Empirical Study Of Chinese Expatriates' Cross-cultural Preparation

Thehistoricallyunprecedentedpaceof internationalizingorganizations in thepast twentyyears has made the need for cross-cultural awareness, sensitivity and adaptability salientfor expatriates to function in daily operations of international business in host nationsubsidiaries. Cross-cultural training is one of the key aspects identified in literature ascontributingtowardsachievinginterculturaleffectivenessofexpatriates.Though more and more Chinese expatriates are involved in overseas assignments, thehardshiphasn'treceived dueattentionfromChineseenterprises.Cross-culturaltrainingisseldom providedtoprepareexpatriateswithknowledge,skillsandexpertisenecessaryforworking and living in a different culture. This thesis applies major western theories ofculture, cross-cultural adaptation and training to make a pilot study on the training ofChinese expatriates, who are overlooked in present literature. The research aims at theircross-culturaltrainingstatus,preferencesintrainingcontentsanddeliverymethods.The research in this thesis begins with a self-designed questionnaire distributed toChineseexpatriatesoftwenty-fourcompanies,whoareassignedtonineteencountries. Toget an overviewof training to Chinese expatriates, certain criteria are set in the samplingprocess so that the quantityofsamples from the same companyto the same host countryis limited to three. Quantitative data collected are analyzed by frequency, means andANOVAwithstatisticsoftwareSPSS. Follow-upsurveyandwrittenintervieware carriedoutinsupplementto collectqualitativeinformation.Frequency analysis on training status data reveals that, in comparison with the data incorresponding western studies, cross-cultural training programs are rarely provided inChina, though they are highlyexpectedamong sample expatriates. The training providedisusuallyof lowrigor,whichcouldn'tsatisfythemountingdemandfromexpatriates.Thedescending effectiveness of pre-departure language training is one illustration ofshortcominginpresenttraining.Means are calculated on the importance of twenty-two training contents rated byrespondents,from which an importanceranking is made. The ranking reveals a tendencyamong expatriates that more emphasis is put on outer-layer culture, which reflects theirlow awareness of differences in inner-layer culture and influences of them.The rankingof first twelve contents is compared to the ranking produced in Osman-Gani's study ofAustralian expatriates in Asia Pacific. The differences in ranking illustrate how Chinesecultural values affect the attention paid to certain training areas by sample expatriates.Large disparity inimportance rating to some training areas among sample expatriates isalso analyzedbyANOVA.Based on the statistic analysis on delivery method preferences and written interviewswithsomerespondents, this thesis proposes atrainingmodel ofcross-cultural preparationforChineseexpatriates.