Expatriate training: Intercontextual analyses from the iGOES project

Kostal, J. W., Albrecht, A.-G., Dilchert, S., Deller, J., Ones, D. S., & Paulus, F. M.
In B. M. Wiernik, H. Rüger, & D. S. Ones (Eds.)
Managing expatriates: Success factors in private and public domains (pp. 209–224).
Budrich
(2018)

Cross-cultural training (CCT) is used to provide expatriates with the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to function effectively in the cultural contexts of their host countries. Previous meta-analyses of the effectiveness of CCT have found that, while CCT is on average beneficial for expatriates, there is large variability in effectiveness across studies. We use data from the iGOES project to examine potential moderators of CCT’s effectiveness, including type of training, specificity of training to the host culture context, presence of a mentor in the host country, and length of training. In contrast to previous findings in this literature, we found that associations between participation in CCT and expatriate job performance, job satisfaction, and international adjustment were small, and sometimes negative.