A Study Of Intercultural Sensitivity And Adaptation Of Expatriates From Chinese-invested Enterprises In Jamaica

Due to differences in cultural forms and personal sensitivities,expatriates often do not adapt to new areas,which brings forward the problem of intercultural adaptation.These problems lead to psychological pressure,decreased work performance,and the possibility of early termination of expatriate assignments.These are of course serious consequences for the expatriates,but the effects go beyond the individual.The lack of intercultural adaptation leads to economic losses for companies that hire expatriates and to broader economic loss.Collectively,these problems make this study urgent on the role of intercultural sensitivity and the adaptation patterns of expatriates to new cultures.Drawing on Chen & Starosta’s intercultural sensitivity model and Collen Ward’s intercultural adaptation model,106 expatriates from Chinese-invested enterprises to Jamaica are selected as research subjects.The Intercultural Sensitivity Scale(ISS)and Social Cultural Adaptation Scale(SCAS)are adopted for the questionnaire survey for data collection.SPSS24.0 software is adopted to conduct the analysis of variance,correlation analysis and regression analysis on the questionnaire data.Then,according to five demographic factors included in the questionnaire(gender,age,whether accompanied by family members,English proficiency and duration in Jamaica),six respondents are selected for semi-structured interviews according to their responses to the questionnaire results.The purpose is to study both intercultural sensitivity and adaptation of Chinese-invested expatriates to Jamaica,along with the relationship between these two factors.The findings are as follows: first,expatriates in Chinese-invested enterprises in Jamaica perform well in intercultural sensitivity and adaptation.Second,some demographic factors(gender,age,whether accompanied by family members,English proficiency and duration in Jamaica)do affect intercultural sensitivity and adaptation.Specifically,age,English proficiency and whether accompanied by family members have an impact on the intercultural sensitivity and adaptation of participants,while gender differences and duration in Jamaica do not have an effect.Third,four of the five factors of intercultural sensitivity are positively correlated with intercultural adaptation.Fourth,regression analysis shows that intercultural adaptation can be effectively predicted from intercultural sensitivity.After laying out these findings,this thesis summarizes main research findings and puts forward suggestions for Chinese-invested enterprises and institutions of higher education to better cultivate intercultural talents.It also puts forth recommendations that allow expatriates to improve their intercultural competence.