This article can be found at http://mentalhealth.about.com/library/sci/1001/blspouse1001.htm
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA-As more businesses go global and move operations and employees overseas, they must become more aware of the role spouses and families play, suggests a Penn State professor who recently completed two studies on expatriate spouse adjustment.
"One of the biggest reasons employees do not complete international assignments is that families are unable to adjust," says David Harrison, professor of management in Penn State's Smeal College of Business. "Spouses and families are often the forgotten partners in global operations."
Harrison wrote two studies on expatriate spouse adjustment, "Struggling for Balance Amid Turbulence on International Assignments: Work-Family Conflict, Support and Commitment," and "Forgotten Partners of International Assignments: Development and Test of a Model of Spouse Adjustment." He co-wrote the studies with Margaret Shaffer of Hong Kong Baptist University, and they appear in the Journal of Management and the Journal of Applied Psychology.
There is no official record of the number of employees stationed outside their native countries, but it is estimated there are at least 1.3 million expatriates with American multinational corporations alone, says Harrison. "Given that approximately 80 percent of expatriates are married, there are more than 1 million spouses also taking part in these international relocations."
In a five-year study of 221 international assignee couples working in 37 countries, the researchers found that the process of adjusting is like developing a brand new personal and social identity for a spouse, from the ground up. One of the biggest predictors of adjustment is whether the spouse made an effort to get to know the people who live there.
"We also found that extended family support had an adverse effect on adjustment," says Harrison. A possible explanation for this is that spouses who have very supportive extended families exert more effort to maintain those relationships. Consequently, they invest less of themselves in forging relationships with host-country nationals.
Social-efficacy skills, extended family support, and prior jobs that might have served spouses well in their native countries have either null or negative effects on adapting to an international relocation. These remnants of a previous identity either hinder of offer no help to adjustment.
"Redefining one's identity by gaining fluency in the host location's language, as well as developing a large and varying set of social connections, especially those who are native to the assigned country are all helpful to adjustment," says Harrison.
A tentative implication of the results is that pre-departure training for spouses would also be worthwhile, especially if it includes language training, and especially if the assignment demands social interaction outside one's new home or outside a "camp" or "compound" of other expatriate families.
With increasing numbers of dual-career couples, career issues are becoming a critical factor in decisions to accept an international assignment. In most cases, the spouse has to give up a job or forgo continuing educational or other career-related pursuits to "trail" after the expatriate. Work restrictions in many countries make it difficult, if not impossible, for spouses to continue careers while overseas.
Although most companies do not keep track of how many international assignments end early, Harrison estimates that 20-40 percent of employees return home prematurely.
"This takes a toll on the families and costs companies thousands since companies often ship their higher-level employees overseas," says Harrison.
"Even in the near future, spouses will undoubtedly have many more opportunities to go overseas. However, most places in this 'global' village will likely remain entirely new environments with unknown and confusing expectations, and spouses will continue to struggle to maintain their original identity or establish a new one. Consequently, it is essential that international organizations understand and help these forgotten partners adjust."
Harrison notes that the following comment from an expatriate spouse illustrates many of the concepts discussed in the research. It also depicts the spouse as an organizational asset and it highlights the personal costs associated with being an expatriate spouse.
"The very worst aspect of being an expat spouse is that one is completely disenfranchised. You become a non-person. For 30 years, I have moved my kids, my pets, my household, trailing after my husband to places where there are few other expats, no work permit for me, therefore, no job opportunities. I could not get money (he gets it from the company), am at the beck and call as a 'corporate wife (unpaid!)', could not leave a country without permits or air tickets. I've moved to lands where no one spoke English (where we were living), many foods were unavailable, very poor health facilities, electricity and water would go off for hours or days. The few friends one might make leave for long vacations and leave permanently. One spends one's time volunteering, fund raising for the destitute, etc., and filled with guilt! After all, you do have water which occasionally comes out of a tap -- you didn't walk one mile each way for it -- you are not watching your child die of starvation or for lack of a measles shot. So you spend your time slogging away to help a few when thousands need it.
The pluses? Drop me down in any culture, any language, unknown script -- I am not afraid and neither are my now adult kids. I've learned to live without a support system of people who care about me. I've also learned that the world is peopled with lovely people. Sound bitter? You bet! I'm 52 soon -- still have no college degree, no equity, no profession, no home (not even a house of my own). The people I care about are thousands of miles away. I once told a banker at one of the hundreds of corporate functions I attend/organize when asked what I do: "Oh, I move!" That's my job -- unpaid. It's a shame my husband's company doesn't pay wives for all the 'corporate' work we do -- I'd be worth a fortune paid by the hour!"
---Smeal College of Business
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