Oh the Places We Will Go: A Look at the Cross-cultural Adjustment Process of Expatriate Families in a Multinational Orga

1. Oh the Places We Will Go:A Look at the Cross-cultural Adjustment Process of Expatriate Families in a Multinational Organization Katie Rosenbusch The George Washington University

2. Overview • Problem Statement • Theoretical Framework • Research Questions • Methodology • Results • Implications • Lessons Learned

3. Problem • Average investment for expatriate to move overseas is $200,000 • 80% of expatriates that accept overseas assignments take their spouse and children along with them (GMAC, 2008) • Most common roadblocks to acceptance and success of international assignments to be “family adjustment-65%, spousal resistance 53%, and spouse’s career 45%” (Sievers, 1998) • A few studies have established one of the primary factors for early termination is spouse and family issues of adjustment to the perspective culture (Black, Mendenhall, & Oddou, 1991)

4. Problem • Companies are anticipating an increase in the number of international assignments both long, short and intra-regional assignments in the next 3 years (GMAC, 2008) • Currently, there is limited empirical research evidence on the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate families; therefore, there is a need to develop a better understanding of the impact that family makes on the cross-cultural transition of the expatriate.

5. Research Questions • Q1: How well does an expatriate and his/her family members’ perception of the characteristic of family cohesion predict the level of cross-cultural adjustment domains (organizational, cultural, personal, psychological, and relational) of the CernySmith Assessment (CSA) for expatriate families? • Q2: How well does an expatriate and his/her family members’ perception of the characteristic of family flexibility predict the level of cross-cultural adjustment domains (organizational, cultural, personal, psychological, and relational) of the CernySmith Assessment (CSA) for expatriate families? • Q3: How does family type, as defined by the combined scores for flexibility and cohesion, impact cross-cultural adjustment?

6. Theoretical Model

7. Theoretical Framework • Family systems theory provides a framework for the understanding of the social dynamics that emerge in a family • Circumplex model of marital and family systems provides conceptual framework for assessing family system functioning on two fundamental dimensions of family organization Flexibility: • The amount of change in its leadership, role relationships and relationship rules Cohesion: • The emotional bonding that family members have toward one another

8. Theoretical Framework • Cross-cultural adjustment is a multifaceted construct. • This study utilized the CernySmith Adjustment Index.

9. Limitations • Non experimental design which could indicate that an observed relationship is a spurious (i.e., non-causal) relationship. • Self-Reported Scales • Participant’s English proficiency could have influenced the understanding of terms and the outcome of the results. • Length of the survey could also be a contributing limitation--45 individuals completed the first instrument but failed to complete the second portion of the questionnaire. • The expatriate was asked to forward the survey to his/her family members. Therefore, the response rate of the spouse and/or child was limited.

10. Delimitations • The participants were limited based on the current overseas outpost locations of one multinational corporation’s expatriates and their families’ experience and organizational culture. • The experience and organizational culture of individuals that work in this corporation could possibly affect the overall findings from this study. • Since only one multinational organization was used the findings cannot be generalized to other organizations. • Several organizations were contacted to participate in this study but decided that they would not engage in the study for a number of reasons including release of proprietary information and the extra time they would have put forth to assist the researcher.

11. Methodology • Quantitative—Non-experimental study • Web-based survey • Two instruments, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (Olson, 2000) and CernySmith Assessment (Cerny & Smith, 2007) • Completed by all expatriates that had relocated with their family. The expatriates were then asked to forward the survey onto any adult family members and adolescent family members, age 14 and over

12. Sample Selection • Selection Criteria • 1) The participants had to be located on an international assignment with their family. • 2) They had to be on assignment for at least 6 months and no longer than 3 years with the sponsoring organization. • 3) The participants had to have a moderate level of English proficiency to participate in this study since the surveys were in English. • Out of the 325 expatriates of the organization 275 met the above criteria.

13. Demographics • The age of the participants ranged from 14 to 57 years old. The majority of the expatriate participants’ ages ranged from 36 to 45 years (49 participants or 44%) • Most of the participants (63%) had a Bachelor’s degree and a total of 33 (30%) participants had a Masters. The adolescent participants accounted for the 6 (5.4%) individuals that were in grade school and high school. • A total of 84% of the participants were expatriates.

14. Demographics The participants from this study were drawn from different positions within the organization, most of which held managerial roles with 8 (7%) serving as vice presidents, 26 (23%) as directors, 17 (15%) as senior managers and 32 (29%) as middle managers. Organizational Positions

15. Demographics The participants originated from a variety of countries representing all the major regions of the world. Over 25 nationalities living in 27 different countries participated in the study. The majority of the participants (14%) came from the United States. Many of the participants resided in the United States (24%) and Switzerland (25%) for their international assignments. Other host countries included Singapore (5%), Austria (5%), Germany (4%), and Canada (4%).

16. Demographics The level of international experience varied from less than one year to 36 years. A majority of the participants (38.4%) had 3 to 5 years of international experience. A total of 20 participants had over 10 years of experience. The length of time that the participants were on assignment also varied. Most of the participants’ current assignment was 13 to 24 months (77.7%). Length of Cross-Cultural Experience

17. Findings • A Cronbach alpha was run for both instruments • Family cohesion was found to be unreliable

18. Findings RQ1: How well does an expatriate and his/her family members’ perception of the characteristic of family cohesion predict the level of cross-cultural adjustment domains (organizational, cultural, personal, psychological, and relational) of the CernySmith Assessment (CSA) for expatriate families? RQ 3: How does family type, as defined by the combined scores for flexibility and cohesion, influence cross-cultural adjustment? • Due to the fact that the family cohesion scale was found to be unreliable research question one and three could not be answered.

19. Findings RQ2: How well does an expatriate and his/her family members’ perception of the characteristic of family flexibility predict the level of cross-cultural adjustment domains (organizational, cultural, personal, psychological, and relational) of the CernySmith Assessment (CSA) for expatriate families? Family flexibility does predict the cultural (ß=.189, p<.05), psychological (ß=.207, p<.05), and relational (ß=.196, p<.05) domains of cross-cultural adjustment for expatriate families.

20. Findings • The cultural domain of cross-cultural adjustment was found to be statistically significant with an R2 value of .036, F (1, 110) = 4.057, p<.05. Regression Model Summary of Cultural Domain • Predictor: Family Flexibility • Dependent Variable: Cultural Domain of Cross-Cultural Adjustment

21. Findings • The psychological domain of cross-cultural adjustment was also found to be statistically significant with an R2 value of .043, F (1, 110) = 4.925, p<.05. Regression Model Summary of Psychological Domain • Predictor: Family Flexibility • Dependent Variable: Psychological Domain of Cross-Cultural Adjustment

22. Findings • The relational domain of cross-cultural adjustment was statistically significant with an R2 value of .038, F (1, 110) = 4.392, p<.05. Regression Model Summary of RelationalDomain • Predictor: Family Flexibility • Dependent Variable: Relational Domain of Cross-Cultural Adjustment

23. Findings Further analysis was conducted to see if family flexibility predicts any of the cross-cultural adjustment domains of the expatriate family unit. The results did indicate that the family flexibility does predict the relational domain of cross-cultural adjustment at the collective level.

24. Implications for Theory • Pioneered new application of existing instruments to explore cross-cultural adjustment in a more in-depth manner • Development of a more complex cross-cultural adjustment model informed by multidisciplinary research

25. Implications for Practice • Framework for expatriates to better understand the challenges that their spouses and children go through while adjusting to a host country. • Reflective practice to give the expatriate exposure to the cross-cultural adjustment issues of his/her family members. • This study could also inform present and future expatriates, expatriate spouses and children, about the impact of family flexibility on cross-cultural adjustment and about support mechanisms that need to be in place for a successful assignment.

26. Implications for Practice • This research could aid HR professionals in finding out more about the family flexibility of their employees and their families which could serve as integral factors to measure before departing on international assignments. • It could help determine the necessary support mechanisms that they could provide while on assignment. • It could also identify possible issues as to why employees are not taking international assignments, thus enabling HR professionals to design and implement various programs for the development of expatriates and their families and levels of support mechanisms to ensure their successful cross-cultural adjustment in the host countries.