Why Expatriates’ Private Relations Matter

  • Martin Johanson
  • Heléne Lundberg
Chapter
First Online:

Abstract

Due to increasing globalisation it follows that a growing number of expatriate managers, that is, individuals having a managerial position in a foreign country, play a critical role within multinational corporations (MNCs), acting as a link between headquarters and the international units (Au and Fukuda 2002). In order to perform well in this role, they need to align their behaviour with the host country’s cultural norms and values. The larger the cultural differences, the more demanding this task is likely to be. The expatriates need both a willingness to adapt as well as information regarding local conditions. Such information can be gained from various sources: the human resource department of the MNC in questions, locally from co-workers, other expatriates or personal friends among host country nationals. In total, the latter relationships constitute their social network which, in line with Osman-Gani and Rockstuhl (2008: 33) in the context of expatriates, is defined as ‘relational ties between the expatriate and other individuals, such as family, peer expatriates, local working partners, or local friends’.

Keywords

Social Network Social Capital Russian Market Human Resource Department Mutual Friend 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Aron Thyr for his contributions in earlier versions of the chapter.

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Copyright information

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Martin Johanson
    • 1
  • Heléne Lundberg
    • 1
  1. 1.Mid Sweden UniversitySundsvallSweden

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