The Impact of National Culture on Expatriates Performance, Chinese Expatriates in African Countries

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Research Significance

In 2018, Chinese government announced a $60 billion investment plan to African countries in form of assistance, investment and credit loan, contributing to infrastructure, emergency food aids, vocational training, scholarship and trade opportunities (The Telegraph, 2018). Such large-scale investment certainly will boost China-based MNCs to expand their businesses in African countries. Therefore, ensuring high expatriate performance is critical. The result of this research will help these MNCs to improve expatriate and contribute to their expansions in African countries.

1.2 Research Aim and Questions

This research aims to investigate the impacts of national culture on Chinese expatriates’ performance in African countries and then make recommendations for China-based MNCs in term of cross-cultural trainings and compensation. The result can relieve negative cultural impact on their expatriates. Thus, the research targets at cultural impacts, expatriate performance, and expatriate management for China-based MNCs in African countries.

This research has the following targets: 1) to review existing and reliable literature related with cultural impact on expatriates, cross-culture training and compensation to build research hypothesis, 2) to collect primary data from Chinese expatriates to identify culture influences via questionnaires; and 3) to discuss findings from questionnaires and literature review to generate conclusions and provide recommendations.

There are three research questions:

1. What are cultural impacts on Chinese expatriate performance by focusing on their work and life in African countries?

2. What are possible solutions to relieve the cultural impacts focusing cross cultural training and compensation?

3. What are recommendations for China-based MNCs to improve their expatriate performance?

2.0 Literature Review

2.1 Culture

Culture refers to collective programming of mind which make the member of people in a society or group distinguishable (Hofstede, 2011). This means that people from different society or group has different collective programming of mind. Hofstede et al. (2010) illustrate six dimensions used to measure national culture, including power distance, individualism, masculinity, long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance and indulgence.

2.2 The Cultural Impacts on Expatriate Performance

Cross-cultural issues have strong impacts on expatriate performance (Takeuchi, Tesluk and Yun 2002). With lower cultural capability, expatriates tend to experience cultural stock, be unable to effectively communicate with foreign co-workers and be homesick, resulting in low performance or even early withdraw. Cross-cultural issues make expatriates unable to adapt to a culture (Selmer, Lauring and Feng, 2009). Meanwhile, they also tend to dislike work style, communication style, leadership style and work atmosphere in host country, which can potentially rise conflicts (Naeem, Nadeem and Khan, 2015). Culture difference also triggers expatriates’ negative emotions such as anxiety, antipathy and even anger, thus compromising their performance and commitment to their tasks. Due the features of culture, culture distance can cause many challenges to international management. Cultural distance results in divergences in managerial style, communication, and work style (Grundey, 2008). These divergences tend to result in conflicts in workplace, weaker employee relations, and lower employee satisfaction and commitment.

2.3 Cross-cultural training

Cross-cultural training is proved effective to help expatriates to adapt to local culture (Ko and Yang, 2011). It improves expatriates’ cultural capabilities including the ability to identify, understand, appreciate a foreign culture and eventually act in way of the culture (Osman-Gani and Rockstuhl, 2009). This can be relatively long-term development process. For different international tasks, the approaches of such training are varied.

2.4 Expatriate Compensation

Compensation package also affects expatriate performance (Morris and Robie, 2001). It can be used to counteract the negative cultural impacts on expatriate performance. There are three major approaches for expatriate compensation: home-based, host country-based and global approach (Shih, Chiang and Kim, 2005). Home-based approach is to pay expatriate based the payment of their counterparts in home country and add extra rewards. This approach is suitable for expatriate from developed countries to developing countries where have lower living costs (Shih, Chiang and Kim, 2005). Host country based approach is to pay expatriate based on the salary of their counterparts in host country. It is attractive for expatriates from developing countries to developed countries. Third approach is much more equal and fairer that pay expatriate based on task difficulties, which however is more complicated.

3.0 Research Methodology

3.1 Research Philosophy

With positivism philosophy, this research targets to generate reliable and convincing findings. The philosophy focuses on scientific approach and strict research framework in order to generate law-like findings and universals. By a rigor research structure, the philosophy can prevent the impacts of researcher on their research and subjectivities (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Jackson, 2008). Even though interpretivists highlight that positivism philosophy is not suitable for social research because it cannot quantify all behaviours and contextual factors into numerical forms for study, positivism philosophy is widely used by social researches. For example, Hofstede (1984) adopted positivism, used surveys to collect quantitative data and proved the national cultural dimensions model. Therefore, it is suitable for this research to adopt positivism.

3.2 Research Approach

This study takes advantage of deductive approach to use existing knowledge explaining the research phenomenon. Deductive approach aligns with positivism philosophy and enables researchers to generate reliable findings with valid data and data analysis (Kervin, 1999). Given that this study has no intention to prove any new theory, deductive approach is appreciated. In relative to inductive approach, deductive approach is straightforwardly targeting research questions.

Based on deductive approach, this study has the following processes: 1) to collect existing reliable knowledge from journal articles from a wide perspective to a narrow one in order to build research framework and hypothesis; 2) to design research methodologies; 3) to collect primary data; and 4) to discuss findings of primary data with literature to generate conclusions.

3.3 Research Strategy

This research adopts survey which algins with positivism and deductive approach. By surveys, this research can gather a mass of quantitative data from a relatively large sample size within short-term. Robson (2002) highlights survey is effective in collecting quantitative data from a large research population. As mentioned, Hofstede’s cultural dimension research also adopted survey as research strategy. Aligning with positivism, survey has a strict structure encompassing data collection approaches and sampling approaches, contributing to a systematic study. Thus, survey is suitable for this study.

3.4 Data Collection

Questionnaire is used by this research to implement the survey. It allows researchers to collect quantitative data in an effective way. Questionnaire is easily to be spread and requires no skill during data collection period (Neuman, 2005).

This research uses the internet to spread questionnaires by building a web site in www. WJX.cn. The web site can automatically restore data. The link of the web site can be shared to social media, chat groups and forms to access Chinese expatriates in Africa. The questionnaire has a close-end structure and Likert scale with five points to quantify participants’ data in a more accurate way. The questionnaire is designed on the basis of Hofstede’s national culture dimensions to examine each cultural dimension’s impact on expatriates and their performance. There are two sections in the questionnaire. The first section is designed to collect participants’ demographics. The data for cultural impacts on expatriate performance is collected by questions in the second section. To ensure the validity of the questionnaires, this research plans to run a pilot test.

Research population is a critical factor determining validity of findings. This research targets at Chinese expatriates who have been working in African countries over 6 months. These expatriates must be skilled employees, trainers, specialists, experts or managers, who play knowledge role or managerial role. To reach expatriates, the researcher plans to use social connections and network to engage in large online chat groups of these expatriates.

Sample size of this survey is 250 participants, which is enough to generate reliable findings.

3.5 Sampling Technique

This research adopts self-selection sampling technique. This technique allows researchers to build a large sample size within short-term. Participants enter this research based on their own willingness, so they are unlikely to provide irresponsible answers and not motivated by financial purpose. It is impossible for this research to adopt probability sampling technique because it cannot build a sample frame containing all Chinese expatriates in African countries. Thus, the research has to take a non-probability sampling technique.

3.6 Research Ethics

This research complies with the University’s ethical code. It is confidential and involves no commercial secrets and collects no contact of respondents. The data is only available for the University and this research involves no debriefing. The data is protected by the researcher’ work laptop by password. Furthermore, this research clarifies its purposes and aims to potential respondents by consent letter in front of the questionnaires and interview. The consent letter also informs their right of quitting this research or withdrawing their data for any reason before 1^st August. It also reveals what kind of questions will be asked during this research to potential respondents. Therefore, this research is 100% honest to respondent and involve no deception.

4.0 Time Schedule

Task/Deadline	15^thMay	20^thMay	25^thMay	25^thJul	1st Aug	10^thAug	15^thAug	18^thAug	25^thAug
Literature review
Research methodology
Designing questionnaires and interview
Collecting primary data
Data analysis
Discussion findings of primary data with literature review
Conclusion and introduction
Draft
Final dissertation

Table 1

Reference

Easterby-Smith, M, Thorpe, R. and Jackson, P. (2008) “Management Research” 3rd ed,SAGE Publications Ltd., London

Hofstede, G. (1984). Culture's Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values (2nd ed.). Beverly Hills CA: SAGE Publications.

Hofstede, G. (2010). The GLOBE debate: Back to relevance. Journal of International Business Studies, 41, 1339-46.

Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalsing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1).

Grundey, D. (2008) International and Cross-Cultural Business Environment: Modelling The Training Process of Expatriates. Transformation Business Economy, 7, 114–129.

Kervin, J.B. (1999) Methods for Business Research (2nd edn). New York: HarperCollins.

Ko, H. and Yang, M. (2011) The Effects of Cross-Cultural Training on Expatriate Assignments, Intercultural Communication Studies, 1, 158 – 174

Morris, M. A. and Robie, C. (2001) Meta-analysis of the effects of cross-cultural training on expatriate performance and adjustment, International Journal of Training and Development 5(2):112 - 125

Naeem, A., Nadeem, B. A., and Khan, U. I. (2015) Culture Shock and Its effects on Expatriates, Global Advanced Research Journal of Management and Business Studies. 4(6) pp. 248-258

Neuman, W.L. (2005) Social Research Methods (6th edn). London: Pearson.

Osman-Gani, A. and Rockstuhl, T. (2009). Cross-cultural training, expatriate self-efficacy, and adjustments to overseas assignments: An empirical investigation of managers in Asia. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 33, 277-290

Robson, C. (2002) Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers, (2nd edn). Oxford: Blackwell

Selmer J, Lauring J, and Feng Y (2009). Age and expatriate job performance in Greater China. Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, 16 (2), 131-148

Shih, H., Chiang, Y. and Kim, I. (2005). Expatriate performance management from MNEs of different national origins, International Journal of Manpower 26(2):157-176

Takeuchi R, Tesluk P, and Yun S (2002). An examination of crossover and spillover effects of spousal and expatriate cross-cultural adjustment on expatriate outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 655-666.

Proposal-The Impact of National Culture on Expatriates Performance, Chinese Expatriates in African Countries