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Human Resource Management
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Work experiences, work

adjustment and psychological
well-being of expatriate
employees in Hong Kong
Samuel Aryee & Raymond J. Stone
Published online: 28 Jul 2006.

To cite this article: Samuel Aryee & Raymond J. Stone (1996) Work experiences,
work adjustment and psychological well-being of expatriate employees in Hong
Kong, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 7:1, 150-164, DOI:
10.1080/09585199600000122

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 The International Journal of Human Resource Management 7:l February 1996

Work experiences, work adjustment and

psychological well-being of expatriate
employees in Hong Kong

Samuel Aryee and Raymond J. Stone

Downloaded by ["University at Buffalo Libraries"] at 07:33 21 January 2015

Abstract This study replicated and extended research on expatriate work adjust-
ment by examining the antecedents of work adjustment and its outcomes in terms
of psychological well-being. Data were obtained from a nationally heterogeneous
sample (N = 184) of expatriate employees in Hong Kong using a structured ques-
tionnaire. Results of regression analysis revealed role conflict to be significantly
negatively related to work adjustment, while role discretion, co-worker support
and work-method ambiguity (clarity) were significantly positively related to work
adjustment. Of the three hypothesized outcomes, work adjustment was signifi-
cantly positively related only to job satisfaction but not to quality of life and mar-
ital adjustment. Though not the focus of this study, interaction adjustment was
found to be significantly positively related to quality of life. Limitations of the
study and implications of the findings are discussed.
Keywords Expatriates, psychological well-being, work adjustment, work experiences.

The competitive business environment of the late twentieth century has made
internationalization a growing strategic option for organizations that want to
create and sustain competitive advantage. Consequent upon the internationaliza-
tion drive, many companies are sending their employees, particularly managerial
and professional employees, on overseas assignments to implement their global
strategies and to control and co-ordinate their far-flung subsidiaries (Edstrom
and Galbraith, 1979; Black, Gregersen and Mendenhall, 1992). There is, how-
ever, growing evidence that many expatriate employees d o not complete their
assignments, resulting in retention failure (Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985; Tung,
1988; Copeland and Griggs, 1985). Guzzo, Noonan and Elron (1994) define
retention failure as occurring when the manager voluntarily leaves the assign-
ment before its scheduled completion. Retention failures have been estimated to
cost companies amounts ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 per person (Harris,
1979). Consequently, there has been a burgeoning academic and practical interest
in understanding the expatriation process as a way of improving not only reten-
tion rates but expatriate effectiveness as well.
Of the several reasons suggested in the literature for retention failure, the
adjustment of employees and their families to life overseas appears t o be a
prominent one (Black and Stephens, 1989; Black and Gregersen, 1991a; Tung,
1988). Accordingly, much of the research on expatriates has focused on under-
standing expatriate adjustment, culminating in integrated theoretical models
that explain how, and why, expatriates have difficulty adjusting to overseas
0985-5192 O Routledge 1996
 Work adjustment and psychological well-being of expatriate employees 151
assignments (Black, Mendenhall and Oddou, 1991). While research on expatriate
adjustment has contributed subtantially to our understanding and management
of the problem of expatriate retention, there has been a paucity of research on
how adjustment or lack of adjustment affects the well-being of expatriate
employees (Nicholson and Imaizumi, 1993). Contemporaneous with the interest
in expatriate adjustment is the burgeoning interest in the interdependence of
work and non-work spheres of employees and how experiences in the two
domains additively contribute to the psychological well-being of employees
(Jackson, Zedeck and Summers, 1985; Kabanoff, 1980; Frone, Russell and
Cooper, 1991; Near et al., 1984).
Ever since Kornhauser's (1965) seminal research on the effect of work experi-
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ence on the mental health of factory workers, the impact of work and work envi-
ronment characteristics on the psychological well-being of employees has
witnessed a great deal of research interest (Caplan et al., 1975; Karasek, 1979).
Given the overriding conclusion emanating from this stream of research that
work and organizational characteristics affect both the physical and psychologi-
cal well-being of employees, it is surprising that the psychological well-being of
expatriate employees has received very little research attention. As pointed out
earlier, models of expatriate adjustment (Black et a/., 1991) have focused exclu-
sively on understanding the processes that lead to expatriate adjustment but not
the consequences of adjustment in terms of psychological well-being.
The objective of this study is to examine the effect of work and organizational
characteristics on the work adjustment of expatriate employees and the effect of
work adjustment, in turn, on three psychological indicators of well-being - job
satisfaction, marital adjustment and quality of life. While adjustment has been
conceptualized and demonstrated as a multidimensional construct (Black and
Gregersen, 1991b), Black et al. (1991) noted that global antecedents are strongly
related to global facets and specific antecedents are most strongly related to spe-
cific facets. For example, Black (1988) reported that job variables are related to
work adjustment but not to other facets of adjustment. For this reason, the
focus in this study is on work adjustment rather than general and/or interaction
adjustment.

Literature review
An expatriate assignment has been considered as a special case of work role
transition (Black, 1988; Black et al., 1991) with work role transition defined as
any major change in job status or content (Nicholson, 1984). Like all forms of
work role transitions, expatriate assignment is a major source of stress. The
stress inherent in work role transitions, for example transfers, stems from the
uncertainty of being able to re-establish one's behavioural routines in a new
environment. Based on Brett's (1980) model of job transfer as a stressful event,
Black et al. (1992: 743) proposed a model of international adjustment asserting
the following points: (a) individuals establish behavioural routines based on their
perceptions of expectations, reward and punishment contingencies and prefer-
ences for certain outcomes; (b) once confronted with new and unfamiliar situa-
tions, established routines are broken and the individual's sense of control is
reduced; and (c) individuals attempt to re-establish a sense of control by reduc-
ing the uncertainty in the new situation through predictive and/or behavioural
 152 Samuel Aryee and Raymond J. Stone
control. While job transfer is generally a stressful event, it is even more so in an
international context. This is because individuals transferred overseas enter new
organizations (even if they are subsidiaries) where work role expectations are
often unfamiliar and ambiguous and, as such, tend to be uncertain of the conse-
quences of familiar past behaviours when applied in the new context.
Furthermore, individuals may be uncertain about which of the established
behavioural repertoire will be appropriate for specific work situations.
Given the degree of uncertainty inherent in the transition from a domestic to
an international job assignment, a primary concern in the expatriation literature
has been with the adjustment of expatriates to new work situations as well as to
living in a foreign country with a novel culture. Adjustment has been defined as
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the degree of an individual's psychological comfort with various aspects of a new

setting (Black, 1988). As pointed out earlier, the focus in this study is on work
adjustment. As such, the four job-related variables (role claritylambiguity; role
discretion; role novelty; role conflict) and organizational culture characteristics
(social support and organization culture novelty) suggested by Black el al. (1991)
are examined in this study as determinants of work adjustment.
Role ambiguity, defined as lack of clarity or the level of uncertainty surround-
ing expectations about a single role (Ilgen and Hollenbeck, 1991), has generally
been treated as a source of stress in the organizational literature (Caplan et al.,
1975; Kahn et a[., 1964). As a source of stress, role ambiguity has been reported
to have adverse effects on individuals, as, for example, job dissatisfaction
(Jackson and Schuler, 1985). In the international adjustment literature, role
ambiguity has been reported to be negatively related to work adjustment (Black
and Gregersen, 1991b). Based on previous critiques of Rizzo, House and
Lirtzman's (1970) measure of role ambiguity, Breaugh and Colihan (1994) sug-
gested and found support for a multidimensional conceptualization of job or role
ambiguity. Performance criteria ambiguity describes the uncertainty concerning
the standards used for determining whether one's job performance is satisfactory;
work method ambiguity relates to uncertainty regarding how to perform the job,
and scheduling ambiguity describes employee uncertainty concerning the schedul-
ing or sequencing of work activities. As sources of uncertainty and therefore
stress, all three facets are expected to affect one's work adjustment negatively.
Role discretion describes the amount of leeway an individual has in perform-
ing his or her job responsibilities or the authority and the decision latitude in
one's job (Karasek, 1979). Role discretion has been reported to be positively
related to work role adjustment (Black, 1988; Black and Gregersen, 1991b).
Previous researchers (Nicholson, 1984; Brett, 1980) have suggested that role dis-
cretion enables individuals to adapt their work role and setting to themselves
rather than adapting themselves to the work setting. For this reason, Black and
Gregersen (1991b) suggested that role discretion makes it possible for individuals
on international transfer to utilize previous behavioural patterns which, in turn,
reduces uncertainty in the new situation and facilitates adjustment to the work
setting. Thus, role discretion is expected to be positively related to work adjust-
ment.
Role novelty has been shown to have mixed effects on work adjustment. Black
(1988) reported role novelty to be unrelated to work adjustment, while
Nicholson and Imaizumi (1993) reported a negative relationship between role
novelty and work adjustment. Role novelty describes the extent to which one's
 Work adjustment and psychological well-being of expatriate employees 153
current role differs from past roles such that high role novelty will precipitate a
high degree of uncertainty and may be experienced as stressful. It is, therefore,
expected that a high degree of novelty in job demands will be negatively related
to work adjustment. The final job or work factor examined here is role conflict
which has been consistently shown to be a source of stress (Kahn et al., 1964;
Ivancevich and Matteson, 1980). In the international adjustment literature, role
conflict has been reported to be negatively related to work adjustment (Black
and Gregersen, 1991b). This is because, in a new cultural setting, conflicting sig-
nals can generate a high degree of uncertainty since individuals must, first,
understand the messages about what to do and, then, decide which messages to
follow, which to ignore (Black et al., 1991: 309). It is, therefore, expected that
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role conflict will be negatively related to work adjustment.

In addition to job factors, organizational variables have been suggested to
affect work adjustment (Black et al., 1991). Two such variables examined in this
study, reflective of organizational culture, are social support and time commit-
ment to work. Black et al. (1991) suggested that social support will provide
expatriate employees with information about what is acceptable and unaccept-
able in the new work context. Such information should be instrumental in reduc-
ing the extent of uncertainty experienced by expatriate employees and facilitate
work adjustment. A supportive organizational culture will enable expatriate
employees to make sense of their new work context and reduce the element of
surprise and uncertainty (Louis, 1980). It is expected that both supervisor and
co-worker support will be positively related to work adjustment. Another facet
of organizational culture examined in this study is time commitment to work. It
may be the norm in subsidiary firms overseas that employees rarely keep a 9-to-5
schedule. An expatriate employee whose previous work context did not subscribe
to the norm of working long hours may find it stressful and this may exacerbate
his or her work adjustment problems. However, conformity to social norms, in
this instance keeping long hours, may facilitate work adjustment in that it will
provide ample opportunities for expatriate employees to interact more often with
co-workers and supervisors, resulting in the receipt of more social support.
As noted earlier, with the exception of Nicholson and Imaizumi (1993), the
psychological well-being of expatriates has been neglected in models of interna-
tional adjustment. This is unfortunate as a steady stream of theoretical and
empirical work has indicated that work experiences andlor the effects of job-
related stress are not limited to work behaviours and affect, but also such nega-
tive affect may extend to the non-work life of employees (Kabanoff, 1980; Near,
Rice and Hunt, 1980; Near et al., 1984; Frone et al., 1991). In this study, the
jobtrole factors and organizational culture facets are posited to affect work
adjustment, and work adjustment, in turn, affects the psychological well-being of
expatriates as indicated by job satisfaction, marital adjustment and quality of
life. While job satisfaction has been treated as an indicator of work adjustment
in the domestic work transition literature (Zahrly and Tosi, 1989), it is treated in
this study as an outcome of work adjustment. This is because of our conceptual-
ization of adjustment as the degree to which an incumbent feels psychologically
comfortable in the new role and, therefore, adjusted to the role requirements.
Being able to handle role requirements will result in the incumbent developing an
affective attitude towards the job, hence job satisfaction.
Although there is anecdotal evidence that expatriate employees have a poor
 154 Samuel Aryee and Raymond J. Stone
quality of marital life, the source of their poor quality of marital life has not
been examined. Based on the spillover perspective, it has been shown that work
reactions have either a positive or a negative effect on the non-work life of
employees (Burke, Weir and Duwors, 1980; Jones and Fletcher, 1993; Jackson et
al., 1985). A low degree of work adjustment, and the resulting stress, can disrupt
marital life because it may spill over into an expatriate employee's interactions
with hisher spouse, and negatively affect their marital adjustment. By the same
logic, a low degree of work adjustment will negatively affect the quality of life or
life satisfaction of an expatriate employee. This may especially be so because the
work role is the primary reason for the expatriate's sojourn in a foreign country.
Thus, given a role that dominates the waking hours of a person, stress emanat-
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ing from that role as a result of a low degree of work adjustment may negatively
affect one's quality of life. Nicholson and Imaizumi (1993) reported a positive
zero-order correlation between work adjustment and both work and non-work
well-being.
In sum, this study sought to contribute to our understanding of the expatriate
experience by, first, partially replicating previous research on expatriate work
adjustment (Black and Gregersen, 1991a) and, second, extending our understand-
ing of the expatriate experience by examining the effect of work adjustment on
the well-being of expatriate employees. Furthermore, unlike previous research
that focused on nationally homogeneous samples, Americans (Black and
Gregersen, 1991b; Black, 1988) or Japanese (Nicholson and Imaizumi, 1993), this
study focused on a nationally heterogeneous sample.

Method
Sample and procedures
Data for the study were obtained, with the aid of structured questionnaires,
from professional and managerial expatriate employees listed in the Directory of
American Business in Hong Kong 1994-95 and Australian Business in Hong Kong
1994. Although the two chambers of commerce represent business in the two
countries operating in Hong Kong, their employees are not necessarily of the
same nationality. The sample was randomly drawn from the two directories by
selecting every third person. This generated a total of 800 respondents to whom
questionnaire packages were sent. Attached to each questionnaire was a letter
explaining how respondents were chosen, the objectives of the survey, and
assurances of anonymity and confidentiality of responses. Enclosed in each
package was a stamped self-addressed envelope for returning completed ques-
tionnaires.
Of the 800 questionnaires distributed, 184 completed and usable questionnaire
were returned for a response rate of 23 per cent. Although typical of response
rates in surveys involving expatriate employees and mailed surveys in general
(Dillman, 1978; Black, 1988; Naumann, 1993), the effective response rate might
have been higher. This was because a number of questionnaire packages were
returned either because the person to whom it was addressed had left the com-
pany or because we had the wrong address. Of the 184 respondents, 147 were
males and thirty-seven were females, 114 were 40 years or older; 165 were mar-
ried or cohabiting and 155 were university graduates. In terms of nationality,
fifty-one were British, sixty-one were American, fifty-two were Australians and
 Work adjustment and psychological well-being of expatriate employees 155
New Zealanders, and the remaining twenty were from continental Europe and
South-east Asia. Respondents reported an average organizational tenure of ten
years and had lived and worked in Hong Kong for an average of six years.

Measures
Adjustment A 14-item adjustment scale developed by Black and Stephens (1989)
was factor analysed and the resulting factor loadings indicated three distinct fac-
tors labelled general, interaction and work adjustment. For the work adjustment
scale for example, respondents were asked to indicate the extent of their adjust-
ment to specific job-performance standards and expectations, and supervisory
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responsibilities. Response options ranged from (I) 'not at all adjusted' to (5)
'completely adjusted'. The alpha reliability for the work adjustment scale is .83;
for interaction adjustment is .90 and for general adjustment .80.

Role conflict A 3-item scale developed by Caplan et ul. (1975) was used to mea-
sure role conflict. Response options ranged from (I) 'rarely or never' to (4) 'very
often'. Sample items are 'Persons equal in rank and authority over you ask you
to do things which conflict' and 'People whose requests should be met give you
things which conflict with other work you have to do'. The scale's alpha reliabil-
ity in this study is .83.

Role ambiguity An 8-item scale developed by Breaugh and Colihan (1994) was
used to measure the three facets of role ambiguity. The 8-item scale was factor
analysed resulting in three factor loadings - work method ambiguity, perfor-
mance criteria ambiguity and scheduling ambiguity. Response options ranged
from (I) 'disagree strongly' to (7) 'agree strongly'. A sample item for work
method ambiguity is 'I am certain how to go about getting my job done'; for
performance criteria ambiguity, 'I know what my supervisor considers satisfac-
tory work performance'; and, for scheduling ambiguity, 'I know when I should
be doing a particular aspect (part) of my job'. The alpha reliability for work
method ambiguity is .86; for performance ambiguity is .75 and for scheduling
ambiguity is .95.

Role novelty A 3-item scale based on the work of Nicholson and West (1988)
was used to measure role novelty. Respondents were asked to indicate the extent
of the difference between their current and previous work roles in terms of tasks
involved, skills required for the job and methods used to do the job. Responses
ranged from (1) 'almost identical' to (4) 'almost completely different'. The scale's
alpha reliability in this study is .85.

Role discretion An 8-item scale developed by Gregersen and Black (1992) was
used to measure role discretion. Response options ranged from (1) 'strongly dis-
agree' to (5) 'strongly agree'. Sample items include 'I have discretion as to what
gets done' and 'I have authority to decide what tasks to delegate'. The scale's
alpha reliability in this study is .88.

Social support Two 4-item scales developed by Caplan et al. (1975) were used
to measure supervisor support and co-worker support. Respondents were asked
 156 Samuel Aryee and Raymond J. Stone
to indicate how much support they received from their immediate boss and co-
workers in terms of the extent of their willingness to listen to personal problems,
be relied on when things get tough at work, ease of talking to them and going
out of their way to do things to make work life easier. Response options ranged
from (0) 'do not have any such person' to (4) 'very much'. The alpha reliability
for the supervisor support subscale is .89 and for co-worker support subscale is
.74.

Job satisfaction A 6-item scale developed by Brayfield and Rothe (1951) was
used to measure job satisfaction. Response options ranged from (1) 'strongly dis-
agree' to (5) 'strongly agree'. Sample items are 'I find real enjoyment in my job
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and 'I am seldom bored with my job.' The scale's alpha reliability in this study is
.86.

Marital adjustment A 15-item scale developed by Spanier (1976) was used to

measure marital adjustment. Respondents were asked to indicate, on a 5-point
scale, the extent of agreement or disagreement they have with their spouses in
such areas of their union as 'handling family finances', 'matters of recreation',
'making major decisions' and 'amount of time spent together'. The scale's alpha
reliability in this study is .96.

Quality of life A scale developed by Quinn and Shepard (1974) was used to
measure quality of life. In the first part of the scale, respondents were asked their
present life situation on eight 5-point bipolar scales (e.g. boring-interesting;
empty-full; discouraging-hopeful).The second part of the scale comprised two
items measuring happiness ('Taking all things together, how would you say
things are these days? Not too happy, pretty happy, very happy') and life satis-
faction ('In general, how satisfying do you find the ways you are spending your
life these days? Not very satisfying, pretty satisfying and completely satisfying').
Scores for the two scales were standardized and averaged to create an overall
quality of life index with an alpha reliability of .91.

Time commitment to work A single, closed-ended item was used to assess the
average number of hours a respondent works per week. Response options ranged
from (1) 30 hours or less; (2) 31-40 hours; (3) 41-50 hours and (4) 51 hours or
more.

Demographics Age, marital status, gender and educational attainment were

measured using single, close-ended formats, while organizational tenure, nation-
ality and years lived and worked in Hong Kong were measured with single,
open-ended formats.

Results
The descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations of the study variables are
presented in Table 1. A review of that table indicates that mean scores for the
variables were generally above the mid-level point, indicating that respondents
perceived a fair experience of these variables. Particularly, respondents seem to
have adjusted well to their work role requirements (mean score of 4.13 out of a
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F
0
%
E,
Table 1 Descriptive statistics and zero-order correlations of study variables ( N = 184) &
E
Variables Means Std.Dev. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 s
1 Work adjustment 4.13 .66 - s
z,
E,
2 Role discretion 3.95 .72 .46 -
3 Role c o d i c t 1.86 .77 -.34 -.30 - b
4 Role novelty 2.75 .82 .05 -.04 .05 - 5
3.
5 Work method ambiguity 5.69 1.02 .51 .30 -.25 -.I5 - o
6 Scheduling ambiguity 5.22 1.40 .39 .36 -.28 -.13 .44 -
53
7 Perf. criteria ambiguity
8 Supervisor support
5.43
2.40
1.01
1.04
.52 .46
.15 .18
-.40 -.07
-.18 -.08
.49 .51
.15 .40
-
.32 -
g
F
9 Co-worker support 2.80 .65 .38 .29 -.25 .01 .30 .23 .33 .25 -
10 Time commitment to work
11 Quality of life
12 Job satisfaction
3.62
3.66
3.83
.63
.62
.71
.01 .05
.39 .48
.50 .57
-.05 -.11
-.34 -.I2
-.33 -.08
.09 -.01
.37 .46
.41 .46
.06 -.05
.47 .29
.45 .20
.04
.34
.32
-
.09
.15
-
.61 -
8
$.
13 Marital adjustment 4.11 1.43 .05 .07 -.11 -.01 .15 -.01 .14 -.03 .15 .05 .18 .02 -
rn
%
Notes
Correlations of .15 and above are significant at p < .05 (2-tailed)
With the exception of the role ambiguity facets, all variables were scored such that a high mean score reflects a high perceived experi-
3S
Y

ence of that variable. Consistent with Breaugh and Colihan (1994), the role ambiguity facets were worded in a positive direction. 3
9
b
F
'3
2
 158 Samuel Aryee and Raymond J. Stone
maximum score of 5.00). Table 1 also shows that work adjustment was signifi-
cantly positively related to the outcome variables of job satisfaction (r = SO, p <
.01) and quality of life (r = .39, p < .01), but not to marital adjustment (r = .05,
p = n.s.). Of the predictor variables, job discretion (r = .46, p < .01), co-worker
support (r = .38, p < .01), supervisor support (r = .15, p < .05), performance cri-
teria ambiguity (r = .52, p < .01), scheduling ambiguity (r = .39, p < .01) and
work methods ambiguity (r = .51, p < .01) were all significantly positively related
to work adjustment while role conflict (r = -.34, p < .01) was significantly nega-
tively related to work adjustment.
Table 2 presents the results of the regression analysis that examined the direct
effect of the predictor variables on work adjustment. The significant positive
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antecedents of work adjustment were job discretion (beta = .25, p < .001), work
method ambiguity (beta = .32, p < .001) and co-worker support (beta = .16, p <
.05), while role conflict was significantly negatively related to work adjustment
(beta = -.15, p < .05). The variables accounted for 44 per cent ( R ~ of ) the
explained variance in work adjustment.
Also shown in Table 2 are the results of regressing the well-being measures on
work adjustment and its predictors. Of the three well-being measures, work
adjustment was significantly positively related only to job satisfaction (beta =
.19, p < .01). In a separate analysis not shown, the well-being measures were
regressed on the three facets of international adjustment and the antecedents of
work adjustment. Of the three adjustment facets, only interaction adjustment
was significantly positively related to quality of life (beta = .18, p < .01) but none
of the three facets was significantly related to marital adjustment. As shown in
Table 2, work adjustment was even negatively though non-significantly related to
marital adjustment.
In general, the findings indicate, first, that job or work role factors that reduce
uncertainty tend to contribute positively to work adjustment, second, that the
facets of job ambiguity are differentially related to work adjustment and, third,
that the facets of international adjustment are also differentially related to the
well-being measures of job satisfaction and quality of life, but are not related to
marital adjustment.

Discussion
In spite of the increasingly important role of expatriate employees in the interna-
tionalization of companies, efforts to understand the effectiveness of expatriates
in their international assignments have focused exclusively on the adjustment of
such employees to living and working in a foreign country. While this research
focus has contributed to our understanding of retention failure in expatriate
assignments, equally important but under-researched is the effect of adjustment
on the psychological well-being of expatriate employees. This study examined the
effect of some work or job characteristics and facets of organizational culture on
work adjustment, and the effect of work adjustment, in turn, on the psychologi-
cal well-being of a nationally heterogeneous sample of expatriate employees in
Hong Kong.
Consistent with previous findings (Black, 1988; Black and Gregersen, 1991b),
results of the regression analysis revealed role conflict to be significantly nega-
tively related to work adjustment. As a source of stress because of the conflicting
Downloaded by ["University at Buffalo Libraries"] at 07:33 21 January 2015

Table 2 Results of regressing work adjustment on the hypothesized predictors and of regressing the well-being measures on work aa'justment ,&
( N = 184) % '

Dependent variables
z5
Predictor variables Work adjurtment Job satkfaction Marital adjustment Quality of life
i%
.25*** .37*** .01 .28***
Role discretion
Role conflict
Role novelty
-.15*
.10
-.09
-.02
-.06
-.01
-.I1
-.05
%
b

Work method ambiguity" .32*** .14' .09 .08 g

2.
Scheduling ambiguity .04 .31*** .14' .22**
Performance criteria ambiguity .10 .21** .15* -.02 5
e
Supervisor support .04 .02 -.06 .08 m,
Co-worker support .16* .07 .12 .13+ 7
Time commitment to work -.04 .13+ .02 .06 W9'
Work adjustment - .19** -. 10 .05 00
R~ .44 .49 .07 .39 %
Adj R2 .41 .46 .02 .35
3fi
Notes Y

*** p < .011; ** p < .01; p < .05; + p < .06 g

m
" The role ambiguity scales were positively worded (see Breaugh and Colihan, 1994)
b
9
F
'22
2
C1
VI
\O
 160 Samuel Aryee and Raymond J. Stone
messages it entails, in an international context role conflict may be even more
problematic because of linguistic and cultural differences which may exacerbate
the expatriate employee's experience of stress, resulting in low work adjustment.
Previous findings (Black, 1988; Black and Gregersen, 1991b) have reported a
unidimensional measure of ambiguity to be negatively related to work adjust-
ment. Using Breaugh and Colihan's (1994) multifaceted measure of jobhole
ambiguity, the results of the regression analysis revealed that, of the three facets,
only work method ambiguity was significantly positively related to work adjust-
ment. Work method ambiguity may be particularly salient because ambiguity or
uncertainty concerning how to perform a task may interfere with task accom-
plishment. As with previous findings, role discretion was significantly positively
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related to work adjustment (Black and Gregersen, 1991b). Role discretion, or the
decision latitude and authority to make decisions (Karasek, 1979), may facilitate
work adjustment because it enables the expatriate employee to control work-
related events or processes which enables him or her to continue to utilize previ-
ous behavioural patterns.
Although the zero-order correlation results revealed both co-worker and
supervisor support to be significantly positively related to work adjustment, only
co-worker support was revealed by the regression analysis to be significant. The
nonsignificant effect of supervisor support on work adjustment could stem from
the fact that most expatriate employees may be reporting directly to immediate
bosses at the head office in their country of origin. Since these immediate bosses
might not have experienced, and therefore have little understanding of, the work
context in that location, they may not be able to provide the instrumental and
emotional support to facilitate work adjustment. The effect of co-worker support
on work adjustment may stem from expatriate employees' more frequent interac-
tion with colleagues who may be an important source of information. Future
studies may need to examine whether co-workers are locals or fellow expatriates
and the sort of support or information provided by the two groups of co-
workers. In terms of the outcomes of work adjustment, our findings revealed
that, of the three measures of psychological well-being, work adjustment was sig-
nificantly positively related only to job satisfaction. This finding is consistent
with Dawis and Lofquist's (1984) proposition that correspondence or fit between
individual and organizational characteristics or, as in this case, work context
should induce job satisfaction. The effect of work adjustment on job satisfaction
in this study suggests that, in addition to jobttask and organizational characteris-
tics (Naumann, 1993), future research on the job satisfaction of expatriate
employees may need to broaden the category of determinants to include work
adjustment. Though not the focus of this study, the results of a regression analy-
sis not reported revealed that all three facets of international adjustment were
unrelated to marital adjustment while interaction adjustment was significantly
positively related to quality of life. The excitement that the opportunity to live
and work in a unique cultural environment that international assignment entails
may stem from the expected developmental and enriching experiences. Inter-
action adjustment enables the expatriate employee to broaden his or her circle of
friends, and fully immerse him or herself in this unique cultural environment,
resulting in an improved quality of life.
As with all research, the findings reported in this study must be evaluated
against a backdrop of the study's limitations. First, although the response rate is
 Work aq'justment and psychological well-being of expatriate employees 161
comparable to those in previous research (Black, 1988; Naumann, 1993), it is dif-
ficult to ascertain the representativeness of our sample and, consequently, the
extent to which the findings are generalizable to the population of expatriate
employees in Hong Kong. Second, since the data were collected or obtained
from a single source, that is, structured questionnaire, there is the possibility that
method variance may have contaminated the findings of this study. To obviate
the method variance problem, items with similar response options were inter-
spersed in the questionnaire, making it difficult to provide uniform responses.
In spite of these limitations, the modest findings reported here may have impli-
cations for managing expatriates. The implication of the significant relationship
between work method ambiguity and work adjustment is that multinational
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companies (MNCs) should provide potential expatriates realistic job previews as

part of the pre-departure orientation programme. As work method ambiguity
interferes with task accomplishment, a realistic job preview that provides a broad
description of what the job entails and how task goals are to be accomplished
may contribute to early work adjustment and, ultimately, job performance.
Realistic job previews may be complemented with goal setting when the expatri-
ate arrives in hisfher country of expatriation. This is because goal setting may
help to clarify the necessary work behaviours that will result in task accomplish-
ment, thereby providing the expatriate some feedback on hisfher performance. A
second implication of our findings stems from the effect of role discretion on
work adjustment and the outcome variables of job satisfaction and quality of
life. Black (1992) noted that expatriates usually enjoy a high degree of role
autonomy and discretion because of the geographic distance from the parent
fkm resulting in greater freedom from its control system. While role discretion
minimizes the amount of information needed to perform a job and therefore the
level of uncertainty experienced, MNCs do not necessarily have to expand the
decision latitude of expatriate jobs. The extent to which this is done should be
contingent upon the degree of innovative behaviours required of the expatriate
role incumbent. Nicholson (1984) suggested that role discretion enables individu-
als to adapt their work role and setting to themselves rather than adapting them-
selves to the situation, thereby facilitating innovative behaviours on the part of
the role incumbent. However, expatriate roles that do not require a great deal of
innovative behaviours may be enriched by way of such practical alternatives to
job redesign as temporary projects or committee assignments that offer opportu-
nities for some decision latitude and the use of different skills.
The effect of co-worker support on work adjustment suggests the use of a
buddy system as a means of socializing newly arrived expatriates. A buddy sys-
tem with a senior expatriate co-worker should provide the newly arrived expatri-
ate with considerable information about appropriate roles and behaviours,
thereby reducing the uncertainty associated with the web of expectations and
relationships in a new organizational context. Such a buddy system should take
on a mix of formal and informal characteristics: formal in that it is part of the
organizational socialization practices of the MNCs but informal in that the pair-
ing up and the content of socialization are pretty much left to the individuals
involved. Although research on expatriate adjustment in general aims to enhance
retention rates in expatriate assignments, the findings revealed a significant posi-
tive relationship between interaction adjustment and quality of life. The implica-
tion of this finding is that MNCs should, in the context of their pre-departure
 162 Samuel Aryee and Raymond J. Stone
orientation programmes, enhance the intercultural competence (relational and
perceptual skills) of potential expatriates. The use of training programmes such
as sensitivity training, field experiences, language skills, experiential workshops
and assessment centres (Ronen, 1991; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985) may
enhance the intercultural competence of expatriates, resulting in interaction
adjustment.
Given the growing importance of internationalization as a strategic business
option in a competitive global business environment, the retention of expatriates
in international assignments will continue to dominate the human resource
agenda of MNCs. The modest findings of this study have suggested a battery of
human resource practices that MNCs may use not only to enhance expatriate
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work adjustment, and thereby retention rates, but also their psychological well-
being while on international assignments.
Samuel Aryee and Raymond J. Stone
Department of Management
School of Business
Hong Kong Baptist University
224 Waterloo Road
Kowloon, Hong Kong

Note
A slightly modified version of this manuscript was presented to the Academy of
International Business South East Regional Conference in Perth, June 1995.

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