Adjustment Difficulties

In order to understand how previous international experience and cultural distance may have acted as moderators on the effects of CCT, it is useful to analyse them related to the adjustment difficulties faced by the assignees. Through the investigation of the main challenges encountered in their adaptation process in fact, the respondents provide an interesting perspective on how cultural distance and prior international experience might have shaped their perspective and/or influenced cross-cultural adjustment.

The first question that was addressed to the expatriates in terms of adjustment concerned each own challenges to adapt to the host country. The respondents were asked to evaluate their adjustment difficulty on a scale from 1 to 5, with 5 as a maximum, and to explain why they rated it so. By posing this question, it has been possible for the researcher to gain both an understanding of the challenges faced by each expatriate in the adjustment process and further specificities about the expatriates’ individual features. The answers in fact, are rich of details on the respondents’ perspectives and impressions, which also allude to the expatriates personal traits and character.

Those expatriated to the U.S.A. who had previous international experiences (2, 3) claimed a low difficulty in adjustment, and pointed out the habit of being in contact with foreigners and of living abroad as the main reason of the few difficulties in adapting. It would be easy to think that the relatively little cultural distance between U.S.A. and Italy could be

another reason. However, what emerges from the interviewees’ answers is that individual personality and previous experiences are the factors that affect the most the adjustment process. Unlike these respondents in fact, the expatriate with no international experience (1) gave a completely different answer, arguing that a big effort has been necessary to adjust.

“It was very hard, I also suffered of homesickness, I missed home. The first 3 months were like living in a bubble, completely isolated. The company treated me well, it gave everything in terms of facilities and comfort. Yet, I didn’t have any friends, my colleagues were old or not interested. I was alone in and out side the place of work, but I resisted.

From 1 to 5 I would say that the difficulty to adjust was quite high 3,5/4, I had to work hard to integrate.”

Similarly, the respondent expatriated to Venezuela (5) who had no prior experience overseas found it hard to adjust; this was caused also by a higher cultural distance that according to the respondent had its impact.

“I would assess the difficulty to adjust 4, because of the cultural and country differences.

It was hard to fit in such a different setting.”

Hence, it is possible to suppose a dissimilarity in adjustment patterns between the respondents who had various international experiences and those interviewees who had no previous experience abroad.

“I would evaluate adjustment difficulty in South Africa 2, it was easy to integrate with white population but it is different to integrate with the black population. Still the apartheid left some consequences.”

“Adjustment difficulty in China was 3 because the culture, the behaviour, the habits are more different in China than in South Africa, but if you want to know in Egypt I would say 5, Egypt was hard, you do not adapt to Muslim culture, it is not easy to interact with

them. But I am open minded and friendly and when you are abroad you have to accept everything.

The tendency for who already had international experiences was to compare the different experiences and assess each one relatively to the others. However, we can only suppose that this downsized the effects of cultural distance and adjustment problems.

Furthermore, through the findings here analysed the researcher was allowed to get a sense of the respondents’ individual attributes in terms of adjustability, individual attitude and personality traits. This was relevant since from the answers provided according to the researcher’s interpretation and impressions developed during the interviews, the respondents’ individual attributes consisted in the most influencing element in defining the expatriates’ adjustment assessment and process, even though it is unclear which elements it effectively affected and how.

Finally, when questioning the expatriates about their adjustment issues, an element not specifically investigated in the interviews emerged in the discussion, and involved all the respondents regardless the individual dissimilarities and the differences in experiences. It concerned the expatriate community and in general, the meetings for international people, which were mentioned as factors helping the respondents to overcome homesickness and isolation, thus facilitating adjustment.

“There was InterNations and many others expatriate communities. It was very helpful, you scratch my back and I scratch yours as they say.”

“I started to be homesick when the third month started, and I overcame it with the meetup groups (meetings for international people). I told myself I had to get a move on and insert myself in the society otherwise I wasn’t going to resist for a year alone. Every week I used to go there and I started to interact with people, they kind of introduced me in the society, I started to make friends.”

This provided an interesting information about another way through which adjustment can be facilitated, in addition to the enabling effects that CCT has on cross-cultural adjustment.

In conclusion, although both the factors considered had a certain relevance for the respondents’ answers, the element that up-came more often and that was partially linked to several responses concerned whether or not the expatriate had previous international experiences. This suggests that the impact of this specific moderator may be wider than expected since it potentially conditions not only the training outcome and the adjustment, but also the personal reasons for expatriation as well as the individual attributes developed, possibly shaping expatriates’ international experience and his/her perceptions of CCT programmes.