This chapter gave an overview of past literature, the factors that were examined in this study and how they are related to each other. The factors include self-initiated expatriate (SIE), motivation to migrate, met expectations, motivation to integrate and integration.
Self-Initiated Expatriate
For many researchers, there are different definitions of the term Self-Initiated Expatriate (SIE). According to Froese (2012), Self-initiated Expatriate refers to individuals who, of their own accord find work overseas. They are different from organizational expatriates (OE), they are people who are sent by their organization to an overseas branch, therefore not expatriates by choice. Doherty, Dickmann, and Mills (2011) define self-initiated expatriate, as people who depart for international work without the backing of an organization. Al Ariss (2010) also states that a self-initiated expatriate is an individual who migrates to a country of their choice. The researcher observed from these different definitions that a self-initiated expatriate is someone who moves or relocates to a different country for work without the funding of their organization.
When self-initiated expatriates migrate to other countries for work, sometimes they do not have an easy time adjusting to their surroundings. According to Froese (2012), the host country may not provide enough resources for the SIE such as, housing, language assistance and research support. This may affect the SIEs decision to remain in the host country and affect their work performance. Al Ariss (2010) found that SIEs do not always have an enjoyable experience when migrating for work.
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The impact of ethnicity in different countries may affect SIEs performance and social interaction in the host country.
Motivation to Migrate
For many of the expatriation studies, they suggested that the motivation to migrate is driven mainly by the person's desire to explore. Namely, personal development and fulfillment, these factors influence people's decision of expatriation more than career development (Frose, 2012; Osland, 1990).
In the expectancy theory of motivation proposed by Victor H. Vroom, it stated that perceived outcome will influence people's motivation. In other words, if a person has confidence in doing the job and they find the outcome is desirable, they will possess high motivation (Vroom, 1964). A study done by Kaye (2009) showed that, 2608 New Zealand self-initiated expatriates (SIE) migrating to various countries which revealed the main factors for the move are culture and career. The culture factor refers to the travel opportunities or the chance to experience exotic cultures.
Family and financial consideration were their second concern. However, different findings reported by Froese (2012) who studied self-initiated expatriates in South Korea, concluded that international experience and job conditions are the dominant factors for expatriate academics in Korea. It showed that there are differences in the reason for the relocation of SIEs.
There has been an ongoing discussion in the literature between what is an assigned expatriate (AE) and what is a self-initiated expatriate (SIE). Assigned expatriates (AE) or Organizational expatriates are individuals who are assigned by their company to work in an overseas subsidiary (Froese, 2012). Suutari and Brewster (2001) revealed that AEs require greater importance of employer initiatives to migrate, whereas SIEs migrate because of poor employment opportunities in the home country.
11 stereotype that individuals depend on to understand and respond to the events. People have their own standards or rules, and they make choices which are influenced by the frame they create (Chong & Druckman, 2007).
Figure 2.1. Theoretical framework of SIE's motivation to migrate and integrate.
Adapted from " Qualified Immigrants' Success: Exploring the Motivation to Migrate and to Integrate," by Cerdin, J. L., Diné, M. A., & Brewster, C., 2014, Journal of International Business Studies, 45(2), p.159. Copyright 2014 by Academy of International Business.
There have been other studies which have adopted the socio-economic pull/push P1
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model to examine the reasons for expatriates' decision to relocate overseas. In research, the reason to expatriate, economic recession and individual difficulties are very influential push factors for expatriates (Bierbrauer & Pederson, 1996; Hugh, Paul,
& Elaine, 2011).
Met Expectations
Met expectation is the contrast between the pre-conceived expectation an individual has about the host country and actual expectations (Cerdin et al., 2014).
This means one already has their own expectations about a particular place and what they actually experience is different (e.g. felictious QIs are those who reflect on their migration in terms of strong loss and gain framing, they expect a lot from their host country, even while they may have lost a lot in their home country).
Person-Environment Fit
Person-environment fit is defined as the degree of fit a person has with the host country (Nolan & Morley, 2014). Person-Environment fit can be defined as the degree of compatibility or similarity between persons and their work environment (Oh et al., 2014). Person-environment fit is the balance between a person and their environment (Sen & Acar, 2014). We can see there are different definitions for person-environment fit (P-E fit) but all of them generally arrive at the same conclusion, that person-environment fit is the degree of compatibility between a person and their environment.
There have been numerous studies on person-environment fit (P-E fit) and they all have different results and findings. According to the study of Nawab, Lib and Nisar (2011), it is important for companies to worry about their employees' adjustment to a new country if they are expatriates. Expatriates have a hard time
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adjusting to a new environment and culture and that is a reason why they fail their overseas assignment, which affects their performance and satisfaction. Oberg (2006) stated that everyone is affected by culture shock once you leave your home country for another country for an extended period of time. Moreover, studies of SIEs cultural adjustment have found that successful person-environment (PE) fit has positive impact on their adjustment. Nolan and Morley (2014) examined the relationship from 369 SIE doctors working in Ireland and found that individual characteristics (e.g.
beliefs, values and capabilities) and characteristics of work (e.g. job role, job demands) may affect their cross-cultural adjustment.
Self-determined theory is a motivation theory that assumes individuals have the desire to develop their potential to the fullest (Deci & Ryan, 2000). To the extent that people grow their potential depending on their satisfaction for three innate psychological needs: need for autonomy, need for relatedness and need for competence (Greguras & Diefendorff, 2009). Greguras and Diefendorff stated that different types of fit, such as person-environment fit and person-organization fit satisfy different psychological needs. Psychological needs mediate the relationship between perceived PE fit and employee performance. Therefore, we know that psychological needs are also important factors to examine, while we research on the relationship between PE fit and job integration in our study. Sun, Peng and Pandey (2014) have also found that self-determined acts such as, affective commitment (inner sate of employee who has a strong desire to work in an organization) employees with this commitment have a strong desire to work in the organization, willing to accept and internalize goals and values, they emphasize more intrinsic motivation.
Some reasons why P-E fit is a good choice to be researched is because there have been some studies which prove it is related to satisfaction. In the study of Duffy, Autin and Bott (2015), they found that person-environment fit and work meaning
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have a mediating effect on work volition and job satisfaction. According to Oh et al.
(2014), they compared P-E fit to work attitudes (job satisfaction, intent to quit, organizational commitment) and performance and found that it had a strong relationship between them. Therefore, previous studies showed that P-E fit has a strong relationship or can have a strong relationship to job satisfaction and performance.
Another reason for person environment fit is a good choice is because this can be examined more in the East, meaning Asia. P-E fit themes (balance among life domains, cultivation) were looked at by Chung, Hsu, Wang and Judge (2015). They found that Chinese individuals experienced P-E fit from a relational perspective rather than an individualistic perspective and that culture plays an important role in this.
Chuang et al. (2015) also indicated that other research can examine more on P-E fit in a Chinese or Asian context.
Person- Job Fit
There are different definitions of what person-job fit is according to different researchers. According to Grogan and Youngs (2011), person-job (P-J) fit could be understood as the correspondence between employee needs and job supplies. P- J fit tends to be high when individuals possess the abilities that are required to accomplish the job tasks (Kristof-Brown, Barrick, & Franke, 2002). D'Amato and Zijistra (2008) had built on those ideas and found that the interaction between the individual and their work environment is significant to the person's P-J fit. Namely, how well the person fits into the new environment will affect their P-J fit as well.
Person job fit could be defined as the match between an individuals' ability and the job demands or what a person needs/desires and what a job provides (Lauver &
Kristof-Brown, 2001). According to Lin, Yu, and Yi (2014), person-job fit is the fit
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between the abilities of a person and the demands of the job, or between the desires of a person and the attributes of a job. It is the exchange process which involves two kinds of fit: need-supply fit and demand-ability fit. Chi and Pan (2012) stated that P-J fit is divided into two separate dimensions. One is the perception of an individual and what a job supplied. The other one is the relationship between the demands of the job and the abilities of the individual.
There have been many studies done on person- job fit and the results are different. In the study of Scroggins (2008), he researched person-job fit in relation to an individual's work performance and retention. Results show that, individuals with higher level of fit and experienced more meaningful work, they would tend to have lower intentions to leave their organization, this was due to a part in attraction and commitment to an organization or work context that provided self-verifying information. For Li and Hung (2010), findings showed that there is a positive relationship for their research dimensions of traditional literacy and computer literacy towards person-job fit. Furthermore, they found that PJ fit, increased task performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The theory was supported which showed that work adjustments and an employee's psychological well being resulted in positive attitudes and behaviors which benefitted the company.
Motivation to Integrate
Motivation to integrate has different aspects. The main aspect is why, what could be the reasons that make them want to move to other countries and integrate and perhaps continue to stay in that particular country. According to the study done by Froese (2012), there are many reasons why expatriates migrate to another country, such as monetary incentive, family, career development and experience. Based on Froese, family is an important factor for which people choose to migrate and integrate.
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If they have a good social network at home and at work, it seems to increase their performance and willingness to integrate. Social bonds are another reason. They already migrate to another country, however, if they receive less or little support or do not have the social bonds around them, they may feel less inclined to continue staying or keeping up their performance and might want to return to their home country.
Existing research found that immigrant's initial perception of migration in terms of perceived gains and losses will affect their motivation to integrate (Cerdin et al., 2014). If the person is pushed away from their home country due to reasons such as economic crisis and they have a lot expectations about the new host country, it refers to the highest motivation to integrate to the new society. Furthermore, skilled immigrants' initial expectations of perceived gains and losses may even determine whether organizational integration policies are effective for them or not. Another research also discovered that immigrants who possess higher motivation to adjust are those who have family obligations especially during settlement period in the host country (De Castro, Gee & Takeuchi, 2008). I read and reviewed many articles on databases such as, EBSCO and SCOPUS, that are associated with SIE, but only one of the articles that is proposed by Cerdin et al. (2014) examined the relationship between motivation to integrate and integration.
Integration
Integration is a broad term, this study examined integration in terms of an individuals' job satisfaction or life satisfaction after they integrated or moved to another country for work. A recent study (Cerdin et al., 2014) found that highly qualified immigrants' motivation to integrate to a new environment would influence their integration. Cerdin et al. (2014) define integration as job satisfaction, life satisfaction and career success. A successful integration depends on the level of their
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motivation to integrate. If they possess higher motivation to integrate, it means they have a higher possibility of achieving successful integration in terms of job satisfaction, life satisfaction and career success.
In addition, Bhagat and London (1999) discussed about what is assimilation and acculturation. Assimilation is when immigrants or individuals do not wish to maintain their home country's culture and identity, they become more immersed in the other country's culture and identity. However, when they choose to retain their home country's culture and identity and at the same time choose to interact and participate in the other country's culture, this is called acculturation. These two ideas are presented for different individuals when they decide to go overseas to work.
Templer, Tay, and Chandrasekar (2006) looked into motivation and how motivation related to an individual's work adjustment, general adjustment and interaction adjustment to a new environment. Work adjustment refers to the new job, responsibilities and environment in the individual's new cultural setting. Individuals are usually motivated intrinsically by their ability to be able to adapt to new situations and environments. General adjustment just refers to how an individual is able to adapt and integrate to life in the new or foreign environment, some people are more adaptable than others. Interaction adjustment refers to how one is able to adapt and able to interact with other people in a foreign environment, similar to general adjustment.
Forese and Goeritz (2007) examined the topic of Merger and Acquisition (M&Q) and how can this affect human and organizational integration. This was explored not only in an Asian setting but also Western and European setting. Results showed that human integration was more important in the Asian setting because the culture was different from a Western and European setting.
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With regard to integration or adjustment for people who are accommodating themselves to a new environment, Lysgaard (1955) proposed the U- Curve Theory of Cross Cultural Adjustment (Figure 2.2.). The results show that their adjustment levels are distributed like U shaped curve, and adjustment is divided with four different time periods as follows: honey moon, culture shock, adjustment and mastery.
In the honey moon stage, people are usually excited about new cultures and very keen on interacting with natives. While interacting with natives, they may at times violate the rules or have some misunderstandings, most natives can accept and understand them. Thus, most SIEs in this stage enjoy their brand new life and embrace the new culture with excitement, that is why they called it honeymoon. For the second stage, people will gradually lose their excitement about a new culture, but still need to face their job and environment in the new country. They may start to find some undesirable behaviors that they would not do in their home country (e.g. people who spit in China). Therefore, they are always in a state of uncertainty which will lead to anxiety, frustration and despair, individuals literally hit rock bottom. For the adjustment stage, people gradually get accustomed to the culture and environment, so they start to behave well based on rules or values that natives perceived and have better relationships or even make more friends with natives. In the last stage, people have mastered the new culture and rules, consequently, they can finally bring what they have learned into full play.
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Figure 2.2. U- curve of cross cultural adjustment. Adapted from Black, J.S.&
Mendenhall, M. 1991. The U- curve adjustment hypothesis revisited: A review and theoretical framework. Journal of International Business Studies, 22, 225- 247.
Summary
On the basis of the above literature, a framework of SIEs' motivation and integration is developed as shown in Figure 3.1 in Chapter Three. The theoretical background of motivation to migrate, person- environment fit, person- job fit, motivation to integrate and integration are provided. The assumed relationship between motivation to migrate and motivation to integrate is proposed with the support of the articles. The supposed relationship between the motivation to integrate and integration is only found in one study done by Cerdin et al. (2014). Therefore, because it has only been examined in one research, we chose to continue the study and hope to add more contribution in this field.
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