Cross‐cultural training and expatriate adjustment in China: Western joint venture managers

Abstract

Purpose Joint ventures remain the largest group of foreign‐invested enterprises in China. Given the high level of potential conflict, this paper examines whether Western expatriates in joint ventures benefit from cross‐cultural training. Design/methodology/approach A mail questionnaire targeted business expatriates assigned by Western firms to joint ventures and other types of organisations in China. Findings Results show that training had a weak positive association with work adjustment for expatriates in joint ventures, but no relationship with work adjustment for Western managers in other types of operations. Research limitations/implications Data were collected through a self‐report questionnaire and a cross‐sectional approach was applied. However, the scale measuring sociocultural adjustment may have some potential problems. Practical implications This paper emphasises the work context in China when training expatriate candidates. Alternatively, individuals should be selected with recent positive experiences of the host country and work task at hand. Such experience could be regarded as a perfect substitute for cross‐cultural training Originality/value The distinction between different organisational contexts in assessing the effect of cross‐cultural training constitutes a novel approach. The study contributes to the literature on the effectiveness of cross‐cultural training of business expatriates in general and the impact of their organisational setting in particular. It is important to notice that the improved adjustment covers the very reason for the foreign assignment, the work duties of the expatriate manager.

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