Title: Job satisfaction of returnees to Japan

Authors: Lara Makowski-Komura; Ralf Bebenroth

Addresses: Graduate School of Business Administration, Kobe University, 657-8501 Kobe-shi, Nada-ku, Rokko-dai 2-1, Japan ' Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Kobe University, 657-8501 Kobe-shi, Nada-ku, Rokko-dai 2-1, Japan

Abstract: We coin the term 'Japanese returnees', referring to workers who were born in Japan but, of their own volition, have spent some time abroad for educational and/or work reasons. Here, we investigate how Japanese returnees' job satisfaction is influenced by organisational identification, motivational cultural intelligence, and the degree of 'Japaneseness' of the business system at the workplace. Based on the tenets of the social identity theory as well as from the person-environment (P-E) fit perspective, we find that returnees with stronger organisational identification enjoy higher job satisfaction. Furthermore, firms with western-oriented business systems have more returnees who have a higher degree of job satisfaction. Even though we do not find any direct relationship between motivational cultural intelligence and job satisfaction, there is a group of returnees with higher motivational cultural intelligence who state they have higher job satisfaction when working in firms with a rather Japanese business system.

Keywords: Japan; job satisfaction; organisational identification; motivational cultural intelligence; MCQ; Japaneseness; business system.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRDM.2020.105116

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2020 Vol.20 No.1, pp.1 - 24

Accepted: 15 May 2019
Published online: 13 Feb 2020 *

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