Organizational And Personal Predictors

Organizational and Personal Predictors of Expatriate Employee Job Performance: A Study Introduction

The end of closed economies has opened opportunities for companies to venture in different parts of the world, and many governments want to tap into the numerous benefits of foreign direct investments (Lie, Suyasa, & Wijaya, 2016). Due to the increasing need for competent personnel who have the required skills and experience, the companies hire expatriates to steer up their new ventures. Expatriates in this case refer to ‘individuals who leave their country of origin to live and work in another country for one up to several years as part of their duties within an organization’ (Lie et al., 2016, p. 46).

The demand for such people is on the rise with statistics indicating that 50.5 million people were working as expatriates by 2013. This figure was expected to increase by 10 million by the end of 2017, and the main concern for many companies is ensuring that expatriates performances match with the companies’ expectations. One of the aims of the companies is to ensure that expatriates job satisfaction remains as high as possible in order to improve their overall performances (Lie et al., 2016). The reason is that job satisfaction and company productivity are inseparable. It is also associated with the performances of employees including the expatriates. Companies want to retain as many of their skilled employees as possible because high rate of employee turnover is a major blow to the attainment of a company’s objectives (Lie et al., 2016).

Expatriates play several roles in global companies (Rees, 2013). First, they transfer technology to a country that hosts the company’s subsidiary. Secondly, they also transfer the culture of the company. The performance of the company subsidiaries is high if the expatriates have greater technological knowledge. However, hiring expatriates is a costly venture. According to Rees (2013), the average expatriate’s salary is two and half times the salary of a local employee who has similar qualifications. As a result, companies seek to reap maximum benefits of expatriate skills.

Poor expatriate adjustment, low level of job satisfaction, insufficient cross cultural competence, lack of perceived organizational support, and lack of organizational citizenship behavior are the major causes of poor expatriate employee job performance, but each category of these factors has so many subdivisions that it is very hard to know which specific factor should be improved in order to achieve the goals of hiring expatriates.

The Aim and Objectives of the Study

The main aim of the current study was to identify organizational and personal predictors of expatriate employee job performance. In addition to better understand of what people think and feel about work environment rules and regulations, and the interactions between supervisor and subordinate, and how they act in different situations. By so doing, companies would be able to improve expatriate employee job performance by addressing their concerns that increase their stress levels. In order to achieve this aim, the study’s specific objectives were as follows:

‘ To investigate the predictors of expatriate employees’ adjustment at workplace.

‘ To examine the predictors of expatriate employees’ job performance.

Study Question

The main question of the current study is: what are the organizational and personal predictors of expatriate employee job performance?

Organization of the Study

The current study report has five main sections. The first section is the introduction part that introduces the study problem, its aim, and objectives. The second section is the literature review that examines the previous works of other researchers, their findings, and research gaps. The third section is the methodology that explains how the data was collected, and analyzed. The fourth section of the paper presents the output of the data analysis and interpretation. The final section highlights the study limitations, conclusions, and implications. Literature review

This section presents discussion of results of studies that were conducted in the past concerning issues related to organizational and personal predictors of expatriate employee job performance. It also presents the knowledge gaps that justified the need to carry out the current study.

Expatriate Adjustment

Benefits of expatriates to a company are maximized if expatriates adjust efficiently to the culture of the host country. Many of them find it difficult to settle in foreign countries (Malek, Budhwar, & Reiche, 2015). Some of them immigrate with their families, and this makes it even more difficult for them to adapt to the new life. Many expatriates suffer from anxiety because of the uncertainty associated with living and working in foreign countries, and this slows down the process of adjustment, which may also affect their job performances (Malek et al., 2015). Such challenges justify the need to investigate whether expatriate adjustment (EA) is a significant factor of predicting expatriate employee job performance.

According to Rees (2013), expatriate adjustment (EA) refers to the employee’s level of psychological comfort with the various aspects of their new work environment. A study by Malek et al. (2015) revealed how some companies help their employees in adjusting to their new work environment in foreign countries. Some companies allow the family members of the employees to take part in the decision-making process of sending their keen to foreign countries. Some companies may also offer social support to spouses if the expatriate is married in order to help the family to adjust within a shorter period.

Many expatriates seek to forge good relationships with host-country nationals in order to fit in the society, and this is mainly done by enrolling their spouses into social groups in the foreign country. Such a move helps in creating identity that enhances the sense of belongingness. In Malaysia, for instance, perceived organizational support (POS) and social support are offered to expatriates by multinational companies and host-country nationals respectively to enhance the adjustment of expatriates and their spouses (Malek et al., 2015).

Subsidiary companies are expected to use the skills of the expatriates to achieve their profit maximization goals, and this means that employee should take a shorter period to adjust to the new environment. This means that expatriate adjustment and expatriate success are inseparable. Expatriate success can be broadly divided into two categories (Rogelberg, 2007). The first category constitute of proximal predicators that comprise of general adjustment (GA), work adjustment (WA), and adjustment in interaction. General adjustment relates to the comfort of expatriates on factors that are not directly related to their work such factors include the expatriates’ living conditions, type of food available in the local market, transport availability, entertainment facilities and activities, and the healthcare services that the host country offers. Interaction adjustment (IA) consists of the ease of the expatriates to interact with the nationals of the host country in their work places and outside their places of work. Work adjustments involve the expatriates’ comfort in completing their assigned tasks. According to Rogelberg (2007), the three types of adjustments are closely linked. They play a crucial role in determining the job performance of expatriates and the length of their stay in the host countries. In this case, high adjustment levels on the three categories of proximal predicators improve job performance besides minimizing the premature return of expatiates.

The second category of expatriate success includes the distal predictors that comprise of five types (Rogelberg, 2007). The first type includes anticipatory factors that consist of those preparations that are made before expatriates depart from their respective home countries. They include language ability, and previous assignments in foreign countries. In this case, better language command enhances interaction and work adjustment. Previous involvement in assignments abroad is associated with improved general and interaction adjustment. The second type of distal predictors includes individual factors, which comprise of those requirements that expatriates should have for them to work effectively in foreign countries. In this case, expatriates’ self-efficacy and relational skills should be high in order for them to improve their international adjustment. The third type consists of job factors, which relate to the general work environment. Such factors include clarity of employee roles, role discretion, and conflict in assigned roles. The fourth type comprises of organizational factors that consist of those feature that characterize the company’s policies. Such features include coworker support and all forms of logistical assistance. The final type of distal predictors includes non-work factors, which include expatriate features that do not feature within their job domain. Family adjustment and cultural uniqueness are examples of such features (Rogelberg, 2007).

The work adjustment at initial stage tells how motivated expatriates are in completing their assignments (Firth, Chen, Kirkman, & Kim, 2014). As expatriates’ success in adjusting improves, their initial work adjustment levels decrease while their challenge stressors increase. Improvement in the changes in expatriates’ work adjustment, their attitudes towards their assignments improves. Work adjustments improve whenever expatriates’ motivation is improved because they are encouraged to improve their devotion to their work in order to achieve their goals.

Any subsequent reduction in expatriates’ work adjustment may also improve the levels of initial adjustments. As expatriates encounter more challenge stressors, they tend to increase their efforts in completing their assignments, and this improves their work adjustments. In this case, the process of work adjustment is hastened by challenge stressors. However, Firth et al. (2014) did not explain the differences in the rate of adjustments, the causes of such differences, and the factors that help in sustaining high adjustment levels among expatriates.

Expatriate Employee Job Performance

Expatriate employee job performance can be measured in various ways. First, organizations can measure task performance. In this case, expatriates are expected to carry out their duties effectively in accordance with the technical core of the organization (Woods & West, 2010). According to Woods and West (2010), the degree of effectiveness with which employees perform their activities is what is referred to as task performance (TP). An organizations performance cannot improve if its employees’ task performances are low. The other way of measuring performance is by assessing expatriates’ contextual performance. Contextual performance (CP) is also known as citizenship performance, and it refers ‘to the contributions of the employee to the organizational, social and psychological environment to help to accomplish organizational goals’ (Moscoso, Salgado, & Anderson, 2017, p. 29).

Scholars have never agreed on those factors that affect expatriates’ job performances. For example, Bhatti, Battour, Ismail, and Sundram (2014) identified five personality traits that affect the performance of expatriate employees. The first was agreeableness, which refers to resolution of conflicts without violent confrontations. The second is neuroticism, which refers to the act of being cheerful and less anxious. The third is extroversion, which means describes people who are very outgoing. The other trait is known as conscientiousness, while openness is the fifth in the list (Bhatti et al., 2014).

The reason is that the traits improve the expatriates’ adjustment in work places, and this enhances their ability to relate well with others and accomplish their tasks on time (Bhatti et al., 2014). The argument by Bhatti et al. (2014) is similar to that of Robbins and Judge (2011) who cites perceived organizational support (POS) as an important contributor to expatriate employee job performance. In this case, perceived organizational support (POS) is defined as ‘the degree to which employees believe that their organization values their contributions and cares for their wellbeing’ (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 78). The remuneration packages that companies offer their expatriates create felt obligations since the employer and the expatriates are bound by the mutual exchanges. In this case, the company and the expatriates have performance-reward expectations that they must fulfill in order for them to enjoy quality relationships. The support that the company offers to its expatriates may include training, promotion, participation in the process of making decision, job security, and so on (Conway, 2015). In the mutual exchange, supervisors represent the organization. The discretionary support that they offer the expatriates may include mentoring and opportunities that enhance their career growth.

Perceived organizational support (POS) may therefore consist of financial perceived organizational support (FPOS), career perceived organizational support (CPOS), and adjustment perceived organizational support (APOS). According to Conway (2015), improvement in perceived organizational support (POS) boosts expatriates’ organizational commitment, their job performance, and level of satisfaction. Perceived organizational support (POS) improvement also discourages absenteeism and expatriate’s intention to quit.

Supervisors’ evaluation of the conflict between employees and their work depends on supervisors’ perceptions, but these perceptions are also influenced by gender stereotypes (Li, Bagger, & Cropanzano, 2017). Low job satisfaction increases stress levels among employees, and many of them suffer from emotional fatigue. Positive employee personality increases satisfaction levels (Lie et al., 2016). Supervisors may also contribute to poor expatriates’ performances by failing to tame role ambiguity (RA), which arises when a company fails to clarify the behaviors expected of employees or expatriates given their job or employment position. The reason is that role ambiguity (RA) affects the performance of expatriates by creating unnecessary stress, and this explains why the failure rate of overseas assignments is very high (Kawai & Mohr, 2015). Increase in the cases of role ambiguity (RA) reduces expatriates’ job satisfaction and their work adjustments (Kawai & Mohr, 2015). Its negative effects can be reduced by improving the perceived organizational support (POS).

The Role of Culture in Globalization

As the rate of globalization continues to increase, some national cultures may appear to be converging, but whether cultural convergence and cultural diversity play a key role in improving expatriate employee job performance is still a debatable subject (Sanders, 2014). Diversity in organizations’ workforce has many advantages especially where a company participates in the global economy (Bhatti, Sundram, & Hoe, 2012). Many companies generate huge portion of their revenues from markets outside their home country, and this shows how important it is for such companies to expatriate employees as a way of improving their competitiveness and expanding their markets. By so doing, companies make it easier to expand their operations globally, but the success of such ventures depends on the performances of the expatriates (Bhatti, Sundram, & Hoe, 2012).

The success of an internationalization strategy of a company depends on whether it retains the culture at its home country or it creates a culture that can suit all those countries in which it operates (Sanders, 2014). Sanders (2014) argued that a global company adopts a culture in which its employees can comfortably work as expatriates across the world. On the contrary, Sanders (2014) argues that a national company can have a global presence and yet it is not a global firm. This means that the culture that characterizes the company within the domestic market is exported to other countries making it difficult for expatriates to adjust. In such a case, the culture at a company’s headquarter is taught to locally sourced employees by the expatriates. By replacing expatriates with local company in an organization that was established using the culture imported from the company’s home country, the company cuts the huge costs of hiring expatriates.

Expatriates have better chances of adjustment at workplace in a global company than in a national company that operates globally, and this explains why it is easier for companies to deploy expatriates to those countries that they worked before in order to improve their performances. However, the study by Sanders (2014) was based on the results of an interview that involved only one respondent. The claims by Sanders (2014) raises the question of whether global companies should worry about expatriates’ cross cultural competence (CCC) whenever employees are deployed to work overseas. According to Eisenberg, Lee, Br”ck, Brenner, Claes, Mironski, and Bell (2013), conscientiousness trait and the trait of openness play a major role in determining cross cultural competence (CCC), but the institutions in the home country and those in the host countries have institutional differences that limit the effects of the traits (Wang, Freeman, & Zhu, 2013). In this case, cross cultural competence (CCC) is defined as expatriate’s knowledge, motivation, and skills that help him/her to adapt successfully in host countries where the culture differs from that of the home country. Living abroad has significant effects on cross cultural competence (CCC) (Eisenberg et al., 2013). Eisenberg et al. (2013) argues that ‘international experiences of working and living in a foreign culture positively impact various aspects of expatriates’ cross-cultural skills’ (p. 608). The reason is that expatriates who lived in foreign countries in the past have greater cultural sensitivity, and their decisions are more effective as compared to those who never lived abroad.

Riggio (2015) argues that improving expatriate employee job performance cannot occur if organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) are ignored because organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) are employee behaviors that have significant benefits to the organization. Through these behaviors, employees promote the organization by improving its corporate image, enhancing job satisfaction, and motivating various characteristics of the company jobs. One of these behaviors is conscientiousness that refers to the employees will to achieve through hard work, perseverance, and carefulness. The other is civic virtue that refers to attending voluntary meetings. The third is altruism or assisting others in achieving organization’s goals. Other organizational citizenship behavior’s (OCBs) include sportsmanship and courtesy (Riggio, 2015).

Many studies have been conducted in the past concerning expatriate employee job performance, but many knowledge gaps still exist. For instance, most of the previously conducted studies are limited to few personality traits, and many of researchers focus their attention on the feedbacks of expatriate peers without considering the feedbacks of their supervisors (Bhatti et al., 2014). Job performances among expatriates as rated by supervisors and fellow workers are believed to depend on many personal and organizational factors, but most of the suspected effects of these factors on performance have never been verified (Bhatti, Sundram, & Hoe, 2012). For instance, previous studies have not indicated whether organizational factors such as direct or indirect support, and individual factors such as self-efficacy, experience in the global market, social networking, as well as cultural sensitivity affects expatriate job performances.

Furthermore, studies that were previously conducted resulted in conflicting results concerning the impact of employees’ experience in the international market on job performance (Bhatti, Sundram, & Hoe, 2012). This means that more studies should be conducted to investigate the most important predictors of expatriate employees’ adjustment at workplace and their contribution on job performances in the global economy, which form the basis of the current study.

Methodology

Study Location

The study was conducted in United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the target population included all expatriates working in the country and their local supervisors. One of the main reasons why UAE was the best choice for conducting the study is that it has a population with one of the most unique characteristics. The reason is that 88% of the people who live in UAE are expatriates while the remaining are emirates (Russel & Kleyn, 2013).

Target Population

The study population included UAE national supervisor who were holding managerial positions and their subordinates. Since all expatriates cannot be included in the study, there was need to select a representative sample. The inclusion criteria were as follows. The participants had to be expatriates employed in the UAE, male or female, and people who were able to communicate in English.

Sample Size

The number of expatriates in the UAE is very large, and the determination of the sample size could not be calculated by taking into consideration the population size since it is unknown. The sample size was allocated for each category of participants where 7 local – supervisors and 19 expatriates – subordinates took part in the study.

Sampling Method

In the process of selecting the participants, random sampling procedures could not be used because the population size was too big and getting a sampling frame was not possible. Convenience sampling was chosen over other sampling methods because of its numerous advantages that, according to Robinson (2014), include the following. First, ensures that the response rate is as high as 100% when the sample size has already been set. The reason is that the researcher can contact as many people as possible, and those who do not want to participate can be replaced easily. Convenience sampling does not require complicated procedures of identifying participants.

Data Collection Procedure

The data collection tool that was used was a questionnaire. Filling the questionnaire by interviewing the respondent directly gave the researcher an opportunity to verify some of the information that was provided. The sample size was small, and the questionnaires were short and clear in many parts.

Public and private organizations that are based in United Arab Emirates (Municipality of Kalba city, Al-Dhebianeiah girls model school, Tawazon Abu Dhabi company) were contacted through email requesting permission to collect data.

In the permission request letter, it was clarified that the company would identify one of its supervisors who were willing to participate in the study. Once the supervisor was identifies, the subordinate employee was also picked from the supervisor’s department. The supervisor and the subordinate staff were then given a questionnaire to fill. The questionnaires were designed to suit the two categories of the participants. Once the questionnaires were completed, the data was entered into an Ms-excel file in preparation for the analysis. Ms-Excel software was ideal for data entry because of its compatibility with the SPSS software that was used in analyzing it.

Data Cleaning and Coding

Data cleaning was done to ensure that the information provided was realistic. Several inconsistencies were detected. For instance, some values that represented the ages of the participants did not tally. In such a case, it is not possible for a person to have different ages at one point in time. In order to correct this problem, the average value of the two ages that the supervisor and the subordinate staff provided was used during the analysis. The average value was rounded off to the nearest whole number to ensure that the data on age was consistent throughout the study.

Finally, the categorical variables were also coded to make it easy to analyze the data. Once the data was cleaned and coded, it was transferred to SPSS software for analysis.

Data Analysis

Data analysis was guided by the study aim and objectives. Since the study sought to identify the organizational and personal predictors of expatriate employee job performance, the relationship between the dependent and independent variables was investigated. Based on the study objectives, the dependent variables were employees’ adjustment (EA) at workplace and expatriate employees’ job performance (JP).

Three statistical analyses that were used included:

1. Descriptive statistics.

2. Correlation analysis.

3. Regression analysis. Results and discussion

Descriptive Statistics

The total number of participants who took part in the study was 26 where most of them were subordinates and the remaining were supervisors. The analysis was mainly based on the data about the subordinates since all the supervisors were UAE local.

Out of the 19 subordinate expatriates who took part in the study, eight of them had high school level of education, 10 were holders of a bachelor’s degree, and only one of them had a master’s degree. Concerning their marital statuses, only five of the 19 subordinate expatriates were single. The male participants were 10 while the female were 9, and this showed that both genders were fairly represented.

The Indians were the majority of participants. The expatriates from Jordan were four, and those from Egypt were three. There were three Egyptians, two Philippines, a Pakistan, an Ethiopia, a Somalia, and an Australian. The Australian was the most educated. The expatriates’ worked in different departments. The companies seem to tap the best talents based on the country’s level of development. For instance, engineering and IT related jobs were given to Indians, or Jordan.

The mean age of the participants was between 20 – 40 years, implying that most of the expatriates were young people. On average, the participants had worked with their supervisors for about 30 months of two and a half years. Their mean work experience was 78 months and their average number of months that they had lived in the UAE was 77. This might indicate that many of the expatriates relocated to UAE to work and not to engage in other activities such as studies. On average, the participants had work experience abroad of 21 months before they moved to UAE. Most of them did not have more than two children.

All these characteristic and many others that are listed in the study had great potential of determining the expatriates’ adjustment and job performance. However, these figures could not tell the factors that had significant impact on job performance and adjustments, and this necessitated the need to conduct a correlation analysis.

Test of Internal Consistency

Table 1: Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient for Variables under study

Reliability Statistics

Variable Cronbach’s Alpha

Cross Cultural Competence (CCC) 0.801

Perceived Organizational Support (POS) 0.914

Role Ambiguity (RA) 0.843

Expatriate Adjustment (EA) 0.846

Job Performance (JP) 0.854

Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) 0.803

In measuring internal consistency or reliability, the Cronbach’s alpha was used since most of the questions in the questionnaire required responses that involved ranking using the Likert scale. The Cronbach’s alpha was conducted on a sample size 19. The table 1 depicts Cronbach Alpha Coefficients for six variables namely cross cultural competence (CCC), perceived organizational support (POS), role ambiguity (RA), Expatriate Adjustment (EA), job performance (JP) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB).

Since the Cronbach’s alpha instruments used in this study are within the range of 0.9 > ” ‘ 0.8, it means that their level of internal consistency is very good. The level of internal consistency for perceived organizational support (POS) was excellent since its Cronbach’s alpha was greater than nine. All the items of the instruments are internally consistent with each other and, as a result, the results obtained using instrument can be relied upon and implications can be made.

Correlation Analysis

The result in Table 2 depicts relationship amongst the variable under study. As indicated in the table of correlations below, task performance (TP) and conscientiousness had a correlation coefficient of 0.837, which greater than 0.50. this means that the two variables have a strong positive relationship.

Even though the relationship between contextual performance (CP) and conscientiousness is also strong and positive as indicated by the correlation coefficient value of 0.562, it was weaker than that of task performance (TP).

Table 2: Correlation Coefficient Variables under Study

CCC FPOS CPOS APOS RA GA IA WA EA TP CP CONSCIENTIUOUSNESS SPORTSMANSHIP CIVICVIRTUE COURTSEY ALTRUISM

CCC 1 .496* .469* .618** .477* .485*

FPOS 1 .478* .504* .594**

CPOS 1 .733** .645**

APOS 1 .673** .518* .505* .522*

RA 1 .706** .459* .527* .544* .589** .487*

GA 1 .836**

IA 1 .601** .821** -.518*

WA 1 .547* .518* .524*

EA 1 -.484* .474*

TP 1 .589** .837** -.535* .599** .497* .750**

CP 1 .562* .656** .464*

CONSCIENTIUOUSNESS 1 .642** .522* .767**

SPORTSMANSHIP 1 -.547*

CIVICVIRTUE 1

COURTSEY 1 .695**

ALTRUISM 1

*. Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed).

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

Regression Analysis

Table 3: Predictors of Expatriate Employee Adjustment

Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Beta Sig.

1 .518a 0.268 0.225 0.518 .023

a. Predictors: (Constant), APOS

Table 3 depicts result for the prediction of expatriate employee’s adjustment. As indicated in the model summary table, the value of R Square is 0.268, which means that the model explains 26.8% variations in expatriate employees’ adjustment in the organization. The remaining 73.2% of the variations is yet to be explained.

The significant result determined whether the data fitted well in the regression equation, which explained how good the equation was to predict expatriate employees’ adjustment, which was the dependent variable. The statistical significance of the model is .023, which is less than 0.05. In this case, the generated regression model statistically significantly predicts expatriate employees’ adjustment.

The above model means that an increase in the level of adjustment perceived organizational support (APOS) would increase expatriate employees’ adjustment. Since the coefficient of adjustment perceived organizational support (APOS) is positive, it means that employees’ adjustment (EA) and adjustment perceived organizational support (APOS) are positively correlated.

Table 4: Predictors of Expatriate Employees Job Performance

Model Summary

Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Beta Sig.

1 .792a 0.627 0.605 0.792 .000

a. Predictors: (Constant), CONSCIENTIUOUSNESS

Table 4 depicts results for the predictors of expatriate employee’s job performance. As indicated in the model summary table, the value of R Square is 0.627, which means that the model explains 62.7% variations in expatriate employees’ job performance. The remaining 37.3% of the variations are still unexplained.

The significant result determined whether the data fitted well in the regression equation, which explained how good the equation was to predict expatriate employees’ job performance, which was the dependent variable. The statistical significance of the model is 0.000, which is less than 0.05. In this case, the generated regression model statistically significantly predicts expatriate employees’ job performance.

The coefficients (Beta) shows the significant variables that were included in the model. The Beta for the constant is 0.000, which is less than 0.05. The value for the independent variable (conscientiousness) is 0.000, which is less than 0.05. This means that Conscientiousness variable is statistically significant contributor to the model, and it cannot be omitted from the model.

The above model means that an increase in the level of conscientiousness would increase expatriate employees’ job performance. Since the coefficient of conscientiousness is positive, it means that JP and conscientiousness are positively correlated. The constant variable is also positive, which means that JP cannot be negative. Practically, an employee cannot have a job performance with a negative value because the expatriate is still working and making contributions to the achievement of the organization’s objectives.

Limitations, Implications and Conclusions

Study Limitations

The study had several limitations that included the following. Firstly, comparison was not made between subordinates’ self appraisal of their job performance and the appraisal of their respective supervisors. A comparative analysis would reveal whether expatriates met the expectations of their supervisors or not. Such a determination would be made by comparing the rating of task performance. It would also determine the opinions of the expatriates on whether they were underperforming or not, and whether their performances were worth the huge salaries that they received from the companies.

Secondly, the accuracy of the data was questionable since variables such as age had differing figures. Taking the mean value of the different figures may be highly misleading especially whet the deviation from the true age is too big.

Thirdly, the subordinates may have been influenced by the fact that their supervisors were still taking part in the study.

Fourthly, the variables such as supervisor’s total work experience were given in years and months, and this would have been difficult to analyze such data. It’s better to convert the years to months.

Finally, the sample was not large enough given the percentage of expatriates in the population of UAE. The sample size of 26 and the selection of participants was also done on convenience basis. The data was only collected in Abu Dhabi and Kalba city. Assuming that the study results can be generalized to the population of UAE may be highly misleading. The reason is that cultural beliefs and practices vary geographically, and more opinions should be sought concerning the issues that were studied.

Research Implications

The study has great implications in the modern world of business where companies are expanding their markets by penetrating the markets of other countries. Globalization has changed the way businesses used to operate, and many countries no longer enact protectionist policies to cushion their infant industries. As a result, the findings of the current study would help investors who want to improve their competitive edge by attracting the best talents in the world.

Expatriates performance may be very costly especially if the company cannot create a good environment that would enable the expatriates to adjust fast and offer the services for which they were employed.

In policy formulation, the results of the current study can be of great help. The reason is that the policies and procedures that a company makes may work against the company’s objectives. For instance, many companies believe that sportsmanship is one of the issues that they should support greatly. However, the finding of the study has opened the debate on who benefits from the sportsmanship. Companies spend huge sums of money to enhance teamwork and create better relations between the company, staff, and the community. The results of the study can be used to rethink how companies can create programs that enable employees to interact more with the country in which they are expected to work several months before they are deployed. By so doing, stressors such as those associated with climate, food, and family relocations can be handled well if the company understand how they contribute in enhancing adjustment.

Organizations should therefore assure expatriates that they would always receive support especially when they face financial and adjustment challenges or when they want to take a different career path in the organization. Organizations should ensure that the employees that they hire for deployment in foreign countries are people with high levels of courtesy, sportsmanship, and altruism. Such people have a better chance to handle challenging issues of adjustment. Sportsmanship is counterproductive, and companies should discourage it as a way of improving expatriates’ performances at workplaces. Linking employees with many people who work in the company’s subsidiaries in different parts of the globe can help in improving the exposure of employees. Employees who once visit the country in which they are supposed to relocate and settle can handle the issue f adjustment better. Company sponsored holiday vacations may therefore be the best way of helping the company to deal with the problem of unskilled labor in any of its subsidiaries when the company has many people who can be trained and deployed in such areas. Companies should put more efforts in promoting Cross Cultural Competence. The good thing with Cross Cultural Competence is that it is not innate, but people can learn.

Conclusions

The current study was conducted to investigate the organizational and personal predictors of expatriate employee job performance. The motivation of the study was the rising number of expatriates in the UAE who are paid large sums of money, while some take too long to adjust or even fail to adjust at all.

Once the company hires someone, it expects to get the returns of such investments. Failure to adjust involves waste of company resources. The study results showed that courtesy, sportsmanship, altruism, FPOS, CPOS, and APOS were significant predictors of expatriate employees’ adjustment at workplace. It also showed that any improvement in one of the five kinds of adjustment that include RA, GA, IA, WA, and EA, resulted in improvement in the rest. The study showed that Conscientiousness, Sportsmanship, and RA were significant predictors of expatriate employees’ job performance. However, companies’ programs that promote sportsmanship were at a higher risk of lowering expatriates job performance.