Interrelationships between cross-cultural training, learning style, and training effectiveness for multinational expatriates

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the interrelationships among expatriate characteristics, complexity of expatriate task assignment, needs for expatriate training, and expatriate training effectiveness. The moderating effects of learning style and cross-cultural differences on expatriate training were also evaluated.; Survey methodology was adopted to obtain data from the opinions of expatriates in foreign companies within Taiwan and China. Results of this study revealed that expatriate's perceived needs for training were negatively influenced by competence and adaptability to work in the overseas assignment. Expatriate's perceived needs for expatriation training were also influenced by the complexity of expatriate's task assignment and capability of host country managers. The results also found that expatriate learning preference and the degree of perceived cross-cultural differences between parent country and host country could moderate the effectiveness of expatriate training. These results implied that expatriates with higher orientation toward experiential or conceptual learning style, perceived higher cross-cultural differences, and higher demand for expatriation training tended to achieve higher training effectiveness.