Lessons we learn from expatriates' cultural adjustment

Expatriates are individuals, they act as individuals
and they gain individual experience. In other words,
they experience their cultural adjustment process to
the foreign culture on a very personal level and in
different ways due to their individual
characteristics. As a result, the preparation for
international assignments should be customized to
meet a wide range of needs. There cannot be a general
format of the so called Cross-Cultural Training (CCT)
that fits all requirements demanded by its individual
participants. Some expatriates may be fond of
applying stereotypes in their daily encounters with
host country nationals (HCNs), others may avoid
applying them. Some see CCT as absolutely necessary,
others value making their own, undistorted
experiences. In any case, expatriate preparation is
an important prerequisite to ensure the success of
international assignments. Thus, the question is how
CCTs have to be customized to meet expatriates
individual needs. To get a better idea Austrian
expatriates working in the Ukraine were interviewed.

Autorentext

Die Autorin, 1986 in Oberösterreich geboren, absolvierte ihr
Studium der Internationalen Betriebswirtschaftslehre an der
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien. Sie spezialisierte sich auf
International Human Resource Management, den Wirtschaftsraum
Osteuropa und Innovationsmanagement. Derzeit arbeitet sie an
ihrer Disseration.

Klappentext

Expatriates are individuals, they act as individuals
and they gain individual experience. In other words,
they experience their cultural adjustment process to
the foreign culture on a very personal level and in
different ways due to their individual
characteristics. As a result, the preparation for
international assignments should be customized to
meet a wide range of needs. There cannot be a general
format of the so called Cross-Cultural Training (CCT)
that fits all requirements demanded by its individual
participants. Some expatriates may be fond of
applying stereotypes in their daily encounters with
host country nationals (HCNs), others may avoid
applying them. Some see CCT as absolutely necessary,
others value making their own, undistorted
experiences. In any case, expatriate preparation is
an important prerequisite to ensure the success of
international assignments. Thus, the question is how
CCTs have to be customized to meet expatriates'
individual needs. To get a better idea Austrian
expatriates working in the Ukraine were interviewed.