Individual, Organizational/Work and Environmental Influences on Expatriate Turnover Tendencies: An Empirical Study
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JohnS. Hill** Universityof Alabama
Abstract.Foreignpostingsfor executivesare costly undertakingsfor multinationalcorporations,especiallywhentheyfail. Yetlittle research has beendoneon the causesof expatriateturnover.This 115-expatriate survey assesses individual,organizational/workand environmental influencesonbothinternalandexternalturnovertendencies.It wasfound thatjob autonomyandmateriallife satisfactionwerekeypredictorsfor bothinternalandexternalturnovertendencies.Onlyfor organizational turnoverdidjobautonomysupersedemateriallifesatisfactionas thelead predictorof turnovertendencies.Americanexpatriatesattach much importanceto maintainingliving standardsin postings to foreign locations. The United States has $548 billion of directinvestmentin foreignmarkets [Surveyof CurrentBusiness 1994].And whilein most cases Americanmultinational corporations(MNCs) staff their foreign operationslocally [Tung 1982],thereareoccasionswheninfusionsof homecountrynationalsarenecessary additionsto the overseaspersonnelmix. Thereare times, for example, whenheadofficeperspectivesneedto be representedat thesubsidiarylevel.On otheroccasions,expatriatescarrywith themessentialmanagerialor technical skills. But whilesomeAmericansenjoythe stimulusof foreignliving,and view it as a mind-broadeningexperience(anda foot up thecorporateladderin a increasingly internationalworld), for others the foreign assignmentis an ordeal. *Meg G. Birdseye (Ph.D., University of Alabama) is Assistant Professor of Management at the School of Business at Augusta College, Georgia. Her research interests are in human resources and international management. **John S. Hill (Ph.D., University of Georgia) is Professor of International Business at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. His research interests are in international business, marketing and global strategic management. The authorsgratefullyacknowledgethe methodologicalhelp furnishedby Dr. JamesCashmanand Dr. ElizabethFerrellof the Universityof Alabama,and the exceptionallyconstructivecritiquesof the three JIBS reviewers. Received:October1993Revised:June1994;January&April1995Accepted:April1995 787
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JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONALBUSINESSSTUDIES, FOURTHQUARTER1995
Going abroad for protracted periods places strains on them and their families. For the expatriate manager, adjustments to new job assignments are usually necessary [Torbiorn 1982; Black 1988; Black et al. 1991; Feldman and Tompson 1993]; and for spouses and families, unfamiliar transportation, housing, food, healthcare, and education systems cause problems [Tung 1982; Black and Stephens 1989; Gregerson and Black 1990]. When required adjustments are extreme (Americans working in the Middle East for example, [Feldman and Thomas 1992]), or when individuals fail to adjust (as with Feldman and Thomas' psychological withdrawal or palliative coping responses), then turnover options become viable, ei
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