Master thesis structure - ERIM
Master Thesis
Pre-departure training for expatriates who are sent to China
Thesis Coach: Prof. Dr. Barbara Krug
RSM: Department of Organization and Personnel Management
First Co-Reader: Dr. Jimmy Tseng
RSM: Department of Decision and Information Management
Pamela Lau, 272351
Rotterdam School of Management
Erasmus University Rotterdam
MScBA Human Resource Management
June, 2007
The author declares that the text and work presented in this Master thesis are original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating the Master thesis.
© P.W.C. Lau 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.
The copyright of the Master thesis rests with the author. The author is responsible for its contents. RSM Erasmus University is only responsible for the educational coaching and beyond that cannot be held responsible for the content.
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Acknowledgments
The past five years have been quite a journey. Studying IBA and doing a Master in HRM at the Erasmus University has truly enriched my life in many ways. In this process I have come to learn a lot and also made many good friends, which I am very grateful for. It is quite hard to believe this will be the final step towards receiving my Master’s Degree and that student life will be over soon.
I hereby would like to take the opportunity to thank a few people for making this thesis possible. First of all, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Barbara Krug for her coaching, advice, time and constructive feedback, steering me into the right direction. Also, Dr. Jimmy Tseng for his time and advice. Furthermore, my parents, sister and brother for their continuous support and love and having to put up with me during this whole writing process. Special thanks go out to Kirsten Tijssen, who has been a great support to me. Thank you for giving me advice and being there for me whenever I felt lost. And lastly, I would like to thank Huu Vinh Vuong, who kept motivating me and pushing me to go further in the last two months.
As someone said to me after our four-month exchange period in Bath, the UK, ended: ‘It’s time to close another amazing chapter in your life. Don’t be sad, because now it’s time to write your next one’.
Rotterdam, June 2007
Pamela Lau
Executive Summary
China’s domestic market is becoming increasingly attractive for foreign companies to establish their operations there, due to new business opportunities and the cheap labour force. To enable consistent business practices throughout the whole company, many MNEs are sending managers on an international assignment to China for a few years. These managers, or expatriates, are ‘utilised in foreign operations for control and accountability, their technical skills, their knowledge of products and to provide international exposure to key personnel for development purposes’ (Romero, 2002).
However, these international assignments do not always come without problems. ‘China continues to present one of the most difficult challenges to Western firms for ensuring successful, long-term assignments’ (Weiss and Bloom, 1990). The main reason for expatriate failure is the inability of the expatriate or the expatriate’s family to adjust to the new living and working environment (Weiss and Bloom, 1990; Forster, 2000; Hutchings, 2005). Companies could try to tackle this problem by providing pre-departure cross-cultural training for their expatriates.
This thesis will show that even though there still are companies that do not provide pre-departure training, from an expatriate’s point of view it is useful for expatriation to China, as it will aid the transition procedure. Pre-departure training should be provided where special attention should be given to the aspects: Culture, Guanxi and Language. Language is considered important based on the expatriates’ experience, but very often neglected by companies during the training process (Hutchings, 2005). In addition, briefings or information should be provided concerning Chinese business ethics and career opportunities for the spouse. This leads to the next point, which is the importance of involving the spouse (and the family) in the pre-departure training process, since up to 80% of failed assignments in general is caused by the inability of the spouse to adapt to the new living environment (IOMA research report, 2005).
Hence, companies should comprehend the positive effect pre-departure cross-cultural training has on the adjustment of expatriates who are sent to China. Even managers who were (somewhat) familiar with the Chinese culture considered pre-departure training helpful. Training the expatriates can considerably decrease the number of failed assignments and also create a competitive advantage in the global business arena (Waxin and Panaccio, 2005).
Keywords: China, cross-cultural training, expatriate, pre-departure training
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 2
List of Tables and Figures 5
1. Introduction 6
1.1 Introduction 6
1.2 Problem Definition and Research Question 7
1.2.1 Problem Definition 7
1.2.2 Research Question 9
1.3 Contribution 11
1.4 Research Design 12
1.5 Structure Thesis 13
2. Literature Review 14
2.1 Introduction 14
2.2 International Human Resource Management (IHRM) 14
2.2.1 Introduction IHRM 14
2.2.2 International strategy and IHRM 15
2.2.3 IHRM practices 16
2.2.4 Expatriation 18
2.2.4.1 Reasons for expatriation 18
2.2.4.2 Importance of adjustment 19
2.3 China 21
2.3.1 Introduction 21
2.3.2 Chinese Culture 22
2.3.2.1 Chinese culture vs. Dutch culture 23
2.3.3 Guanxi 26
2.3.3.1 The benefits of Guanxi 26
2.3.3.2 The importance of Guanxi 27
2.3.4 Chinese Language 27
2.4 IHRM, China and Expatriation 28
2.4.1 Introduction 28
2.4.2 Pre-departure cross-cultural training 28
2.4.2.1 The importance of pre-departure cross-cultural training 29
2.4.2.2 Training Contents 29
2.4.3 Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT) 30
2.4.3.1 KIT and the China training programmes 31
2.4.3.2 Who gives the training? 31
2.4.3.3 Content of training 32
2.4.3.4 Benefits of KIT 32
3. Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses 33
3.1 Conceptual Framework 33
3.2 Hypotheses 34
3.3 Control Variables 36
4. Methodology 38
4.1 Research Method 38
4.1.1 Information gathering 38
4.1.2 Data gathering 39
4.1.3 Data collection method 39
4.2 Sample Selection 40
4.2.1 Contacting the Sample 40
4.2.2 Respondents 41
4.3 Variables 41
4.4 Data Analyses 43
4.5 Reliability and Validity 43
4.5.1 Reliability 43
4.5.2 Validity 44
5. Results 45
5.1 Introduction 45
5.2 Contents pre-departure training 45
5.2.1 Contents based on experience 45
5.2.2 Pre-departure Training 46
5.2.2.1 Characteristics of training 46
5.2.2.2 Training elements of pre-departure training 47
5.3 Useful Information provided about living and new position 48
5.4 Relevancy pre-departure training 49
6. Conclusions 50
6.1 Conclusions 50
6.1.1 Pre-departure cross-cultural training 50
6.1.2 Information provision 51
6.1.3 Relevancy pre-departure cross-cultural training 52
6.2 Managerial Implications and Recommendations 52
6.3 Limitations and Future Research 53
References 55
Appendices 61
Appendix I: World Investment Report 62
Appendix II: Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Graphs 63
Appendix III: Questionnaire 65
Appendix IV: Quantitative Data 70
Appendix V: Respondents’ Answers Open Questions 72
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
2. Literature Review
Table 1: Successful expatriate acculturation 20
5. Results
Table 2: Descriptive statistics: Importance training elements based on experience 46
Table 3: Descriptive statistics: Importance training elements during actual training 48
Table 4: Descriptive statistics: Information provided by the company 48
Table 5: Descriptive statistics: Information regarding the new position 49
Figures
2. Literature Review
Figure 1: Comparison Hofstede’s cultural dimensions for China and the Netherlands 24
3. Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses
Figure 2: Conceptual Framework 33
1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction
The economy of the People’s Republic of China[1] is booming. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) world investment report 2006[2], China ranked third with $72 billion in global Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) inflows in 2005, behind the United States and the United Kingdom (see Appendix I for FDI table). Due to the government’s economic reform initiatives and its increasingly welcoming attitude towards foreigners, China’s economy has averaged 9% growth[3] per year over the past two decades. Furthermore, China’s entry into the WTO has led to opening up of markets and FDI is expected only to increase. According to figures that were released by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in April 2007[4], China surpassed the United States as the world's second-largest exporter in the middle of 2006, with an export growth of 27%. It is also predicted to be largest exporter in 2008. Besides that, the country’s imports rose 20% to $792 billion in 2006.
With these figures it is no wonder that China is tagged as one of the BRIC-countries. In 2003, Goldman Sachs, a worldwide renowned investment bank, published a paper on the economic potential of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) and argued they may become among the four most dominant economies by the year 2050.
An emerging economy like China offers new business opportunities to MNEs. Especially, with China’s entry into the WTO in 2001, the country has further opened up its borders to FDI and companies are very eager to make use of this. China’s cheap labour market and its population of 1.3 billion people represent a pool of new workers and consumers for foreign companies to tap and therefore many of them endeavour to establish their business in China.
Doing business in China does not always come without problems, as can be seen in the case of Danone vs. Wahaha[5]. The Joint Ventures (JVs) which were established since 1996, between the French MNE and its Chinese business partner, China’s largest beverage producer, recently turned sour in April 2007, after Danone tried to take full ownership over the ventures. Danone already held a 51% stake in the ventures, but was prohibited by Wahaha to buy the rest of the assets of the Hangzhou Wahaha Group. This was followed by Danone taking legal actions, since it claims that Wahaha has breached their contract. Thus, as this example shows, doing business in China can bring its drawbacks. Nevertheless, being successful in China can bring a lot of benefits to the company, as for Danone the JVs accounted for more than 5% of operating profits in 2006.
1.2 Problem Definition and Research Question
1.2.1 Problem Definition
Expatriation has been a popular method for MNEs to implement the parent company’s strategy and practices in their foreign subsidiaries or JVs. Although the largest part of the subsidiary’s employees will be hired in the host country itself, many MNEs send managers from the parent company to the host country for a few years to work on a project. These expatriates are usually involved in getting production started or in directing the business processes according to the parent company’s requirements.
However, not all of these assignments will run smoothly. ‘Despite lots of research, enterprises continue to be haunted by failed assignments, projects gone bad, and attrition when it comes to expatriates’ (Jack and Stage, 2005). Expatriate failure is defined by Oddou (1991) and Romero (2002) as a premature return from a foreign assignment or poor performance while the expatriate is on assignment. Additionally, they state that expatriate effectiveness is the completion of a foreign assignment with high levels of productivity during the assignment. From expatriates in general, 10 – 40% are estimated to return prematurely (Tung, 1987; Weiss and Bloom, 1990; Kline Harrison, 1994; Romero, 2002; Jack and Stage, 2005).
The costs of a failed assignment are difficult to quantify, given that it reaches further than the actual costs of the transfer and salary of the expatriate (Jack and Stage, 2005). Missed business opportunities and productivity losses also add to the bill. Estimated costs of poor management or low productivity can lie between $65,000 and $300,000 (Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985). And more recent researches mention that a failed assignment can even cost up to $1 million (Romero, 2002; Hutchings, 2005).
There are external factors that might influence the expatriate’s assignment, e.g. the overall performance of the foreign subsidiary or JV. Nevertheless, the foremost reason for a premature return is their or their family’s inability to adjust to the culture of the new environment (Tung 1987; Romero, 2002, Hutchings, 2005). Other reasons for expatriate failure include insufficient technical skills, low motivation level for being abroad and the manager’s lack of emotional maturity (Tung, 1987; Romero, 2002). Moreover, according to Copeland and Griggs (1985), a completed assignment does not necessarily mean that it was successful, as up to 50% of the expatriates performed poorly during their assignment.
In HRM literature, a lot of research has been done on expatriate adjustment and the effect of cross-cultural training (for examples see Black and Mendenhall, 1990; Selmer et al., 1998; Forster, 2000; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005). Apart from the proper selection of the expatriates – in terms of technical ability, managerial skills, cultural empathy, adaptability etc. (Phatak, 1992) – pre-departure cross-cultural training is very important in order for the transition and assignment to be successful (Black and Mendenhall, 1990; Brewster and Pickard, 1994; Forster, 2000). ‘The objective of cross-cultural training is to teach members of one culture to interact effectively with members of another culture, and to predispose them to a rapid adjustment to their new positions’ (Mendenhall and Oddou, 1991; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005). Even though many researchers have found that there is a positive relationship between cross-cultural training and expatriate performance and adjustment (Tung, 1987; Black and Mendenhall, 1990; Deshpande and Viswesvaran, 1992; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005), some studies argue that the effect still remains inconclusive (Kealy and Protheroe, 1996; Selmer et al., 1998).
Research on cross-cultural training and the adjustment of expatriates in China still is limited, although in the last few years there have been a few studies done concerning this topic and with China’s growing importance, this amount is expected only to increase (see Hutchings, 2005; Selmer, 2005). For example, in a study done by Weiss and Bloom (1990) among 26 expatriates of MNEs in China, they found that there was ‘a lack of preparation for the assignment in terms of expectations, language skills, and how to communicate with the Chinese they have to train and work with’. This matches findings of studies on cross-cultural training in general, that ‘many companies do not provide formal cross-cultural training or on a very selective basis’ (Black and Mendenhall, 1990; Brewster and Pickard, 1994; Selmer et al., 1998; Forster, 2000).
There are large differences between the Western cultures and the Chinese culture, which can be assessed using the five cultural dimensions of Hofstede (1980). It is argued that expatriate failure is greater in nations where the gap between the home and host culture is indicated (Hutchings, 2005). Hence, the HR-department should understand the significance of pre-departure training for expatriates they send to China. Subsequently, the success of a company’s International Human Resource Management (IHRM) is essential for its global competitiveness and can make or break an expatriate assignment (Stroh and Caligiuri, 1998; Bonache and Fernandez, 1999; Scullion, 1999). This study will contribute to the available literature on pre-departure cross-cultural training for expatriates who are sent to China by researching the current preparation practices and stressing the importance of preparing the expatriates well before they leave for China.
1.2.2 Research Question
Interestingly, it widely differs per company how the HR-department prepares the expatriates for their foreign assignments. Most companies will provide a pre-departure cross-cultural training that can range from one day to a full week of intensive training. Nonetheless, not all companies necessarily provide this training or when they do, the training might not be sufficient (Brewster, 1995; Selmer, 2000) and evaluating its effectiveness remains difficult, due to the qualitative nature (Waxin and Panaccio, 2005). Even so, Selmer et al. (1998) assert that ‘effective training occurs when the cross-cultural content coincides in time with the psychological predispositions occurring during the various phases of the adjustment process’.
Some issues for evaluating the relevance are: is the training addressing the right subjects, is the time spent enough and does it actually help the expatriate adjust once in the country? In an earlier study done by Goodall et al. (2006) with expatriates in China, most expatriates were not satisfied with the things they learned during their pre-departure training, since the information they had gotten was mostly outdated, if not totally wrong. A consequence of insufficient preparation is that it causes adjustment problems when the expatriate is not familiar with the host country’s culture, due to large cultural differences. And when the problems are not tackled in time, this might lead to failure of the foreign assignment (Tung, 1987; Romero, 2002; Hutchings, 2005).
Expatriates who are sent to China by their company will inevitably face psychological stresses that occur when people adapt to a living and working environment in a new culture (Forster, 2000). Most companies will try to prepare and familiarise expatriates with common faced problems before they leave, by providing pre-departure training and additional information. Creating realistic expectations can help the expatriates adjust to the new environment. However, are the issues that expatriates face who are sent to China, also (sufficiently) covered in the pre-departure training? Are the training needs of the expatriate adequately reflected in the content of the pre-departure training?
This study looks at the pre-departure preparations that expatriates have experienced for their assignment in China, and will specifically focus on the effect of pre-departure cross-cultural training. How were they prepared for their function in China by their companies and more importantly, are these practices sufficient? Therefore, the main research question of this research can be formulated as follows:
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In order to answer the research question, several features of the pre-departure preparation process of an MNE need to be investigated. By looking at these features, a better understanding can be created on how MNEs handle their IHRM and with the feedback of expatriates the effectiveness of these practices can be assessed. The following aspects of pre-departure cross-cultural training of expatriates need to be investigated, which can be seen as sub-questions that support the main research question.
➢ Do the MNEs provide pre-departure cross-cultural training for their expatriates who are sent to China? And do the aspects of the training match the adjustment needs of the expatriates?
Before an expatriate leaves for China, do they receive pre-departure cross-cultural training to prepare them for living and working in China? If they do, what are the characteristics of this training? (E.g. cultural differences between home country and China, language, etc.) Is knowledge regarding these characteristics useful for expatriation to China? Are there training elements that were missed that would have been helpful?
➢ What information do MNEs provide the expatriates before they leave?
When living and working in China, it is very important that the company provides the expatriate with proper information concerning the new living environment. This information can range from visa information to information on the expatriate community in China. And were there elements that expatriates missed?
➢ Do the expatriates know what their new function in China entails?
Did they receive the proper information about their new work environment? Did they receive skills training to prepare them for their tasks in China? And were they well aware of their new tasks and responsibilities?
➢ Are the expatriates satisfied with the pre-departure practices of the firm?
What do expatriates think of the pre-departure preparation they have received? Was it too long or too short? Are there things that they are unsatisfied with? Was the training actually helpful? What do they think of pre-departure training overall?
When these questions are investigated and answered, a better understanding can be created concerning how MNEs handle their expatriate pre-departure practices. Areas of improvement could be identified and features that are currently missing can be suggested. Moreover, the results of this study contribute to the literature concerning pre-departure cross-cultural training and the effect it has on the adjustment of expatriates who are sent to China. Subsequently, having answered the sub-questions, the main research question of this thesis can be answered and suggestions for improvements can be made.
1.3 Contribution
The objective of this research is to find out if pre-departure training has been provided to the expatriate and whether the training helped the expatriate adjust to the new living and working environment after arriving in China. The availability and relevancy of pre-departure training programmes to expatriates who are sent to China need to be investigated. Hence, the research aims of this thesis are:
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This thesis has relevance for expatriates themselves, as it gives an indication of what elements determine their success rate on a foreign assignment to China. Furthermore, the relevance for HR-managers is that it urges for solid training programmes and what its content should be regarding certain specific China elements. And finally, this research is relevant for MNEs in the sense that it increases the awareness on the importance of training and the awareness on the fact that success abroad is influenced by expatriate adjustment. Moreover, proper management of expatriates can lead to competitiveness in China. In addition, the results may also affect the way companies design their pre-departure training programmes and provide recommendations for improvements.
As for an academic contribution, by investigating this topic, a better insight can be given on the effectiveness of pre-departure training in the particular case of China. A lot of research has already been done on cross-cultural training for expatriates in general, but research linking this topic with preparation for China is still limited and small scale (Weiss and Bloom, 1990; Hutchings, 2005; Selmer; 2005). Advancing the academic IHRM literature in this respect would acknowledge the effect of pre-departure cross-cultural training and urge more scholars to conduct research in this area to determine the impact of Chinese culture on IHRM practices.
Thus, the findings of this study will contribute to the available literature on pre-departure training by going deeper into the subject with China as its particular focus and will provide implications for management. Therefore, this thesis has both academic and managerial relevance.
1.4 Research Design
This thesis is an exploratory research, so as to better comprehend the nature of this matter. It is both qualitative and quantitative in nature. In short, this study intends to look at the availability of training programmes, if expatriates have actually received pre-departure training, and how the expatriates were affected by it. The effectiveness of the pre-departure training is based on the experience of expatriates from MNEs who have been or still are in China. The main research data is gathered with an online-questionnaire. In this questionnaire, expatriates were questioned about their experience regarding pre-departure training and other elements that were part of the pre-departure preparation they went through. Open and closed- ended questions were formulated, as to ascertain getting the correct data by posing questions in different ways.
1.5 Structure Thesis
The structure of this thesis can be broken down into three main parts. The first part consists of a general introduction concerning what will be researched as well as the theoretical foundations of the thesis. In Chapter 2, all relevant literature concerning pre-departure cross-cultural training will be discussed. First of all, the subject of general IHRM and its related practices will be explained. Then, the literature will focus on a specific part of IHRM, which is the management of expatriates. Moreover, specific attention is paid to pre-departure training and a link to China is made, where the cultural differences between the West and China will be assessed. And finally, IHRM, expatriation and China are brought together and interlinked.
To continue, the second part comprises of the methodological part of the thesis. In this section, a conceptual framework is constructed based on the research questions and literature review. Moreover, the methodology of this research is explained. This section will also elaborate on the reasons for choosing a questionnaire as the main data collection method. In addition, the construction of the questionnaire as well as the selection of expatriates and companies are clarified. Lastly, it describes how the concept of relevancy of pre-departure training is operationalised and how the data collected with the questionnaires is analysed.
Finally, the last part of this thesis will consist of the presentation of results, conclusions, managerial implications, limitations and future research.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
The world economy is getting more global and companies are forced to be more globally competitive. Companies need to come up with a good global business strategy in order to stay ahead of competition. One of these strategies could be to be more cross-culturally aware. Country boundaries are fading and Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) are setting up more and more business subsidiaries in other countries to enter the foreign markets locally. Nowadays, companies can select their employees from all over the world. Not only does the MNE need to be aware of the local culture of the subsidiary employees, but the overall employment of the whole company will become more culturally diverse.
Standard Human Resource (HR) practices will not be enough to survive in the dynamic global environment. International Human Resource Management (IHRM) is becoming increasingly important and needs to be integrated in a company’s strategy. There is a lot of literature available on how to manage the workforce in the international business environment, which also includes the management of expatriates. The literature relevant for this research will be discussed in the following sections, where a link will be created between expatriation to China and pre-departure cross-cultural training.
2.2 International Human Resource Management (IHRM)
2.2.1 Introduction IHRM
With the increase in both number and size of MNEs, the role of IHRM is growing increasingly. IHRM is about the management of human resources around the globe (Adler and Ghadar, 1990; Schuler et al., 2002; Torrington et al., 2002). Proper IHRM can provide an MNE with a competitive advantage. However, internationalising HRM, the policies, and the function still remain a challenge for a lot of companies. ‘Different cultural assumptions (…) make HRM practices culture-bound’ (Schneider and Barsoux, 2003; 149). Policies that work well in one culture do not necessarily produce the same effects in other cultural contexts. Several reasons can be mentioned for this (Torrington et al., 2002). Firstly, significant institutional variations between countries make it difficult for standard policies and practices to be implemented. For example tax regimes, training and qualification systems and laws concerning employment. In addition, cultural differences need to be taken into account. What makes sense; one culture does not necessarily transfer well into another. And finally, it very much depends on the strategic approach the company is taking regarding internationalisation which will influence the IHRM practices of that company.
2.2.2 International strategy and IHRM
The way employees approach work or work relations differ per country. ‘The dynamics of both the local/regional and international/global business context in which the firm operates should be given serious consideration’ (Schuler et al., 2002; 41). MNEs can use three types of approaches to international strategy, which influences the way they manage and staff their subsidiaries (Perlmutter, 1969; Francesco and Gold, 1998; Treven, 2000 and Jackson, 2002):
1. Ethnocentric
With this approach, key decisions are made at the headquarters in the home country and the management practices from the home country are transferred to the subsidiaries. To ensure consistency of these practices, managers from the home country occupy important positions in the subsidiaries.
2. Polycentric
Each subsidiary manages on a local basis with a local manager at the head. Local managers have more knowledge about the local circumstances than a manager from another country would have and are familiar with the local business ethics. The local management develops its own management practices that are appropriate for their subsidiary.
3. Geocentric or global
This is a globally integrated approach. MNEs will try to combine the best of headquarter and local practices in order to come up with HR-practices that can be implemented globally. With this approach, selection of employees is based on competency rather than nationality.
A good balance has to be struck between global and local HR-practices. What most companies do is take the global HR-strategy as a guideline and implement it locally. It is therefore up to the HR-managers to provide the proper HR-practices to prepare and manage the employees well for their function in their home country or an international assignment.
2.2.3 IHRM practices
IHRM has to deal with the impact of different cultures within the company and the international mobility of employees, including managing the stresses and concerns of employees on international assignments, may it be long or short term. There are several functional areas that can be identified (Morgan, 1986; Treven, 2006): recruitment and selection, development and training, performance evaluation, compensation and benefits and labour relations. These functions will be explained next.
1. Recruitment and selection
Staffing employees is starting to get increasingly complex. The whole process of recruiting and selecting the right employee is culture sensitive. As mentioned before, the type of management approach will influence the recruitment and selection procedures of a company. If a company uses an ethnocentric approach, the important positions at the headquarters and subsidiaries will be filled by home country nationals. However, when it handles a polycentric approach, host country nationals will be the people who are attracted to fill the positions in the subsidiaries. With a geocentric or global approach, the nationality of the employee is irrelevant and the company will only look at the competencies of the employee. For the HR-department it is key when finding a right candidate to fill a certain position, they have to keep several things in mind. Firstly, they have to look at the special job qualifications that are needed to fulfil the function. Secondly, they have to match the employee’s personal characteristics and background with the job qualifications. And finally, they have to take into account the global strategy and goals of the company and if appropriate, the established local practices of the subsidiary.
2. Development and training
Another responsibility of the HR-department on the international level is the training and development of employees. Globalisation forces MNEs to be culturally responsive and this is reflected in multicultural teams. Moreover, the workforce is getting more culturally diverse, and managers need to be able to work with people from other subsidiaries that may have other cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, the HR-department has to take care of the pre-departure training of expatriates who are sent on global assignments. The expatriate needs to be well prepared for living and working in another country to ensure the success of the assignment. Especially, when the culture of the host country differs extensively from its home country, problems that might occur due to cultural differences can be avoided or reduced with proper training.
3. Performance evaluation
‘The need for consistency across subsidiaries for performance comparisons conflicts with the need to consider the cultural background of employees to make the evaluation meaningful’ (Treven, 2006; 123). The difficulty of performance evaluation of employees working for MNEs is that they are scattered over different subsidiaries in countries with different cultural backgrounds. Once more, the evaluation method is also linked to the way the MNEs manage their subsidiaries. They can choose to implement a global evaluation system, where performance evaluation is standardised in their subsidiaries. However, they could also choose for a more locally oriented assessment method, where performance is measured using local practices. In the case of expatriate evaluation, Schuler et al. (2002) argue that MNEs need to look at more than job related dimensions. (E.g. cross-cultural interpersonal qualities; sensitivity to foreign cultural and institutional matters; adaptability to uncertain and unpredictable conditions; and the host country’s integration with other subsidiaries)
4. Compensation and Benefits
When looking at compensation and benefits, they are closely tied to the local labour market. What kind of management approach a company takes on does not have that much influence on how they reward their employees. This is more determined by the local laws on wages, the market wage rates, and the availability of personnel to fill functions, etc. Expatriates can be remunerated differently depending on the policy the company uses. This can be a home-based policy, a host-based policy or a region-based policy (Dowling et al., 1994). With a home-based policy, the reward system of the home country will be used. Similarly, using a host-based policy, the compensation and benefits practices of the host country will be handled. And finally, with a region-based policy the MNE will look at how far the expatriate is from its home country region. The further the host country is, the more compensation the expatriate will receive.
5. Labour relations
Labour relations are how the employees perceive the work and how they perceive each other. These perceptions are very culturally driven and will differ in every country. For example, in the Netherlands labour unions and companies have a very formal relationship, where labour unions have significant power to negotiate. On the other hand, in a country like Japan, labour unions are part of the company itself and the relationship is more cooperative of nature. Employees still work during strikes, but wear a white band on their arm to show that they are one strike.
Developing effective international HR-strategies and practices can be crucial for the success of an MNE in international business (Schuler, 2002; Forster, 2000). Hence, the HR-department needs to manage these relationships well by keeping in mind the company’s strategy and goals and also taking into account the cultural differences within the company.
As can be seen from the functions, a great part of IHRM is the management of expatriates. When the expatriation practices of a company are well managed, MNEs can have a significant advantage over their competitors. In other words, when the expatriate can adapt well to the foreign country and work well together with the local staff, a sustainable competitive advantage can be created (Goodall and Roberts, 2003). Nonetheless, this still remains a big issue for many MNEs, as the rate of failed expatriate assignments still is high (Jack and Stage, 2005).
2.2.4 Expatriation
‘The international movement of human resources has generated the development of research which targets the adjustment of expatriates in the foreign cultures’ (Lee et al., 2005; 273). Aycan and Kanungo (1997) and Lee and Liu (2006) define an expatriate as ‘an employee who is sent by a multinational parent company on a work assignment to a foreign nation’. The management of expatriates is a common feature of IHRM. It continues to be current practice for local organisations, to send their own local employees on international assignments when establishing ventures across borders (Groh and Allen, 1998). According to Jackson (2002), expatriation can be seen as a way of implementing the corporate strategy of the organisation; as part of the company’s career planning process; and as a method to meet the individual needs of their employees in their career aspiration.
2.2.4.1 Reasons for expatriation
One of the main reasons for the parent company to send expatriates is the usual lack of technical and managerial expertise in the host country (Romero, 2002; Goodall et al., 2006). Since expatriation is a big expenditure for companies, most MNEs use them only for key positions as senior managers, high-level professionals, and technical specialists. Other functions are filled by local employees who are not that costly. In addition, many countries require a certain percentage of the work force to be local citizens, with exceptions usually made for upper management. Another rationale behind sending managers abroad is that the overall business strategy will be implemented everywhere throughout the company and they still are in control of the key functions within that subsidiary.
Reasons for the expatriate to take on an international assignment differ widely. In a research conducted by Adler (1991) among 1129 MBA students in Europe, U.S. and Canada, the four main reasons for taking on an international assignment were: 1. Cross-cultural experience of getting to know new cultures and learning new languages, 2. Interesting job with more responsibilities, 3. Higher wage and 4. Career advancement. Still, we have to keep in mind that these reasons are also culturally bound. To which extent these reasons can be generalised to other cultures, is not clear. More research needs to be done to investigate this topic in non-Western cultures. Moreover, this also holds true for the selection criteria most Western companies use to choose the international managers for an assignment. These include: technical ability, managerial skills, cultural empathy, adaptability and flexibility, diplomatic skills, personal motives, emotional stability and maturity and adaptability of family (Phatak, 1992).
2.2.4.2 Importance of adjustment
Sending an expatriate to manage business in a foreign subsidiary is easier said than done. ‘When the expatriate moves to an unfamiliar host culture, habitual behaviours may be inappropriate or even unacceptable in context of the local norms. Cross-cultural adjustment requires the learning of new behaviours which are better suited to the host culture’ (Selmer et al., 1998). In a survey done by Tung, among 409 current and former expatriates from 49 MNEs, she found that the expatriates believed that their companies did not provide a clear view what to expect from the assignment (Tung, 1998). According to Phillips (1993), ‘orientation and support are needed both before the assignment begins, and during the first three months at least. Experience shows that the second six months of a foreign assignment can be the most difficult and crucial period’. On entering a new culture, she identifies that many individuals seem to pass through the same fundamental changes in attitude, in three phases:
1. And initial sense of elation and optimism
2. A period of frustration, depression and confusion
3. A gradual improvement in mood, leading to optimism and satisfaction with the new situation.
In order for the assignment to be successful, the expatriate needs to adjust to the new working and living environment. Mendenhall and Oddou (1985) have come up with four dimensions that are associated with successful expatriate acculturation: self-oriented dimension, others oriented dimension, perceptual dimension and cultural toughness dimension. This is visualised in the following Table 1.
|Successful expatriate acculturation |
|Self-oriented dimension |Others oriented dimension |Perceptual dimension |Cultural toughness dimension |
|Reinforcement Substitution |Relationship Development | | |
|Stress Reduction |Willingness to Communicate | | |
|Technical Competence | | | |
Table 1: Source: Mendenhall and Oddou (1985)
The Self-oriented dimension involves those activities that support the self-confidence and mental health of the expatriate. These activities can be divided into three groups. Reinforcement Substitution is when hobbies or activities that are enjoyed in the home country are replaced by something similar in the host country. Stress Reduction means that stress is handled through adapting oneself to the host culture and creating so-called comfort zones for oneself to retreat to. And Technical Competence are abilities needed to be able to reach the objectives of the assignment.
Secondly, Others oriented dimension consists of two sub-factors and entails the activities or characteristics that improve an expatriate’s ability to communicate and interact well with host country nationals. Relationship Development is the quality to build long-lasting relationships. In addition, Willingness to Communicate includes the active stance of the expatriate to communicate, which involves using the host country’s language, listening, experimenting and risk taking.
Thirdly, the Perceptual dimension implies understanding why people from other cultures behave in a certain manner. Being successful in this dimension leads to a higher likelihood of productive interpersonal relations. And finally, Cultural toughness dimension where it is assumed that it is more difficult to adapt to one culture than to another, due to the fact that they are more different from one’s own culture.
Proper preparation organised by the company can avoid disruption of the assignment and can aid acculturation (Black and Mendenhall, 1990; Brewster and Pickard, 1994; Forster, 2000). ‘Preparatory activities should emphasise the initial adjustment problems due to an inadequate frame of reference’. Expatriates should be prepared for a definite culture shock, which can be described as a transition period that involves some level of anxiety, confusion and disruption. This is caused by old signals and rituals being replaced by new and unknown signals. By doing this it will reduce future frustrations, as ‘the expatriate will be aware that personal behaviour will be inconsistent with local practices’ (Selmer et al., 1998). The expatriate should anticipate changes in the operant frame of reference, so as to reduce anxiety.
However, in reality, many companies do not provide pre-departure cross-cultural training or present practices are insufficient or incomplete (Brewster, 1995; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005). This would mean that some companies still seem to be ambivalent to the use of pre-departure training. There are great variations in the supply of training between companies, ranging from one-day trainings to intensive training for several days or a week (Caligiuri et al., 2001; Gudykunst et al., 1996). Especially, in case of an international assignment to China, short pre-departure cross-cultural training might be too short considering the great cultural differences between the Western and Chinese culture. If the company provides training, that is.
2.3 China
2.3.1 Introduction
The Chinese investment climate has opened up gradually in the past decades. In the 1980s, foreigners were restricted to export-oriented JVs with Chinese firms. In the early 1990s, they were allowed to manufacture goods for sale in the domestic Chinese market; and by the mid-1990s, the establishment of wholly foreign-owned enterprises was permitted.[6] Hence, it has become easier to start a business in China and many MNEs are setting up business subsidiaries there.
The downside that can occur is that although entering the Chinese market has become easier, doing business in China still remains quite difficult for those who do not understand the Chinese business ethics. ‘Expatriate failure occurs more frequently in China than is the case elsewhere’ (Zamet and Bovarnick, 1986, p.19). With principles like guanxi (interpersonal connection) and mianzi (face) that are deeply embedded in the Chinese culture, it still is hard for Western companies to establish good business relationships in China (Wilkinson, 1996; Buttery and Leung, 1998; Vanhonacker, 2004; Leung and Wong, 2001).
Another hurdle is the socio-political environment that needs to be understood to do business. The ruling political party in China, the Communist Party of China, has great influence on the Chinese economy. Although the Chinese market is increasingly liberalising, the power of the Communist Party is still significant. Weiss and Bloom (1990) found that not being prepared for understanding the ‘interaction between China’s political and work situations’ initially left expatriate managers disadvantaged in their jobs. In China, many organisations are part of the governmental system leading to an overlap of private and public interests in the workplace. Hence, knowledge about how Chinese institutions work will give the expatriate an advantage when working in China and will also help the adjustment, as the expatriate will not feel too lost.
In a study done by Lu et al. (1997) on 67 Sino-foreign international JVs they found that ‘Chinese managers saw the highest cause of difficulties being expatriate managers without knowledge of the Chinese environment, and the second highest cause being different management styles’. Therefore, in order for companies to be successful in China, they need a better understanding of the Chinese business environment and the culture (Hebard, 1994), which is an issue for the HR-department to consider when designing the training programmes (Jackson and Bak, 1998).
Understanding the Chinese culture can be quite difficult for people who are not familiar with the Chinese or any other Asian culture. There are many rules of conduct present that are interwoven in the way the Chinese behave and do business. Finding the key to understanding this behaviour can mean a great advantage to a company that does business there.
2.3.2 Chinese Culture
Over the last few decades, the Chinese culture has had a significant influence on Chinese management and work organisation (Warner and Joynt, 2002). Cultural differences have to be taken into account when managing a diverse work force. For the reasons that: cultural differences can be directly linked to managerial effectiveness; has a significant influence on motivation and satisfaction of the employees; and also affects international HR-practices (Warner, 2005).
In a study done by Goodall et al. (2006) it is said that Chinese culture creates barriers for expatriates who work in China. These barriers were mostly created by mutual misunderstandings about the behaviour of both expatriate managers and the local staff. In order to overcome these barriers, it is important for the expatriate managers and the Chinese employees to build relationships. Especially, for the expatriate managers it is crucial to understand the differences between their home culture and the host culture, in this case the Chinese culture, to be able to act accordingly.
2.3.2.1 Chinese culture vs. Dutch culture
According to Hofstede 1980), culture is the ‘collective programming of the mind, which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another’. He argued that the national culture can be analysed using four dimensions: Power Distance, Masculinity/Femininity, Individualism/Collectivism and Uncertainty Avoidance. He later added a fifth dimension, Long term/Short term orientation or Confucian Dynamism (Hofstede and Bond, 1988), which entails a culture’s tendency toward Confucian characteristics, e.g. long-term values, such as thrift and perseverance and the ethic of hard work.
In this research mostly Dutch expatriates are participating, therefore the Dutch culture will be taken as an example. To enable a clearer view on how the cultures of China and the Netherlands differ from each other, their score on the Hofstede dimensions are compared to each other in graphs. (For the separate graphs of both countries, ‘the World Average’ and ‘Asian Countries’, see Appendix II.)
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Figure 1: Comparison Hofstede’s cultural dimensions for China and the Netherlands
Source: geert-
As can be seen from the graphs, China’s graph is similar to the graph of Asian Countries, indicating a similar culture. China scores high on Power Distance with a ranking of 80 compared to the Dutch 38. Asian countries have an average of 60, and the world average is 55. This is an indication that there is a high level of unequal distribution of power and wealth in China. Hierarchy, authority and age are respected within the Chinese society. This is a product of the cultural heritage of Confucianism and has been accepted and maintained throughout history. The Netherlands on the other hand score low on Power Distance which means that there is quite an equal distribution of power and wealth in the country.
For the next dimension Individualism, the scores are the other way around. The Netherlands score 80, while China has a score of 20, this compared to 24 for Asian countries and 43 worldwide. The Chinese rank lower than any other Asian country in the Individualism (IDV) ranking, at 20 compared to an average of 24. Chinese society is a ‘group society’, where everyone belongs to a certain group, may it be family, extended family, or extended relationships. You take care and responsibility for other members of the group, as they will do for you. Also, this can be reflected by the Communist Party’s high emphasis on a collectivist society. The Netherlands’ score on Individualism is the fourth highest worldwide Individualism ranking together with Canada, behind the U.S. (91), Australia (90), and U.K. (89). The Dutch are more individualistic and self-reliant, where they watch over themselves and their close family members. They think privacy is very important and respecting oneself and other people’s opinions is key in the Dutch culture.
The scores for Masculinity are quite similar to the Power Distance dimension. China scores 66 as opposed to the lowest Hofstede dimension for the Netherlands 14, with a world average of 50. As mentioned before, in Chinese society group members take care of each other, and outside that group it is everyone for himself. The low value of the Netherlands gives an indication of an openly nurturing society, where there is a low level of differentiation and discrimination between people and genders.
Uncertainty Avoidance is for the Netherlands the second highest score of 53, compared to a worldwide score of 64. The Dutch culture has the tendency to minimize or reduce the level of uncertainty by using rules, laws, policies, and regulations to cover most if not all situations or circumstances. As for the relative low Chinese score of 30, it could mean that ‘the society is traditionally ruled more by men rather than by laws’ (Jackson, 2002). According to Hofstede, the concept of ‘truth’, which is linked to Uncertainty Avoidance, may not be relevant in Chinese society. People might tell you what you want to hear in order to save ‘face’.
China has the highest score for Long-term orientation of 118, which is similar for all Asian cultures. ‘This dimension indicates a society's time perspective and an attitude of persevering; that is, overcoming obstacles with time, if not with will and strength’ (Hofstede, 1988). On the other hand, the Netherlands’ score is quite Short-term oriented with 44. This would mean that in Dutch society, problems that are encountered need to be tackled as quickly as possible and more short-term goals are set.
After the analysis of the cultural dimensions of both cultures, it is no wonder why there are difficulties transferring expatriates from one culture to another. Expatriates should be preparing themselves for a culture shock and try to look for methods to overcome this. Companies can aid them by providing the necessary support, but the process will take time. Expatriates should keep in mind that ‘patience is the essence of successful management in China’ (Goodall et al., 2006).
As can be seen from Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions of China, the country is low on Individualism and high on Collectivism. ‘In Chinese business organisations familial relations are important both internally and in guanxi relations’ (Jackson, 2002). They typically will have more trust and offer more support to in-group members than they would to out-group members. A great deal of literature with regards to doing business in China has been dedicated to the concept of guanxi. Since it is a typical trait of the Chinese culture and such an important part of doing business in China, it will be explained more elaborately.
2.3.3 Guanxi
For a long time, guanxi has been a major issue for companies that have been doing business in China. Guanxi means ‘relationship’ in Chinese, but a better translation in a business context would be ‘connections’. Although some may see it as corruption or bribery, it seems that this type of networking is inevitable and a crucial part when undertaking business in China (Luo, 1997; Li and Wright, 2000; Pun et al., 2000; Leung and Wong, 2001; Vanhonacker, 2004; Millington et al., 2005; Parnell, 2005).
Personal relationships and trust play vital roles in Chinese society, and this also includes business. When you want to get something done in China, it is very important whom you know. However, this does not come without a price. ‘Guanxi networks entail reciprocity, obligations, and indebtedness among actors, as well as the aesthetic protocol that comes with cultivating these relationships’ (Vanhonacker, 2004; 49). According to Buttery and Wong (1999), guanxi is constructed of 4 dimensions that influence the quality of the guanxi: favour, trust, dependence and adaptation. When these four dimensions are addressed correctly, good guanxi will be created.
It is very different from the Western way of negotiating and doing business, which sees the whole process of negotiating as an economic exchange process. In the West, work and private life are separated. However, in China relationships are much more important than transactions and work and social life are intertwined. The Chinese rather fall back on friendship and trust than on formal contracts (Buttery and Leung, 1998). Therefore, Western firms should understand how they can build up and maintain guanxi and especially know how they have to play the game when entering the Chinese business arena. In order to do business in China, understanding guanxi is crucial.
2.3.3.1 The benefits of Guanxi
Guanxi is particularly useful when the proper information is not available or the company cannot get a foothold in the market. In these cases it is helpful when you know the right people that can help you. It is very important for foreign firms to build their own guanxi network. ‘Good relationships with the customs bureau, the local administration for industry and commerce, and other regulatory organisations (…) are as good as gold in China’ (Seligman, 1999). These connections will make doing business in China much easier. Even though some companies do not feel comfortable with the means with which guanxi is established, ‘foreigners are well within their rights to draw their own lines as to what they are and are not prepared to deliver to those with whom they have established guanxi’ (Seligman, 1999).
2.3.3.2 The importance of Guanxi
As Parnell (2005) argued, guanxi is perhaps the key to define virtually all social interaction in China, either directly or indirectly. Guanxi is so deeply embedded in the Chinese culture, that confrontation with it is inevitable. It has its benefits and drawbacks for Western firms. On the one hand there are the advantages of getting reliable information about the market and government, getting a competitive advantage, overcoming the bureaucracy, easily getting connected to other people through your guanxi network and that transactions will be handled much faster. However, it also is very time and money consuming, gives opportunity for corruption, can become a liability and it is not a way to take care of competition. Nevertheless, the benefits of guanxi will outweigh the problems that lack of guanxi will bring, when doing business in China.
However, guanxi is just one aspect of the Chinese culture that needs to be comprehended. Another more straightforward hurdle for expatriates is, understanding the Chinese language.
2.3.4 Chinese Language
For expatriates going to China, the language barrier is the most obvious negative factor encountered (Goodall et al., 2006). ‘Language is an instrument of communication and cultural transmission’ (Clark, 1996). The role that language plays in human interaction transcends basic communication. The Chinese language is an essential part of Chinese culture, and the Chinese are very proud of it. For them it is not only a way to communicate, but also as a means to transfer their cultural values.
The official language in China is Mandarin and is quite hard to learn for people who are used to having an alphabet. Although in the new work environment people will use English, most Chinese do not know how to speak English or speak it very poorly. This will definitely cause communication problems when the expatriate is outside the work environment or sometimes even within the work environment. Therefore, it is very important for expatriates to learn at least some basic words and sentences in Chinese.
The will to speak or learn Chinese will give you an advantage even if you are not that fluent. According to Brislin (1993), the willingness to use the host country’s language will have a greater positive effect on expatriate adjustment than the actual fluency of the language. It will positively influence the attitude of the employees to cooperate with the expatriate manager. The local employees will see the effort of using the language, as trying to understand the host culture and showing the expatriate’s commitment to work in China (Selmer, 2005; Goodall et al., 2006).
Hence, companies need to understand the importance of teaching their expatriates at least some basic Chinese in order for them to better integrate with the local employees and adjust more quickly.
2.4 IHRM, China and Expatriation
2.4.1 Introduction
Analysis of the IHRM literature has shown that expatriation is a sensitive matter that needs to be taken very seriously by the company. Proper preparation of expatriates is especially important for those who will be sent to countries where the cultural distance of the home and host country is quite significant. In these cases, pre-departure cross-cultural training is essential, where the accent lies on the cultural differences they will encounter.
2.4.2 Pre-departure cross-cultural training
The effectiveness of cross-cultural training is still debated (Kealy and Protheroe, 1996). In the previous mentioned study done by Goodall et al. (2006), they found that expatriates that go work in China usually experience some degree of culture shock. Most companies want to counter this by giving pre-departure cross-cultural training.
In another research done by Selmer (2005), it was found that training was weakly positive related to work adjustment for Western expatriates in JVs in China. This is in contrast with most of the available literature on cross-cultural training, where a positive relationship between cross-cultural training and expatriate adjustment is emphasised.
2.4.2.1 The importance of pre-departure cross-cultural training
In a study done by Caligiuri et al. (2001) it is suggested that the more tailored and relevant the pre-departure cross-cultural training, the more expectations were either met or positively exceeded. Having accurate expectations positively affects cross-cultural adjustment. The results from this study encourage organisations to develop programmes that will ensure their expatriates have realistic expectations prior to their global assignments. (E.g. through tailored pre-departure cross-cultural training) The importance of cross-cultural training is also supported by other researches done (Black and Mendenhall, 1990; Hammer and Martin, 1990; Oddou, 1991; Gregersen and Black, 1992; Forster, 2000; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005).
More cross-cultural training is also needed when the host country has a limited expatriate community that could provide assistance and support to the expatriate and the family to ease their adjustment in the new environment (Brewster and Pickard, 1994). Many expatriate assignments have failed due to the inability of adjusting to the new working and living environment. Especially the adjustment of the spouse is of significance (Weiss and Bloom, 1990; Forster, 2000; Hutchings, 2005). Therefore, since the difference between Western cultures and the Chinese culture is so significant, expatriates should receive good cross-cultural training before they start working, to foster the adjustment as much as possible.
What is interesting is that in a research conducted among business expatriates in China, Selmer (2006) found that there was no association between corporate size, international stake, and international experience on the one hand and the extent to which the expatriates had received cross-cultural training on the other hand. Thus, the characteristics of the parent company did not have an influence on the provision of cross-cultural training for business expatriates in China. This outcome is the same for the content of the training.
2.4.2.2 Training Contents
Recommendations for cross-cultural training for expatriates going to China are mainly concerned with the language and the culture. ‘Unfortunately, language training, which should be a part of the preparations for expatriate assignments, is very often neglected by the MNEs’ (Goodall et al., 2006). Advice and information from returning expatriates should also be taken into account when designing the training programmes. The company should make sure that the appropriate employees are selected who are capable, motivated, flexible, open-minded, patient and can easily adapt to new situations. The way business is conducted in China is totally different from Western business ethics and it is something crucial the expatriate has to realise.
In the pre-departure training (Weiss and Bloom, 1990):
• actual cases, role plays and critical incidents based on expatriate living and working experiences should be provided
• the country’s political history should be covered in order to gain a better insight into the country’s political business environment
• the Chinese language, particularly key phrases, should be practiced
• negotiation skills should be trained
• reading of Chinese non-verbal cues and mixed messages should be practiced
• spouses and family should be included in the entire training process, since they are crucial to the expatriate’s stay
When designing an appropriate training programme, training managers must also assess the degree of interaction the expatriate will have with the local population. And furthermore, evaluate the difficulty of the new position in designing pre-departure training (IOMA research report, 2005).
In conclusion, although in some literature the significance of cross-cultural pre-departure training is considered ambiguous, for the expatriate and the family it is crucial for the success of the assignment in China (Weiss and Bloom, 1990). The Chinese culture and business ethics are so significantly different from the ones in the West that a clear understanding of the new working and living environment has to be gained, in order for everyone to well adjust. When one has a clear view of what to expect, the culture shock will be far less. And hence, decreases the chance of failure of the expatriate’s assignment (Forster, 2000). Therefore, companies should provide pre-departure cross-cultural training for their employees who are sent to China to ascertain the well-being of expatriate assignments, whether they do it themselves or outsource it.
2.4.3 Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT)[7]
Preliminary research has shown that most of the MNEs in the Netherlands outsource their pre-departure cross-cultural training to the Royal Tropical Institute or Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen (KIT) in Dutch, located in Amsterdam. To mention some companies: Philips, DSM, Unilever and all the banks in the Netherlands. KIT offers several training programmes that companies can choose from to prepare their expatriates for foreign assignments in different countries.
In general, KIT offers standard and tailor-made training programmes, where the standard programmes are most commonly requested by companies. These standard training programmes consist of the same elements, which will be adapted to the specific situation of the trainee and will be explained later. Training is provided individually, or to couples, but most often to smaller groups of 16-30 employees of the same company. The tailor-made module can be filled in by the company and can vary in duration. In 2005, they had provided around 80 standard and 20 tailor-made programmes for trainees who were going to China.
2.4.3.1 KIT and the China training programmes
For expatriates who are sent to China, most companies choose for a combination of the ‘Country Information Programme’ and the ‘Country Oriented Business Programme’. This training takes three days, whereas the training programmes would take two days each if you would take them separately. Although the training programmes are quite short, the training does ‘stick’ in the mind of the expatriate. Furthermore, in reality the managers do not have more time for training. Moreover, three days is also considered the maximum attention span where the trainee can still absorb and retain new information. The training itself is quite intense and takes up the whole three days, where the expatriate and usually the spouse and sometimes children stay in a hotel near the Institute. Most frequently, it takes place at the Institute itself, but sometimes the training sessions will be held at the company of the expatriate.
2.4.3.2 Who gives the training?
The training programmes for China are given by an in-house trainer of KIT, who is a China expert, and a few specialists who they select from a database. These specialists could be managers with first hand experience, academics, or journalists; it usually depends on the situation the trainee is going to be in. KIT always uses a cultural approach to training. Before they start the actual training, they analytically look at the company in China and try to come up with a strategy for the trainee to implement upon arrival. Some aspects that they look at are: the culture of the region and country; the needs of the home company, expatriate and host company; the circumstances the trainee will be in and its stakeholders.
2.4.3.3 Content of training
The most important part of the training is teaching intercultural awareness and the awareness of culture shock. The content of a standard training with country and business information, includes intercultural communication and management, behavioural patterns which incorporates guanxi, language background, history, political and economic development, partner things, practical details for the new position and the effects of long term stay. The teaching methods are active briefing, discussions and case studies. Role play is not standard in the China programmes. Expatriates can either choose to do an extra language module or a children’s module.
2.4.3.4 Benefits of KIT
Due to the short duration of the training programmes it is not possible to go in-depth into certain subjects. However, they usually receive positive feedback on the training. KIT believes that these programmes are sufficient for the people they train in the amount of time they can afford. They ask the trainees to fill in evaluation forms directly after the training and also after six months. With the obtained feedback, the training programmes will be adjusted accordingly. Therefore, their training is up to date and recent issues are discussed.
A two-day standard training costs around € 2500 which not every company can afford for its employees. The products and services KIT provides are quite costly, however, their advantage is that they can provide training for different countries and also cover the relevant cultural topics the trainees will struggle with. Hence, for most MNEs with pre-departure cross-cultural training needs it is easier to outsource their training to KIT than provide it themselves.
3. Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses
3.1 Conceptual Framework
There are many areas concerning expatriation that can be identified that still need more research. Nevertheless, this research will only look at a certain aspect of expatriation – the pre-departure preparation – so as to keep its focus. In order to visualise the research question and give a clear overview of which variables are involved and how they are interlinked, the research idea of this thesis can be delineated into a Conceptual Framework as can be seen below.
[pic]
Figure 2: Conceptual Framework
There are three main variables that can be distinguished in this framework. The Independent Variable Preparation, the Moderating Variable Experience in China and the Dependent Variable Expatriate Satisfaction. The meaning of these variables will be explained next.
First of all, the independent variable Preparation stands for the pre-departure procedures of the company. Did the expatriates actually receive pre-departure training before being sent to China or not. Although according to most literature on expatriation, pre-departure training is very important (Black and Mendenhall, 1990; Hammer and Martin, 1990; Oddou, 1991; Gregersen and Black, 1992; Forster, 2000; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005), not all companies provide their expatriates with training (Brewster, 1995; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005). Furthermore, the variable specifies if and what kind of extra information the company has provided to ensure a good adjustment once in China.
Secondly, Experience in China is the moderating variable in this framework. It entails the expatriate’s actual experience of living and working in China, including the issues they come across. This variable influences the dependent variable over time.
And finally, the dependent variable in this conceptual framework is Expatriate Satisfaction. This variable entails how satisfied the expatriate is with the pre-departure preparation of the company to the extent that the expatriate felt prepared for the assignment and it was tailored to the actual needs when in China. ‘Many expatriate managers have experienced ambiguity, confusion and a lack of control when they first worked in China’ (Goodall et al., 2006). This has an effect on whether the expatriate thinks pre-departure training is helpful or not.
Now the framework will be explained more elaborately. At T0 the expatriate will or will not receive pre-departure training from the company and will be provided with some extra information that will help the adjustment in China. This has an influence on T1, which indicates how well prepared the expatriate feels and will affect what the expatriate thinks of the pre-departure preparation of the company. Moreover, the more time the expatriate has spent living and working in China, the more the dependent variable Expatriate Satisfaction will be influenced by the moderating variable Experience in China. This can be explained as follows, the longer the expatriate is on assignment in China, the more he/she needs to adjust to the culture and will come across problems. Thus, the need for good preparation will increase as more time is spent in China. These needs should have been addressed in the pre-departure preparation to ensure a smooth transition as much as possible. And if this was not the case, these needs should be feeded back to the home country in order to keep their pre-departure procedures for China up to date and relevant, which will benefit expatriate adjustment. The visualised interrelationships between these variables have to be tested to be able to justify the framework itself. Before any tests can be carried out, hypotheses are being formulated.
3.2 Hypotheses
Given that the conceptual framework has been set up, specific hypotheses can be formulated for testing the framework. The research questions examine the general characteristics of the pre-departure process, while the hypotheses investigate the pre-departure preparation process more in detail. The hypotheses try to uncover the extent to which the training elements are present, whether these training elements are in some way related to each other and the significance of the relationships. The results of these tests will show if the hypotheses are true or false and thus, can either be accepted or rejected. This will give us more clarity on the specific situation of expatriation to China, which might not necessarily coincide with findings of past studies.
❖ H1: Training elements that are considered important in pre-departure training by the expatriates will also be handled as important in the actual training.
Training programmes will become useless and outdated quite rapidly when they are not updated to the current situation in the host country. In order for the training to be successful, it should match the needs of the trainees. Thus, what is perceived as important to know when being on an assignment in China should also be handled accordingly in the actual training.
❖ H2: Expatriates will value pre-departure training as useful regardless of any training received.
There have been many studies arguing that pre-departure training will aid in the adjustment of the expatriate (Black and Mendenhall, 1990; Hammer and Martin, 1990; Oddou, 1991; Gregersen and Black, 1992; Forster, 2000; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005). Hence, the expatriates who did receive training will evaluate it as helpful and even the expatriates who did not receive training will perceive it as valuable to receive before departure. This will be based on the problems they had experienced in China, which leads to the next hypothesis:
❖ H3: Expatriates who did not receive pre-departure training will rate it more useful than expatriates who did receive some kind of pre-departure training.
Managers who did not receive pre-departure training will face more difficulties to adjust to the new environment than someone who received some kind of pre-departure training. Subsequently, due to the encountered problems, they will think that they would have preferred to receive some kind of pre-departure training. Therefore, an expatriate who did not receive pre-departure training will think it is more helpful than someone who did receive training.
❖ H4: Culture will be considered as the most important part of pre-departure training.
Even though pre-departure training can consist of several elements, for example language training, business ethics, etc., culture is considered the most important element of which the training has to consist of. There are large cultural differences between China and the West, which was illustrated in the Literature Review by comparing the Chinese and Dutch culture against each other using Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions (1980). A greater cultural difference between the home and the host country will make the adjustment more difficult (Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985; Tung, 1987; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005). Therefore, cross-cultural training to emphasise the differences between the home country and the Chinese culture is necessary to form realistic expectations of culture shock.
❖ H5: There will be a positive relationship between the time in China and Guanxi.
Guanxi is truly a China specific issue and very much interwoven in the Chinese culture, that it is crucial for foreigners to understand when they want to do business in China. The concept of Guanxi can be underestimated at times, especially by people who have never done business there. It is therefore the estimation that the longer the expatriate spends time in China, the more important the expatriate will consider Guanxi.
In order to answer these hypotheses data is gathered and analysed. Possibilities of why a certain hypothesis is accepted or rejected will be discussed and with the help of the available literature, possible reasons for a certain outcome can be given.
3.3 Control Variables
The relationship between the main variables have to be tested in order to answer the main research question and the sub-questions. Moreover, with the results, the formulated hypotheses can be accepted or rejected. However, the possibility remains that the results of this research will be influenced by external factors that were not included in the framework. It is quite hard to conduct tests that will be totally free from other factors that might influence the Dependent Variable Expatriate Satisfaction, and consequently, will influence the outcome of the data in one way or another.
There are several external factors that relate to the characteristics of the respondents that might affect the outcome of the tests. First of all, the gender of the respondent might have an effect on how the expatriate perceives pre-departure training. It could be that males and females evaluate the training elements differently. Secondly, the nationality of the expatriate can influence the results, as the cultural differences between one’s home country and China vary significantly per country. (E.g. the Netherlands vs. Indonesia taken as one’s home country) Thirdly, the ethnicity of the expatriate might be even of a larger significance than nationality. For example, an Asian Dutch expatriate will probably need less pre-departure training than a Caucasian Dutch expatriate, due to the fact that the Asian Dutch expatriate is more familiar with the Asian culture and can relate faster to the Chinese culture than the Caucasian Dutch expatriate would.
Another factor which is not a personal characteristic of the respondent, is the company the expatriate works for. As mentioned before, there is a possibility that not all expatriates receive training before they leave for China. Therefore, when the respondents are not equally divided over different companies, the results might be influenced by that. In addition, the size of the company might have an influence, given that larger companies have more established routines than smaller companies and usually have a budget for providing training. However, according to Selmer (2006), there is no association between corporate size, international stake, and international experience on the one hand and the extent to which the expatriates had received cross-cultural training on the other hand.
The extent to which an expatriate needs training also depends on the city the expatriate is sent to in China. The training needs differ substantially when the expatriate is sent to a rural area in China as opposed to the very modern Shanghai, where many foreign companies are established and many expatriate communities are present. Thus, these control variables will also be taken into consideration when the results of the tests are analysed.
4. Methodology
4.1 Research Method
The purpose of this study is to examine the relevancy of pre-departure training according to the opinions of expatriates who are sent to China by their companies. The method of investigation in this research is the hypothetico-deductive method. According to Sekaran (2003), this method of research involves seven steps: observation, preliminary information gathering, theory formulation, hypothesising, further scientific data collection, data analysis and logically deducing conclusions from the results obtained.
At the start of this research, the option of doing case studies with expatriates from three different types of companies was considered. The different company practices could then be compared to each other and the effectiveness based on the opinions of the expatriates about these practices could be assessed. However, due to several reasons concerning the data gathering, this method was considered not desirable. Firstly, it was difficult to get into contact with the right HR-person in a company, who in addition was willing to collaborate. After trying to come into contact with many companies, mostly MNEs, through E-mail and telephone, there were few companies that were willing to collaborate with this study. Secondly, when contact is established with the right HR-person within a company, it still is challenging to reach the expatriates. A lot of companies are hesitant to release contact information about their employees. Therefore, it was chosen to look at expatriates in general, regardless of the companies they worked for.
4.1.1 Information gathering
Most of the preliminary information has been gathered by doing a literature review where the Business Source Premier Database was mainly used to search for relevant articles on this subject. The keywords used to search were: ‘expatriates’, ‘culture’, ‘training’ and ‘China’. In the actual research, telephone and E-mail contacts were used to get the right information about the pre-departure training processes in a few companies for expatriates who are sent to China. From the contacted companies, all outsourced their pre-departure training to KIT in Amsterdam. Subsequently, contact was established with a trainer-consultant of KIT, who more elaborately explained what their country training programmes entail.
4.1.2 Data gathering
It has remained difficult to find companies that are willing to cooperate and to present information about their expatriates. Thus, as foreseen, the success rate of finding and reaching expatriates was low. The companies with which contact was established were DSM, Philips and Eaton who gave some information about their pre-departure training procedures. Additionally, an E-mail was sent to several contact persons for expatriates within Shell, and a message had been posted in the Shell newsletter. Attempts to reach other companies failed, since most of them ‘do not want to cooperate with such studies, because they get too many requests’ or ‘did do it in the past, but the company decided to quit helping students with their theses’. Other problems of a different nature that were encountered were that many companies do not send expatriates to China. They are either hiring local employees to work in the Chinese subsidiaries or are only sending employees to China for short periods of time.
4.1.3 Data collection method
The main data collection method used was an online questionnaire, which can be seen in Appendix III. Initially, doing interviews was seen as the most effective way to obtain as much detailed information as possible. Yet, the whole data gathering process would be too time-consuming and it could be that the expatriates would not have the time for such an interview. As a result, an online questionnaire was considered more effective.
The data was gathered cross-sectionally, over the period of January until the end of March, 2007. Questions in this questionnaire are both open and closed-ended, to get the most accurate information as possible. On the one hand, participants will be asked some facts about their pre-departure training through closed-ended questions, e.g. ‘Please indicate which of the following elements were present in the pre-departure training?’. And on the other hand, using open-ended questions, additional information can be gathered that was not mentioned, i.e. ‘Are there elements that you missed in the pre-departure training?’, and perhaps recommendations can be made based on their own experience. With the open-ended questions new insights can be given to further the understanding of this phenomenon.
The questionnaire was created online with an online survey tool called Surveymonkey. This programme makes it easy to construct a questionnaire and collect the data online. The participants could fill in the questionnaire by going to a link that was sent to them (). The data was immediately stored in the database of Surveymonkey, so they did not have to send the results back. This tool made the questionnaire more participant-friendly, since it was hassle-free and less time-consuming, and as a result, would heighten the number of response.
4.2 Sample Selection
The sample that is used in this research are expatriates that were sent to China on assignment by their company. They are either already back from their assignments or still on assignment in China. Either way, they already have experienced living and working in China, for at least six months. Expatriates who have spent more time living and working will have a better perception of what is important to know when being stationed in China. Therefore, they will be able to answer the questions more accurately than someone who has just started working in China or occasionally goes there for business. MNEs in the Netherlands were contacted that were known to have subsidiaries in China, mainly due to the size of the companies. Moreover, the probability that they have sent expatriates to China was higher than would be for smaller companies. In addition, the amount of expatriates they would send out on assignments would also be more, consequently leading to the fact that they would have well established pre-departure procedures for their expatriates. Furthermore, interesting conclusions could be drawn if the largest part of the participants were from a few main companies. The contacted MNEs included: Shell, DSM, Philips, Unilever, TNT and Eaton.
4.2.1 Contacting the Sample
Expatriates were approached using three different methods. Firstly, the MNEs were contacted through E-mails and over the telephone. The second approach method entailed using the network of family and friends in order to get inside a company to reach the right person that was willing to help or who knew expatriates that were willing to cooperate. The final method was posting messages on bulletin boards on expatriate websites especially for Dutch expatriates that were stationed in China (geledraak.nl and ). Through these three channels information was obtained, in order to reach as many expatriates as possible.
4.2.2 Respondents
The total response contained 36 respondents. However, due to not completely finished questionnaires, three of them had to be removed, leaving a total of 33 respondents (N=33). The average age of the expatriates was 45.58 years and 31 were male and 2 female. The average time that they have been working for the company is 14.88 years and the amount of time they had been working in China was an average of 3.02 years. As for nationalities, 21 were Dutch, 6 were British, 1 American, 1 Australian, 1 Italian, 1 Singaporean, 1 South African and 1 Swiss. All of the respondents except for two were Caucasian (94%) and the other two had a Chinese ethnicity (6%). The average time before departure they would hear about their assignment in China was 4.94 months. However, if we take a look at the data, 1-6 months is common and if the outliers above 6 months are taken out, the average time before departure will be 3.89 months. Almost two-thirds of the respondents were sent to Shanghai (61%) and the second destination was Beijing (24%). The three MNEs where most respondents work for are DSM (24%), Shell (24%) and Philips (21%).
4.3 Variables
In order to operationalise the concept of relevancy, elements of dimensions concerning pre-departure practices are assessed which are pre-departure training and useful information about living and working in China. The importance of the training elements are evaluated based on the expatriate’s experience in China, which thereafter will be compared to which training elements they had actually received from the company during the pre-departure process. In addition, whether the training element was considered important in the training will also be assessed. The explanation behind this mindset is that when many elements correspond between what is considered important when living and working in China and what is actually covered in the pre-departure training and was also seen as an important part, the training can be considered useful. This can also be said for useful information that is provided by the company before departure. Therefore, the more elements that correspond with what is considered important and what was actually received during the pre-departure process, the higher the relevancy will be of the preparation. Also, at the end of the questionnaire the respondents’ opinion is asked about the pre-departure training they received and in general. By combining these two outcomes, a deeper insight can be obtained and the situation around this subject can be drawn up.
Looking at the Conceptual Framework and the hypotheses, the relationships need to be investigated and questions need to be answered with the data. The questionnaire contains the following components: personal data, essential content training, training content, (additional) practical information, preparation for the position in China and last remarks. The questions are constructed with the main research question and sub-questions as a guideline. In terms of operationalising the variables of the Conceptual Framework, the largest part of this questionnaire is giving information about the Independent Variable Preparation. The Moderating Variable Experience in China will be asked in the Personal Data part. And finally, the Dependent Variable Expatriate Satisfaction is gathered in the Last Remarks section at the end of the questionnaire.
These sections will be explained separately. The questionnaire starts by asking personal background information from the respondent. The questionnaire can be filled in anonymously, so therefore these questions do not necessarily have to be answered. The questions relate mostly to the respondent’s job in China and might give possible explanations about the results to give it an extra dimension.
Essential content training is the section where the respondent’s opinion is asked on what they think are essential parts in a pre-departure training for expatriates who will be sent to China, based on their own experience in China. Several options that have come forth in the literature are mentioned and they have to rate the importance of those options. These range from not relevant, somewhat important, important to very important. In addition, they can add elements that were not mentioned in the provided list.
The following section Training Content is where the respondents who did receive training have to indicate how important the same listed elements in the previous question were in their training. Also, details of their training are being asked, i.e. ‘Who gave the training?’ and ‘Where did the training take place?’, etc. The sections thereafter are quite straightforward in the sense that the respondents have to indicate what type of information was given by the company with regards to practical issues and their new position in China. These issues were taken from the websites especially for expatriates in China. The websites reflect the typical information needs of expatriates who are stationed there. And the last part of the questionnaire asks for the opinions of the respondents concerning pre-departure training in general and to give feedback on the training they have received.
The elements in this questionnaire have been constructed in such a way that answers can be given to the main research question and sub-questions and also, specific data is provided to enable hypotheses testing and create a better understanding of this phenomenon of relevancy.
4.4 Data Analyses
The data that is gathered by the questionnaire is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. Hypotheses can be tested using the quantitative data and a better insight can be obtained from the qualitative data, where the respondents go more into depth. The data will be tested using the statistics programme SPSS. There will be two statistical methods of analyses. Descriptive analyses will be used to provide information about the sample. Furthermore, Pearson Correlation tests are done to show relationships between certain variables. And finally, the outcome of the tests will be analysed and explained by using the answers of the open questions that were asked that allowed the respondent to give extra information.
The questions are posed in such a way that most of the answers that are given are pre-coded and can easily be entered into Excel. These Excel sheets are imported into SPSS where different tests will be performed to compare if there are any relationships between different characteristics of the respondents. All of the analyses conducted will be used to test the hypotheses and ultimately provide answers to the research questions.
4.5 Reliability and Validity
4.5.1 Reliability
Reliability of a measure is ‘an indication of the stability and consistency with which the instrument measures the concept and helps to assess the “goodness” of a measure’ (Sekaran, 2003; p.203). The questionnaire used in this research is reliable in the sense that the results will be replicable when the research would be conducted again with a similar sample, keeping in mind that all the factors have to be kept the same. Also, to make sure that the answers of the respondents were consistent, some important questions about what they thought about pre-departure cross-cultural training were asked again in a different manner. For example, a question will be asked open-endedly, and in addition a similar question is asked closed-endedly where they have to give a rating of their opinion.
4.5.2 Validity
Validity entails that the measure actually measures what it is set out to measure. To make sure that the questions were not ambiguous and that they were understandable, three pilot tests were run among three expatriates. After some adjustments of the questions, the final version of the questionnaire was created and put online with the surveytool Surveymonkey.
There are three types of validity: content validity, criterion-related validity and construct validity. First, to ensure content validity, the questionnaire consists of different sections, where the different aspects of pre-departure preparation are widely assessed. In addition, the respondents were asked to add any missing information that was not mentioned in the questionnaire which could be useful for this research. Secondly, criterion-related validity is reached as the results do reflect what was expected from the outcome, that pre-departure training is helpful. And finally, construct validity is established since the outcome of the questionnaires is in line with most studies done on this subject (Black and Mendenhall, 1990; Forster, 2000; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005).
There is no selection bias, due to the fact that as many companies and expatriates were contacted as possible, to acquire as many respondents as possible. As for generalisability, the sample is not very large, which make the results not generalisable for expatriates who are sent to China in general. However, it does give an indication of what is found important by different expatriates from different companies which could be taken into account for future research.
5. Results
5.1 Introduction
In this chapter, the results will be discussed that were obtained from the questionnaires and were tested using SPSS. A complete overview of all results of the questionnaires and the tests can be found in Appendix IV and V.
The results will be presented according to the structure of the questionnaire and the hypotheses will accepted or rejected accordingly. First of all, the contents of pre-departure training will be discussed. Thereafter, additional information with regards to the new environment and the new job position are assessed. And finally, the opinions of the expatriates concerning pre-departure training are evaluated.
5.2 Contents pre-departure training
5.2.1 Contents based on experience
Based on their own experience in China, the expatriates had to indicate the importance of training elements on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 1. not relevant, 2. somewhat important, 3. important to 4. very important (see Table 2). The training element Culture (3.42) was considered most important in pre-departure training. Guanxi (3.18) came second and Language (2.88) came third in importance. The other elements ranged from somewhat important to important, with Tax Legislation (1.91) as the least important element from the list. The literature on expatriation also stresses the importance of being aware of the differences in culture (Mendenhall and Oddou, 1991; Hutchings 2005; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005). This also holds true for the other elements Guanxi and Language. These concepts are so China specific, that prior knowledge can definitely aid in adapting oneself to the Chinese environment. Therefore, we can accept the hypothesis that Culture will be considered the most important training element in pre-departure training.
|Important training elements based on |N |Mean |Std. Deviation |
|experience | | | |
|History |33 |2.64 |0.783 |
|Guanxi |33 |3.18 |0.727 |
|Culture |33 |3.42 |0.614 |
|Tax |33 |1.91 |0.765 |
|Regional/local information |33 |2.70 |0.728 |
|Language |33 |2.88 |0.893 |
|Bureaucracy |33 |2.45 |0.869 |
|Communist party |33 |2.00 |0.612 |
Table 2: Descriptive statistics: Importance training elements based on experience
After having conducted a Pearson Correlation analysis comparing the characteristics of the respondents and the importance of elements based on experience, there was no evidence found that there was a positive correlation between Years in China and the importance of Guanxi (r = 0.309, p = 0.262). This means that there is no relation between the two and that the importance perception of Guanxi is not influenced by the time the expatriate has spent in China. Guanxi scored high on the test, meaning that regardless of the time spent on the assignment, Guanxi is considered an important part of the pre-departure training.
What are considered important training elements in pre-departure training for expatriates who are being sent to China do not necessarily have to come back in the actual training. Therefore, the training characteristics and the elements need to be investigated to give an overview of how the companies have handled the pre-departure training.
5.2.2 Pre-departure Training
5.2.2.1 Characteristics of training
Interestingly, from all the respondents that filled in the questionnaire, only 15 respondents have actually received some form of pre-departure training, while the others did not. What is striking about the outcome is that none of the respondents from Shell received any type of pre-departure training, whereas it is mixed for the other companies that are represented by several respondents. There have been studies that have challenged the proposed effectiveness of pre-departure training, stating that there is no proof of a significant positive correlation between pre-departure training and adjustment (Selmer et. al, 1998). However, this goes against most studies done, which emphasise the significance of pre-departure cross-cultural training (Hammer and Martin, 1990; Gregersen and Black, 1992; Oddou, 1991; Forster, 2000; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005).
The outcome of this study can contribute to the existing literature that support the provision of pre-departure training, since all respondents who did receive training indicated that their training was helpful. From these managers, almost half was not familiar with the Chinese culture (47%), 13% was somewhat familiar and 40% was familiar with it. Hence, even when the expatriate is or is somewhat familiar with the Chinese culture, receiving pre-departure training is still considered helpful.
The duration of the training the expatriates received ranged from 1 day up to 14 days, which led to an average of 3.63 days and without the outliers of 10 and 14 days, 2.35 days. The score they gave for the length of the training was 2.93 out of 5, which leans towards just right. All training was out-sourced where more than half of the training was provided by KIT (53%) and 33% was given by China experts.
5.2.2.2 Training elements of pre-departure training
The outcome of this question is based on the data of 15 expatriate managers. Again, the same 4-point Likert scale rating was used as in the previous question, and the respondents had to indicate the importance of the training elements during the training (see Table 3). From the managers who did receive pre-departure training, the highest scoring training elements were Culture (3.00), History (2.60), Guanxi (2.53) and the lowest value was for Information about the Communist Party (1.40). When ranking the outcome regarding importance the answers are quite similar to those of the previous question, except for the fact that Language training was not considered that important in the actual training. This is in contrast with the importance the expatriates had appointed to this training element based on their own experience. An explanation for the low score on Language training (1.67) is that 6 out of 15 respondents did not get any type of language training, whilst for one respondent the only training received was in the form of Language training for two whole weeks.
|Important training elements received in |N |Mean |Std. Deviation |
|training | | | |
|History |15 |2.60 |0.737 |
|Guanxi |15 |2.53 |0.915 |
|Culture |15 |3.00 |0.535 |
|Tax |15 |1.67 |1.113 |
|Regional/Local Information |15 |1.93 |1.100 |
|Language |15 |1.67 |0.976 |
|Bureaucracy |15 |1.93 |0.884 |
|Communist party |15 |1.40 |0.828 |
Table 3: Descriptive statistics: Importance of training elements during the actual training
5.3 Useful Information provided about living and new position
In the questionnaire the respondents had to indicate whether they had received information about general issues concerning their new life abroad and also concerning their new position in China (see Table 4). Out of 33 managers, 3 had indicated that they did not receive any information from their company. Among the information that was provided by the companies, Visa information was almost mentioned by everyone (93%), which also holds true for Housing (83%) and Insurance (77%). An issue some expatriates addressed was the fact that the company did not pay enough attention to the spouse of the expatriate. It would have made the transition easier if the company would also help with the adjustment of the spouse. According to the IOMA research report (2005), ‘up to 80% of failed global assignments can be linked to the spouse’s inability to adjust to the new environment’.
|Information provided by company |N |Mean |Std. Deviation |
|Expatriate community |30 |0.50 |0.509 |
|Housing |30 |0.83 |0.379 |
|Schools |30 |0.67 |0.479 |
|Language |30 |0.70 |0.466 |
|Companies same industry |30 |0.13 |0.346 |
|Food |30 |0.40 |0.498 |
|Insurance |30 |0.77 |0.430 |
|Travel |30 |0.70 |0.466 |
|Hygiene |30 |0.43 |0.504 |
|Health |30 |0.73 |0.450 |
|Visa |30 |0.93 |0.254 |
|Embassy |30 |0.47 |0.507 |
|Useful Websites |30 |0.50 |0.509 |
Table 4: Descriptive statistics: Information provided by the company
As for information regarding the new position in China, Tasks and Positions have a score of 82% and 85% respectively. Hereafter comes information about the Size of the company and Hierarchy both scoring 73% (see Table 5). Additionally, only 3 managers received skills training, which is understandable, since that would be one of the most important criteria why they have chosen that manager to send to China.
|Information about new position China |N |Minimum |Maximum |Mean |Std. Deviation |
|Tasks |33 |0 |1 |0.82 |0.392 |
|Responsibilities |33 |0 |1 |0.85 |0.364 |
|Product line |33 |0 |1 |0.42 |0.502 |
|Size company |33 |0 |1 |0.73 |0.452 |
|Supply chain |33 |0 |1 |0.24 |0.435 |
|HRM |33 |0 |1 |0.42 |0.502 |
|Hierarchy |33 |0 |1 |0.73 |0.452 |
|Useful addresses |33 |0 |1 |0.30 |0.467 |
Table 5: Descriptive statistics: Information regarding the new position
5.4 Relevancy pre-departure training
When asked the question about the relevance of pre-departure training, the usefulness scored quite high on a 5-point Likert scale (3.97). Herewith, the notion of the effectiveness of pre-departure training can be shown as useful. When a distinction is made between the respondents that did receive training and the ones who did not, the managers that did receive training perceive pre-departure training slightly more useful (4.07) compared to managers who did not (3.89). This is not as expected, as one would think that the lack of pre-departure training would lead to a higher conception of the training itself. Therefore, the hypothesis can be rejected.
6. Conclusions
6.1 Conclusions
Though there is some literature questioning the effect of pre-departure training (Kealy and Protheroe, 1996; Selmer et al, 1998), from the outcome of this research it is clear that according to expatriates, pre-departure training is relevant. With the data obtained, statistical tests were conducted to create a deeper understanding of the needs of expatriates that are sent to China by their companies. With these results, hypotheses were tested and the research questions can be answered.
6.1.1 Pre-departure cross-cultural training
It was quite surprising to find that only little less than half of the respondents received pre-departure training, although they were all working for MNEs. This goes in against most studies done on the effectiveness of pre-departure cross-cultural training (Forster, 2000; Romero, 2002; Waxin and Panaccio, 2005), even though they have mentioned that many companies still do not provide pre-departure training. There are several reasons that come to mind when trying to uncover the reasons for this low training provision rate. The first reason could be that the expatriate has already been to China before, and already is familiar with the Chinese culture or at least already has formed some expectations. However, from the respondents that did not receive pre-departure training, only half (9 managers) had been to China before.
Another possible reason is that the expatriate has been on previous other foreign assignments. The company then could have decided that it is not necessary for them to have pre-departure training. Waxin and Panaccio (2005) mention that international experience is a moderator on the effect of cross-cultural training. This fact also is mentioned by some expatriates who noted that the extent to which some companies provide training or expatriates want or need pre-departure training depends on the previous foreign experiences of the expatriate manager. However, from the results it can also be seen that even though the expatriate is familiar or somewhat familiar with the Chinese culture, they still think pre-departure training is useful. As one respondent stated: “Even I would have benefited from a language refresher course and my degree is in Chinese”. Also, it should not be forgotten to mention that it might as well be that the company does not provide standardised pre-departure training, but provides the support after arrival in the host country. This is the case for Shell, which would explain why none of the respondents from Shell received pre-departure training. It should be noted however, that some of these respondents did indicate that they would have liked to receive pre-departure training.
The training elements that were found most important by the expatriates based on their own personal experience in China were 1. Culture, 2. Guanxi and 3. Language. This importance was not completely reflected in the actual training they received, where Language had been neglected. Companies should not ignore language training (Weiss and Bloom, 1990; Hutchings, 2005). According to Brislin (1993), using the host country’s language has a positive influence on expatriate adjustment and facilitates cooperation of the employees. From the results we can see that some companies do not provide any kind of language training at all, although it is considered an important element of pre-departure training by the expatriates who have been on assignment in China. KIT does provide information on language background in their trainings, but actually learning the language has to be done in a separate optional module. It is up to the HR-department to take this result very seriously and include it in the pre-departure preparation.
6.1.2 Information provision
It seems that most companies are providing information about Visas, Housing and Insurance. When looking at information concerning the new position in China, Tasks, Responsibilities, Hierarchy and Size of the company are mostly provided. Other elements that expatriates considered important and were missed were mostly linked to the expatriate’s private life. This relates to the self-oriented dimension of acculturation stated by Mendenhall and Oddou (1984). For example: information about career possibilities for the spouse, education for children or leisure facilities, which was already mentioned in a study done by Weiss and Bloom (1990) who did a study among 26 expatriates in China. As for missed information regarding work life, many expatriates would have liked to get more information about Chinese business ethics. For the people that did receive training, Guanxi was covered in most training programmes, but there are more issues that could have been covered, e.g. business formalities.
6.1.3 Relevancy pre-departure cross-cultural training
‘Since culture shock manifests itself in the first few months of expatriation, pre-departure training seems indispensable’ (Waxin and Panaccio, 2005). This study reveals that expatriates who are sent to China by their company would appreciate to receive pre-departure cross-cultural training. Managers and especially HR-managers should not overlook the positive consequences of pre-departure training. In a study done by Hutchings (2005), the majority of the respondents ‘claimed that they have encountered problems on a business and/or social level, many of whom argued that this could have been at least partially avoided had they received some, or more, training than they did’. This study has shown that pre-departure training is considered helpful by expatriates, including the ones who did not receive any training from their company. Nevertheless, the respondents who did not receive training did not rate it more helpful than the respondents who did receive training. It not only will help the expatriate adjust to the new working and living environment, but when the expatriate feels well prepared, the productivity level will also be much higher (Tung, 1987; Romero, 2002). Ultimately, this will ensure the success of the international assignment.
However, companies should keep several things in mind when designing their pre-departure processes. First of all, they should focus on the Chinese culture and especially, the cultural differences of the home country and China. Secondly, business ethics and Guanxi are also big issues that should be included since the way of doing business in China differs very much from the West. And lastly, language should be added as an element of pre-departure training, as the expatriates have mentioned it to be crucial, yet overlooked most of the time.
Of course there are many other elements that are maybe rated less but still important to include in the training in order to optimise the adjustment of the expatriate. The HR-manager should look at each situation separately and adjust the training and information needs accordingly. Every manager is different and requires different types of information. When the needs of the company and the expatriate are made clear to each other, both parties know what to expect and what to do to create the best situation possible. They can set realistic expectations and goals and try to make the assignment into a success.
6.2 Managerial Implications and Recommendations
This study has come up with more proof that pre-departure cross-cultural training is considered helpful for the expatriates who are sent to China. Companies should see it as an investment to safeguard the success of the international assignment. Except for expenses, there is not much to lose for a company providing pre-departure cross-cultural training. It should be kept in mind that a failed assignment would cost the company even more (Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985; Romero, 2002).
As this study has proven, there still are companies which do not provide pre-departure training. Even if the reason is that the expatriate already has foreign experience, a refresher course will never hurt anyone. Moreover, companies need to pay more attention to language training. Furthermore, the average duration of the training programmes is 2.35 days, without outliers, which was considered just right. In practice it usually is not feasible to train them for a longer period, even though it might be even better. It would hence be recommended to provide at least a 3-day training and in addition provide the expatriate with extra information when needed.
A very crucial aspect that should not be overlooked is the involvement of the spouse and the family in the training procedure. This outcome is supported by several studies done (Weiss and Bloom, 1990; Forster, 2000; Hutchings, 2005). Also, support should be available to help the spouse adjust in the host country, since they are crucial for the adjustment of the expatriates themselves.
China will get increasingly powerful economically and more knowledge should be gained on how companies can make their international assignments work in China. As for academic implications, this study is a contribution to the literature on pre-departure cross-cultural training with a specific focus on China. There still needs to be more research done on this topic, due to the fact that the existing literature on this topic is still limited and small-scale. Additionally, due to the size of this study, it can be used as preliminary research which can be duplicated with a much larger sample size to see if the results remain the same even when the number of respondents increases.
6.3 Limitations and Future Research
Due to the scope of this research there are several limitations that should be considered for future research. First of all, there are many factors that have an influence on the adjustment of the expatriate in China. A limitation for this study is that only cultural differences were taken as the factor to focus on. The effect of other factors was not taken into consideration, e.g. the political situation in China. The inclusion of other factors might have given more information about where the needs of the expatriates are derived from.
Secondly, the results are only based upon 33 respondents, from which 31 are male and the largest part is Dutch. In addition, only half of the respondents actually received training. It still remains difficult to come into contact with companies or expatriates who are willing to help with a study of this size. Moreover, the respondents all came from MNEs, from which three companies dominated the results. Also, most of the respondents in this study were sent to Shanghai (61%) and Beijing (24%). Therefore, the outcomes of this study might be slightly biased and are not generalisable for all expatriates from MNEs who are sent to China, due to the small sample size. In addition, there is a possibility that the results would have been different if small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were included in the sample. However, according to Selmer (2006), there is no relationship between corporate size, international stake, and international experience on the one hand and the extent to which the expatriates had received cross-cultural training on the other hand.
In future research more diversity needs to be established among the respondents. Different types of companies from different sectors, more females and managers with different nationalities or ethnicities should be tried to be included. This could possibly lead to other results and would reflect a more diverse group of expatriates. However, the results that were found in this research do give an indication of which issues are considered important under expatriates on an assignment in China and can be used as preliminary research for a larger scale study.
Expatriation has several areas that need attention to enable the success of the assignment. Due to focus constraints the other subjects were not included in this thesis. For future research the inclusion of another factor, for example selection, can give new perspectives or explain certain results. Previous experience of the expatriate was not considered in the Conceptual Framework. Next time it should be factored in, as it could explain for some respondents why they did not receive pre-departure training.
And finally, this research really looked at the expatriate preparation procedures from an expatriate’s perspective. It would have been more balanced to include a company’s point of view. By including the company’s perception more, a more realistic view can be drawn and the recommendations would have been more practice oriented.
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Appendices
Appendix I: World Investment Report
Appendix II: Hofstede’s Cultural Dimension Graphs
[pic]
China’s Index Scores PDI=80, IDV=20, MAS=66, UAI=30, LTO=118
[pic]
The Netherlands' Index Scores PDI=38, IDV=80, MAS=14, UAI=53, LTO=44
Source: geert-
[pic]
World average scores= PDI=55, IDV=43, MAS=50, UAI=64, LTO=45
[pic]
Average of scores for China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan
PDI=60, IDV=24, MAS=55, UAI=60, LTO=88
Source: geert-
Appendix III: Questionnaire
I. Introduction
The following questionnaire will be used in a research which will investigate the usefulness of pre-departure training programmes expatriates receive who are/were sent to China. It will approximately take 10-15 minutes. The research is part of a master thesis conducted at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.
The questionnaire is divided into seven sections. The data gathered in this questionnaire will be handled strictly confidential and will only be used for this thesis.
If you would like to be informed about the results of this research, please indicate so at the end of the questionnaire.
II. Personal data
Q 1. If for some reason you do not want to fill in certain personal data, you are free to leave it blank.
▪ Name
▪ Age
▪ Sex
▪ Nationality
▪ Ethnicity
▪ Company
▪ Function within the company
▪ How long have you been working for the company?
▪ Is your function the same as the one you had before you went to China? If not, what was it before?
▪ Why did you decide to take on the function in China? Were there promotional possibilities if you would take on this function?
▪ How long before your departure did you hear that you could/would be sent there?
▪ When did you go to China?
▪ Where in China did you go to?
▪ How long did you work in China?
▪ What is/was your function in China?
▪ Have you been to China before?
III. Essential content training
In the following section, your opinion on pre-departure training is asked based on your own experience in China.
Q 2. From your experience, what do you think should be essential parts of pre-departure training when sent to China?
There are four boxes ranging from: 1. not relevant, 2. somewhat important, 3. important and 4. very important. Please tick the box you think is most relevant.
History
Guanxi
Culture
Tax Legislation
Regional/Local information
Language
Institutional information/Bureaucracy
Communist Party Information
Q 3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them?
IV. Training content
Did you receive pre-departure training? Yes No
Please fill in the following section if you received pre-departure training before you went to China. If not, please continue with section 5.
Q 4.
▪ Was the pre-departure training done in-house or was it outsourced?
▪ Who gave the training? What is the background of this person? Company trainer, China expert, etc.
▪ How long did the training take? How many days?
What elements did you receive in the training and what was the importance of these elements?
There are four boxes ranging from: 1. not covered, 2. somewhat important, 3. important and 4. very important. Please tick the box you think is most relevant.
History
Guanxi
Culture
Tax Legislation
Regional/Local information
Language
Institutional information/Bureaucracy
Communist Party Information
▪ Are there any elements that were covered in the training that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them?
▪ How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc.
▪ Are there any elements you would have liked to be included in the pre-departure training that were not in the training?
▪ Were you familiar with all or some of these elements before you were offered this position?
V. Additional practical information
This section talks about the practical information provided by the company. (In addition to the pre-departure training, if there was one)
Q 6. In addition to the general training, what kind of practical information was provided by the company? Please tick the boxes of information that were provided by the company in addition to the training.
❑ Expatriate community in the host country
❑ Housing
❑ Schools
❑ Language courses
❑ Companies in the same industry
❑ Food
❑ Insurance
❑ Travel
❑ Hygiene
❑ Health
❑ Visas
❑ Embassy
❑ Useful websites
Q 7.
▪ What type of information was also given but not mentioned in the list above. Could you please mention them?
▪ What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience?
▪ In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training?
VI. Preparation for the position in China
Q 8.
▪ Did you receive any skills training to prepare you for your new position in China?
▪ Please tick the relevant box(es). Before your departure, did you receive information for your new position concerning:
← Tasks
← Responsibilities
← Product line
← Size of company
← Supply chain
← Human resources
← Hierarchical structure of the company
← Useful addresses
▪ Did you receive more information concerning your new position than mentioned above? Could you please mention them?
VII. Last remarks
Q 9.
▪ Are there any elements I missed during this questionnaire that you think might be useful when looking at expatriate pre-departure training?
▪ What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates?
▪ Please rate the usefulness of pre-departure training. There are five boxes ranging from: 1. not useful at all, 2. not very useful, 3. somewhat useful 4. useful and 5. very useful. Please tick the box you think is most relevant.
[pic]
▪ Do you think your pre-departure training was helpful?
▪ Do you think your departure training was too long or too short? There are five boxes ranging from: 1. too short, 2. somewhat short, 3. just right 4. somewhat long and 5. too long. Please tick the box you think is most relevant.
[pic]
▪ Are there any remarks that you would like to make?
▪ Would you like to be informed about the results of this research? Please leave your E-mail address.
Thank you so much for your time and cooperation!
If you indicated that you want to be informed about the results of this research, en E-mail will be sent to you when the research is finished.
Kind regards,
Pamela Lau
pwc.lau@
Erasmus University Rotterdam
Appendix IV: Quantitative Data
| |N |Minimum |Maximum |Mean |Std. Deviation |
|age |33 |31 |61 |43.58 |7.878 |
|years with company |33 |2 |38 |14.88 |8.638 |
|months before departure with |33 |1 |15 |4.94 |3.184 |
|outliers | | | | | |
|months before departure without |28 |1 |6 |3,89 |1,858 |
|outliers | | | | | |
|years in China |33 |.5 |9.0 |3.018 |18.155 |
|relevancy training |33 |3 |5 |3.97 |.883 |
Descriptive Statistics: Personal Information Expatriates
| |N |Minimum |Maximum |Mean |Std. Deviation |
|experience history |33 |1 |4 |2.64 |.783 |
|experience guanxi |33 |2 |4 |3.18 |.727 |
|experience culture |33 |2 |4 |3.42 |.614 |
|experience tax |33 |1 |4 |1.91 |.765 |
|experience info |33 |1 |4 |2.70 |.728 |
|experience language |33 |1 |4 |2.88 |.893 |
|experience bureaucracy |33 |1 |4 |2.45 |.869 |
|experience communist party |33 |1 |3 |2.00 |.612 |
Descriptive Statistics: Importance elements based on experience
| |Years in China |
|Guanxi |Pearson Correlation |0.309 |
| |p |0.262 |
| |N |15 |
Pearson Correlation: Years in China and Importance Guanxi based on experience
| |N |Minimum |Maximum |Mean |Std. Deviation |
|age |15 |33 |61 |43.13 |8.659 |
|years with company |15 |2 |38 |15.00 |9.472 |
|months before departure |15 |1 |9 |5.03 |1.968 |
|years in China |15 |.8 |6.0 |2.773 |17.970 |
|training days |15 |1.0 |14.0 |3.633 |35.278 |
|relevancy training |15 |3 |5 |4.07 |.884 |
|training long/short |15 |1 |5 |2.93 |.961 |
|skills training |15 |0 |1 |.20 |.414 |
Descriptive Statistics: Managers who received training
| |N |Minimum |Maximum |Mean |Std. Deviation |
|age |18 |31 |55 |43.94 |7.400 |
|years with company |18 |3 |32 |14.78 |8.157 |
|months before departure |18 |1 |15 |4.86 |3.985 |
|years in China |18 |.5 |9.0 |3.222 |18.568 |
|relevancy training |18 |3 |5 |3.89 |.900 |
Descriptive Statistics: Managers who did not receive training
Appendix V: Respondents’ Answers Open Questions
Respondent 1
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Local customs and food etiquette (probably covered in your culture). (I think tax legislation can be learned there but all the rest if you make a mistake early on could be more of a problem!)
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - I think Shell has stopped giving pre-departure training, not so much a problem for me as I have worked in China several times before but a BIG mistake for other expats I saw operating there. I think language training should be a must for all prior to going as it makes life MUCH easier (particularly if culture training can be thrown in as part of it). Even I would have benefited from a language refresher course and my degree is in Chinese. The other key problem for me as a working mother was the TOTAL lack of info on English language childcare or when we got there on anyone who could help me to find it. This is still in big problem in Beijing and many other cities around the world (i.e. not just China!)
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Necessary for somewhere like China but important that it is followed up in country too
Respondent 2
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Very important
Respondent 3
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Ways of Working Company versus Government practices.
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - Cross cultural training (i.e. how Chinese people live, work and play). This was eventually covered in an internal course but some 18 months after arrival.
9. Are there any elements I missed during this questionnaire that you think might be useful when looking at expat pre-departure training? - Living and working with Chinese people. How and why we are different.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Essential especially for China.
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Partially ok. I missed the cross cultural training.
Are there any remarks that you would like to make? - We loved China and want to go back. The people are wonderful.
Respondent 4
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Guanxi should not be over or under-estimated, much depends on the ability of the Chinese staff working with you and who you are dealing with: bureaucrats have more processes to attend to and less favours to give. History colours all people and understanding history helps understanding people’s reactions and feelings.
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? – Shell does not give any standard pre departure training anymore. I experienced my language training as an important and practical way of learning about culture habits etc.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Certainly useful.
Are there any remarks that you would like to make? - excitement about the new country is a powerful motivator and certainly helps overcome hurdles; if spouse or kids do not share that excitement then you are going to have a much more difficult ride.
Respondent 5
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Market, standard of life, doing business in China, networking with Chinese and with other expats.
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - 1-to-1 training
Are there any elements you would have liked to be included in the pre-departure training that were not in the training? Could you please mention them? - Tax/government rules
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - Daily life and leisure possibilities.
|9. Are there any elements I missed during this questionnaire that you think might be useful when looking at expat pre-departure |
|training? - Short visit before the real assignment starts |
|What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Useful, objective is to customize fast |
|Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - No training except language |
|Are there any remarks that you would like to make? - Good mix of elements helps to start, but should not be too extensive. |
Respondent 6
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - Would have liked to receive pre-departure training. Don't know why not given. Web based country file was available. Support in country was good.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Must be useful, particularly the language training to countries where English is not yet useable in business.
Respondent 7
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Business ethics, management principles and general information on living in China.
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - Information via video, hand-outs, etc.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Very important, since it gives you a reasonable idea what you can expect.
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Helpful. Looking back, some more on language could be good.
Respondent 8
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Specific information on experiences with managing JV's. The do's and don't and the experience from others.
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - presentations and reading material
Are there any elements you would have liked to be included in the pre-departure training that were not in the training? Could you please mention them? - JV management and Guanxi
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - Information package given was very extensive, including reading materials.
9. Are there any elements I missed during this questionnaire that you think might be useful when looking at expat pre-departure training? - How other members of the family were prepared.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - A must especially for first time expatriation.
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Helpful.
Respondent 9
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - No pre-departure training since I have been to China for several longer periods (up to 3 month) before I became an expat in China.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - If you not have been to the new country before pre-departure training should be mandatory.
Are there any remarks that you would like to make? - As an expat you have to take care of a lot of things yourself!
Respondent 10
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? – School, Housing, Social etiquette.
6. Are there any elements that were covered in the training that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - School and shopping (food).
How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. – Individual training.
Are there any elements you would have liked to be included in the pre-departure training that were not in the training? Could you please mention them? - Meeting with other expats.
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - How to deal with schools, how to deal with kids that have to learn 3 or 4 different languages. We already speak 3 at home.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Very important. And it needs to focus more on the spouse of the expat than on the expat.
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Yes
Are there any remarks that you would like to make? - Focus on the spouse for expat success. The expat himself has an easy job as he is always travelling.
Respondent 11
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - One on one sessions.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Very effective and good preparation for assignment.
Respondent 12
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - 1 to 1 training, some videos
6. Other. What type of information was also given but not mentioned in the list above. Could you please mention them? - Tax & remuneration issues and moving arrangements.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Necessary
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Yes, but real training starts in host country.
Are there any remarks that you would like to make? - Training always focuses on differences. There are many similarities too!
Respondent 13
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Practical information on schooling, health care etc.
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - individual language teaching, group training at KIT.
Are there any elements you would have liked to be included in the pre-departure training that were not in the training? Could you please mention them? - More info on practical local Chinese issues.
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - All above non ticked off boxes.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - ok
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - ok
Respondent 14
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Case studies of both business and family experiences.
6. Other. What type of information was also given but not mentioned in the list above. Could you please mention them? - Induction service, to help locate/introduce shops, hospitals, staff, etc.
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - Role-playing induction course, for business situations and home situations.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - It helps
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - I managed without.
Respondent 15
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Working culture is most important - how to work and motivate Chinese colleagues and also to understand their view on life.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Very necessary
Respondent 16
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - Personal discussions
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Useful
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Yes, too short
Respondent 17
5. Are there any elements that were covered in the training that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - How to live as an expat.
How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - Discussions/presentations.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Very important
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Very good
Respondent 18
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - Presentations only
Are there any elements you would have liked to be included in the pre-departure training that were not in the training? Could you please mention them? - Talk with other expats
6. Other. What type of information was also given but not mentioned in the list above. Could you please mention them? - Work opportunities for spouse.
9. Are there any elements I missed during this questionnaire that you think might be useful when looking at expat pre-departure training? - Many elements of the training are not recognized beforehand, a fresh up after 6 - 12 months might be useful
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Valuable
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - OK
Are there any remarks that you would like to make? - Language training is more effective after arrival in the host country, but in China not really necessary. Most people do not proceed beyond taxi Chinese.
Respondent 19
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Company Organisation
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - Exercises & presentations.
Are there any elements you would have liked to be included in the pre-departure training that were not in the training? Could you please mention them? - Regional/Local information
6. Other. What type of information was also given but not mentioned in the list above. Could you please mention them? - Tax process.
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - Company Organisation and culture More information on Expat communities or what to do with free time in Shanghai/China (concerts, music, sports etc.)
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Essential
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Yes, 2 days was good
Respondent 20
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. -Information, Discussion, workshop
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Very necessary
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Yes, length about right.
Respondent 21
5. Are there any elements that were covered in the training that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - How to deal with children + psychological effects of expatriation.
How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - Personal meetings with experts.
6. Other. What type of information was also given but not mentioned in the list above. Could you please mention them? - Allowances, transportation
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Within NXP it's well organized.
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Yes, time spent was ok.
Are there any remarks that you would like to make? - Don't save costs on pre-departure training it's extremely helpful in starting up.
Respondent 22
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - Crash course intensive Chinese would be extremely valuable. Work environment is English, hence no real incentive to get fluent.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Only if specific, language skills are needed prior to first cross cultural posting, no matter where it is.
Respondent 23
9. Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Non-existent, caused many problems
Respondent 24
9. Are there any elements I missed during this questionnaire that you think might be useful when looking at expat pre-departure training? - Working in a JV is completely different than working on a 100% owned subsidiary. Depending on the JV split 50%/50% life can become very difficult. Chinese part will try go in a different direction.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Extremely important, particularly the cultural differences.
Respondent 25
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Very important.
Respondent 26
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? – Working habits of locals.
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Essential, as it makes the transition easier.
Respondent 27
9. What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Excellent
Respondent 28
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - How will things back home be arranged; e.g. pensions, AOW etc.
6. Other. What type of information was also given but not mentioned in the list above. Could you please mention them? - Some first support for finding education and work opportunities for partner.
9. Are there any elements I missed during this questionnaire that you think might be useful when looking at expat pre-departure training? - Each expatriation is different; standard questionnaires will hence only capture some general points.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Depending on case & context could be helpful but is always theory vs. practice when going there.
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Only got some on-the-job.
Respondent 29
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Spending power and car availability
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Very helpful
Respondent 30
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Language would be a big asset, but in practice for most people not feasible.
7. What type of information was not given, but would have been helpful according to your experience? In addition, if you did not receive pre-departure training, what was the reason for this? And would you have liked to receive training? - Did not require much pre departure training because of frequent travelling experience. The training that I took (KIT) was a waste of time. Reading books does help, most important is however the "learning/open mindset" when working in the region.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - It very much depends on how much international / intercultural experience the expat already has
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - Not useful for me and my wife.
Respondent 31
3. Are there any other things you think are important that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - Important is that people are prepared on different social rules. The way people interact with each other is very different, table rules, politeness, etc. I have seen people feel very unpleasant because they seemed not to be able to accept other ways of interacting than what they experienced “at home”.
6. We have a lot of information available, but I did not use any of it. Because I did not bring any family-members, it was quite easy for me. For expatriates who travel with children we have more focused preparation programs.
What type of information was also given but not mentioned in the list above. Could you please mention them? - I spent some time on company specific topics, e.g. The relationship issues between my company and our joint venture partner.
9. Are there any elements I missed during this questionnaire that you think might be useful when looking at expat pre-departure training? - Expatriation, especially to a country like China with so very different culture can’t be prepared with information / training sessions. The real issue for success of failure is in the fact whether someone is prepared to take distance from his own opinions, norms and personal values.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - I think that language is the most important, if you come to a country and you can understand basic concepts, like talking to shop assistant, taxi driver, etc. makes you feel less helpless and more confident.
Are there any remarks that you would like to make? - When you are told that you will be sent to China, a lot of people in your direct social environment have an opinion about that country and its civilians. Sometimes it is difficult to see the borders between perceptions and facts. Arriving in China, it is very easy to be reminded of all those perceptions and manipulate yourself in a fake observation of what really is happening. A lot of these perceptions are coming from “travellers” some even from 2nd or 3rd source. These stories are mostly extreme (positive, negative or weird).
The challenge is not to listen to all these stories, but create your own reality in an environment that is interacting with you in an unexpected and sometimes unpleasant way.
Respondent 32
5. How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - Role play and Information Video.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? – People should visit the working site for a week to get a “feel”.
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? – Somewhat too short.
Respondent 33
5. Are there any elements that were covered in the training that are not mentioned above? Could you please mention them? - State owned company culture vs. Western company culture.
How were these elements covered in the training? Role play, Information Video, Etc. - Video, books, presentations and Private training.
What do you think of pre-departure training for expatriates? - Depending on the location where employees are sent to it is useful.
Do you think your departure training was helpful? Too long or too short? - 3 days was just right.
-----------------------
[1] Henceforth, the People’s Republic of China will be referred to as China.
[2] UNCTAD: World Investment Report 2006 - FDI from Developing and Transition Economies: Implications for Development
[3] Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Trade Policy Working Paper No. 44: China’s trade and growth: Impact on Selected OECD countries
[4] WTO 2007 Press release: World Trade 2006, Prospects For 2007
[5] China Daily: April 19, 2007
[6] FDI
[7] Information about KIT was gathered in an interview with Ms. Els de Jong, a senior trainer-consultant who is responsible for the China programme at KIT.
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Preparation
Expatriate Satisfaction
T1:
DV
T0:
IV
MV
Experience in China
How relevant is pre-departure training for expatriates who are sent to China?
Too short
When planning for a year, plant rice.
When planning for a decade, plant trees.
When planning for life, train and educate people.
Guanzi (c. 645BC)
➢ To examine the content of pre-departure preparation of expatriates who are sent to China, and subsequently
➢ To examine the effectiveness of pre-departure training programmes for expatriates who are sent to China.
Somewhat long
Too long
Just
Right
Somewhat short
Not useful at all
Useful
Very useful
Somewhat useful
Not very useful
Not covered
Somewhat important
Important
Very important
Not relevant
Somewhat important
Important
Very important
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