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To gain insight in the area of cultural adjustment, this study analyzes Taiwanese co-worker support, expatriate co-worker support, social capital, and cultural adjustment for expatriate English teachers in Taiwan. The results show that Taiwanese co-worker support has a significant relationship with interaction adjustment. The other independent variables had less significant relationships with cultural adjustment. Control variables 'length of time spent in Taiwan' and 'Chinese language ability' had significant influences on general adjustment and interaction adjustment respectively.
Research background
The globalization of the business world has not only increased the number of expatriate managers around the globe, but has also resulted in an increasing struggle companies are having with challenges such as control, coordination, and knowledge transfer across units (Holopainen & Bjorkman, 2005). According to Black and Gregerson (1991) " American firms have not been successful in selecting, supporting, and retaining effective managers in international assignments."(Black & Gregerson, 1991; p.497) Therefore, careful selection of staff to be sent on international assignments has become increasingly important. Multinational companies must attract, select, develop, and retain employees who can live and work outside of their home country (Caligiuri, 2000). People who are sent from the parent company to work in another country for a period of time are referred to as 'expatriates'. Because of the high cost of expatriates it is clear why scholars and practitioners have interest in factors that affect their performance.
Expatriate failure is of increasing concern for many multinational corporations as the costs to replace an expatriate are extremely high. The term failure as far as a company is concerned would be the early return and incompletion of an assignment, or the loss of the employee altogether. These terms are debatable as Holopainen & Bjorkman (2005) point out that premature re-entry may be caused by factors unrelated to failure, such as retirement or the expatriate being offered and accepting a new position. Poor adjustment is one of the causes of international assignments ending in failures (Holopainen & Bjorkman, 2005, Tung, 1982). Furthermore, according to research by Kraimer et al. (2001), well adjusted expatriates, who are comfortable at work and interacting with host country nationals, are perceived as higher performers by their managers on task and conceptual performance. Clearly cross-cultural adjustment plays an important...