Study On Cross Cultural Adaptation Strategies Of Expatriates From Z Multinational Enterprise

With the quick development of globalization,the enterprise internationalization progress accelerates.More and more enterprises choose to extend business overseas,more and more expatriates are required to support the expanding business or projects overseas.It’s reported in Global Migration and Remittances Overview by the World Bank that the overseas workers worldwide were up to 266 million by 2017.When expatriates enter a new social environment,they encounter various cross-cultural differences due to differences in region,language,values,living customs,religion and thinking,thus resulting in cross-cultural adaptation problems.Cross-cultural adaptation barriers cause assignment failure,low performance,or loss of talented staffs,which makes the overseas business cannot be carried out smoothly.Therefore,the cross-cultural adaptation problem is a tough and key issue in multinational enterprise.Scholars abroad have studied crosscultural adaptation for nearly a century,but it’s not that long time in China.And due to the differences between Chinese culture and western culture,it requires more empirical analysis and testing on expatriates management and cross-cultural adaptation study in China.With theoretical knowledge as the background,the author conducted an in-depth survey of 56 expatriates of Z multinational enterprises from different dimensions in combination with personal semi-interviews and questionnaires,so as to explore the status of cross-cultural adaptation,the root causes affecting their adaptability and corresponding improvement strategies.The results show that the expatriates of Z multinational enterprise have the most difficulty in interactive adaptation,and less difficulty in work adaptation.Language and communication ability,cultural attitude and family support are the common factors that affect the adaptability of expatriates.The root causes of cross-cultural adaptation problems are the inadequate language ability of expatriates,the negative personal character and cultural attitude,the lack of cross-cultural adaptation training and the lack of organizational support.In view of the root causes,improvement strategies are proposed from the perspectives of expatriate personnel selection,cross-cultural adaptation training,organizational support and return support.