Antecedents and outcomes of expatriate adjustment - The influence of motivation and acculturation attitude on adjustment and performance

Diploma Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Psychology - Work, Business, Organisation, grade: 1,7, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, language: English, abstract: This study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of expatriate adjustment on international assignment (IA). 47 expatriates, 25 spouses and 31 supervisors / co-workers assigned to five different countries participated in this survey. In the first part of the study the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation to accept an IA on the acculturation attitude is investigated, and the effects of the acculturation attitude on general, interaction, and work adjustment are examined. Intrinsic motivation is positively related to mainstream culture orientation. Mainstream culture orientation is in turn related to interaction adjustment, but not to general and work adjustment. The second part of the study explores the influence of expatriate adjustment on strain, task, contextual and adaptive performance and the intention to leave the assignment prematurely. General adjustment was negatively related to strain, while work and spouse adjustment showed a positive relationship to strain. Interaction adjustment was not significantly related to strain. This study found that expatriate and spouse adjustment were not significantly related to any of the three facets of performance. Spouse adjustment and strain were both related to the intention to leave the assignment prematurely.