Title: Expatriates cross-cultural adjustment challenge in diverse India: a three level analysis

Authors: Sahiba Sharma; Richa Dahiya

Addresses: Faculty of Management Studies, SRM University, Delhi NCR, Plot No. 39, Rajiv Gandhi Education City, Sonepat, Haryana – 131029, India ' Faculty of Management Studies, SRM University, Delhi NCR, Plot No. 39, Rajiv Gandhi Education City, Sonepat, Haryana – 131029, India

Abstract: As world is looking at the emerging economies for investment, India has become the latest hub. International assignments as an unavoidable part of globalisation brings along with them a major issue of cross-cultural adjustment, although India has witnessed expatriate management under British rule but the cultural diversity has made this country still an enigma for expatriates to understand. Therefore, our study aims at finding why expatriates find India challenging for cross-cultural adjustment. It reviews the factors which force expatriates to come to India and also about the cross-cultural adjustment challenges they face at macro, meso and micro level. The finding of the study shows an inverse relation between cross-cultural adjustment and organisational challenges, which means higher cross-cultural adjustment will create less challenges at workplace and a positive relation between cultural literacy and cross-cultural adjustment. The study outcome lays down a foundation stone in India for future researches, as very less literature is available in context to India, the research discussion will be useful for the global strategist to get a better insight into India to re-vamp their strategies pertaining to expatriates in India.

Keywords: cross-cultural adjustment; cultural challenges; expatriates; expats; India; cultural diversity; cultural differences; national culture; organisational culture; cultural literacy; international assignments.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICBM.2017.083238

International Journal of Indian Culture and Business Management, 2017 Vol.14 No.3, pp.347 - 364

Received: 19 Sep 2015
Accepted: 20 May 2016
Published online: 22 Mar 2017 *

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