Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/96575 
Year of Publication: 
2008
Series/Report no.: 
ESMT Working Paper No. 08-011
Publisher: 
European School of Management and Technology (ESMT), Berlin
Abstract: 
This paper questions the notion that expatriates should adjust to their host country, by showing that adjustment and its consequences are affected by cosmopolitanism and expected assignment duration. A study of 260 expatriates in the U.S. reveals that cosmopolitans expecting shorter (longer) assignments adjust more (less) to both work and non-work aspects of their host country, and that this is associated with increased well-being. In contrast, for non-cosmopolitans, more well-being occurs when longer (shorter) expected assignments are accompanied by increased (decreased) work and non-work adjustment. Further, from the findings emerges a clash between two aspects of successful expatriation - well-being and professional success: while non-work adjustment is not always associated with well-being, work adjustment is positively related to assignment performance across conditions and subjects.
Subjects: 
Expatriates
international assignment
cosmopolitanism
crossculture adjustment
multinational corporations
preference persistence
assignment duration
survey method
JEL: 
D23
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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