Research

Christopher Richardson · Guat-Hoon Tan · Shaian Kiumarsi ·Journal of Asia Business Studies ·2018

Purpose This paper aims to investigate and reflect upon the effects of personality traits on expatriate adjustment within the context of Malaysia’s multicultural society. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the multicultural personality questionnaire (MPQ) and extrapolating from the literature on expatriate adjustment, the authors introduce five hypotheses, which are then tested based on data derived from 101 expatriates working in Malaysia. Findings The results indicate a positive relationship between both open-mindedness and adjustment as well as between flexibility and adjustment. However, the authors did not observe any significant positive relationship between the three remaining MPQ personality traits and expatriate adjustment. Originality/value While various studies have investigated the relationship between personality and expatriate adjustment in an Asian context, the majority have been conducted in largely monocultural settings, or at least on the implicit assumption of a single societal culture within the host country. This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the relationship in the context of a multicultural Asian host country.

Haslina Halim · Hassan Abu Bakar · Bahtiar Mohamad ·International Journal of Supply Chain Management ·2019

The stress experienced by expatriates is usually caused by the inability to adjust to the host culture, which largely results from their lack of social skills needed in dealing with the new cultural environment. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to identify the predictors of cross-cultural adjustment among expatriates in Malaysia, by focusing on expatriates in hotel industry. The findings from the study could help clarify the overgeneralization made of data which are usually based on certain locations and groups of expatriates. Two hundred and three expatriates participated in the study. Personality, language ability, previous international experience, training, human resource support, social support, culture distance and family adjustment were analyzed using the multiple regression analysis to determine the predictors of adjustment. The data, which was drawn from a drop and collect method, selfadministered questionnaire, revealed that social support and family adjustment were the most influential predictors of hotel expatriate adjustment. The findings also suggest that overgeneralizations of findings across disciplines are rather inappropriate. Detail discussions on the methods, findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research are presented in the paper.