An examination of intent to leave among United States expatriates in Taiwan: The relative effect of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and expatriate adjustment (China)

With the growing global competition and internationalization of world markets, expatriate assignments are more and more important to successful global expansion for many multinational corporations. This study investigated the relationship of job satisfaction, organizational commitment and expatriate adjustment to intent to leave among U.S. expatriate managers in Taiwan. Three research questions guide this study: (1) Is job satisfaction related to intent to leave the organization for U.S. expatriates in Taiwan? (2) Is organizational commitment related to intent to leave the organization for U.S. expatriates in Taiwan? (3) Is expatriate adjustment related to intent to leave the organization for U.S. expatriates in Taiwan? This research summarizes the literature expatriate adjustment, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and intent to leave and tests the hypotheses. It is hypothesized that organizational commitment, job satisfaction and expatriate adjustment will be inversely related to intention to leave the organization. The research was conducted among 255 members of American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan, and 96 responses were received, yielding a response rate of 37.6%. Of the 96 responses received, 85 were useable, yielding a final response rate of 33.33%. The results summarize demographic data and report scale reliability using Cronbach's Alphas. Data were analyzed to test the three hypotheses using the correlation analyses. Since there are negative correlations between intent to leave and the three independent variables, the null hypothesis can be rejected in each case. The results of this study provide empirical evidence and theoretical contribution to the expatriate assignment, international human resource management and organizational behavior literature on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, expatriate adjustment to intent to leave. Job satisfaction is significantly related to intent to leave. The results show what parent companies can do to keep expatriates performing well and staying in the host country for long period of their assignments. Although organizational commitment and expatriate adjustment were not found to be significant predicator of expatriate's intent to leave the organization in the host country in this research, it should not be ignored.