Exploring the Adjustment Challenges of Global Healthcare Expatriates: Chinese Nurses in Australia

<p dir="ltr">This thesis explores the adjustment of expatriate Chinese nurses working in Australia, addressing the global health workforce shortages through successful expatriation. It also establishes theory-driven research objectives to make a scholarly contribution to the field of expatriation, a well-established research track in international human resources management. This thesis examines expatriate adjustment, specifically focusing on the psychological comfort of expatriates in new environments, a key indicator of expatriation success. Research has explored how various individual and environmental factors affect expatriate adjustment. The main research questions address two under-explored environmental factors: cultural distance and home country national social network. This thesis consists of two research questions: ‘How does cultural distance influence expatriate adjustment?’ and ‘What is role of home country nationals in expatriate adjustment?’. An interpretivist paradigm is well-suited to address the two research questions. Using a qualitative approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 Chinese expatriate nurses working in Australia to gather data relevant to the research questions. </p><p dir="ltr">For the first study (in Chapter 3), we aim to explore the role of cultural distance in the adjustment of expatriates. We identify ‘cultural distance factors’ that influence expatriate adjustment in the workplace and in daily life. Specifically, certain cultural distance factors have both positive and negative impacts, while others have a singular type of influence. This means positive and negative influences of cultural distance on expatriate adjustment co-exist. Drawing upon the theory of person–environment (P-E) fit, our findings also reveal cultural distance factors have positive influence on expatriate adjustment by fulfilling certain needs of expatriates. Negative impact arises when cultural distance factors impose challenging requirements for expatriates to meet, prevent the fulfillment of expatriates' needs, or expatriates receive negative feedback when trying to meet requirements valued in the home culture but not in the host culture. Additionally, we identified 'home cultural factors', suggesting that some cultural influences on adjustment do not originate from cultural distance but solely from elements inherent in the home culture. We also found some contextual factors for the influence of cultural distance factors.</p><p dir="ltr">For the second study (in Chapter 4), we aim to explore the role of social networks with home country nationals in the adjustment of expatriates. We find that home country nationals play a crucial role in the general and work adjustment by providing informational, instrumental and emotional support. Notably, home country nationals provide limited support for interaction adjustment and even have negative impact on it. We also identified the differences between the support provided by home country nationals and host country nationals. Our findings provide comprehensive insights into the role of home country nationals in the three types of adjustment of expatriates.</p><p dir="ltr">While the two research questions each make independent theoretical contributions, the insights gained from the first research facilitated the understanding of second research. More precisely, it provided contextual information on cultural distance, laying the groundwork to understand the role of home country nationals in the adjustment of expatriates.</p>