A Study On Cross-cultural Adaptation Of Expatriates From Chinese-funded Enterprises In Africa

With the implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative,China-Africa economic and trade cooperation has been deepening.As the “engine” of economic growth in East African economy,Ethiopia's economy has continued to grow in recent years,attracting a large amount of Chinese investment.Along with the rapid development of China-Ethiopia economic and trade relations,a large number of Chinese enterprises have entered Ethiopia,and a large number of Chinese expatriates have also been dispatched to Ethiopia.However,due to the great cultural differences between China and Ethiopia,expatriates often encounter cross-cultural adaptation problems in Ethiopia.Cultural differences not only bring expatriates psychological pressure,but also lead to misunderstandings,conflicts,and even the failure of assignments.The failure of assignments not only brings to the company tangible economic losses,but also invisible losses such as damaged reputation and employee turnover.Therefore,the issue of cross-cultural adaptation of expatriates should receive sufficient attention.As one of the excellent state-owned enterprises in China's infrastructure industry,CFHEC has been committed to overseas development,and has several overseas subsidiaries including the Ethiopian National General Project Department.This thesis,taking the expatriates of CFHEC in Ethiopia as the research object,is conducted by adopting a combination of quantitative research and qualitative research.Based on Collen Ward's bidimensional model and Black's tridimensional model of cross-cultural adaptation,questionnaire and in-depth interviews are designed in an effort to find out the status quo and existing problems of the cross-cultural adaptation of expatriates from CFHEC in Ethiopia,and to propose corresponding countermeasures and suggestions.Firstly,this thesis makes a review of the existing literature on cross-cultural adaptation,which mainly includes three aspects: cross-cultural adaptation stages,cross-cultural adaptation models,and cross-cultural adaptation influencing factors.Secondly,in order to explore the cross-cultural adaptation situation of expatriates in Ethiopia,this thesis,on the basis of Collen Ward's Sociocultural Adaptation Scale,Black's Cross-cultural Adaptation Scale,and Zung's Self-rating Depression Scale,designs a questionnaire to collect quantitative data,which are then analyzed by SPSS20.0 software(including descriptive analysis,frequency,significance analysis,mean,etc.).The results of the questionnaire analysis show that the status quo of cross-cultural adaptation of expatriates from CFEHC in Ethiopia has the following characteristics:(1)Individual factors affect the adaptation of expatriates to varying degrees;(2)There is a positive correlation between the psychological adaptation of expatriates and their interpersonal adaptation and work adaptation,and the positive correlation between psychological and work adaptation is stronger;(3)The general situation of the psychological adjustment of expatriates is good,but there are still a small number of people with mild depression;(4)The sociocultural adaptation of expatriates is generally optimistic.But specifically,compared with general and work adaptation,expatriates have a relatively poorer performance in interpersonal adaptation;(5)Social and environmental factors have an important impact on the cross-cultural adaptation of expatriates.In order to obtain the specific situation of the sociocultural adaptation of expatriates in Ethiopia,this thesis conducts in-depth interviews with four expatriates from CFHEC.Based on the results of the questionnaire and interviews,the author finds that in the process of cross-cultural adaptation in Ethiopia,expatriates from CFHEC are mainly faced with seven problems,namely,psychological adaptation problem,lack of cross-cultural training,differences on religious culture,management difficulties,differences in labor law,bureaucracy,and the label of neocolonialism.Thirdly,in response to the above cross-cultural adaptation problems of expatriates,this thesis proposes seven suggestions in total,that is,strengthening psychological counseling of expatriates,strengthening cross-cultural training,respecting local religious culture,cultural integration,and implementing localization business strategies.This thesis not only supplements the existing literature,but also fills the gap ofdomestic empirical research on cross-cultural adaptation to some extent.Moreover,it provides helpful reference for the issue of cross-cultural adaptation of expatriates from other Chinese-funded companies in Ethiopia.