Practice Makes Perfect?

International Experience and Expatriate Adjustment

Author(s): Jan Selmer
Source: MIR: Management International Review, Vol. 42, No. 1 (2002 1st Quarter), pp. 71-87
Published by: Springer
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mir vol. 42, 2002/1, pp. 71-87 #

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IndnoQdmont
International Review

Gabler Verlag 2002

Jan Selmer

Practice Makes Perfect? International

Experience and Expatriate Adjustment1

Abstract

Western business expatriates assigned to Hong Kong were surveyed regard

their previous international experience and their degree of sociocultural an
psychological adjustment. Being a quality increasingly sought after, it wou
be important for international business firms to find out whether previous
ternational experience can reinforce their expatriates' ability to function
work on a foreign assignment.

Key Results

Unexpectedly, results showed that experience from other Asian assignmen

had no effect on sociocultural adjustment in Hong Kong. For recently arri
expatriates however, there was a positive effect on work adjustment, but not
general adjustment and interaction adjustment. Previous postings to non-As
countries had no effect on expatriates' sociocultural adjustment. As predic
neither kind of international experience had any effect on psychological a
justment. The potentially far-reaching implications of these findings are d
cussed in detail.

Authors

Jan Selmer, Professor of Management, School of Business, Hong Kong Baptist University, H
Kong, China.
Manuscript received September 1999, revised November 1999, January 2000, February 2000.

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Jan Selmer

Introduction

A wave of localization is impacting international business, not at least in Asia {

Goodwin 1999). At the same time, many globalizing business firms still regard
as a strategic imperative to try to develop their own internationally mobile ex
triate managers {cf. Downes/Thomas 1997). It is generally recognized that int
national firms will not be able to effectively compete against major global co
petitors without world-class managers world-wide {cf. Harvey 1997). Multicult
al, multi-lingual managers with previous international experience are manageme
qualities increasingly sought by multinational employers (Goodwin 1999).
Attempting to adjust to a new cultural environment, expatriate executives h

to perform in an unfamiliar work context and they have to encounter a different w

of life than in their own country. They do not only have to respond to the problem

of motivation, leadership, and productivity in the foreign assignment, but many al

have much greater responsibilities than in their previous domestic job. This c
amount to a very stressful experience and not everyone is successful at their n
tasks. Research has revealed that premature return rates are significantly high
that each failure gives rise to substantial direct and indirect costs. Additionally
sizeable share of expatriate managers who "stick it out" are regarded as ineffec
by their parent organizations and those underperforming managers also incur la
direct and indirect costs (Black/Gregersen/Mendenhall 1992). Although the oft

quoted high premature return rate to the parent country has been challenged recen

as a myth, it can easily be argued that expatriates who cannot adjust but remain
their assignments and fail to perform adequately, could be even more damaging
their firms than those who return prematurely (Harzing 1995).

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between expatriates' pre

vious international experience and their international adjustment. As internatio

experience seems to be a quality increasingly sought after by MNCs, it would be im-

portant for international business firms to find out whether such experience can fa

cilitate their expatriates' ability to function and work in a foreign country. A c

finding in the literature on expatriate adjustment is that individuals who do not ad-

just properly to their international assignment will not perform as well, will be psy
chologically withdrawn, and will likely return early {cf. Shaffer/Harrison 1998).

International Expatriate Adjustment

Although the two components of expatriate international adjustment, psych

gical and sociocultural, are conceptually interrelated, recent literature sugges
that they are distinct concepts {cf. Searle/Ward 1990).
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Practice Makes Perfect? International Experience and Expatriate Adjustment

Psychological Adjustment

Psychological adjustment deals with subjective well-being or mood states such

as depression, anxiety and fatigue. The theoretical basis of the subjective wellbeing component of psychological international adjustment has been well developed, especially in relation to work and work environment characteristics {cf. Caplan et al. 1975). Nicholson and Imaizumi (1993) distinguished work related and
non-work related well-being among Japanese expatriates working in the United
Kingdom. In two large-scale, longitudinal research studies, the subjective wellbeing of Swedish expatriates worldwide and UK based expatriates during international assignments has also been examined and measured (Arnetz/Anderzen
1992, Forster 1997).

Sociocultural Adjustment

In contrast, sociocultural adjustment deals with the ability to "fit in" or to negotiate interactive aspects of the host culture as measured by the amount of difficulty experienced in managing everyday situations in the host culture (Ward/Ken-

nedy 1996). Black, Mendenhall, and Oddou (1991) proposed three distinct dimensions of expatriate in-country sociocultural adjustment: (1) adjustment to
work; (2) adjustment to interactions with host nationals; and (3) adjustment to the
general non-work environment. Interaction adjustment may be the most fundamental of the three dimensions as both work adjustment and general adjustment
are based on interpersonal interactions (Bell/Harrison 1996). At the same time,
Black, Gregersen, and Mendenhall (1992, p. 119) also argue that adjustment to
interacting with host-country nationals (HCNs) generally is the most difficult of
the three adjustment dimensions. The interaction component involves warm and
cordial relationships with HCNs, participation in their activities, and development
of respect for those activities. Interactions with HCNs in social settings is one way
for expatriate newcomers to become aware of appropriate behaviours in the host
country since HCNs may act as sources of information and help in understanding
(Bochner 1981). Expatriates with such frequent interactions, exhibit appropriate
behaviours. Feldman and Thomas (1992) observed that effective expatriates frequently interacted with HCNs.

McEvoy and Parker (1995) also found support for the three dimensions of
expatriate sociocultural adjustment. Other empirical research of US expatriates
and their spouses has provided support for this three-dimensional theoretical
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Jan Selmer

framework of sociocultural adjustment (Black/Gregersen 1990, 1991a, 1991b,

Black/Stephens 1989)
Whereas psychological adjustment is based on a problem-oriented view focusing on attitudinal factors of the adjustment process (cf. Grove/Torbirn 1985),
sociocultural adjustment is based on cultural learning theory and highlights social behaviour and practical social skills underlying attitudinal factors (cf. Furnham 1993). This distinction is consistent with the separation of behavioral and at-

titudinal acculturation proposed by Jun, Lee, and Gentry (1997). They suggest
that the behavioral changes of sociocultural adjustment are required by certain
environmental circumstances while the attitudinal changes of psychological adjustment are usually more voluntary and not determined by surrounding conditions. Thus, expatriates need only to learn new practical social and cultural skills
to "fit in" rather than undergo any major change in deeply held values to adjust
abroad. These new skills can be discarded upon repatriation or when meeting fellow-nationals (Furnham/Bochner 1986).

Anticipatory Adjustment
In the theoretical framework of Black, Mendenhall, and Oddou (1991), the notion of anticipatory adjustment is used to understand international adjustment. It
is convincingly argued that if appropriate anticipatory adjustments can be made,
the actual in-country adjustment in the new international setting will be easier and

quicker (Black/Mendenhall/Oddou, 1991).

Since the new international setting is unfamiliar, it upsets old routines and
creates psychological uncertainty. Assuming that individuals generally wish to reduce the uncertainty in the new setting, especially concerning new behaviours that

might be required or expected as well as old behaviours that may be considered

unacceptable or inappropriate. If expatriates have information about such things
before they actually enter the new environment, anticipatory adjustment can take
place. Once they have arrived in the host country, expatriates continue to reduce
the uncertainty and discover what behaviours and attitudes are appropriate or inappropriate. Consequently, to the degree that various factors either increase or
decrease uncertainty, they either inhibit or facilitate adjustment (ibid.).
The accuracy of the expectations held by an individual is a determinant of effective anticipatory adjustment and actual adjustment. The more accurate expectations expatriates can form, the more uncertainty will be reduced and the better
their anticipatory adjustment will be. The better the anticipatory adjustment, the
fewer surprises and negative affective reactions or less culture shock individuals
will experience, the more appropriate behaviours and attitudes they will display,
and the smoother and quicker their in-country adjustment will be (ibid.).
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Practice Makes Perfect? International Experience and Expatriate Adjustment

Hypotheses
It seems reasonable to assume that previous international experience may be an
important source of information from which expatriates can establish accurate expectations (Church 1982). Based on the concept of uncertainty reduction, it can
be surmised that more international adjustment experiences can provide information from which uncertainty could be reduced and accurate expectations for-

med than fewer such previous experiences (Black/Mendenhall/Oddou 1991).

Since expatriates are often expected and required to learn new social and cultural skills in the new cultural environment, the resulting adjustment will primarily
be sociocultural. From a slightly different point of view, Bell and Harrison (1996)
argued that it is the process of having learned a different culture, rather than the
content knowledge of another culture, that is most the most important benefit of
previous international experience. Such individuals could capitalize on the decreasing marginal effort associated with acquiring skills in another culture (NiyekawaHoward 1970).
Although Black (1988) initially found that previous international experience
was positively related to expatriate adjustment, a later study found no such significant relationship (Black/Gregersen 1991c). However, subsequent empirical
research findings have been more consistently supportive. For example, McEvoy
and Parker (1995) reported a positive association between prior international experience and general adjustment and Shaffer and Harrison (1998) found a positive relationship between prior international experience and the critical dimension of interaction adjustment.
Black, Mendenhall, and Oddou (1991) extended their theoretical discussion to
include the concept of cultural similarity. They argued that if the previous inter-

national experiences were in similar cultures to the one the expatriate will be assigned, they would be a better source from which accurate expectations could be
made than previous experiences in dissimilar cultures (ibid.). In that connection,
Black and Gregersen (1991c) called for future research to include also location of
previous international experience, not only the total amount of that experience.
Asian countries can be characterized by medium to high collectivism and power distance (Hof stede 1980, p. 336) and are usually clustered together in terms of
attitudinal and behavioral variables (Ronen/Shenkar 1985) giving Asian nations a
degree of cultural commonality. This presumption is examined in Hypothesis 1.

Hypothesis 1. Experience from Asia (other than Hong Kong) contributes more to
sociocultural adjustment in Hong Kong than experience from outside Asia.

As discussed above, attitudinal changes of psychological adjustment tend to be

voluntary to a large extent and are typically not determined by surrounding conditions. This supposition is explored in Hypothesis 2.
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Jan Selmer

Hypothesis 2. Prior international experience will not affect the level of psychological adjustment.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region

Covering an area of 1,075 square kilometres south of the Chinese mainland, Hong
Kong is a modern urban society. Epitomizing a capitalist and vibrant modern metropolis, Hong Kong has 6.2 million inhabitants of whom 60 per cent were born in
the territory and more than 30 per cent were born on the Chinese mainland. Hong
Kong is predominantly Chinese, with an overwhelming majority belonging to the
Cantonese dialect group (Roberts 1992). For more than a century and a half, Hong
Kong was under British rule and developed apart from China as a distinctive social
entity (Lau/Kuan 1989, p. 1). Although a large portion of Hong Kong residents are
refugees from the Chinese mainland, most of them have lived for a long time under a different social, economic, legal, and political system. The Hong Kong ethos
has developed into a mix of traditional Chinese culture and modern cultural traits
promoted by the very nature of the Hong Kong society itself and its recent changes, especially since the Second World War (Lau/Kuan 1989, p. 2, Roberts 1992).
Hong Kong is the host of a multitude of business operations controlled by
Western corporations with a substantial number of business expatriates. The handover in 1997, making Hong Kong a Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the

People's Republic of China (PRC), has increased Hong Kong's importance of

being the gateway to China to the outside world.
The development of an entrepreneurial ideology is influenced by a host of environmental factors, including political, economic, legal, and sociocultural contexts. Hong Kong has benefited from a benevolent colonial administration enabling economic expansion in a climate of political stability. Historically, the gov-

ernment has consistently pursued a policy of positive non-interventionism

providing the opportunity and freedom for people to pursue economic goals in a
mainly unfettered way. Although the Hong Kong economy is currently in recession, as much of the rest of Asia, the combination of opportune historical events;
relatively efficient, equitable, and laissez-faire government; and the dynamic entrepreneurial talent of Hong Kong people has resulted in a very impressive economic growth over the past 150 years (Kirkbride/Westwood 1993).
Confucianism permeates organizational behaviour in Hong Kong, resulting in
a largely autocratic managerial style. It is natural for subordinates to defer to their

boss and superiors expect to be shown respect and obedience from subordinates.
Both superiors and subordinates maintain a social distance from one another to
avoid any familiarity destroying the order (c/. Redding 1990, Whitley 1992).
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Practice Makes Perfect? International Experience and Expatriate Adjustment

Although the Hong Kong SAR society has adopted a modern, deceptively Western outlook, Western values are merely superficially embraced, more as skin
deep cosmetics than a fundamental basis for thought and conduct (Kirkbride/Westwood 1993). It has been argued that the Hong Kong Chinese cognitively and emotionally separate modernization from Westernization. Remaining Sino-centric,
they are able to regard themselves as modern without losing their Chineseness

(Bond/King 1985).

Method

Sample

Data were extracted from a larger study involving a mail survey of Wester
business expatriates in Hong Kong. Of the 1,713 mailed questionnaires, 343 wer
returned for a response rate of 20.0%. These response rates are comparable or
Table 1. Sample Background

Background Variables Frequency Percent

Gender:
Male

309

Female
Married

90

33

10

263

77

Nationality:
US

87

25

French

56

16

British

50

15

Swedish

46

13

Italian

20

Danish

16

Canadian
Other

15

Western

53

4
16

Position:

CEO

220

64

Manager 111
Non-managerial 1

33
1 3

Organization in

Hong Kong:

Wholly Owned Subsidiary 176 52

Branch

80

24

Representative Office 58 17

Joint Venture 18 5
Other
7
2

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Jan Selmer

better than other business expatriate studies (cf. Birdseye/Hill 1995, Gregersen/Black 1990, Naumann 1993). Also, a large-scale study comparing response
rates in international mail surveys in 22 countries reported that Hong Kong had
the lowest rate of 7.1 per cent (Harzing 1997).
On the average, the expatriates had spent 4.9 years in Hong Kong (SD = 6.2)
on the current assignment. They had lived abroad for 8.5 years (SD = 7.8), including Hong Kong. The average age of the respondents was 42 years (SD = 9.1),
and, as seen from Table 1, the overwhelming majority of the respondents were
male and married. This is compatible with other investigations of business expatriates, although the 10 percent share of femal expatriates in our sample is on the
high side compared to other studies (cf. Adler 1995). However, it may indicate a
rising trend in assigning women as expatriates (Brewster/Scullion 1997). The largest nationality group of expatriates was from the US. Expatriates from France,
Britain, Sweden, Italy, Denmark and Canada made up distinctive, but smaller
groups. The overwhelming majority of the respondents were CEOs or occupied
other managerial positions, whereas only a few respondents were non-managerial staff. Wholly owned subsidiaries were the most common place of work, whereas some expatriates were also assigned to branches, representative offices and
joint ventures.

Instrument

The three dimensions of expatriate sociocultural adjustment were measured usin

scales developed by Black (1988) and Black and Stephens (1989). Respondent

were asked to answer to 14 items regarding how well they were or were not adjusted to their life in Hong Kong (sample item: 'Speaking with host nationals').
The range of responses varied from (1) 'very unadjusted' to (7) 'completely adjusted'. Reliability of the three dimensions of expatriate sociocultural adjustmen
were: General Adjustment (alpha = 0.78), Interaction Adjustment (alpha = 0.88),
and Work Adjustment (alpha = 0.68). These reliability scores are acceptable (Nun-

nally 1978).
Expatriate psychological adjustment was measured using the General Health

Questionnaire (GHQ-12) developed by Goldberg (1972). Although this instrument is commonly used to measure minor psychiatric symptoms, it has been used
extensively to monitor levels of well-being in community and organizational samples (Forster 2000), as well as to measure expatriates' subjective well-being (cf.
Arnetz/Anderzen 1992). Containing a number of questions concerning how people have been feeling recently, it includes sleeping difficulties, feelings of unhappiness, and respondents' ability to enjoy everyday experiences. Respondents were
asked to think about how they have been feeling over the past few weeks (sample item: 'Have you recently felt that you are playing a useful part in things?').

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Practice Makes Perfect? International Experience and Expatriate Adjustment

Responses ranged from (1) ,not at all' to (4) ,much more than usual'. Reliability

was acceptable (alpha = 0.81) (Nunnally 1978).

Since sociocultural adjustment is a process over time, regardless whether it is
continuously increasing or adopts a curvlinear progression, indicating an early
culture shock stage (cf. Furnham/Bochner 1986), the time the expatriates had spent
in Hong Kong is used as a control variable in the data analysis.

Results

Descriptive statistics and correlations for all variables are provided in Tab
is interesting to note that the expatriates have a mean score for all three
cultural variables above what is depicted as "somewhat adjusted", well abo
mid-level point. This may indicate that they were quite comfortable with
ciocultural environment in Hong Kong. The mean score of psychological a
ment, as measured by subjective well-being, was also above the mid-level
of its scale.

The hypotheses were tested by means of hierarchical regression analysis. The

control variable time in Hong Kong was entered first. As displayed in Table 3,
the control variable was highly significant for all sociocultural variables explaining 8 percent of general adjustment (beta = 0.29; p < 0.001), 12 percent of in-

Table 2. Means, Standard Deviations, and Correlations Among the Variables

Variable

Mean

SD

1. General 5.59 0.90 1.00

Adjustment
2. Interaction 5.17 1.22 0.53*** 1.00
Adjustment
3. Work 5.86 0.79 0.55*** 0.49*** 1.00
Adjustment

4. Subjective 2.85 0.38 0.25*** 0.18*** 0.24*** 1.00

Well-Being
5. Time in 5.77 6.80 0.29*** 0.35*** 0.32*** 0.10 1.00
Hong Konga
6. Time in 4.26 3.56 0.21* 0.24* 0.16 0.17 0.19 1.00
Asia

7. Time 4.70 4.52 0.01 0.09 -0.01 0.17* -0.07 0.35* 1.00
Outside Asia

*/7<0.05;** p<0.01; ***/?< 0.001

a Includes time spent on assignments to Hong Kong prior to the current assignment.

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Jan Selmer

teraction adjustment (beta = 0.35; p < 0.001), and 10 percent of work adjustment
(beta = 0.32; p < 0.001) of the expatriates in Hong Kong. All F values for the sociocultural variables were highly significant, implying a good data fit. However,
no significant effect was detected for psychological adjustment which also had a
non-significant F value. Adding the first predictor variable, time in Asia, did not
have a significant effect on any of the adjustment variables. However, some F values were statistically significant indicating a reasonable fit between the regression model and the data. The addition of the second independent variable, experience from outside Asia, did not produce any statistically significant effects either and the F values were not significant in this step. Neither were there any

Table 3. Total Sample3: Results of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Effects of Previous International Experience on Sociocultural and Psychological Adjustment in Hong Kong

Dependent Variables

Sociocultural Adjustment Psychological Adjustment

General Interaction Work Subjective Weil-Being

Variables

Step 1

Time in Hong Kong 0.29 0.35*** 0.32*** 0.09

(Control)

0.29

0.35

0.32

0.09

R2 (adjusted) 0.08 0.12 0.10 0.00

F 32.22*** 47.00*** 20.42*** 1.29

Step 2
Time

in Asia 0.18 0.19 0.14 0.16

R
0.25
0.35
0.17
0.18
AR2 0.06 0.12 0.03 0.03

R2 (adjusted) 0.04 0.11 0.01 0.01

F

3.16*

6.46**

1.44

1.53

Step 3
Time Outside Asia -0.12 -0.00 0.06 -0.07
R
0.23
0.28
0.25
0.11
AR2 0.05 0.08 0.06 0.01

R2 (adjusted) -0.01 0.02 0.00 -0.06

F

0.81

1.27

1.01

0.17

Step 4

Time in Asia X

Time Outside 0.26 0.38 0.27 0.04

R
0.27
0.35
0.30
0.11
AR2 0.07 0.12 0.09 0.01

R2 (adjusted) -0.01 0.04 0.00 -0.08

F

0.85

1.51

1.03

0.13

a N = 343

* p<0.05; ** p<0.01; *** p< 0.001

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Practice Makes Perfect? International Experience and Expatriate Adjustment

interaction effects of time in Asia and time outside Asia, and the F values were
all non-significant.
However, it is conceivable that newcomers will encounter more difficulties in
adjusting to their new foreign assignment than expatriates who have been in Hong

Kong for several years. The initial stages of the adjustment process, including a
possible culture shock, could be more traumatic than later phases {cf. Furnham
1993, Furnham/Bochner 1986). To explore the effect of international experience
on recently arriving expatriates, a part of the total sample was analyzed separately. This group of recent arrivals only included individuals with a period of stay
in Hong Kong of one year or less during their current assignment, as the cultural

Table 4. Recent Arrivals8: Results of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Effects of Previous Inernational Experience on Sociocultural and Psychological Adjustment in Hong Kong

Dependent Variables

Sociocultural Adjustment Psychological Adjustment

General Interaction Work Subjective Weil-Being

Variables

Step 1

Time in Hong Kong 0.28 0.17 0.31 -0.05

(Control)

0.28

0.17

0.31

0.05

R2 (adjusted) 0.06 0.01 0.07 -0.02

F

3.66

Step 2
Time
R

in

1.31

Asia

0.58

AR2

4.36*

0.04

0.27

0.41

0.34

0.49*

0.78

0.17

0.08
0.24

0.23

0.61

0.05

R2 (adjusted) 0.22 0.02 0.54 -0.12

F

Step 3

2.78

Time
R

1.11

Outside

0.91

AR2

Asia

8.60**

-0.53

0.82

0.83

0.06

0.25

0.91

0.67

0.31

0.82

0.02

0.27

0.08

R2 (adjusted) 0.71 0.42 0.69 -0.62

F

6.61

2.71

6.13

0.11

Step 4

Time in Asia X

Time Outside 1.66 -12.92 -0.79 -17.04

R
0.91
0.87
0.91
0.48

AR2

0.83

0.76

0.82

0.23

R2 (adjusted) 0.61 0.44 0.58 -0.79

F

3.76

Part

2.38

of

3.45

total

p<0.05;

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shock phase usually occurs within the first year of arrival {cf. Black/Mendenhall
1991, Torbirn 1982). There were 44 expatriates in this group with an average period of residency in Hong Kong of seven months (SD = 4.1). Table 4 displays the
results of the hierarchical regression for recent arrivals. A slightly different picture is revealed here than for the total sample. The control variable shows no significant effect on the dependent variables, probably because of the limited time
these individuals have spent in Hong Kong. Additionally, now time in Asia has a
statistically significant positive association with work adjustment {beta = 0.49;
p < 0.05). However, for the other three dependent variables; general, interaction
and psychological adjustment, there was still no significant effect. Again, there
were no statistically significant interaction effects. However, the fact that most of
the relationships do not achieve statistical significance could more be a function
of the small sample size than anything else. The explained variances {AR2) for the
sociocultural variables at step 2 to 4 are quite substantial ranging from 17 to 83
per cent. However, the magnitude of explained variances for psychological adjustment were much lower ranging from 5 to 23 per cent.
These findings give some qualified and partial support to Hypothesis 1 which
states that experience from Asia (other than Hong Kong) contributes more to sociocultural adjustment in Hong Kong than experience from outside Asia. Hypothesis 1 is only clearly supported for relatively recent arrivals and only in the case
of work adjustment, but not for general and interaction adjustment. This must be
regarded as a highly tentative finding due to the small sample size of recent arrivals. The results more clearly support Hypothesis 2, surmising that prior international experience will not affect the level of psychological adjustment. However,

the standard deviation of this variable is relatively small (Table 2) and there
may be a variance problem which may contribute to the lack of relationships
found.

Conclusions and discussion

There are four main tentative conclusions of our findings based on th

sample. The preliminary character of these conclusions have to be e

again due to the relatively small sample of newcomers who may expe
adjustment difficulties than their colleagues with a longer residence.
turally unrelated prior international experience does not seem to fac
triate adjustment much, neither sociocultural nor psychological adju
condly, culturally related prior international experience may exped
pects of sociocultural adjustment of expatriates, especially work adj
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Practice Makes Perfect? International Experience and Expatriate Adjustment

newcomers. Thirdly, prior international experience, whether culturally related or

not, does not seem to have much effect on expatriates' psychological adjustment.
Last, but not least, experience from the very same place, has the strongest positive impact on expatriates' sociocultural adjustment.
Of course, the generality of these tentative findings for other locations are not

clear. One possibility is that the sociocultural environment of Hong Kong may be
unique to the extent that experience of the "real thing" is the best way to help expatriates to function and work in the Hong Kong SAR. Experience of other Asian
assignments have less effect and previous postings to non-Asian countries are not
at all helpful in that respect.
Extending this argument to a mere speculation, it may be surmised that each
expatriate assignment may be perceived as very much unique, not only the Hong
Kong posting. The sociocultural context may differ in different countries sufficiently enough for business expatriates to more or less have to start "all over"
again when transferring to a new assignment in another host country. This interpretation implies that lessons learned and sociocultural skills acquired by business expatriates and other sojourners are not very easily transferable across cultural boundaries. At least, the element of commonality, even among other Asian
locations, is not sufficient to have a strong impact on expatriates' sociocultural
adjustment. Before the potentially far-reaching implications of these preliminary
conclusions are discussed, some limitations of this investigation will be examined.

As with most surveys on international adjustment, the data was collected utilizing self-reports which may involve single-method variance. Although recent

arguments indicate that the drawbacks of such methods may be overstated

(Crampton/Wagner 1994), steps were taken to lessen potential problem in this respect. All items within the two dimensions of adjustment, sociocultural and psychological, were assigned to the instrument in random order. Additionally, half of
the items measuring subjective well-being had reverse-polarity, as in the original
scale, to make it more difficult for the respondents to give uniform answers. Another potential limitation is the low response rate of the survey which does not
exclude the possibility that there is a degree of bias of unknown magnitude due
to the self-selection of expatriates with few or no adjustment problems that would
tend to respond to such a mail survey. However, this weakness is inherent in any
survey approach when the purpose of the study is more or less apparent to the respondents. Finally, the complementary analysis of the group of recent arrivals to
Hong Kong involved only 44 individuals which may be too small to expect ro-

bust results.

The tentative conclusions of this study could potentially be associated with

fundamental and far-reaching implications for two important activities of expatriate management; cross-cultural training and expatriate selection. The much lamented lack of interest of MNCs to perform cross-cultural training (cf. Black/Men-

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83

Jan Selmer

denhall/Oddou 1991, Brewster 1995) may be a more serious problem than previously anticipated. The tentative results may be used as an argument not only to
have expatriate candidates go through cross-cultural training once in their career,
but for each and every new foreign assignment they embark on, at least for new
postings transcending a new and unfamiliar region. If sociocultural lessons learned have limited transferability, repeated cross-cultural training to acquire social
skills appropriate in an unfamiliar host environment may be worthwhile.
If this training is administered post-arrival, which has been advocated recently
as enhancing efficiency (Selmer 1997, Selmer/Torbirn/de Leon 1998), training
activities could try to facilitate the whole change process (Schein 1980) of unfreezing (creating the motivation to change), changing (developing new attitudes
and behaviours based on new information and cognitive redefinition), and refreezing (stabilizing the changes). Again, this is presumably easier to accomplish
in a post-arrival situation where many of the factors contributing to this change
process are in place in the new cultural context.
The second major implication of the preliminary conclusions concerns the selection of expatriates, since international experience may be a less good predictor of successful expatriate assignments than currently considered. The seemingly

increasing popularity of looking for international experience may be a less

efficient way of recruiting business expatriates. Instead, other individual criteria,

such as certain personality traits may be more worthwhile to consider (Caligiuri

1996).

However, it is critical to emphasize that while international experience may

be less efficient as a predictor of subsequent expatriate success than popularly believed, it may remain a vital component of a firm's internationalization process.

As has been repeatedly proposed {cf. Tung 1988, Mendenhall/Dunbar/Oddou

1987), securing international experience through expatriate assignments should
be integrated into the globalizing firm's career planning or human resource development system. Competencies acquired during the foreign assignment should
fit into the strategic mission and goals of internationalizing firm. Hence, international experience should be considered a prerequisite for advancement to higher
management positions of globalizing firms (Aryee 1997).
Future research could replicate the study in other cultural contexts with other
samples of business expatriates as well as trying to reduce or eliminate its shortcomings. Obviously, additional similar results from other host countries would
corroborate the results of this study and support its main conclusions. Improving
the methodology, self-reports could be supplemented or exchanged for reports
from supervisors, peers and family members. Although this would require a more
cumbersome research design, it seems a worthwhile effort to pursue as such observations could be used to test the tentative conclusions of this investigation. Additionally, a larger number of recent arrivals could be studied to test the study's
preliminary results concerning this group of expatriates.
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Practice Makes Perfect? International Experience and Expatriate Adjustment

Acknowledgement
1 This study was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong. The author
is grateful for the valuable comments of two anonymous reviewers on an earlier version of this
paper.

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