A master thesis from Aalborg University
The Influence of Expatriate Personality in Cross-Cultural Environments
Author(s)
Term
4. term
Publication year
2019
Submitted on
2019-09-15
Pages
66 pages
Abstract
The era of globalization have facilitated the need for adjustment of corporations in regards to their global market approach. To this end, these corporations start recruiting employees from all corners of the globe, each with their individual cultural assumption and value system. This cultural diversity have the ability to inspire creativity and drive innovation. Moreover, it can provide local market insight, and make global businesses more competitive and ultimately foster profitability. However, if the recruited expatriate is not able to integrate harmoniously, the process can be a largely costly affair. This thesis seeks to examine the effects of individual expatriate personality on their performance within an unfamiliar cultural environment. Thereby, a sample of 5 expatriates were qualitatively assessed through both survey and interviews. Research suggests cultural intelligence and personality as valid predictors of cross-cultural performance, therefore the investigative efforts are conducted through the use of contemporary theories pertaining to cultural intelligence and personality, The Big Five Factor Model (John & Srivastava, 1999; McCrea & John, 1992), and the four faceted approach to Cultural intelligence (CQS; Earley & Ang, 2003). The findings suggests that certain dimensions of personality are positively related to all four facets of CQ. Moreover, certain dimensions of personality are positively related towards cultural challenges such as; second language proficiency, management of stress, and accommodation of unfamiliar cultural component.
Keywords
Documents
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