ABSTRACT
It may seem somewhat ironic to point it out in a book like this, but adjustment in itself is of limited interest. A positive affective state will certainly be welcome by the individual. But most of our interest in adjustment stems from the fact that we believe it to be instrumental in achieving a range of outcomes that are valued by a variety of stakeholders. Organizations, for example, will be interested in retention and valued work-related behaviours. Individuals may be interested in their satisfaction on and off the job and in their career progression. Unfortunately, the literature on the conceptual and empirical links between adjustment and valued outcomes affected by adjustment is seriously underdeveloped. This may in part be due to the fact that the theoretical framework driving much of the expatriate adjustment research over the past 25 years (i.e. Black, Mendenhall, & Oddou, 1991) treated adjustment as its terminal dependent variable.
