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Expatriate
The effects of social support and adjustment and
transformational leadership on performance
expatriate adjustment and
377
performance
Received 14 June 2012
The moderating roles of socialization Revised 12 December 2012
experience and cultural intelligence 19 March 2013
25 March 2013
Accepted 4 April 2013
Li-Yueh Lee
Department of International Trade, Kun Shan University, Tainan City, Taiwan
Sou Veasna
Institute of International Management, National Cheng Kung University,
Tainan City, Taiwan, and
Wann-Yih Wu
Department of Business Administration, National Cheng Kung University,
Tainan City, Taiwan

Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to examine the significance of transformational leadership and social
support for expatriate adjustment and performance. This study also extends relevant literature on
expatriate management to examine the relationships among transformational leadership, social
support, expatriate adjustment, and expatriate performance through a mechanism taking into account
the moderating roles of cultural intelligence and socialization experience.
Design/methodology/approach – The sample was collected from 156 expatriate managers of
Taiwanese multinational company (MNC) subsidiaries operating in China. Structural equation modeling
(SEM) in AMOS 21 and hierarchical regression in SPSS 19 were used to test eight research hypotheses.
Findings – The SEM results indicated that transformational leadership and social support make
significant contributions to expatriate adjustment and performance. The moderating roles of
socialization experience and cultural intelligence were also confirmed in this study.
Originality/value – This study extends a theoretical model of transformational leadership and
social support to examine expatriate adjustment and performance based on social learning and social
exchange theories. Using a specific Chinese context, the current paper highlights the value and
necessity of cross-cultural adjustment for successful expatriation.
Keywords Social support, Perceived organizational support, Supervisor support, Cultural intelligence,
Cultural adjustment, Socialization experience, Transformational leadership, Expatriates,
Expatriate performance, China
Paper type Research paper

Career Development International

The authors gratefully acknowledge the enlightening comments and suggestions from three Vol. 18 No. 4, 2013
anonymous reviewers, which noticeably improved the quality of this paper. The authors also pp. 377-415
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
thank the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan, which partially supports the funds for this 1362-0436
research project. DOI 10.1108/CDI-06-2012-0062
CDI Introduction
18,4 International assignments can be greatly challenging in the current global business
environment and have become an increasingly important subject for researchers and
international human resource practitioners alike. Expatriates are necessary to
guarantee that foreign subsidiary operations remain competitive (Lee and Sukoco,
2008). Multinational companies are increasingly sending expatriates abroad on
378 international assignments (Farh et al., 2010). Expatriates must be open to multicultural
diversity in order to interact and build connections with colleagues who are from
different cultural backgrounds (Chen et al., 2011). Expatriates should have a high
degree of cultural awareness and should try to become familiar with the behavior and
norms of the population of the host country (Qin and Baruch, 2010), which includes
cultural intelligence and cultural adjustment, and which will lead to effective
interaction with people from different cultural backgrounds (Ang and Van Dyne, 2008).
Such interaction seems to be difficult for both expatriates and companies because
cultural barriers often cause misunderstandings that detract from efficient and
effective interactions (Takeuchi et al., 2005). These issues indicate that cultural
intelligence explains the ability of individuals to understand and make behavioral
adjustments that are necessary in order to perform effectively in culturally diverse
situations (Earley and Ang, 2003; Rose and Kumar Subramaniam, 2008). Consequently,
if expatriates are unable to adjust to the new environment of a host country (Rose and
Kumar Subramaniam, 2008), they are likely to become dissatisfied with their jobs
(Selmer, 2005) and to perform poorly on international assignments (Black and
Gregersen, 1999; Lee and Sukoco, 2008). Close to 20 percent of expatriate assignments
are considered failures (Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005). Expatriate failures may
damage firm reputation, disrupt local relationships (Bhaskar-Shrinivas et al., 2005), are
costly (Pires et al., 2006), and often exact a cost on the failing expatriates’ own
psychological well-being (Solomon, 1996). Therefore, reducing the failure rate of
expatriation and making it more successful is of the highest importance for global
business operations (Qin and Baruch, 2010).
Expatriates may encounter cultural adaptation problems that may have a negative
impact on their performance (Harrison and Shaffer, 2005), which in turn may result in
unsuccessful careers across international boundaries (Baruch and Bozionelos, 2010),
and it has been found that this may also increase their turnover intentions (Black and
Gregersen, 1999). In particular, the issue of how expatriates adjust to cross-cultural
environments in order to perform their jobs has increasingly become of interest
(e.g. Ang and Van Dyne, 2008; Kim et al., 2008; Kraimer et al., 2001; Shaffer and Miller,
2008). Consequently, identifying the factors influencing expatriate adjustment as well
as their impact on international assignment effectiveness (i.e. job satisfaction and
performance) is important for both researchers and firms (Kim et al., 2008; Shaffer and
Miller, 2008). In particular, previous studies have argued that social support
(i.e. supervisor support and perceived organizational support) may play a prominent
role in enhancing expatriate adjustment and performance (Kraimer et al., 2001; Lee,
2010). However, the findings related to the effects of social support in the expatriate
context are still inconsistent. For example, Kraimer et al. (2001) reported that perceived
organizational support has a positive effect on expatriate performance. Erdogan and
Enders (2007) however, found supervisor support to have no significant effect on
expatriate performance. These issues therefore deserve further investigation.
 In non-expatriate contexts, transformational leadership has been proposed as a Expatriate
factor by which to examine employee creativity, job satisfaction, and job performance adjustment and
at both an individual and a group level of analysis (e.g. Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009;
Liao and Chuang, 2007; Sun et al., 2012; Zhang and Bartol, 2010). In the Chinese performance
expatriate context, it has been argued that leadership styles (i.e. transformational
leadership) and cross-cultural differences (individualism versus collectivism, and
power distance) (Kirkman et al., 2009) may positively relate to expatriate adjustment 379
and performance. From another viewpoint, expatriates are often at senior levels in their
firms, and their leadership ability is one of the factors that contributes to the success of
expatriate managers. Leadership is an art by which to inspire confidence in individuals
who make meaningful contributions to organizational goals and by which to support
the ability of people to do their work effectively and to achieve high levels of
performance (Hyväri, 2006). However, within this work, how the antecedents of social
support (i.e. perceived organizational support and supervisor support) and
transformational leadership affect expatriate adjustment and performance have
received very little attention. Indeed, there has been a lack of empirical evidence in the
expatriate literature that has simultaneously examined the structural relationships
among social support, transformational leadership, and expatriate adjustment as
antecedents of expatriate performance in cross-cultural environments. Furthermore, it
has become an international assignment requirement for expatriate managers with
higher levels of CQ to work within a range of different cultural backgrounds (Chen
et al., 2011; Kim et al., 2008; Shaffer and Miller, 2008). It is has been suggested that the
socialization experience of individual expatriates should result in more control of a new
cultural environment and may be partially related to cultural adjustment and
performance during expatriation (Black and Ashford, 1995). Thus, this study proposes
socialization experience and cultural intelligence as moderating variables in order to
examine the impact of transformational leadership and social support on expatriate
adjustment and performance, respectively.
To address the above-referenced research gaps, the present study draws upon
multiple perspectives of a cross-cultural intelligence framework (Earley and Ang,
2003), social exchange theory (Wayne et al., 1997), the available social support
literature (Iida et al., 2008), leadership theory (i.e. transformational leadership) (Bass,
1985), and relevant literature on expectancy motivation (Northouse, 2007) to focus on
two main research objectives: First, this study is an attempt to identify the
consequences of social support and transformational leadership on expatriate
adjustment and performance. Second, this study is also an attempt to investigate the
moderating roles of socialization experiences and cultural intelligence on the
relationships among transformational leadership, social support, expatriate
adjustment, and performance. This study brings contributions to the literature in
two important ways. First, this study is intended to identify the antecedents of
expatriate effectiveness. The antecedents of expatriate adjustment and performance
have created some debate in regard to paradigms of expatriate management (Kim et al.,
2008; Shaffer and Miller, 2008). Social support is viewed as one of the core antecedents
of expatriate adjustment and performance (Lee, 2010), but empirical validations are
still limited. Second, this study is also intended to contribute to the literature by
explaining how transformational leadership and social support relate to expatriate
adjustment and performance through a mechanism of moderation of cultural
CDI intelligence and socialization experiences. Based on the above discussions, the
18,4 following research framework is developed and is illustrated in Figure 1.

Theoretical background and hypotheses development

Social support
Social support is defined as the provision of beneficial help for at least two individuals
380 that is intended to buffer psychological distress and to enhance emotional well-being
(Kim et al., 2008). Research on social support has consistently shown that expatriates
with higher levels of social support can overcome the psychological distress associated
with those aspects of working, living, and interacting in the host country that are
particularly difficult to adjust to (Farh et al., 2010; Iida et al., 2008). Social support has
been determined to be an essential factor related to the context of assignment to a
foreign country (Stroppa and Spieß, 2011). Previous authors have classified the
sub-dimensions of social support into different categories, based on their study
purposes. For example, social support has been composed of two sub-dimensions
(i.e. perceived organizational support and supervisor support) (Kraimer and Wayne,
2004; Kraimer et al., 2001). Stroppa and Spieß (2011) classified social support into two
components (i.e. co-worker and supervisor support). Recently, social support has been
treated to examine individual behavior at work (e.g. Baranik et al., 2010; Kraimer et al.,
2001; Lee, 2010). Thus, these variables (i.e. POS and supervisor support) are also
adopted for this study.
The social support literature suggests that support from multiple sources
(i.e. organizations, supervisors, and colleagues) can promote an individual’s work
adjustment by reducing psychological distress in multi-cultural situations (Caligiuri
and Lazarova, 2002; Kraimer et al., 2001; Kupka and Cathro, 2007). The ability of
individuals to be more capable of adapting in the area of social support has been
positively related to their being better adjusted in cross-cultural environments (Wu and
Ang, 2011). If expatriates do not receive enough support from organizations and

Figure 1.
Proposed framework of
expatriate performance
supervisors in their workplaces, their adjustment can easily fail, which will result in Expatriate
reassignment (Andreason, 2003). In contrast, it is believed that expatriates who adjustment and
perceive high levels of social support may have an increased ability to be better
successful adjusted in a cross-cultural environment (e.g. Farh et al., 2010; Shaffer et al., performance
2006; Wang and Takeuchi, 2007). Therefore, the following hypothesis is developed:
H1. Social support is positively related to expatriate adjustment.
381
In particular, the literature on social support has indicated it to be an important buffer
against stress at work that can further be related to both employee attitudes as well as
their job performance (Andreason, 2003; Wu and Ang, 2011). From leader-member
exchange (LMX) perspectives, when expatriates receive support and care from
organizations and supervisors, they reciprocate by dedicating effort toward
accomplishing work tasks (Agarwal et al., 2012). It is critical that expatriates
recognize the support necessary to effectively navigate their career success during
cross-cultural transitions (Shen and Kram, 2011). The extension of literature on social
support has been found to be positively associated with expatriate adjustment and
organizational performance (e.g., Kraimer et al., 2001; Qin and Baruch, 2010). Similarly,
Lee (2010) proposed that social support (i.e. POS and supervisor support) may result in
higher levels of expatriate adjustment and career success (i.e. job satisfaction and
performance). In the expatriate literature, performance has been found to be essential
for both organizational success and expatriate effectiveness (Kim et al., 2008).
Performance refers to the degree to which an employee meets the known expectations
and requirements of his or her role as an individual employee (Pulakos et al., 2000). The
theory of job performance suggests that job performance consists of both task and
contextual dimensions (Borman and Motowidlo, 1997). Task performance is defined as
the expected behaviors that provide indirect support for an organization’s core
technical processes. Contextual performance helps shape the organizational, social, and
psychological conditions that support task activities in the host country workplace.
Therefore, this position suggests the following hypothesis:
H2. Social support is positively related to expatriate performance.

Transformational leadership
Leadership is defined as the capability of an individual to exercise influence and to
exert control over other members to help a group or organization achieve a vision or set
of goals (George and Jones, 2012; Robbins and Judge, 2010). Leadership is the process
of influencing subordinates’ ability to understand and agree about what needs to be
done and how to accomplish shared objectives (Schermerhorn et al., 2010). The general
goal of leadership theory is to improve employee satisfaction in the workplace by
motivating them (Northouse, 2007). It attempts to explain how leaders motivate
subordinates to achieve high levels of job or organizational performance. Kirkman et al.
(2009) suggested in a cross-cultural examination that among recent leadership
practices (i.e. empowerment, transformational leadership, and transactional
leadership), transformational leadership is one of the most important factors
influencing employee job performance. Transformational leadership inspires followers
to go beyond their own self-interest to achieve high levels of performance (George and
Jones, 2012; Hetland et al., 2011; Schermerhorn et al., 2010). In particular,
transformational leadership has been treated both at an individual level and at a
CDI group level (i.e. Liao and Chuang, 2007; Wang and Howell, 2010). Thus, this study
18,4 treats transformational leadership at an individual level of analysis. In line with the
non-expatriate context, transformational leadership has been shown to be positively
related to employee creativity and performance (i.e. Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009; Si
and Wei, 2011; Sun et al., 2012; Zhang and Bartol, 2010). Leadership theory suggests
that transformational leaders motivate individuals to achieve higher levels of both
382 individual and group performance (e.g. Bass, 1985; Rank et al., 2009; Wang et al., 2011).
In international project teams, transformational leadership has been shown to be
positively related to employee outcomes, such as team performance, work adjustment,
and job satisfaction (Gundersen et al., 2012). Transformational leader behavior has
been found to reduce levels of employee job stress (Podsakoff et al., 1996); thus the
potential impact of transformational leadership is especially relevant to expatriate
adjustment due to the increased complexity of international assignments. It has been
argued that transformational leadership facilitates expatriate adjustment to their
leaders, their colleagues, and to their job responsibilities. To our knowledge, the impact
of transformational leadership on expatriate adjustment and performance is yet to be
investigated in an international assignment context. Thus, we postulate the following
hypotheses:
H3. Transformational leadership is positively related to expatriate adjustment.
H4. Transformational leadership is positively related to expatriate performance.

Expatriate adjustment
Black and Stephens (1989) classified expatriate adjustment into three-dimensions
(i.e. general – adjusting to housing food, shopping, and other aspects of the foreigner
culture, work – meeting job responsibilities and performance expectations, and
interaction – socializing and speaking with host country nationals). Selmer (2005)
argued that these certain facets of expatriate adjustment. For example, these three
facets of expatriate adjustment to examine expatriate performance and effectiveness
(e.g. Ang et al., 2007; Lee and Sukoco, 2010). On the other hand, two sub-dimensions of
cultural adjustment such as general and work adjustment (e.g. Koo Moon et al., 2012),
and work and interaction adjustment (e.g. Lee, 2010) are the most significant factors
predicting expatriate adjustment and the success of expatriation, respectively.
Therefore, two facets of expatriate adjustment such as work and interaction
adjustment were adopted for the present study.
In a cross-cultural environment, expatriate adjustment is positively associated with
expatriates’ ability to complete assignments effectively (Ang and Van Dyne, 2008;
Templer et al., 2006). The present study argues that expatriate adjustment to new
cultural situations refers to the degree to which individual needs are met by a work
environment and in turn, the degree to which this enhances job satisfaction and
performance (Stahl and Caligiuri, 2005). Empirically, it has been proven that expatriate
adjustment has a positive relationship with job performance (e.g. Kraimer et al., 2001;
Mol et al., 2005). Indeed, Wu and Ang (2011) indicated that cultural adjustment has a
partial effect on expatriate performance, but inconsistent findings regarding this
assumption were found by Lee and Sukoco (2010). In literature on expatriate
adjustment, when expatriates are not well adjusted in their host countries, it can be
expected that their ability to adapt to new cross-cultural environments will not be high
(Kim et al., 2008) and that they will have poorer performance and higher psychological Expatriate
stress (Lee and Sukoco, 2010). Thus, it is assumed for the purposes of this study that adjustment and
when expatriates are well-adjusted to the general environment of a host country, their
performance will be similar to that of their home country. Based on the above research performance
discussion, the following hypothesis is developed:
H5. Expatriate adjustment is positively related to expatriate performance.
383
Socialization experience
Socialization refers to the process by which newcomers adapt to the roles, rules, and
norms of a group (George and Jones, 2012). Socialization experience has been viewed as
consistent with the theory of work role transitions developed by Nicholson (1984). This
theory has been particularly focused on the adjustment and socialization of newcomers
fit into new cultures and work environment in organizations ( Jones, 1986; Nicholson,
1984). Van Maanen and Schein (1997) argued that individuals can make adjustment to
their new jobs by changing aspects of their job and working environment. Early
newcomer adjustment and socialization have been shown to have effects on such
important outcomes as organizational commitment, turnover, and job performance
(Black and Ashford, 1995).
Socialization experience also relates to expatriate’s expectations about their ability
to adjust successfully in new cultural situations. This is likely to positively relate to the
way new expatriates perceive and adjust in particular to organizations and
cross-cultural environments (Cable and Parsons, 2001). Most of the literature on
socialization experience has focused on the ways in which individuals learn the culture
and values related to their new job settings (Feldman and Lynch, 1988). Thus, this
study focuses on socialization experiences that occur along with new expatriate
adjustment to work environments and the development of work skills. Then, two
dimensions of socialization experience (i.e. context and social aspects) are adopted from
Cable and Parsons (2001), and Johnson (1996). It is assumed for the purposes of this
study that socialization experience can be associated with the degree to which an
expatriate is motivated to adjust effectively in a new cultural environment (Robbins
and Judge, 2010).
According to social exchange theory, the leader-member exchange (LMX) is a key
determinant of supervisory relationships to employee work attitudes (Gerstner and
Day, 1997). The evidence indicates that supervisor support is related to employee
commitment to achieving success with regard to international assignments (Liu and
Ipe, 2010). In domestic contexts, research has shown that for employees, supervisor
support is critical in dealing with work stress (Ganster et al., 1986). In international
assignment contexts, expatriates may face new cultural environments and may also
have to deal with higher levels of stress in terms of unfamiliar cultures that are a part
of socialization experiences with local subordinates (Liu and Ipe, 2010). This study
asserts that aspects of socialization experiences related to local subordinates will be
expected to play a significant role in helping new expatriates to easily adjust to a host
culture as well as to become familiar with their new work environment (Shay and
Baack, 2004). Expatriate perceptions of higher levels of social support along with
socialization experience will result in their having higher levels of capability to adapt
to unfamiliar environments and new situations. To our knowledge of the expatriate
context, no studies have proposed socialization experience to be a moderator of
CDI relationships involving social support and expatriate adjustment. Therefore, this study
18,4 proposes the following hypothesis:
H6. Socialization experiences positively moderate the relationship of social
support to expatriate adjustment in such a way that expatriates with high
perceived social support and higher levels of socialization experience will be
better adjusted to their international assignments.
384
Cultural intelligence (CQ)
The relationships among transformational leadership, expatriate adjustment, and
performance may be more completely explained by considering the effect of cultural
intelligence insofar as CQ refers to the ability to interact effectively with others from
different cultural backgrounds (Ang and Van Dyne, 2008; Chen et al., 2011). The CQ
research framework was developed by Earley and Ang (2003). Accordingly, it was
composed of four sub-dimensions (i.e. metacognitive CQ, cognitive CQ, motivational
CQ, and behavioral CQ) (e.g. Ang and Van Dyne, 2008; Earley and Ang, 2003).
According to socioanalytic theory, the conceptualization of CQ includes other sources
of identity, such as personal interactions with others and situational contexts (Shaffer
and Miller, 2008). Thus, based on socioanalytic theory, this study argues that cultural
intelligence is a situational factor that moderates the impact of transformational
leadership on expatriate adjustment and performance. In particular, CQ plays an
important factor driving cultural adjustment and effectiveness (Kim et al., 2008)
because expatriates with high levels of CQ can more easily navigate and understand
unfamiliar cultures (Ang et al., 2007).
In a globalized setting, qualified expatriate managers should be able to recognize
the effect of their own cultural background, should be sensitive to cross-cultural
differences, and should be willing to adjust their behavior. The leadership
point-of-view is a key for successful operations. Suutari et al. (2002) indicated that
expatriate managers have to adjust their leadership styles in host countries in order to
complete their assignments successfully in different cross-cultural environments. It
has been shown that if expatriate managers are able to adjust to and become
comfortable with work-related difficulties, they will be more likely to perform their job
tasks successfully (Wu and Ang, 2011). In line with previous studies have argued that
MNCs should have a better understanding of how the effectiveness of different
leadership styles may vary based on different individual cultural orientations
(Spreitzer et al., 2005). When expatriates have higher levels of capability to adapt
across cultures, they tend to have higher performance (Lee and Sukoco, 2008).
According to social learning theory, the degree of individual interaction with other
groups of people through learning about different cultural backgrounds (Tariques and
Takeuchi, 2008) will be related to work performance (Ang et al., 2007; Templer et al.,
2006). Expatriates with high CQ are more likely than those with low CQ to know which
of their decisions can be made and accepted by host national cultures (Shaffer and
Miller, 2008). Expatriates with high CQ who have higher levels of adaption regarding
their leadership styles (i.e. transformational leadership) will be better able to achieve
higher levels of adjustment and performance in a host national culture. Thus, this
study argues that expatriates having a high level of CQ and expatriates who perceive
higher levels of transformational leadership are better able to effectively interact with
people from different cultural backgrounds (Ang and Van Dyne, 2008), which in turn is
critical to their cultural adjustment (Kim et al., 2008), and performance (Shaffer and Expatriate
Miller, 2008). Taking the above arguments together, the following hypotheses are adjustment and
proposed:
performance
H7. CQ positively moderates the relationship between transformational
leadership and expatriate performance in such a way that the relationship
between transformational leadership and expatriate performance is stronger
when cultural intelligence is higher. 385
H8. CQ positively moderate the relationship between transformational leadership
and expatriate adjustment in such a way that the relationship between
transformational leadership and expatriate adjustment is stronger when
cultural intelligence is higher.

Methods
Study sites
The sample was drawn from expatriate managers of Taiwanese MNC subsidiaries
operating in China (Shanghai). Among India, Vietnam, and China, China is considered
to be one of most attractive destination investments for Taiwanese MNC subsidiaries
in terms of its cheap labor costs, amount of available land, and its huge domestic
market (Honglin-Zhang, 2005; Wu and Chiang, 2007). Recently, over 35,000 Taiwanese
companies have invested in China, and the amount has exceeded US$58 billion (Chang,
2012). Although Taiwan and China have similar origins in regard to their social and
cultural values (Chang, 2012; Wu and Chiang, 2007), recent studies have shown that
there are cultural differences between Taiwan and China in terms of politics, economy
and society (Hofstede and Hofstede, 2005; Lu et al., 2003; Wu and Chiang, 2007). In
practice, Taiwanese expatriate managers may face very complex situations in regard
to cultural issues, as presented in Hofstede’s dimensions, such as the issues of
authority (power distance), the challenge of dealing with an unpredictable, ambiguous
environment (uncertainty avoidance), identity and relationship to others
(individualism), and success and/or purpose of life (masculinity) (Hofstede and Bond,
1988). It is impossible for one single cultural dimension to fully explain the dynamics of
a cross-cultural environment (Hofstede, 1998). The ability of expatriate managers to
work in different cultural settings is becoming increasingly important in multinational
companies (Hofstede, 1998). Based on the above rationales, expatriate managers of
Taiwanese MNCs have to deal with core tasks that occur between the host and home
companies.

Sample and procedure

Primary data collection of Taiwanese MNCs subsidiaries in the above referenced
investment destination was conducted through a structured mailing, which involved
two phases. First, e-mails were sent to the human resource department of each host
MNC to ask for the details on appropriate expatriates to participate in this study. A
purposive sampling technique (Cooper and Schindler, 2011) was adopted to select one
expatriate manager (in each MNC) who worked in an R&D department, a production
department, a sales department, and a financial department to participate in this study.
The purposes for selecting the samples from these four departments was that they
were expected to provide a deep understanding of individual interactions with other
CDI people from different cultural backgrounds in order to improve their work performance
18,4 effectively. A total of 87 MNCs and 350 expatriate managers were contacted and asked
for their opinions before sending the questionnaire survey. Second, questionnaires
were sent to invite one expatriate manager in each of the above four departments to
participate in an email-based survey. A total of 56 MNCs and 160 questionnaires were
collected. However, four questionnaires had to be excluded as outliers. The outliers
386 were deleted using the graphic method, with a residual scatter plot in the range of ^ 3
standard deviation (Hair et al., 2010). Finally, a total of 156 valid questionnaires were
determined to be usable (a response rate of 45.71 percent) for further analyses. As
suggested by Saunders et al. (2007), given that the likely response rate for mail survey
questionnaires has been found to range between 30 and 50 percent, this response rate
was viewed as adequate.

Demographic information
The following is the basic information for the respondents and the sample firms: Of the
respondents, 84.62 percent were males, and over 67 percent were older than 31. About
53.21 percent had a bachelor’s degree, and 44.23 percent hold a master’s degree. The
sample firms operated in a conventional manufacturing industry (72.44 percent), and
27.56 percent were service industries. More than 89 percent of the MNC subsidiaries
had annual sales above 50 million NT$ (US$1 ¼ NT$29), and more than 87 percent had
more than 200 employees. In addition, 84.62 percent of respondents were male, and this
study suggests that female expatriates occupy lower positions than males despite the
equal tenure policy being applied for all organizations. This notion is also consistent
with Cole and McNulty (2011). It has been argued that female expatriates regard
expatriation as a somewhat less successful career path than males because they are
less engaged in meeting their career goals as compared to males. In addition, female
expatriates represent between 10 and 15 percent of expatriates in North and Latin
America, the Asia-Pacific region, and Europe (Harrison and Michailova, 2011).
Harrision and colleague argued that women are less interested in careers abroad than
men. Therefore, it is assumed that male expatriates play a more important role in
handling international assignments than do female expatriates in the 39 MNCs in
China under consideration in this study.

Measurement scales
Cultural intelligence (CQ). We measured using the CQ self-report scale developed by
Van Dyne et al. (2008), which consisted of a total of 20 items and four sub-dimensions:
(1) Metacognitive CQ contained four items related to the statement: “I adjust my
cultural knowledge as I interact with people from a culture that is unfamiliar to
me”.
(2) Cognitive CQ contained six items related to the statement: “I am aware that the
cultural values and religious beliefs of other cultures”.
(3) Behavior CQ contained five items related to the statement: “I am a flexible
person in culturally diverse situations”.
(4) Motivational CQ contained five items related to the statement: “I am confident
that I can socialize with locals in a culture that is unfamiliar to me”.
Expatriate adjustment. As recommended by Lee (2010), two sub-dimensions of Expatriate
expatriate adjustment (i.e. work and interaction adjustment) are the most significant adjustment and
factors predicting the success of expatriation. Thus, five items and two sub-dimensions
of cultural adjustment were adopted from Black and Stephens (1989): three items for performance
working adjustment related to the statement: “I am adjusted to my job and
responsibilities;” and two items for interaction adjustment related to the statement: “I
am adjusted to interacting with the Chinese in general.” 387
Expatriate performance. Seven items and two sub-dimensions of expatriate
performance were adopted from Black and Porter (1991): task performance contained
four items related to the statement: “My overall performance during my assignment is
good;” and contextual performance contained three items related to the statement: “I
have good ability with regard to getting along with others.”
Social support. Seven items and two sub-dimensions of social support were adopted
from Eisenberger et al. (1986): supervisor support contained four items related to the
statement “My supervisor supports me with necessary human resources in my
expatriate assignment;” and perceived organizational support contained three items
related to the statement: “The organization values my contribution to its well-being.”
Socialization experience. Two sub-dimensions and six items of socialization
experience were operationalized from Jones (1986) and Cable and Parsons (2001): social
aspects contained three items related to the statement: “I redefined the role of my
subordinates and colleagues when I began working with them;” and social context
contained three items related to the statement: “I change my dress style to fit this
environment and to look like my colleagues.”
Transformational leadership. Six items of transformational leadership were
developed by Podsakoff et al. (1990), which related to the statement: “I encourage
subordinates to take creative and effective methods more than they have in the past”.
We adopted a counterbalancing question order with the survey questions arranged
non-sequentially to reduce the effect of self-generated validity (Podsakoff et al., 2003).
All questionnaire items were originally written in English, as listed in Appendix 1. To
survey in the Chinese context, original items were translated into Chinese by following
Brislin’s (1980) translation-back-translation procedure to validate the meanings of
measurement items. All items were measured on a seven-point Likert scale
(1 ¼ strongly disagree; 7 ¼ strongly agree). The Cronbach’s alpha reliability for this
study is reported in Table I.

Results
Measurement model
The construct reliability and convergent validity were assessed using the guidelines of
Anderson and Gerbing (1988). First, the exploratory factor analysis for all the items
resulted in factor solutions, as expected theoretically. The Cronbach Alpha coefficients
for each factor were greater than 0.70. Second, we performed a confirmatory factor
analysis (CFA) to evaluate the distinctiveness of the measures used in the present
study by using AMOS 21. CFA procedures have two order factor models, such as a
first-order factor model and second-order factor model (Koufteros et al., 2009). In this
study, six research constructs and their first-order CFA model were adopted to
examine each individual research construct, and the results of this procedure indicated
that standardized loading for all items exceeded 0.70 and that t-values (Critical
 CDI
18,4

388

Table I.

correlations among
research constructs
Descriptive statistics and
Variables Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

* * *
1. SUS 4.885 1.149 0.791
* * * * *
2. POS 4.985 1.057 0.632 0.720
* * *
3. MeCQ 5.837 0.785 0.020 0.110 0.766
* * * * * * *
4. CoCQ 5.112 0.953 0.144 0.270 0.402 0.716
* * * * * * * * *
5. BeCQ 5.449 0.913 0.100 0.278 0.351 0.572 0.913
* * * * * * * * * * *
6. MotCQ 5.758 0.825 0.131 0.281 0.281 0.485 0.699 0.795
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
7. WoAdj 5.816 0.791 0.245 0.359 0.216 0.426 0.515 0.616 0.883
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
8. IntAdj 5.760 0.899 0.161 0.266 0.168 0.401 0.460 0.608 0.774 0.901
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
9. Task 5.744 0.847 0.453 0.613 0.078 0.246 0.362 0.360 0.425 0.297 0.947
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
10. Contextural 5.742 0.792 0.341 0.551 0.160 0.326 0.414 0.959 0.630 0.575 0.649 0.806
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
11. TFL 5.731 0.802 0.08 0.273 0.167 0.373 0.382 0.459 0.598 0.548 0.405 0.648 0.781
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
12. SOAP 4.583 1.129 0.179 0.207 0.112 0.244 0.270 0.049 0.151 0.070 0.293 0.175 0.168 0.758
* * * * * * *
13. SoCo 4.451 1.187 0.084 2 0.039 0.228 0.032 0.183 0.061 0.061 0.084 2 0.016 0.019 0.034 0.163 0.0885
* *
14. Firm 3.580 1.387 2 0.072 2 0.111 2 0.111 20.132 2 0.152 20.091 2 0.171 2 0.105 2 0.056 2 0.079 2 0.164 2 0.045 20.068 n/a
*
15. Gender 1.150 0.362 0.000 2 0.056 2 0.104 0.006 2 0.044 20.139 2 0.156 2 0.193 0.009 2 0.078 2 0.064 2 0.053 20.102 0.105 n/a
*
16. Age 2.090 0.616 2 0.029 0.157 0.057 0.016 2 0.058 20.093 0.061 0.004 0.085 0.013 0.106 2 0.02 0.003 2 0.061 20.12 n/a
17. Education 3.410 0.567 0.038 0.071 2 0.059 20.092 2 0.068 20.086 2 0.032 0.056 0.009 2 0.050 2 0.132 2 0.013 20.107 0.107 20.058 2 0.032 n/a

* * * * * *
Notes: n=156; Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level; Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level; Internal consistency reliabilities appear along the diagonal; n/a ¼ not available; Social support (i.e. SUS ¼ Supervisor support; POS ¼ Perceived organizational support); Cultural
intelligence (i.e. MeCQ ¼ Metacognitive CQ; CoCQ ¼ Cognitive CQ; BeCQ ¼ Behavioral CQ; MotCQ ¼ Motivational CQ); Expatriate adjustment (i.e. WoAdj ¼ Work adjustment; IntAdj ¼ Interaction adjustment); Expatriate performance (i.e. Task ¼ Task performance;
Contextual ¼ Contextual performance); TFL ¼ Transformational leadership; Socialization experience (i.e. SOAP ¼ Social aspects; SoCo=Social context)
Ratio ¼ t-value) were higher than 1.96 ( p , 0.001). The fitness index of each Expatriate
individual research construct was acceptable: Chi-square/degree of freedom adjustment and
(x 2 /df) , 2; Goodness-of-fit (GFI) . 0.90, and Adjusted Goodness-of-fit
(AGFI) . 0.90; Root Mean Square Residual (RMR) , 0.05, and p-value . 0.05. If performance
needed, some indicators were eliminated due to low factor loading or a possibility of
high correlation with other indicator variables (Hair et al., 2010; Kline, 2011). Then, the
second order and hierarchical models were conducted to examine the fitness of 389
research constructs which contained multiple factors (i.e. social support, cultural
intelligence, expatriate adjustment, expatriate performance, and socialization
experience) as shown in Figures A1-A10 (see Appendix 2). The results of the
second-order and hierarchical model satisfied the threshold as suggested by Hair et al.
(2010) and Koufteros et al. (2009). Kline (2011) recommended that if the x2 value and
model fit indices for the hierarchical model of each construct are identical to the
second-order CFA model, then the research parsimoniously adopts the hierarchical
model.
In confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM), the
suggestion that “more is better” both in terms of number of cases (sample size ¼ n) and
the number of indicators per factor has still not been substantiated (Marsh et al., 1998).
Westland (2010) reported that a study of Boomsma (1982) offered his widely cited
recommendation that sample size (n) should be at least 100, but also noted the
desirability of n . 200 in some circumstances. In the case of the optimal ratio of
number of indicators per latent variable, there seems broad agreement that at least
three indicators per latent variable are desirable (Boomsma, 1982; Ding et al., 1995;
Marsh et al., 1998). In particular, Bowerman et al. (2004) and Malhotra (2010) proposed
that the appropriate number of respondents should be at least 196. Similarly, structural
equation modeling requires a minimum of 200 respondents for effective parameter
estimation (Hair et al., 2010). In turn, this study consisted of six latent variables
(i.e. social support, transformational leadership, cultural intelligence, expatriate
adjustment, expatriate performance, and social experience) and 51 questionnaire items,
as listed in the measurement scales. Thus, based on the above discussions, the valid
respondents for this study should be 51 items £ 3 indicators ¼ 153 respondents,
respectively. In line with expatriate management studies, the proposed sampling plan
and sample size has also been unclear. For example, Schyns and Sczesny (2010)
collected a total of 136 management students from Australia, Germany, and India to
take part in the study. Qin and Baruch (2010) collected from 82 expatriates from a
Chinese firm. Wu and Ang (2011) analyzed 169 expatriates residing in Singapore. The
previous studies used multiple regression analysis to test the hypothesized
relationships. In contrast, a total of 156 valid questionnaires were determined to be
usable for this study, and SEM was used to test the hypothesized relationships.
Furthermore, due to the fact that a complex research framework contains multiple
factors of each research construct in order to fit into the latent research constructs, we
then averaged the mean scores of the individual factors of each research construct to
examine the overall appropriateness of the second order CFA (Table II) and SEM
(Figure 2), respectively. The results shown in Table II indicate that there is overall
goodness-of-fit needed to satisfy the relevant threshold (i.e. x2/df (123.837/107) ¼ 1.157;
GFI ¼ 0.924; AGFI ¼ 0.879; NFI ¼ 0.928; CFI ¼ 0.989; RMR ¼ 0.042;
RMSEA ¼ 0.032, and p ¼ 0.127). These results demonstrated that our research
CDI
Standardized
18,4 Indicators Constructs loading t-value AVE

Supervisor support ˆ Social support 0.935 * * * 7.618 0.579

Perceived organizational support ˆ 0.675 * * * A 0.595
Behavioral CQ ˆ Cultural intelligence 0.637 * * * 10.877 0.673
390 Motivational CQ ˆ 0.650 * * * 6.758 0.724
Cognitive CQ ˆ 0.818 * * * 8.284 0.527
Meta-cognitive CQ ˆ 0.851 * * * A 0.624
Work adjustment ˆ Expatriate adjustment 0.914 * * * A 0.715
Interaction adjustment ˆ 0.845 * * * 12.951 0.819
Task performance ˆ Expatriate performance 0.650 * * 17.771 0.785
Contextual performance ˆ 0.950 * * * A 0.711
Social aspects ˆ Socialization experience 0.768 * * * 7.791 0.529
Social context ˆ 0.720 * * * A 0.808
tfl4 ˆ Transformational leadership 0.908 * * * 12.528 0.650
tfl3 ˆ 0.842 * * * 12.018
tfl2 ˆ 0.833 * * * 11.838
tfl1 ˆ 0.809 * * *
tfl5 ˆ 0.782 * * * 10.885
Table II. tfl6 ˆ 0.639 * * * 9.613
The results of
confirmatory factor Notes: x 2/df (123.837/107) ¼ 1.157; GFI ¼ 0.924; AGFI ¼ 0.879; NFI ¼ 0.928; CFI ¼ 0.989;
analysis (CFA) – RMR ¼ 0.042; RMSEA ¼ 0.032; p ¼ 0.127; AVE ¼ Average variance extracted; A=parameter
second-order factor model regression weight was fixed at 1.000; tfl1-tfl6 ¼ questionnaire description of transformational leadership

model held good fit to the data, with adequate convergent validity and construct
reliability (Hair et al., 2010; Kline, 2011). The descriptive statistics, including the means,
standard deviations, the coefficient alpha, and correlations among the research
variables are reported in Table I.
Because the data collection process for the research variables was conducted using
data obtained from the same source from the expatriate side, there is a possibility that
common method variance might be a concern (Podsakoff et al., 2003), and therefore it
was necessary to confirm whether the strengths of the relationships among the
research constructs were either inflated or deflated (Lee and Sukoco, 2010). To assess
the potential impact of this form of bias in this study, discriminant validity was tested
in three steps. First, a Harmon one-factor test was adopted (Podsakoff and Organ, 1986)
that loaded all the variables into a principal component factor analysis. The results
revealed that a solution accounted for 61.520 percent of the total variance, while factor
1 only accounted for 31.580 percent. Therefore, a single factor did not emerge, and
factor 1 did not explain most of the variance. Second, convergent validity was
demonstrated, as the average variance extracted (AVE) values for all constructs was
higher than the suggested threshold value of 0.50 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981).
Discriminant validity was determined by comparing the square root of the AVE with
the Pearson correlations among the constructs (see Table I). All AVE estimates from
Table II can be seen to be greater than the corresponding interconstruct square
correlation estimates in Table I. Based on these results, it seems that common method
bias is unlikely to be a problem with regard to the data (Gefen et al., 2000).
 Expatriate
adjustment and
performance

391

Figure 2.
The results of path
relationships – SEM

Third, the results shown in Table I indicate that a few correlations among the research
variables exceeded 0.50, which suggested higher relative correlations; thus, a CFA was
conducted to assess the distinctiveness of the research variables for cultural
intelligence, transformational leadership, expatriate adjustment, and expatriate
performance, respectively. One-factor model and two-factor model CFA procedures
were adopted to compare the fit of the two-factor measurement model against a
one-factor model among the research dimensions of the research constructs (see,
Conger et al., 2000; Kim et al., 2008; Lee and Sukoco, 2010). Six dimensions were set in
this study (including four cultural intelligence and two cultural adjustment
dimensions) to load on a one-factor model and a two-factor model, respectively. The
hypothesized two-construct model generated x2 ¼ 122.343 (df ¼ 79); NFI ¼ 0.906;
CFI ¼ 0.964, and RMSEA ¼ 0.059. In comparison, the one-factor model, with all six
factors loading on one-factor model, had a x2 ¼ 123.647 (df ¼ 80); NFI ¼ 0.905;
CFI ¼ 0.964, and RMSEA ¼ 0.059. The chi-square differences between the two were
significant, which suggests each of the constructs to be distinct. Similarly, the results
indicated that the chi-square was significantly different between social support and
expatriate performance with x2 ¼ 52.435 for the two-factor model vs x2 ¼ 67.810 for
CDI the one-factor model, respectively. In the case of leadership styles with expatriate
18,4 performance, x2 ¼ 119.876 for the two-factor model vs x2 ¼ 126.833 for the one factor
model, and the chi-square exhibited a significant difference. As shown in Table III, the
results supported the distinctiveness among the research variables in the measurement
model by demonstrating a better fit for the two-factor model as compared to the
one-factor model (Kim et al., 2008), and the results also indicated that there was no
392 problem with discriminant validity (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988).

Structural equation modeling (SEM)

To test the hypotheses, structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied using the
likelihood estimation method. The research variables remaining after CFA and shown
in Table II were adopted in order to proceed with SEM (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988).
The results showed that the goodness-of-fit measurements were acceptable
(GFI ¼ 0.946; AGFI ¼ 0.901; NFI ¼ 0.957; CFI ¼ 0.990; RMR ¼ 0.045) (see Table III
and Figure 2), indicating that the proposed model was satisfactory (Hair et al., 2010;
Kline, 2011). The SEM path relationships showed social support to be positively
significant related to expatriate adjustment (b ¼ 0.202; p , 0.05; t ¼ 2.763) and
expatriate performance (b ¼ 0.387; p , 0.001; t ¼ 5.380). Therefore, H1 and H2 were
supported. Transformational leadership was found to be positively and significantly
related to expatriate adjustment (b ¼ 0.653; p , 0.001; t ¼ 7.366) and expatriate
performance (b ¼ 0.506; p , 0.001; t ¼ 5.630, which supported H3 and H4,
respectively. The relationship between expatriate adjustment and expatriate
performance was also confirmed in this study (b ¼ 0.320; p , 0.001; t ¼ 3.546).
Thus, H5 was supported.
In order to test the moderating effects, as proposed in H6, H7, and H8, a hierarchical
regression was applied. The use of a hierarchical regression can allow the retention of
the continuous nature of variables without losing information or reducing the power to
detect interaction effects (e.g. Aiken and West, 1991; Cohen et al., 2003). However, there
is the possibility that variables might correlate with each other (high multi-collinearity)
(Lee and Sukoco, 2010), so a centering method was applied to reduce these effects

Model
comparison test
Model x2 df NFI CFI RMSEA Dx 2 Ddf

CQ vs ExpAj
Two-factor model 122.343 79 0.906 0.964 0.059
One-factor model 123.647 80 0.905 0.964 0.059 1.304 * 1
ExPer vs SOS
Two-factor model 52.435 35 0.960 0.986 0.057
One-factor model 67.810 37 0.948 0.975 0.073 15.375 * 2
TFL vs ExPer
Two-factor model 119.876 68 0.936 0.971 0.070
One-factor model 126.833 66 0.932 0.966 0.062 6.957 * 2
Table III.
Results of fit comparisons Notes: *p , 0.001; CQ ¼ Cultural intelligence; ExPer ¼ Expatriate performance; SOS ¼ Social
for discriminant validity support; ExpAj ¼ Expatriate adjustment; TFL ¼ Transformational leadership; NFI ¼ Normed fit
test index; CFI ¼ Comparative fit index; RMSEA ¼ Root mean square error of approximation
(Frazier et al., 2004), and all independent variables were averaged as mean-centered. As Expatriate
suggested by Hair et al. (2010), the cutoff criteria for hierarchical regression should be adjustment and
R-square (R 2) . 0.10, and marginal change of DR 2, and F-value (DF) should be
significant at a t-value . 1.96 with p , 0.05. performance
As shown in Table IV, the social aspects of socialization experience exhibited
significant moderating effects of the relationship between social support and
adjustment (model 1: b ¼ 0.154, p , 0.05). Thus, H6 was partially supported and 393
confirmed in this study. Table IV also indicates that cultural intelligence not only has a
significant direct effect on expatriate adjustment (i.e. model 3: b ¼ 0.421, p , 0.001)
and expatriate performance (i.e. model 4: b ¼ 0.278, p , 0.001), but also has a
significant moderating effect on of the relationship between transformational
leadership and expatriate adjustment (i.e. model 3: b ¼ 0.165, p , 0.01) as well as
expatriate performance (i.e. model 4: b ¼ 0.213, p , 0.001). Therefore, H7 and H8 were
confirmed in this study.
Following the procedure of Aiken and West (1991), and Cohen et al. (2003), Figure 3
represents the moderating effects of socialization experience. This figure indicates that
expatriates in this sample with higher levels of perceived socialization experience
(i.e. social aspects, Ȳ ¼ 6.202), and higher social support tended to achieve the highest
level of adjustment. As predicted, expatriates with higher levels of social support but

Dependent variables
Expatriate adjustment Expatriate performance
Independent variables Model 1 (b) Model 2 (b) Model 3 (b) Model 4 (b)

Main effects
Social support (SOS) 0.315 * * * 0.297 * * * – –
(t ¼ 4.014) (t ¼ 3.858)
Social aspects (SOAP) 0.054 – – –
(t ¼ 0.680)
Social context (SoCo) – 0.069 – –
(t ¼ 0.901)
Cultural intelligence (CQ) – – 0.421 * * * 0.278 * * *
(t ¼ 6.579) (t ¼ 3.980)
Transformational leadership (TFL) – – 0.398 * * * 0.426 * * *
(t ¼ 6.215) (t ¼ 6.075)
Interaction effects
SOS £ SOAP 0.154 * – – –
(t ¼ 2.012)
SOS £ SoCo – 0.016 – –
(t ¼ 0.209)
TFL £ CQ – – 0.165 * * 0.213 * * *
(t ¼ 2.865)
R2 0.112 0.088 0.516 0.421
DR 2 0.023 0.088 0.026 0.044
DF 4.047 * * * 14.881 * * * 8.207 * * * 11.444 * * *
p (sig.) 0.046 0.385 0.005 0.001
Table IV.
Notes: *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01; * * *p , 0.001; SOS ¼ Social support; Socialization experience Moderating roles of
(i.e. SOAP ¼ Social aspects; SoCo ¼ Social context); CQ ¼ Cultural intelligence; socialization experience
TFL ¼ Transformational leadership and cultural intelligence
CDI
18,4

394

Figure 3.
The moderating effects of
socialization experience –
social aspects

lower levels of perceived socialization experience (i.e. social aspects, Ȳ ¼ 5.703) tended
to have lower levels of adjustment. However, in this study, expatriates with high levels
of perceived socialization experience (i.e. social aspects, Ȳ ¼ 5.268) but lower levels of
social support tended to have the lowest level of adjustment. Those with lower levels of
perceived socialization experience and lower levels of social support also exhibited
lower levels of adjustment. These results suggested that the social aspects of
socialization experiences can enhance expatriate adjustment in situations in which
there is higher social support.
Figures 4 and 5) represents the moderating effects of cultural intelligence. Both
parts of this figure indicate that expatriates with higher perceived cultural intelligence
(Figure 4: Ȳ ¼ 6.531) and (Figure 5: Ȳ ¼ 6.659) and higher levels of transformational
leadership tended to reach the highest level of adjustment and performance,
respectively. As predicted, expatriates with higher levels of transformational
leadership but lower levels of perceived cultural intelligence (Figure 4: Ȳ ¼ 5.897)
and (Figure 5: Ȳ ¼ 6.025) tended to have lower levels of adjustment and performance.
The results suggest that cultural intelligence can enhance expatriate adjustment and
performance in situations where there is higher cultural intelligence.

Discussion
The findings indicate that two dimensions of social support make direct and
significant contributions to expatriate adjustment and performance. This is partially
consistent with the findings of Kraimer et al. (2001) and the empirical extension of
Shaffer et al. (1999), both of which reported that supervisor support had no significant
effect on three dimensions of expatriate adjustment. Similarly, another finding of
Erdogan and Enders (2007) showed that organizational support had no significant
effect on job performance in a grocery store chain. It has been argued that when
expatriates receive more resources from organizations or support from supervisors,
 Expatriate
adjustment and
performance

395

Figure 4.
Moderating effects of
cultural intelligence

Figure 5.
Moderating effects of
cultural intelligence

including supervisors from the human resources and financial departments, it is much
easier for them to complete their tasks during expatriation. Table V and Figure 2
indicate that social support is positively and significantly related to the expatriate
adjustment and performance, thus H1 and H2 were supported, respectively.
CDI
Standardized t-
18,4 Constructs Indicators coefficient (b) value

Social support ! Supervisor support 0.870 * * * A

! Perceived organizational support 0.716 * * * 7.567
Transformational leadership ! tfl4 0.854 * * * 12.803
396 ! tfl3 0.793 * * * 11.443
! tfl2 0.838 * * * 12.223
! tfl1 0.823 * * * A
! tfl5 0.802 * * * 11.690
! tfl6 0.752 * * * 10.484
Expatriate adjustment ! Work adjustment 0.914 * * * 11.865
! Interaction adjustment 0.839 * * * A
Expatriate performance ! Task performance 0.543 * * * 6.713
! Contextual performance 0.925 * * * A
Path relationships
H1: Social support ! Expatriate adjustment 0.202 * * 2.763
H2: Social support ! Expatriate performance 0.387 * * * 5.380
H3: Transformational leadership ! Expatriate adjustment 0.653 * * * 7.366
H4: Transformational leadership ! Expatriate performance 0.506 * * * 5.630
H5: Expatriate adjustment ! Expatriate performance 0.320 * * * 3.596
Notes: Goodness of fit assessments: x2/df(59.624/43) ¼ 1.294; p ¼ 0.094; GFI ¼ 0.946; AGFI ¼ 0.901;
Table V. NFI ¼ 0.957; CFI ¼ 0.990; RMR ¼ 0.045; RMSEA ¼ 0.044; A=parameter regression weight was fixed
The results of path at 1.000; *p , 0.05; * *p , 0.01; * * *p , 0.001; and significant level at t-value . 1.96; tfl1-
relationship – SEM tfl6 ¼ questionnaire description of transformational leadership

The results also indicated that transformational leadership is positively and

significantly related to expatriate adjustment and expatriate performance. These
results are in line with Gundersen et al. (2012), who reported transformational
leadership to be positively and significantly related to employee work adjustment in
international assignees in multinational project teams. These findings confirmed
previous empirical findings in non-expatriate contexts, which reported that
transformational leadership is positively and significantly related to individual
performance (i.e. Liao and Chuang, 2007; Rank et al., 2009; Wang and Howell, 2010).
Thus, H3 and H4 were supported in line with Wu and Ang (2011), who reported that
work adjustment is positively related to employee task performance and that
interaction adjustment is also positively related to employee’s contextual performance.
Therefore, H5 was supported. In summary, the findings of this study suggest that in
general, expatriates who receive more support from their supervisors and their
organizations, as well as those who are motivated by transformational leaders to
explore and experience diverse cultures and who are more self-confident with regard to
their ability to adapt to new cultures will find it easy to adjust to and will perform
better in foreign assignments.
The results shown in Table IV indicate that expatriates who are more familiar with
their environment and who have had more social experience and who have higher
social support tend to achieve the highest level of adjustment. Conversely, expatriates
who have higher levels of social support and lower levels of socialization experience
tend to achieve the lowest levels of adjustment. These results suggest that socialization
experiences could be an important factor strengthening expatriate adjustment,
especially in the case of higher social support. Thus, H6 was supported, and this study Expatriate
also confirmed the research framework of Lee (2010), and Black and Ashford (1995), adjustment and
who argued that expatriate socialization experience should result in more control of a
new cultural environment and may partially relate to cultural adjustment and performance
performance during expatriation. In practice, if expatriates perceive that they have
very strong support from their headquarters, supervisors, and subordinates and have
various kinds of resources, they may also believe that no socialization experience is 397
necessary with regards to adjustment to the host culture. These may be the main
reasons that expatriates refuse to adjust.
The research findings also indicated that the effects of transformation leadership on
expatriate adjustment and performance are strengthened when expatriates have
higher CQ and higher levels of adaption to transformational leadership. Since the
moderating role of cultural intelligence has been largely ignored, this finding is
confirmed and is also unique in this study. This finding may be partially consistent
with Shaffer and Miller (2008), who proposed that CQ can help expatriates have more
successful international assignments for themselves and for their organizations.
Shaffer and colleague also argued that CQ could play an important role as a
moderating effect on the relationship between “established predictors” (i.e. personal
factors, job factors, and cultural factors) and expatriate successes (i.e. adjustment and
performance), especially in the Chinese context. Therefore, we assume that H7 and H8
were confirmed and supported. When expatriates have higher levels of cultural
intelligence and higher levels of adaptation as a result of transformational leadership
skills and are willing to overcome cultural differences, they are better adjusted to work
and interaction with local co-workers, thus improving their ability to complete their
assigned tasks.

Research implications
An extension of the research framework of social support and transformational
leadership to examine expatriate adjustment and performance may provide significant
contributions to both organizations and academics by offering them valuable
directions and tools in terms of expatriate selection and training that contributes to
helping expatriates complete their assignments effectively. Based on the results of this
study, it is assumed that social support and transformational leadership play very
critical roles in enhancing expatriate adjustment and performance through a
mechanism of the moderating roles of social experiences and cultural intelligence,
respectively. This study posits that before sending expatriates to China, Taiwanese
expatriates should realize that they will be in a different cultural environment in spite
of the fact that they speak the same language as native employees in their host country.
This study also suggests training courses to enhance expatriates’ CQ so that they are
more willing to learn and face cultural challenges in order to be better adjusted and to
achieve higher performance. Indeed, when the level of CQ is low, socialization
experience may lead to over-confidence, which in turn is shown to result in lower levels
of adjustment and performance. Another perspective is that when expatriates have
higher levels of adaptation as a result of transformational leadership skills, this will
result in better adjustment and performance. Moreover, this study shows that
transformational leadership has a significant contribution to expatriate adjustment
and performance on international assignments. Transformational leaders will be
CDI effective in a variety of cross-cultural environments and can be assigned to
18,4 international assignments of varying complexity. The present study also revealed that
transformational leaders contribute to expatriate adjustment and positive performance
on international assignments, which are highly valuable for international
organizations and crucial for individual career development.

398 Limitations and future research directions

Although the present study provides valuable insights into an understanding of the
extended literature on transformational leadership and social support in order to explore
expatriate adjustment and performance through a mechanism of the moderating roles of
cultural intelligence and socialization experience, there are a few limitations that should
be recognized, and these may provide a departure for future research. First,
cross-sectional research is designed for this study using Taiwanese MNC subsidiaries
in China as the sample and utilizing of self-reported questionnaires. Causal path modeling
is a very useful technique to validate the complex relationships among latent variables, as
depicted in the research model of this study (Bozionelos, 2002). As recommended by
previous researchers, a cross-sectional design does not allow causality assertions because
causal path analytic techniques (i.e. SEM and regression analysis) do not improve the
significance of complex causal path relationships that are derived from cross-sectional
data (e.g. Bozionelos, 2002; Bozionelos et al., 2011). Therefore, exclusive utilization of
self-reports still remains a limitation of this study. Second, a total of 156 valid respondents
can be considered to be a small sample size in SEM procedures. Bowerman et al. (2004)
and Malhotra (2010) and Hair et al. (2010) recommended that the appropriate number of
respondents should be at least 196.
Third, conventional contexts of transformational leadership have adopted four
sub-dimensions: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, individualized
consideration, and intellectual stimulation to examine individual and group
performance and creativity (e.g. Gumusluoglu and Ilsev, 2009; Liao and Chuang, 2007;
Sun et al., 2012; Zhang et al., 2011). However, six item scales of transformational
leadership were used in this study, which were adopted from Podsakoff et al. (1996, 1990),
and this scale was validated and confirmed by our study. Fourth, self-report ratings of
expatriate performance may not be objective. Common method bias is considered to be a
widespread challenge in studies involving use of single sources (Avolio et al., 1991). Thus,
expatriate performance should be investigated and evaluated by external leaders
(Podsakoff et al., 2003). Fifth, Lee (2010) proposed that tenure in an assignment is a critical
determinant moderating between expatriate intelligence (i.e. cognitive intelligence,
emotional intelligence, and cultural intelligence) and success of expatriation
(i.e. adjustment and performance). Lee and Sukoco (2010) reported that prior
international work experience has been found to be an important moderating factor
influencing the relationships among expatriates’ cultural intelligence, cultural adjustment,
and cultural effectiveness. These variables (i.e. prior international experience and tenure
in the assignment) should be assigned to control the research framework and thus, should
also be included in future studies on this topic. Sixth, our research samples were
expatriate managers from Taiwan, and it is possible that cross-cultural differences
(individualism versus collectivism, and power distance) (Kirkman et al., 2009) may
positively relate to expatriate adjustment and performance. Thus, these additional
variables should be included in future studies. Seventh, previous studies have argued that
cultural differences (Earley and Ang, 2003), cultural distance (Gabel et al., 2005; Kim et al., Expatriate
2008), psychological climate (Sahin, 2011), and psychological contracts (Lee, 2010) could adjustment and
moderate the effect of transformational leadership on expatriate adjustment and
performance. For example, cultural distance (between host and home culture) can performance
moderate the impact of transformational leadership on expatriate performance in such a
way that transformational leadership relates more positively to expatriate performance
when cultural distance is lower, rather than higher. 399
Individual factors, such as achievement self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, previous
assignments, and language fluency could moderate the effect of social support on
expatriate performance (Shaffer et al., 1999). In particular, key factors of LMX and
work engagement (Agarwal et al., 2012) and self-efficacy (Schyns and Sczesny, 2010)
may impact expatriate performance. Thus, these variables should be considered in
future studies. Finally, since this study focuses on the Chinese context, it is
recommended that for future research samples from different countries with
cross-cultural settings should be selected, and this could include research in Europe,
Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. These additional efforts will further
confirm the validity and generalizability of the findings of the current study.

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Appendix 1. Index questionnaires

Cultural intelligence (CQ)
Meta-cognitive CQ (a ¼ 0.766; AVE ¼ 0.624)
(1) I adjust my cultural knowledge as I interact with people from a culture that is unfamiliar
to me.
(2) I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I use when interacting with people with
different cultural backgrounds.
(3) I am conscious of the cultural knowledge I apply to cross-cultural interactions.
(4) I check the accuracy of my cultural knowledge as I interact with people from different
cultures.
CDI Cognitive CQ (a ¼ 0.716; AVE ¼ 0.527)
18,4 (1) I am aware of the cultural values and religious beliefs of other cultures.
(2) I am aware of the legal and economic systems of other cultures.
(3) I am aware of the rules (e.g. vocabulary, grammar) of other languages.
(4) I am aware of the marriage systems of other cultures.
406 (5) I am aware of the arts and crafts of other cultures.
(6) I am aware of the rules for expressing nonverbal behavior in other cultures.

Behavior CQ (a ¼ 0.913; AVE ¼ 0.673)

(1) I am a flexible person in culturally diverse situations.
(2) I am a flexible person in regard to changing my verbal behavior (e.g. accent, tone) when a
cross-cultural interaction requires it.
(3) I vary the rate of my speaking when a cross-cultural interaction requires it.
(4) I am a flexible person in regard to changing my nonverbal behavior when a
cross-cultural interaction requires it.
(5) I alter my facial expressions when a cross-cultural interaction requires it.

Motivational CQ (a ¼ 0.795; AVE ¼ 0.724)

(1) I am confident that I can socialize with locals in a culture that is unfamiliar to me.
(2) I enjoy interacting with people from different cultures.
(3) I am confident that I can deal with the stress of adjusting to a culture that is new to me.
(4) I enjoy living in cultures that are unfamiliar to me.
(5) I am confident that I can get accustomed to the shopping situations in a different culture.

Expatriate adjustment
Working adjustment (a ¼ 0.883; AVE ¼ 0.715)
(1) I am adjusted to my job and responsibilities.
(2) I am a flexible person who can adjust to working with Chinese co-workers.
(3) I am adjusted to supervising Chinese subordinates.

Interaction adjustment (a ¼ 0.991; AVE ¼ 0.819)

(1) I am adjusted to interacting with the Chinese in general.
(2) I am adjusted to working with foreigners outside the company.

Expatriate performance
Task performance (a ¼ 0.947; AVE ¼ 0.785)
(1) My overall performance during my assignment is good.
(2) I have good achievement with regard to my work goals.
(3) I have the capability necessary to effectively complete my tasks.
(4) I have good quality of performance.
Contextual performance (a ¼ 0.806; AVE ¼ 0.711) Expatriate
(1) I have good ability with regard to getting along with others. adjustment and
(2) I keep good relationships with my local co-workers.
performance
(3) I maintain relationships in and socialize with the locals in my social environment.
Social support
Supervisor support (a ¼ 0.791; AVE ¼ 0.579) 407
(1) My supervisor supports me with necessary human resources in my expatriate
assignment.
(2) My supervisor supports me with necessary finances during my expatriation.
(3) My supervisor cares about my feelings and encourages me.
(4) My supervisor promotes me when I perform well.

Perceived organizational support (a ¼ 0.720; AVE ¼ 0.595)

(1) The organization values my contributions to its well-being.
(2) My organization shows a great deal of concern for me.
(3) The organization considers my goals and values.
Socialization experience
Social aspects (a ¼ 0.758; AVE ¼ 0.529)
(1) I have redefined the roles of both my subordinates and colleagues when I began working
with them.
(2) I have altered the working procedures when I began working with local workers.
(3) I have changed the mission or purpose of my work role after I began working with local
workers.

Social context (a ¼ 0.885; AVE ¼ 0.808)

(1) I change my dress style to fit this environment and to look like my colleagues.
(2) I learn how to act like my colleagues.
(3) Overall, I change myself in order to fit into a new cultural environment.
Transformational leadership (a ¼ 0.781; AVE ¼ 0.650)
(1) I encourage subordinates to take creative and effective methods more than they have in
the past.
(2) I inspire others with regard to their future.
(3) I encourage subordinates to solve problems in their work more than before.
(4) I develop a team attitude and spirit among my colleagues.
(5) I am always seeking new opportunities for the organization.
(6) I have a clear understanding of where we are going.
CDI Appendix 2. Index figures
18,4

408

Figure A1.
CFA: second order model
– Socialization experience
 Expatriate
adjustment and
performance

409

Figure A2.
CFA: hierarchical model –
Socialization experience
CDI
18,4

410

Figure A3.
CFA: second order model
– Cultural intelligence
 Expatriate
adjustment and
performance

411

Figure A4.
CFA: hierarchical model –
Cultural intelligence
CDI
18,4

412

Figure A5.
CFA: second order model
– Social support

Figure A6.
CFA: hierarchical model –
Social support
 Expatriate
adjustment and
performance

413

Figure A7.
CFA: second order model
– Expatriate performance

Figure A8.
CFA: hierarchical model –
Expatriate performance
CDI
18,4

414

Figure A9.
CFA: second order model
– Cultural adjustment

Figure A10.
CFA: hierarchical model –
Cultural adjustment

About the authors

Li-Yueh Lee currently serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of International Trade,
Kun Shan University, Taiwan. She received her doctoral degree in Human Resource Training
and Development from Idaho State University, USA. She has published in International Journal
of Human Resource Management, Industrial Management & Data Systems, Asia Pacific Expatriate
Journal of Human Resources, and elsewhere.
Sou Veasna currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Marketing and Human Resource adjustment and
Management at the Asia Euro University, Cambodia. He received his PhD degree in Strategic performance
Management from National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. He has published in Tourism
Management, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, and elsewhere. Sou Veasna is the
corresponding author and can be contacted at: souveasna76@gmail.com
Wann-Yih Wu currently serves as a Distinguished Professor at the National Cheng Kung 415
University, Taiwan. He received his PhD degree in Marketing from Oklahoma State University,
USA. He has published in Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of
Advertising Research, International Marketing Review, Tourism Management, and elsewhere.

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