Exploration of the relationship between cosmopolitanism and expatriate effectiveness : does cosmopolitanism as a state of mind favor satisfaction and success on international assignments ?

Details

Supervisors

Ehnert, Ina

Faculty

Louvain School of Management

Degree label

Master [120] en sciences de gestion

Abstract

Our study aimed to associate two related fields which had been studied separately in previous literature: cosmopolitanism and expatriate effectiveness. Since no consensus about a definition of cosmopolitanism had been reached in previous literature, we attempted to define the cosmopolitan state of mind in our view. In the context of our study, cosmopolitan people are particular in the way that “they are comfortable in many places and able to understand and bridge the differences among them. They move because they find the world attractive, and for them, openness to new experiences is a vocation” (van Bochove & Engbersen, 2013, p.1). In addition, “Cosmopolitans have the willingness to explore and experience the panoply of transcultural diversity. They consume cultural differences in a reflective manner and do not stand to lose a new and exciting cultural experience” (Grinstein & Wathieu, 2008, p.6). Our main assumption was that cosmopolitan expatriates are more successful than others, because their decision to expatriate is linked to the fulfillment of their desires for adventure and for new experiences, and to their ability to deal with multiculturalism. In order to test our hypotheses, we undertook a survey and administrated an online questionnaire to 151 expatriates, from all over the world, and 77 respondents could be considered as cosmopolitans. Our statistical analyses confirmed most of our assumptions. We discovered that cosmopolitanism, which is above all characterized by an individual’s interest for other cultures and openness to new experiences, can be predicted by several individual characteristics: interest for other human beings, openness to change and enthousiasm for diversity. We also demonstrated that these people, following their vocation to new experiences, often decide to expatriate with the aims of seeing the world or following their desire for adventure. Despite our limited sample, we were able to show that cosmopolitanism is positively correlated to expatriation satisfaction, general adjustment, interaction adjustment, job-specific performance and extra-role job performance. We also confirmed that expatriation satisfaction completely mediates the relationships between cosmopolitanism and general adjustment (1), interaction adjustment (2) job-specific performance (3) and extra-role job performance (4). These findings assure that the cosmopolitan profile has potential to be leveraged in the field of expatriate selection. More generally, our study confirms that the pursuit of goals in adequacy with ideals and interests favors effectiveness, thanks to superior satisfaction. We believe that our results also have implications for individuals’ choices of career path in general. People should primarily follow their intrinsic motivations and desires, in the interests of themselves and of the companies they work for.