Cross Cultural Adjustment

Abstract

This research reports the results of a cross-sectional, correlational study of expatriate adjustment encompassing 181 United States' embassy employees working in Canada, Chile, and Mexico. The impact on these expatriates' affective adjustment experiences of several factors derived from the `uncertainty reduction principle' of cross cultural adjustment was investigated, as were the impacts of posited moderating or contingency variables. It was found that, for this sample, the uncertainty reduction principle held little explanatory power. Most notably, uncertainty reduction factors of prior international experience, quantity and types of cross cultural training, and host country tenure did not appear to facilitate expatriates' affective adjustment to their host countries. This article concludes by suggesting that future thinking and research into expatriates' affective adjustment experiences might profitably consider constructs in addition to uncertainty reduction, notably the concept of equivocality.

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