Canadian Diplomatic Family Network

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Lean on Me: The Importance of One’s Own and Partner’s Intercultural Personality

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TL;DR:

This study focuses on expatriate couples facing the challenges of adjusting to life in a foreign country. Historically, research on expatriate success has shifted from personality-based predictors in the 1960s and 1970s to other factors like previous experience and technical competence. However, there’s a renewed interest in personality traits, particularly intercultural traits, as predictors of successful expatriation. With approximately 80% of expatriate employees being accompanied by their spouse or partner (Brookfield GRS, 2011), and the spouse’s adjustment being a critical predictor of the expatriate’s adjustment, understanding the dynamics within these couples is essential.

Full Study Reference :

Van Erp, Kim J. P. M., Karen I. van der Zee, Ellen Giebels, and Marijtje A. J. van Duijn. (2014). “Lean on Me: The Importance of One’s Own and Partner’s Intercultural Personality for Expatriate’s and Expatriate Spouse’s Successful Adjustment Abroad.” *European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology* 23, no. 5 : 706–728.
https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432X.2013.816088

One-pager Summary:

Key Focus:

Explores how the intercultural personality traits (emotional stability, social initiative, open-mindedness) of expatriates and their spouses impact their adjustment to living abroad.

Main Argument:

These personality traits serve as coping resources. High levels contribute to better adjustment, while low levels can hinder it. A unique aspect is the “resource compensation effect,” where one partner’s high levels of a trait can compensate for the other’s lower levels, improving overall couple adjustment.

Types of Adjustment:

Psychological: Mental health and personal satisfaction.
Sociocultural: Ability to deal with daily life in the new environment.
Professional: Job performance and organizational commitment (for expatriates).

Key Findings:

Emotional stability is crucial for psychological adjustment and expatriate job performance.
Social initiative is linked to better job performance and organizational commitment for expatriates. *
Open-mindedness helps with sociocultural adjustment and job performance. *

The resource compensation effect was confirmed. Partners can buffer each other’s personality weaknesses, though having both partners highly open-minded might have a downside.

Methodology:

Cross-sectional analysis of 196 expatriates and spouses (98 couples) and a longitudinal analysis of a subsample (45 couples). Used the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) to analyze dyadic data.

Significance:

Highlights the importance of considering both partners in expatriate success. Findings can inform selection, training, and support for expatriate couples.

Dig Deeper (Long Summary):

Introduction:

Globalization necessitates more international work assignments.
Expatriate adjustment is crucial for individual well-being and company success due to the high costs of failed assignments.
Personality is a significant resource for coping with the challenges of expatriation.
The study focuses on both expatriates and their spouses, a relatively under-researched area.
It aims to explore interpersonal processes within expatriate couples and their impact on adjustment.

Theoretical Framework:

Conservation of Resources (COR) theory: Individuals strive to acquire and maintain resources. Intercultural traits can be resources that help cope with stress and gain new resources in a foreign environment.
Two-dimensional perspective on intercultural traits: Traits are categorized as stress-buffering (protecting against threats) or social-perceptual (enabling one to benefit from opportunities).
Stress-buffering traits (e.g., emotional stability): Based on the Behavioural Inhibition System (BIS), inhibiting behavior that might lead to negative outcomes.
Social-perceptual traits (e.g., social initiative, open-mindedness): Based on the Behavioural Activation System (BAS), promoting goal-directed behavior and positive feelings in challenging situations.
Resource compensation effect: A partner’s high levels of an intercultural trait can compensate for the other’s lower levels, acting as an external resource.

Hypotheses:

H1: Emotional stability is positively associated with the psychological adjustment of (a) expatriates and (b) expatriate spouses.
H2: Social initiative is positively associated with the psychological and sociocultural adjustment of (a) expatriates and (b) expatriate spouses.
H3: Open-mindedness is positively associated with the psychological and sociocultural adjustment of (a) expatriates and (b) expatriate spouses.
H4: An expatriate’s level of emotional stability is positively associated with his or her job performance.
H5: An expatriate’s level of social initiative is positively associated with his or her job performance and organizational commitment.
H6: An expatriate’s level of open-mindedness is positively associated with his or her job performance.
H7: The relationships between one’s own intercultural traits and adjustment are moderated by the personality traits of one’s partner (resource compensation effect).

Methodology:

Participants: 98 expatriate couples (196 individuals) for the cross-sectional analysis, 45 couples for the longitudinal follow-up.
Data collection: Online questionnaires administered through an expatriation organization and a multinational company.
Measures:
Intercultural traits: Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) subscales for emotional stability, social initiative, and open-mindedness.
Psychological adjustment: RAND-36 scale for psychological health.
Sociocultural adjustment: Items adapted from Black (1988) and Ali (2003) on adjustment to various aspects of life in the host country.
Job performance: Scale from Denison, Hooijberg, and Quinn (1995).
Organizational commitment: Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) by Mowday et al. (1979).
Control variables: Gender, age, first assignment, years in host country, accompanying children, cultural distance.
Statistical analysis: Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM) with distinguishable parties using MLwiN 2.00 software.

Results:

Main effects:
- Emotional stability positively related to psychological adjustment (H1a, H1b supported cross-sectionally, H1b supported longitudinally for spouses).
- Social initiative not significantly related to non-work adjustment (H2a, H2b rejected). Positively related to job performance (H5 supported cross-sectionally, not longitudinally) and organizational commitment (H5 supported both cross-sectionally and longitudinally).
- Open-mindedness positively related to sociocultural adjustment for expatriates (H3a supported cross-sectionally) and expatriate spouses (H3b supported longitudinally). Positively related to job performance longitudinally (H6 supported longitudinally).
Moderating effects (resource compensation):
- Emotional stability: Expatriate’s low emotional stability was compensated by spouse’s high emotional stability for better job performance (H7 supported marginally).
- Social initiative: Expatriate’s low social initiative was compensated by spouse’s high social initiative for better organizational commitment. Expatriate spouse’s low social initiative was compensated by expatriate’s high social initiative for better sociocultural adjustment (H7 supported).
- Open-mindedness: Expatriate spouse’s low open-mindedness was compensated by expatriate’s high open-mindedness for better psychological adjustment. However, both partners being high in open-mindedness was associated with lower psychological adjustment for spouses (H7 supported, with an unexpected “overload effect”).

Discussion:

Importance of intercultural traits: Emotional stability is key for psychological well-being. Social initiative is crucial for work-related success. Open-mindedness aids in adapting to the new culture and, over time, enhances job performance.
Resource compensation: Partners can rely on each other’s strengths to overcome individual weaknesses in intercultural traits. This highlights the importance of viewing expatriation as a couple-level experience.
Overload effect: Too much open-mindedness in both partners might hinder psychological adjustment, possibly due to a lack of stability.
Limitations: Self-selection bias (participants might be more interculturally oriented), small sample size (especially for longitudinal analysis), self-report measures, cultural distance measure might not be comprehensive enough.
Future research: Explore resource compensation in other intercultural settings, investigate the role of coping mechanisms, use dyadic data analysis more broadly, study organizational commitment further, develop more nuanced measures of cultural distance, include comparison groups, and use diverse data sources.

Conclusion:

This study underscores the importance of intercultural personality traits for successful expatriate adjustment. It highlights that emotional stability, social initiative, and open-mindedness are valuable resources, not just for individuals but also for couples. The novel finding of the resource compensation effect suggests that partners can buffer each other’s weaknesses, improving overall adjustment. However, an “overload effect” of open-mindedness was also observed. The study advocates for a more comprehensive family perspective when addressing expatriate challenges, emphasizing the need to consider both partners’ personalities during selection, training, and support. This approach can help organizations better predict and understand expatriate success and equip couples with the tools they need to thrive in their new environment. The study concludes with a call for further research to explore the nuances of resource compensation and its applicability in various contexts.