The Determinats of Cross-Cultural Adjustment: A Case of Japanese Expatriates in Thailand
Global human resource management plays an important role in determining the success of MNCs by facilitating the process of expatriation. Cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates is the major driving force for successful international expansion and expatriation. Each year, an increasing number of expatriates come to Thailand to take up international assignments of which the largest number is Japanese expatriates. This study examines crucial antecedents of cross-cultural adjustment of the Japanese expatriates in Thailand. The independent variables include learning characteristics, congruency of organizational cultures, effectiveness of cross-cultural training, mentor programming and demographic profile. An important moderator in the process is spouses’ degree of adjustment in the environment of the host country. The conceptualization of this model is aimed at understanding the mechanisms required to overcome the impacts of cultural distance between the two countries; Thailand and Japan. This quantitative study was conducted using questionnaire surveys. A total of 412 Japanese expatriates working in subsidiaries in Thailand were surveyed. The statistical treatments employed were structural equation modeling (SEM) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The findings demonstrated that individual learning characteristics, effectiveness of cross-cultural training, and spouse adjustment were the major predictors of the Japanese expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment in Thailand. In addition, mentor programs and age groups could also create significant difference on the overall degree of cross-cultural adjustment. The expatriates and spouses should be provided with proper processes of selection, preparation, and support based on effective human resource management practices of their Japanese multinational corporations.