "going global" in overseas operations and cross-border collaborations a key internationalization strategy for many Chinese enterprises. Executives working abroad are required to adapt to new cultures and business practices while also addressing challenges such as the lack of international management talents, high employee turnover rates, and suboptimal expatriate performance. In the realm of international human resources selection and talent retention practices, how can decision-makers in multinational enterprises improve expatriate performance? How can they select employees who can better adapt to different cultures, enhance employee loyalty in cross-border situations, and determine whether the work engagement of expatriates directly impacts their performance? Does expatriate management affect cross-cultural adaptation, thereby influencing expatriate performance? These have become hot topics in research.

This study focuses on management personnel dispatched by Chinese corporations to Japan and delves into the relationships between cross-cultural adaptation, employee loyalty, work engagement and expatriate performance after their relocation to Japan. The research uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Initially, qualitative pilot interviews are used to supplement and refine the models found in existing literature. Subsequently, a research hypothesis model is established, and quantitative questionnaire research is conducted to investigate the direct impact of cross-cultural adaptation on expatriate performance. Employee loyalty and work commitment are considered as mediating variables to explore the indirect impact of cross-cultural adaptation on expatriate performance, with all hypotheses subject to validation. Finally, through empirical and regression analysis, the study dissects the effects of the main and mediating variables before drawing its conclusions.

This study has several important discoveries. First, cross-cultural adaptation has a significantly positive impact on expatriate performance. Second, employee loyalty plays a full mediating role in the relationship between cross-cultural adaptation and expatriate performance. Among the sub-dimensions of employee loyalty, normative, emotional, and ideal commitments have partial mediating effects on the said relationship, while economic commitment does not have. Third, work engagement plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between cross-cultural adaptation and expatriate performance. Among its sub-dimensions, vigor, focus, and dedication serve as partial mediators in the said relationship. Fourth, when both employee loyalty and work engagement variables are simultaneously utilized, they exhibit parallel full mediating effects in the relationship between cross-cultural adaptation and expatriate performance.

The study is innovative in several aspects. First, it constructs a double triangle model of employee loyalty and work engagement. While scholars have mostly explored cross-cultural adaptation in terms of corporate culture and individual qualities and characteristics, this study, aside from its extensive literature review, uses in-depth and one-on-one interviews with respondents from different industries, companies (of various sizes), ranks, and gender to extract factors concerning employee loyalty and work engagement as important research variables. Its conclusions contain differences from those reached by previous researchers. Second, this study finds that normative commitment and opportunity commitment, as two primary dimensions of employee loyalty, have notable partial mediating effects on cross-cultural adaptation and expatriate performance; the sub-dimensions of vigor, focus, and dedication within the parameter of employee loyalty also have significant partial mediating effect, which is further enhanced when employee loyalty and work engagement converge. Third, distinct from previous cross-cultural adaptation studies with multinational samples, this study explicitly centers on two specific countries: China as the home country and Japan as the host country. It concentrates on Chinese expatriate employees in Japan and probes deeply into the intricate connections concerning their cross-cultural adaptation, expatriate performance, employee loyalty, and work engagement. While identifying the key factors influencing cross-cultural adaptation and expatriate performance, the study also proposes strategies for selecting expatriate employees in multinational enterprises and emphasizes essential aspects of management systems. In so doing, it serves both theoretical and practical purposes of academic research while staving off ambiguity that often arises from excessive generalization.

Download

Share

COinS