Jakob Lauring

Self-Initiated Academic Expatriates: Inherent Demographics and Reasons to Expatriate

Research on expatriate employees has to date focused mainly on organizational expatriates, so-called because they have been assigned by a parent company to a host country. Relatively little research has been conducted on self-initiated expatriate (SIE) employees. Hence, not enough is known about this type of expatriate. This paper examines the inherent demographics of SIEs. Data were collected from 428 expatriate academics from 60 countries, employed in 35 universities in five northern European countries. Results provided support for half of the propositions predicting that SIEs’ reasons to expatriate differ according to age and gender. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Reasons to expatriate and work outcomes of self‐initiated expatriates

Purpose – Through a large‐scale quantitative study, this paper aims to test and extend the qualitative findings of Richardson and McKenna and of Osland on reasons to expatriate and relate them to work outcomes.Design/methodology/approach – Examining how reasons to expatriate may affect work outcomes, quantitative data was collected from self‐initiated expatriate academics from 60 countries employed in 35 universities in five northern European countries.Findings – Results mostly indicated support for the proposed hypotheses. The most striking finding was the apparently uniformly destructive influence of behaviour associated with escape from ones previous life as a reason to expatriate on all of the studied work outcomes.Research limitations/implications – The self‐developed scales measuring reasons for self‐initiated expatriates to expatriate may have been inadequate to capture all relevant aspects of their behavioural intentions and the data from the retrospective type of questioning regarding the origin...

Multicultural Organizations: Common Language, Knowledge Sharing and Performance

Purpose – Multicultural organizations are often argued to hold potential knowledge resources that can be used to increase performance. However, while only a few studies have been undertaken on the subject, linguistic differences are argued to make the use of knowledge and the sharing of knowledge a challenge in multicultural organizations. This study seeks to explore the relationships between language, knowledge sharing and performance.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was directed electronically to members of academic multicultural departments in Denmark.Findings – Results showed that consistency in English management communication was the dominating factor with strong relationships with all of the investigated knowledge sharing and performance variables. English communication consistently had an association with some of the knowledge sharing and performance variables but not with all of them. The number of languages and the communication frequency were generally positively associated with th...

Marital Status and Work Outcomes of Self-Initiated Expatriates: Is There a Moderating Effect of Gender?

Purpose – Most of the fast‐growing literature on business expatriates has focused on organizational expatriates (OEs) who have been assigned by their parent companies to the foreign location. However, there is much less research on self‐initiated expatriates (SIE), who themselves have decided to expatriate to work abroad. The purpose of this paper is to provide knowledge on this under‐researched group of expatriates.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was directed electronically towards SIE academics in universities in the Nordic countries and in The Netherlands.Findings – The current study examines marital status, gender and work outcomes of SIEs, and specifically whether there is a moderating effect of gender. Results showed, as expected, a positive association between being married and work effectiveness as well as with work performance but, surprisingly, there was no moderating effect of gender on these positive relationships.Practical implications – Results indicate that organizations recru...

Intercultural Organizational Communication: The Social Organizing of Interaction in International Encounters

Intercultural communication has mainly been described in terms of national differences disturbing the sending and receiving of messages. In this article, it is argued that the local organizational context has to be taken into account. By linking Bourdieu’s theories on the social organization of differences to recent theories of organizational communication, the focus of the article is directed at describing the impact of informal and power-related aspects in intercultural communication. The usefulness of a theory on intercultural organizational communication is illustrated by the results of an ethnographic field study on Danish expatriates in a Saudi subsidiary.

Multicultural organizations: Common language and group cohesiveness

There is growing evidence that the use and management of language have important implications in international organizations. However, still only few empirical studies have been conducted in this theoretical field. Especially there has been a lack of quantitative insights into how language affects group processes and group performance in multicultural organizations. This paper outlines the results from a questionnaire directed electronically towards members of academic multicultural departments in Denmark. Results showed that consistency in English management communication was the dominating factor with strong relationships with all of the three investigated group cohesiveness variables: group involvement, group conflict and group trust. Communication frequency and English personal communication had an association with some of the group cohesiveness variables but not with all of them. The number of languages spoken did not have a relationship with any of the group cohesiveness variables. Since there are no similar large-scale studies on international language management, the findings may be of considerable theoretical and practical importance. Implications of these findings are discussed in detail. Organisations multiculturelles : langage commun et cohésion de groupe Jakob Lauring & Jan Selmer Il y a de plus en plus de preuves comme quoi l’utilisation et la gestion du langage ont des implications importantes pour les organisations internationales. Cependant, seules quelques études empiriques ont été menées sur ce champ théorique. Plus particulièrement, il y a un manque de points de vue quantitatifs sur les façons dont le langage a des effets sur la performance de groupe dans des organisations multiculturelles. Cet article dresse les conclusions d’un questionnaire électronique adressé aux membres de départements universitaires multiculturels au Danemark. Les résultats montrent que la constance de la communication en anglais, lorsqu’il s’agit de management, est le facteur dominant et qu’il y a des relations fortes entre les trois variables de cohésion de groupe sujettes de l’étude : implication du groupe, conflit au sein du groupe, confiance au sein du groupe. La fréquence de la communication personnelle en anglais est associée à certaines des variables de cohésion de groupe, mais pas toutes. Le nombre de langues parlées n’a aucune relation avec ces variables. Etant donné qu’il n’y a aucune étude à grande échelle sur la gestion du langage dans un contexte international, ces conclusions peuvent revêtir une importance considérable, tant du point de vue de la théorie que de la pratique. Les implications de ces conclusions sont étudiées dans le détail.

A critical analysis of intercultural communication research in cross-cultural management: introducing new developments in anthropology

– Functionalist models of intercultural interaction have serious limitations relying on static and decontextualized culture views. This paper sets out to outline newer developments in anthropological theory in order to provide inspirations to a more dynamic and contextual approach for understanding intercultural communication research in cross‐cultural management (CCM)., – The paper analyzes the established approaches to the cultural underpinnings of intercultural communication in CCM and examines how newer developments in anthropology may contribute to this research., – The standard frameworks for classifying cultures in CCM are based on a view of culture as static, formal mental codes and values abstracted from the context of valuation. However, this view, underwriting the dominating research stream, has been abandoned in the discipline of anthropology from which it originated. This theory gap between intercultural communication research in CCM and anthropology tends to exclude from CCM an understanding of how the context of social, organizational and power relationships shapes the role of culture in communication., – The paper proposes to substitute the view of culture as comprising of abstract values and codes as determinants of communication with concepts of culture as dynamically enfolded in practice and socially situated in specific contexts, in order to give new directions to theories on intercultural communication in CCM., – Scant research has compared intercultural communication research in CCM with new anthropological developments. New insights from anthropology are analyzed in order to open up analytical space in CCM.

Expatriate compound living: an ethnographic field study

In certain countries, closed expatriate compounds have developed. They serve to provide resident expatriates and accompanying family members with a comfortable and safe environment. Unfortunately, not much is known about compound life since associated empirical research is scarce. Through ethnographic field-work methodology, including interviews and participant observation during a period of 3 months, this exploratory study investigated 16 Danish business expatriates of a large Danish corporation and their families living in the same compound in Saudi Arabia. They shared their spare time and the expatriates had the same working hours in the same subsidiary. Results show that a Danish national group was established and maintained. This in-group dominated life in the compound and at work it may have contributed to the perceptual bias and discriminatory behaviour demonstrated by the Danish expatriates in their management of the foreign national employees. Implications of these findings are discussed in detail.

Expatriate academics: job factors and work outcomes

Purpose - The literature on business expatriates has been increasing rapidly, but research on expatriate academics has remained scant, despite the apparent increasing globalisation of the academic world. Therefore, more research is needed on the latter group of expatriates. This paper aims to fill some of the gaps. Design/methodology/approach - A questionnaire was directed electronically towards expatriate academics occupying regular positions in science faculty departments in universities in northern Europe. Findings - Results showed that job clarity was the dominating job factor with strong relationships with all of the five investigated work outcome variables, work adjustment, work performance, work effectiveness, job satisfaction, and time to proficiency. Job conflict and job freedom had an association with some of the work outcome variables but not with all of them. Neither workload nor job novelty had a relationship with any of the work outcome variables of the expatriate academics. Originality/value - The paper shows that the findings are only partly consistent with previous research results concerning business expatriates, suggesting that the work situation for expatriate academics could have both similarities and discrepancies as compared to that of business expatriates.

Age and expatriate job performance in Greater China

Purpose – As opposed to the predominant belief in the West, in Chinese dominated societies there may be a positive relationship between age and perceived possession of high quality personal resources. That attitude towards old age may carry over to expatriates in Chinese societies. This may have a positive impact on expatriates’ job performance. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine the association between the age of business expatriates and their work performance in a Chinese cultural setting.Design/methodology/approach – Controlling for the potential bias of a number of background variables, data collected from business expatriates in Greater China were analyzed by means of hierarchical regression.Findings – Results indicate that contextual/managerial performance, including general managerial functions applied to the subsidiary in Greater China, had a positive association with the age of the expatriates. This finding provides partial affirmative support to the presumption that the age of bu...