Psychology Research and Behavior Management (Sep 2023)
Psychological Resilience-Based Multifactorial Framework of Expatriate Adjustment
Abstract
Lili Gao,1,2 Ying Lu,1 Na Zhang,3 Yi Wang,1,4 Weimin Yang,5 Xiaopeng Deng1 1Department of Construction and Real Estate, Southeast University, Nanjing, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China; 3School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore; 5School of Digital Commerce, Jiangsu Vocational Institute of Commerce, Nanjing, People’s Republic of ChinaCorrespondence: Ying Lu; Xiaopeng Deng, Department of Construction and Real Estate, Southeast University, No. 2 Southeast Road, Nanjing, 211100, People’s Republic of China, Email [email protected]; [email protected]: Expatriates are facing more stressors, such as cross-cultural adjustment, global political instability, family separation, health concern. The black swan events of the pandemic and the Russian-Ukrainian war have posed significant challenges in the current international environment. Adapting to an expatriate environment as soon as possible is critical to expatriate success. This study aims to examine the factors that affect expatriate adjustment through psychological resilience.Methods: Guided by person-environment (p-e) fit theory, an expatriate adjustment framework based on psychological resilience is proposed, and 309 valid sample data are used for structural equation model (SEM) analysis.Results: The results show that expatriate adjustment is a psychological process based on the development of resilience. Social support plays a buffering role in dealing with environmental deviations induced stressors. The person-environment transactional process is the most critical adjustment process.Discussion: The development of expatriate adjustment is divided into four stages (shock, buffer, adjustment, mastery) consistent with resilience development. Project managers can take different expatriate management strategies from multiple aspects. Finally, this study proposes the U-curve hypothesis of expatriates’ psychological resilience development aligned with the U-curve process of expatriate adjustment for future research.Keywords: international assignments, expatriate adjustment, psychological resilience, multifactorial framework
