Individual differences and cross-cultural adaptation: A study of cultural intelligence, psychological adjustment, and sociocultural adjustment

Today's business environment is becoming increasingly international. Employees' adaptation to an international work environment and to novel cultural environments has become a critically important business issue as increasingly more employees work internationally (Andreason, 2003a, 2003b). The fact that some expatriates adjust more quickly and easily than others is self-evident, but the reasons for differences in cross-cultural adaptation are not. Templer, Tay, and Chandrasekar (2006) developed a model of individual differences and cross-cultural adaptation by employing cultural intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003) and sociocultural adjustment (Black, 1988; Black & Stephens, 1989), and this model is extended in the current study. Cultural intelligence is a comprehensive model of individual differences during crosscultural adaptation (Earley & Ang) consisting of four facets (metacognitive, cognitive, motivational, and behavioral). Sociocultural adjustment (Black; Black & Stephens) consists of the three factors of being able to function well on the job (work adjustment), to adapt to everyday living conditions (general living condition adjustment), and to interact well with people in the country where assigned (host-country national adjustment). This dissertation expands the previous study by investigating the cognitive facet of cultural intelligence in addition to the motivational facet. It also adds to the model of cross-cultural adaptation by also including psychological adjustment with sociocultural adjustment.;The investigator used a cross-sectional survey design with the independent variables of cognitive cultural intelligence and motivational cultural intelligence and the dependent variables of psychological adjustment and sociocultural adjustment. The study utilized previously published and validated scales to develop a survey instrument distributed through the postal system and the internet and sampled a population consisting of American business expatriates working in China. The investigator used multiple regression and hierarchical regression analyses to analyze the survey data. This study found that individuals with higher levels of cognitive cultural intelligence have higher levels of sociocultural adjustment and that individuals with higher levels of motivational cultural intelligence have higher levels of psychological and sociocultural adjustment.