Cross-cultural adjustment process of expatriate families in a multinational organization: A family system theory perspective

The purpose of this survey based study was to examine whether the characteristics (i.e., flexibility and cohesion) of expatriate families in a multinational corporation as measured by the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale can predict cross-cultural adjustment of the expatriate (individual level of analysis) and his/her family (collective level of analysis) as measured by the CernySmith Assessment. It also proposed to investigate the expatriate family type of the circumplex model as measured by the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale to further understand if the combination of family cohesion and family flexibility impacts the perceptions of the participants' cross-cultural adjustment at the time of the study. The results of the individual level of analysis show that the overall regression model with family flexibility predicts three cross-cultural adjustment domains, namely: cultural, psychological and relational. The results from the collective level analysis denote that family flexibility predicts the relational domain. The findings of this research provide insights to organizations and their HRD professionals as well as to the expatriates and their families on how family flexibility impacts cross-cultural adjustment; insights that could lead to the development of appropriate support and development mechanism. The findings also highlight the need for further studies of expatiate families during the cross-cultural adjustment process and for the development of reliable and valid instruments that capture the complexities of these constructs.