ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the expatriate experience and aims to identify those features that are unique to this group of sojourners. A robust finding in the culture-contact literature is that the adjustment and coping difficulties of sojourners increase with the distance between their culture of origin and that of the host society. The major functions of expatriate personnel are to manage, coordinate, motivate and generally direct the activities of local subordinates and colleagues. Collectivist cultures are also characterised by high power distance, which would make them more willing to accept their leader’s beliefs and vision. A related issue is the increasing reliance in Western organisations on self-managing work teams. The rise in self-managing groups is consistent with another modern management trend, the move towards organisational structures with flattened hierarchies. Joint ventures between overseas companies and domestic enterprises in the People’s Republic of China provide a window to some of the difficulties of conducting international business.
