The Effect of Host Country Nationals’ Social Support on Expatriates’ Adjustment—A Multiple Stakeholder Approach

Abstract

The social support provided by host country nationals (HCNs) has been identified as an important source of successful expatriation. However, the roles of different HCN actors have not yet been sufficiently differentiated in this process. Drawing on social support theory and conservation of resources theory, this chapter aims to fill this void by investigating the impact of social support provided by five groups of HCN actors on expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment: HCN top management team members, supervisors, colleagues, and subordinates in the work domain, as well as friends in the non-work domain. The resulting model suggests that all these HCN actors can increase expatriates’ adjustment; however, colleagues in the work domain and friends in the non-work domain have the highest influence on all types of adjustments.

North American Perspective

The Effect of Host Country Nationals’ Social Support on Expatriates’ Adjustment—A Multiple Stakeholder Approach

• Soo Min Toh 

1. Department of Management, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada

   Soo Min Toh

Anna Katharina Bader has presented an examination of the multiple host country nationals’ (HCNs) sources of social support whom expatriates may benefit from. Her chapter recognizes and differentiates HCNs by job categories and relative job position to the expatriate assignee in question. Specifically, she proposes that research should consider five groups of HCNs: top management team (TMT) members, supervisors, colleagues, subordinates, and friends. Using COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989b), Bader effectively argues that prior to arriving at the host location, expatriates possessed a set of social resources in the home country that could also be distinguished into these five categories. With the relocation, these resources are, to some degree, lost, and thus require replacing potentially through host country relationships. Although the stress perspective has heavily influenced early research on expatriate adjustment (e.g., Kraimer, Wayne, & Jaworski, 2001) and brought about the notion of adjustment among expatriates as they coped with the stressors of the assignment, this idea of matching and replacing resources with host national sources is a new and potentially fruitful way of thinking about social support for expatriate newcomers.

The most promising category highlighted in Bader’s model is the host country TMT. This has, in my opinion, been the most overlooked category of support and largely assumed to not play a significant part in the success of the expatriate. Bader has initiated a conversation that is important to have in future work regarding the potentially critical role this category of HCNs may have. The shape and form in which this support would be most meaningful for the expatriate still requires further study and elaboration. Many questions remain to be explored: Can the home country TMT be truly substituted with the host country TMT? Is it merely a replacement or an enhancement? Could there also be long-term benefits that extend beyond the expatriate assignment at the host location, and if so, what would they be? One also wonders what might happen to expatriate adjustment if HCN TMT member(s) demonstrates one of the categories of social support outside of informational and instrumental support? Would this then have an extraordinary impact on adjustment simply because it is not expected yet originating from a high-status source? It would seem that a kind word of encouragement, or a recommendation for a restaurant from a TMT member could potentially have quite a different influence on the expatriate than if they came from a coworker or subordinate. Or is it the case that the source and status level of the originator of the support are not important, as long as the needed support is made available? And finally, what would be the role of the HCN TMT if the expatriates were assigned to join the ranks of the TMT—how would this affect its impact and the impact of the other sources of HCN support?

Following along these lines of theorizing, it is clear that much remains to be researched and understood in the realm of HCN roles in the expatriate socialization process, as well as post-assignment (e.g., Reiche, 2012). While it is useful to think about HCNs with these broad categorizations, it is also important to be mindful that members in each of these categories are not homogenous and may vary in their approach in providing or withholding support. While thinking about positive relations, it is also necessary to consider adverse relations that may occur from within the same category or in other categories, and whether the presence of such relations could be so devastating that sources of support elsewhere may not buffer the expatriate from its harmful effect.

The field should also continue to see adjustment as a two-way process—not losing sight of the proactive role that expatriates can and should play. Expatriate newcomers are not only passive recipients of social support, but can also be authors of their own support networks. The most obvious people to approach for support may not always be the ones with the support the expatriate truly needs at the time (Farh, Bartol, Shapiro, & Shin, 2010b). By the same token, just because social support is provided, it may not be accepted, or actually useful and viewed as such. Social support, when the target is not ready to receive, can be counterproductive and even resented by the targets of the support. The literature should continue to draw on the significant advancements made in the socialization literature to understand the dynamic relationship between the newcomer and the organizational insiders (for a recent review, see Wanberg, 2012). The proactive seeking of support by the expatriate, the timing of help, or the “invisibility” of help received are potential ways in which the ideas generated in this chapter could expand on to consider the functionality of social support in expatriate adjustment. Also, it cannot be assumed that the mere presence of social support from these sources would be adaptive.

Finally, the field of expatriate management as whole should continue to push the envelope in understanding expatriate and HCN outcomes beyond expatriate adjustment, and the ways in which these employees may interact such that all parties involved, including the organizations, institutions, and societies implicated in the exercise. Anna Katharina Bader’s chapter is an important step in this direction.