The Impact Of Social Media Use On The Cross-Cultural Adaptation Of Chinese Expatriates

Under the wave of "One Belt,One Road",more and more Chinese enterprises begin to implement the "going out" strategy,sending employees to work overseas.In the process of working abroad,expatriates are bound to interact with local citizens in a new environment.However,a large number of papers show that expatriates are faced with a series of intercultural adaptation problems,which affect their work to varying degrees,and even lead to the failure of expatriate work.In this context,more and more studies have focused on the process of cross-cultural adaptation of expatriates.The study of intercultural adaptation is a key to ensure that the expatriate can complete the task on time and with good quality.On the other hand,with the rapid development of the Internet,social media is also gradually playing a pivotal role.For expatriates,social media can not only help them understand the local culture but also help them keep in touch with China and gain support from family and friends.Based on the above background,this study selects the use of social media and intercultural adaptation as the entry point,and conducts an empirical study on the use of social media and intercultural adaptation of Chinese expatriates through questionnaire survey and in-depth interview,combining qualitative research with quantitative research.In the quantitative study,the author refers to previous studies,to adapt the social culture,psychological adaptation,adapt to three work scale combined into cross-cultural adaptation scale,at the same time for the use of social media design-related questions in the questionnaire,through the data analysis to explore the cross-cultural adaptation of expatriates is how to be affected;Based on quantitative research,the author conducts further qualitative research through interviews,to explore the specific impact of social media on the intercultural adaptation of expatriates and the differences in the use of different social media by expatriates.The results show that the use of social media by Chinese expatriates has a significant impact on intercultural adaptation,and the longer and more intense the use of social media,the better the performance of intercultural adaptation.In terms of specific dimensions,the use of domestic social media has a significant positive impact on socio-cultural adaptation,psychological adaptation,and work adaptationdimensions in cross-cultural adaptation,while the use of foreign social media has a significant positive impact on psychological adaptation and work adaptation dimensions in cross-cultural adaptation.Among demographic factors,the number of years of overseas assignment can significantly affect cross-cultural adaptation,and the number of years of overseas assignment is more than 3 years.Besides,the interview results show that:first,for expatriates,cultural language differences and interpersonal communication are two important factors that affect intercultural adaptation;Secondly,there are some differences in the use of social media by expatriates in China and abroad,mainly reflected in the two aspects of use purpose and use frequency.Third,generally speaking,the use of social media plays an active role in the cross-cultural adaptation of expatriates.This paper focuses on the professional group of expatriates and studies the intercultural adaptation of Chinese enterprises' expatriates through the use of social media.At the end of the paper,based on the results of data analysis,corresponding suggestions are put forward for the enterprises and expatriates themselves,to provide ideas for improving the cross-cultural adaptation of expatriates.