This study addressed the challenges and experiences faced by Latter Day Saints expatriate spouses. Using an experiential learning and cultural intelligence perspective, this study explored this specific population. A qualitative approach allowed the researcher to explore life experiences and anecdotes in more depth with Taiwan as a specific setting. The experiential learning process positively influenced most of the spouses’ cultural intelligence. Additional findings included the finding that some of the spouses had little motivation to continue learning. Once these fundamental steps were achieved, this research was able to go forward. This chapter reports the conclusions, implications, suggestions and limitations of this study.
Conclusions
The first aim of this research study was to explore the expatriate spouses’ relevant concrete experiences that contributed to their adaptation process in Taiwan. This was achieved through a qualitative approach and the use of interviews and field observation. Themes and codes emerged from the data that indicated that the spouses experienced both positive and negative events during their time in Taiwan. These concrete experiences were significant contributors to their adaptation process in Taiwan.
The second aim of this research was to examine how the experiential learning process influenced the spouses’ cultural intelligence. The same procedure was followed to explore this research question. For most of the participants, the experiential learning process positively influenced their cultural intelligence in all its four facets (behavior, motivation, cognition, and metacognition). Nevertheless, there were exceptions and participants who did not have motivation to learn or to engage in the local culture. This was reported in the additional findings and should be considered for future studies.
According to McNulty (2005) more studies are being conducted on expatriated spouses nowadays, but the majority of these studies are quantitative in nature and do not address adaptation as a learning process. Furthermore, studies that address the issue with an experiential learning process perspective focus on expatriates, not on their spouses. This study made a contribution to the expatriate field of study by exploring the expatriate spouses’ adaptation using experiential learning and contributed to the knowledge in this field of study. This study also made a unique
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contribution by incorporating both experiential learning and cultural intelligence in the research framework. No Latter Day Saints expatriate studies incorporated both of these theories in one framework.
This study also made a contribution to extend knowledge by focusing on Taiwan as a specific context. Chien & McClean (2011) believe that more research has to be conducted in order to generate knowledge in a Taiwan cultural-specific setting. Furthermore, this research focused on a specific religious denomination’s adaptation process in Taiwan, in this case Latter Day Saints expatriate spouses. This research made a contribution to Latter Day Saints expatriate family literature and is significant because nowadays, more Latter Day Saints are serving in international assignments. This research helps to fill the gap in the Latter Day Saints literature, since no previous research had been conducted on the expatriate spouses with Taiwan as a specific setting.
Finally, this study contributed to the field of narrative research. According to Plum et. al (2008), there are few studies that utilize a narrative approach to examine the spouses’ adaptation process. This study utilized narratives as a complementary approach to explore the spouses’
personal experiences and cultural encounters.
This research explored the Latter Day Saints spouses’ experiences in Taiwan using a qualitative approach. This allowed the researcher to explore the spouses’ experiences in more depth and to see how they apply to a specific context. Its contributions to knowledge and literature involve implications for researchers, managers and HR practitioners.
Implications
The findings of this study have implications for multinational companies, HR practitioners, researchers and religious leaders. These practical implications can be useful in improving the management of global talent, specifically in the field of expatriation.
Multinational Companies
Multinational companies need to continue keeping in consideration spouses’ adaptation, since it has been proved that the accompanying spouse has a marked impact on the overall success of the international assignment (Lauring & Selmer, 2010). Multinational companies will continue utilizing traditional expatriates for many international assignments. Therefore, it is important that
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companies provide appropriate assistance to help expatriates, their spouses and their families adapt to life in the host country effectively. Some of the challenges experienced by the spouses in this study were: finding a purpose and feeling like an outsider. Researchers have suggested several interventions to specifically support the expatriate spouse to adapt effectively. Three types of organizational support have been identified: practical, professional and social. Practical support refers to: pre-assignment visits to the host location, furniture storage, tax advice, home-sale assistance, language courses, cross-cultural training and immigration paperwork. Professional support includes: job search, career counselling, resume preparation, and work permit assistance.
Finally, social support is: introductions to other expatriates, memberships in sports and social clubs, and information about and access to expatriate forums and spouse networking groups (McNulty, 2012). Even though most organizations provide practical support, many fail to provide social and professional support (McNulty, 2014). Therefore, organizations must strive to provide these kinds of assistance in order to better assist spouses to overcome the emotional challenges presented in this study.
HR Practitioners
In this research, the expatriate spouses who had been in the expatriate profession for a longer period of time expressed they had less motivation to learn about different cultures. HR practitioners face the challenge of motivating the unmotivated expatriate spouse. This is of vital importance since it is already known that the spouses’ adaptation is crucial for the expatriates’
success. HR practitioners can search for organizational support to provide formal support programs, as well as encourage informal support systems in hopes of aiding the expatriate spouses with transition (Teague, 2015). HR practitioners should also raise awareness of the special needs and issues faced by the expatriate spouses. This can help their transition become smoother and also can help them support their family in their new global functions.
Latter Day Saints Bishops
Even though traditional gender roles are part of the Latter Day Saint Church values, Latter Day Saint spouses face some of the same challenges as other spouses who do not belong to this religious community. In Latter Day Saints families, men are expected to lead and provide and women are encouraged to be mothers and homemakers (Vance, 2002). Despite the fact that the majority of participants are homemakers and were fulfilling the role they were expected to, they
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still experienced feelings of isolation and the need to find a purpose. It is important for Latter Day Saints leaders to be aware of these specific needs specifically, the bishops. Latter Day Saints bishops are in charge of helping church members with their spiritual, temporal, and emotional needs. It is important for the bishops to be aware of these needs in order to better assist the spouses and their families and to help them adapt to the host- country.
Latter Day Saints Bishops know when new families will arrive to the church’s ward or branch. The church has a worldwide record system and every time a member moves to a new location, its records are transferred to the new church branch’s he or she will be attending.
Therefore, bishops can contact individuals prior to their arrival date. Bishops can connect these new families with other church members who can help them in their adaptation process.
HR departments can provide the same kind of assistance that the Latter Day Saints Bishops provide to the new families. HR departments can help expatriate spouses with networking and connecting the newcomers with other expat spouses.
Suggestions for Future Research
This study explored the Latter Day Saints expatriate spouses’ adaptation using an experiential learning and cultural intelligence perspective. This allowed the researcher to explore the learning process and its impact on the spouses’ cultural intelligence. Nevertheless, there are many suggestions for future studies to expand and create new knowledge in the expatriate’s spouse field of study.
Some of the additional findings of these study include the little motivation to learn experienced by the spouses who had been in the expatriation profession for many years. Future studies should address this issue and consider alternatives to motivate these spouses to continue learning. Future research should specifically focus on expatriate spouses who have been in the expatriation profession for many years.
Also, a quantitative approach can produce more generalizable results that can apply to a larger population. Also, the use of a mixed methods approach can also be beneficial for future studies. This study addressed Taiwan as a specific context. Other studies can be conducted in other geographical locations and countries where no expatriate spouses’ studies have been conducted.
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The majority of the participants in this research were American. Other studies that include other nationalities should be considered.
Researchers and graduate students should also consider exploring other religious communities in Taiwan in future studies. For example, there is a community of Korean expatriates who attend a specific Christian church in Taipei. The church Bread of Life in Taipei also has a community of expatriates. Indonesian and Malaysian expatriates also attend the Muslim mosque located in Daan Park. New knowledge that targets specific religious communities can be generated by pursuing future studies with these populations.
Future studies should also include both the husbands and the children in order to have a better understanding of the spouses’ adaptation and learning process. All stakeholders should be included in the interview process. Future studies can also benefit from the male expatriates’
standpoint.
Limitations
This study is not without its limitations. Due to the fact that this research is qualitative in nature, it is subject to several limitations. First, the findings of qualitative approaches cannot be extended to wider populations because the findings of the research were not tested to discover whether they are statistically significant (Atieno, 2009). Therefore, the findings of this research are only applicable to the context and setting where the research was conducted. In this case, the findings will only be applicable to Latter Day Saints expatriated spouses who currently live in Taiwan. These findings cannot be generalized.
The type of sampling that was utilized in this study is also a limitation. Purposeful sampling is legitimate for some exploratory and qualitative research. It is legitimate when the purpose is creating a representative sample (Neuman, 2014). In this research, the purpose was obtaining a representative sample of expatriated Latter- Day Saints spouses. Despite this, it is important to address the limitations of this kind of sampling. It suffers from a number of inherent biases since the characteristics and mindset of the participants might be similar.
Only the expatriates’ spouses were interviewed in this study. Having the expatriates themselves involved in the interview might have led to a better triangulation of the findings.
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Children and other family members were not included in this study, due to scope and time constraints.
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