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Managing Expatriates in China pp 1–32Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

Introduction

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Chinese Management ((PSCMan))

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to outline the context of this book, both in terms of the social phenomenon it studies and the academic debate in which the book situates itself. We start by presenting the language dilemmas that multinational corporations (MNCs) and their employees face in China. The relevant academic debate in this area is followed by a further discussion on the other three key academic concepts studied in this book: adjustment, acceptance and identity. We then outline in more detail how we conceptualise expatriates and local employees and discuss the host context of a contemporary and changing China. Finally, we provide a detailed description of how the different studies drawn upon in this book were conducted and present a summary of the whole book.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Here we associate Westernness with Whiteness because all the Western expatriates interviewed in our research projects are Caucasians. We do not want to imply that Western can automatically be equated with White. Neither do we mean to suggest that all Western expatriates are White. We have chosen to use this term for the reason that all the Nordic expatriates in our research in this book were White Caucasians.

  2. 2.

    The original transcript in Chinese: ……你是中国人, 所以你会懂我说的……

  3. 3.

    The original transcript in Chinese: 有些老外很死板。甚至保守......哦,不知道你在芬兰呆了多久?

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, UK

    Ling Eleanor Zhang

  2. Middlesex University, London, UK

    Anne-Wil Harzing

  3. RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

    Shea Xuejiao Fan

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Zhang, L.E., Harzing, AW., Fan, S.X. (2018). Introduction. In: Managing Expatriates in China. Palgrave Studies in Chinese Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-48909-8_1

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