INTRODUCTION - The Effects of the Personal Characteristics, Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Work

Chapter Overview

The first chapter will give the audience an introduction of the study. The background of the research, the issue statements, the goals and value of the research, the study’s questions, the hypothesis, the importance of the study, the delimitations and limits, and finally a definition of the terms are all addressed, in order to introduce a thorough and comprehensive focus by the researcher.

Background of the Study

In consideration of the globalization and the growth of the international market and exchanges, borders have been gradually opening. The occurrence of a free-market is often said to be inevitable and steady by many specialists. Nowadays it results in a commercial reality. Foreign companies operating everywhere in the world are proliferating and cross-cultural management of foreign workers is getting more and more important. The interdependence between economies is increasing through the flow of goods, services, technology. As a result, global economy has become a complex set of markets, national development strategies and competitive corporate strategies (Borrus & Zysman, 1997).This flow of capital between nations has been highlighting the importance of international assets in different dimensions. For instance, research and development should be strengthened in order to make companies more adaptative to the environment continuously changing g. The goal is to make the globalization beneficial for all (Axmark, 2006).

In this environment, the human resources needs haves changed, and having an adaptable human capital has become a must-have. Nowadays, there are only a limited number of organizations that are able to fully utilized them successfully to reach the place of leaders in the markets (Ulrich, 1987). Currently, lots of multinational organizations require employees with an experience abroad and full proficiency in two or even three languages

According to statistics released by the Ministry of Labor, the total number of foreign workers in Taiwan rose to more than 440,000 in October 2014. The manufacturing sector is the one that has seen the most important increase of foreign workers. More than 100,000 of them have entered the sector over the past four years, and statistics show that there are now more than 300,000 foreign workers in this sector. The figures are a sign of a booming economy, and companies are getting more and more orders, leading to a huge demand of workers, MOL said. In this condition, the

important stake of their adaptation and their integration to Taiwanese culture on the long-term can not be ignored. Lots of organizations recruit foreign workers in Taiwan in order to implement their global strategies culture (Tung, 1999). However, they are expensive (Tung, 1999), and the paradox is that they also have a failure rate of 20%-40%, much higher than the average of nationals (Black

& Gregersen, 1999). This is mostly due to their adjustment problems to the cultural environment and local, and nearly a 25% of them decide to leave the local company within one year (Mendehall

& Oddou, 1995).

It has thus become an important issue to stimulate their commitment in their new environment, so they can reach a productivity level that can justify their employment. Recent researches (Wiedmer, 2006) has suggested that the solution could in part come from the selection process, assuming that some workers are more likely to perform well in a foreign environment, due to their personal traits and their background. For this reason, a special attention should be paid to their profile and characteristics during the hiring process.

Even though many studies relate about the work satisfaction of foreign workers in Taiwan, only a limited number of them indicates whether their characteristics as human have an influence on their organizational commitment. In this sense, this study acts as a pioneer. The stake of this research is to examine and review the difficulties that this human capital encounters to perform well in their organization. The research aims at determining to which extent their satisfaction at work, personal traits and adaptation in Taiwanese culture is important for a full organizational commitment, and how their commitment has an influence on their productivity.

Problem Statement

As Taiwan has been attracting more and more foreign workers over times, the diversity of their nationality and background is also more and more diversified. Although these workers come from different continents, such as Europe, America, Africa or southern Asia, they all share one common problem to face, the cultural adaptation. There are some of these workers coming from a culture similar to the Taiwanese one, and others coming from remote culture, encountering even more problem to adapt and integrate themselves. In recent years, the foreign labor has greatly increased, and for instance sectors such as the manufacturing industry has been more and more relying on a manpower essentially coming from southern Asia. A strong dependence on certain markets have appeared, and it has raised alarms for some institutions and industry experts.

As the number of foreign workers has been continuously increasing these last years, the landscape of main city centers in Taiwan has changed, it has gradually adapted to host this new

demand. Yet, these cross-cultural opportunities have also introduced numbers of cultural tensions and visible exclusionary practices, which has led to a rejection of these newcomers by Taiwanese nationals (Kim, 2005).

In order to successfully take a full advantage of this foreign labor and hold on with the international competitive market, Taiwanese government has recently been trying to attract high-skill workers, such as engineers. The stake of protecting their competitive advantage has grown more and more important as the country is striving in order not to lose field to neighboring countries in Asia.

Both recently developed and developing nations lean on foreign workers to ensure credibility in their economic advantages and knowledge sharing. The loss of the opportunity for the government to host multicultural organizations to stay in the top in a globalized world, would undoubtly place Taiwan behind in this international and economical competition.

Every organization are aiming at keeping teams focused, motivated and committed in order to perform perfectly and achieving the organization's mission and goals. The goal of any organizations and institutions is the well-being through satisfaction, and successful performance of its workers.

Thus, the internationalization of working condition and opportunity should provide the workers with the appropriate tools to perform well while reaching the satisfaction from an international point of view.

Purpose of the Study

The significance of this research and its purpose is to study the factors having an influence over foreign worker commitment and performance in Taiwan. These factors and the extent of their impact has not been widely studies, as globalization and the booming of foreign workers has occurred relatively recently in Taiwan. It is becoming more and more popular in this era of interdependence between economies and standardization of a free-market, with numerous organizations operating in different countries.

There are many issues connected with the adaptation of foreign workers to their assigned job and their actual performances. Thus, this study concentrates on full-time foreign workers working in Taiwan for at least one year. The research aims at identifying how to improve and enhance the commitment and performance through motivation of these foreign workers. The researcher also aims at providing solutions to organizational entity to preserve and improve an appropriate working environment and support to foreign workers in order to fulfil their assignment. Both empirical and

new theories are going to be used to demonstrate a new perspective permitting more open-mindedness and more acceptance of the numerous differences between people and employees, in order to highlight their capacities to participate of intellectual, aesthetic, and emotional experience with others.

The study also provides suggestions about which profile of foreign worker is more likely to perform better and successfully achieve his mission. Indeed, the personal characteristics of those workers is also considered as variable wielding influence on their own motivation and commitment, the researcher determined and studied the different competencies that can affect the performance of foreign workers in Taiwan. There are different level and grade of competencies existing, and they can be separated into different dimensions: traits, motives, self-image, social roles, skills, specific actions or behaviors, and environmental factors (Boyatzis, 1998). Accordingly, foreign workers individual personality and characteristics are the means by which an organization will invest in them and decide to deliver him a mission, making important decisions in the long run.

Research Questions

The continuous rise of direct investments is fostering the globalization, and companies have begun to worry about their cultural values and turnover rate. The culture they originate, their values and even their personality should be taken into account during the process of selection of those foreign workers by their companies. Their recruitment represents a risky challenge for companies, as a fail of his integration could have harmful consequences on them psychologically resulting in a lack of commitment, sabotaging their performance and failing to their mission.

Research questions are addressed to determine the extent to which the cross-cultural adaptation, the personal characteristics, values and work satisfaction of those foreign workers are wielding an influence over their organizational commitment, as well as the degree of relationship between their commitment and their work performance. Four main questions are addressed to reach this issue. Deriving from the research purposes, the research questions were formulated as follows:

To which extent does cross-cultural adaptation has an impact on commitment? What is the part its variables such as compensation, organizational culture, or perspective of evolution are playing in this influence?

Does cross-cultural adaptation affect the commitment of foreign workers in Taiwan? What is the part its variables such as language proficiency, social integration and adaptation to the daily life are playing in this influence?

Do the personal attributes of these foreign workers (traits, motives, self-image, social roles, skills, gender, age, or behaviors) and their values have and influence over their commitment and motivation at work?

What influence does the commitment of foreign workers have over their productivity? What its dimensions such as affective, normative and continuance are playing in this influence?

Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is to highlight the factors having an influence over foreign workers commitment and their productivity in Taiwan. Many multinational organizations, wanting more homogeneity in their own organizational culture among their subsidiaries, may attempt to export themselves to other subsidiaries culture by staffing foreign workers. Most of this job assignment are concerning key positions of their foreign subsidiaries. Multinational organizations using this strategy actually believe that foreign workers are able to wield an important impact and influence over the culture of subsidiaries (Kobrin, 1988). Thus, the researcher will aim at determining which typical profile are the foreign workers likely to perform well abroad.

This research is relevant to practitioners and academics. The study will provide three important contributions. First, it theoretically connects cross-cultural adaptation, one’s personal background and work satisfaction with the commitment at work. This one will be expressed through dimensions such as affective, normative and continuance commitment. Second, this research will develop a model that supports this theory. The final contribution of the study is to provide information about to how extent Taiwanese culture can be friendly to foreign workers.

The two different points of significance brought by the research are:

1: This study is significant to academicians in that it provides a structural model highlighting the different variables wielding an influence over commitment and performance of foreign workers in Taiwan. This model is the first attempt of its kind, because it is including and addressing the limitations of many scholars and researchers though the variable taking in account the personal characteristics of foreign workers, and in a smaller extent their level of adaptation to Taiwanese culture.

2: This study is also significant for HR practitioners and multinational organizations, because it searches to address the current research gap existing in the integration spectrum on how to effectively manage foreign worker difficulties. It enhances the burning issues of adaptation as key for long term commitment, and enables multinational to makes benefit of this multicultural

environment. The assignment of foreign workers might facilitate and enable intersubsidiary communication and coordination (Rosenzweig, 1994) by helping the transfer of the corporate philosophies, culture and vision of the company along with the foreign worker.

Delimitations and Limitation

The present study has three different delimitations and also limitations that were used as frame to set a scope for the research. This scope is necessary in order to rend the study feasible for the researcher and facilitate a more manageable research process.

Delimitations

The study is delimited to Taiwan and do not include other country. Also, it is delimited to foreign workers and no national Taiwanese are taken in account. These foreign workers must have a full-time job and working in Taiwan for at least one year. No other population are taken in account.

Limitations

It should also be noted that this research contains several limitations. Actually, by addressing their identification, the researcher aimed at providing suggestion for future studies.

Due to some constraints of time and budget, a questionnaire has been made by the researcher and was used in the present research. This questionnaire was based on empirical theories.

Furthermore, 42 foreign employees working in Taiwan has participated to develop the pilot test.

The final research has been built through a total of 210 participants.

As people are naturally dubious, to find an appropriate population willing to fulfill the survey has been slightly challenging because they may be afraid to be identified or notified to their employers. For this reason, the survey was made anonymous so that the participants felt protected from what they have said, and also in order to have more accurate responses. In order to bring more relevant and additional information to the questionnaire, interviews have also been conducted as well.

One more limitation that can be brought is the obstacles that cross-cultural studies often encounter. Indeed, researchers often fail to “recognize the differences between analysis at the societal level and at the individual level… which led to numerous errors of interpretation and application” (Hofstede, 2011).

It is also relevant to remind that the study isn’t delimited to one particular ethnic group or county. Thus, there is no cultural bound between participants. Some of the participants may have

inborn or cultural similarity with Taiwanese culture, others may not have any link of encounter a real cultural gap when being hired. Their common point is that they eventually all have to adapt and work in a relatively foreign environment.

It comprises foreign workers working in Taiwanese company, and also in multinational and global corporations, foreign workers who happened to find a work after coming to Taiwan by themselves, and also workers assigned to different mission in countries that they are not familiar.

Also, young executives and new CEO, who beforehand had the experience of working abroad for some missions oversea are included. Since this approach is slightly intruding into other disciplinary, the researcher paid a very special attention and care to obtain a general research that represents and stand for multitude of methodologies and abundant disciplines.

Definition of Terms

In this section of the study, the researcher will provide both conceptual and operational (or theoretical) definitions of the key terms used. The operational definitions will outline the way variables will be considered and used within the scope of the present research.

The following terms are the definition of variables in this research:

Work Satisfaction

Theoretical definition: In its conceptual notion, work satisfaction can be defined in various ways. According to Hoppock, work satisfaction is “any combination of psychological, physiological and environmental circumstances that cause a person truthfully to say “I am satisfied with my job” (Hoppock, 1935). Nowadays, the most traditional current defines the notion of work satisfaction as “attitude towards one’s job” (Brief & Robertson, 1989). Other authors gave a definition of the work satisfaction as “affective orientations on the part of individuals toward work roles, which they are presently occupying”. It is a determining factor of the organization's commitment (Meyer, Herscovitch, Stanley, & Topolnytsky, 2002). Another definition for work satisfaction: it is a ‘‘pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from an appraisal of one’s job or job experiences’’ (Locke, 1969).

Operational definition: It includes indicators such as the attitude toward present job, the satisfaction with pay, the satisfaction with promotion opportunities, the satisfaction with coworkers, and also the satisfaction with supervisor.

Cross-Cultural Adaptation

Theoretical definition: Theories claim that cross-cultural adaptation is defined as a dynamic that one’s human is struggling in order to acquire enough stability and internal equilibrium in order to face the external environmental working conditions. Most of the time, there are four broad streams on the cross-cultural adaptation process. The most popular and used during the last 20 years is the U-curve theory of cultural adaptation (Lysgaard, 1955). This curves takes into account the first steps of foreign workers and call it the honeymoon high. This phase is generally followed by a sudden decreasing of the curve, coming from difficulties to adjust oneself to the local culture.

Finally, the curve will go up progressively and lead to a cultural acceptance and adaptation. More than a theory, the U-curve is a process that has emerged through the testimonies of numerous foreign workers. This acculturation process was reintroduced more recently by Hofstede (2005) and the academicians Pires, Stanton, and Ostanfeld (2006). Redfield, Herskovits and Linton (1936) defined the cross-cultural adaptation as the "Composed by individual of two groups which from different cultures. It had persistent and direct cultural impact, resulting in one or both of the original cultural patterns to change as an equilibrium”.

Operational definition: The operational theory includes 3 indicators, such as the social integration, the adaptation to daily local features (food, weather and other features), and finally language proficiency.

Organizational Commitment

Theoretical definition: The notion of organizational commitment is defined by the psychological attachment to a company of one given individual working in this organization.

According to Meyer and Allen (1991), there are 3 forms of commitment. The Affective Commitment, that relates the perceptions of workers about their emotional identification with the organization they are working for. Then, the Normative Commitment, that relates worker way or perceiving their own responsibilities in the organization. To raise an example, if an organization helped out the employee or has supported him during his academic period, the worker is likely to have a high degree of normative commitment toward the organization. Finally, the Continuance commitment that relates employee perceptions about what it could cost for them to leave their company.

Operational definition: In the present study, we will define commitment basing on it’s three

well-known dimension: Affective Commitment, Normative commitment, and Continuance Commitment.

Stress

Theoretical definition: For academicians, stress is can be defined by in various way, depending on the type and the individual and the source of stress studied. It was first described as

“the non-specific response of the body to any demand made on it” (Selye, 1980). Said in more

在文檔中 The Effects of the Personal Characteristics, Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Work Satisfaction of Foreign Workers in Taiwan on their Organizational Commitment and Employee’s Performance (頁 13-23)