Title: Locus of control and cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate managers

Authors: Stella Flytzani, Peter Nijkamp

Addresses: Department of Marketing and Communications, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece. ' Department of Spatial Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Abstract: International labour mobility is becoming a key feature of the globalising world. There is an increasing amount of literature on the success and failure conditions of migrant workers. A particular class of foreign workers is formed by so-called expatriates who are sent on a temporary basis (several years normally) by a parent company located in a given country to live and work in another country notably as an employee in a subsidiary abroad. This paper aims to investigate the performance of expatriate managers by explaining their cross-cultural adjustment potential from their personal management style features. These features are derived from the concept of locus of control in social learning theory in which two types of responses to challenges are distinguished: internals (controlling events themselves) and externals (following outside forces). Based on a sample of 43 individuals, our study concludes that managers with an internal locus of control are more successful in coping with the difficulties inherent in adjusting to a foreign culture.

Keywords: culture; cultural classification; locus of control; cross-cultural adjustment; expatriate management; international labour mobility; globalisation; management style.

DOI: 10.1504/IJFIP.2008.016911

International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy, 2008 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.146 - 159

Published online: 28 Jan 2008 *

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