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BJM 9,1

Relative culture A study on contexting and extraversion among American and Polish expatriates

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Anna Maria Zajenkowska Academy of Special Education, Warsaw, Poland, and

Received 22 May 2013 Revised 31 July 2013 21 September 2013 14 October 2013 Accepted 15 October 2013

Jeffrey M. Zimmerman Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights, Kentucky, USA Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study was to advance the understanding of the effect of extraversion on an expatriate’s level of contexting (adopting a higher or lower level of context) while abroad. Particularly, this study focused on Polish expatriates in the US and American expatriates in Poland. Design/methodology/approach – The participants were 30 American expatriates living in Poland and 41 Polish expatriates living in the USA. Findings – The results from the regression analysis suggest that extraversion has a different effect on contexting among Polish expatriates than American expatriates, the higher the level of extraversion, the more context dependent the American expatriates were. Moreover, Polish and American expatriates differ in terms of contexting related to the universalism and the particularism dimensions of the seven cultural dimensions from Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars. Originality/value – This advanced understanding led the researchers to give practical implications on the training of expatriates for their abroad assignments. Keywords Expatriates, Contexting, Interpersonal relations, Social interactions, Personality, Extraversion, Polish expatriate, American expatriate, Universalism, Particularism Paper type Research paper

Baltic Journal of Management Vol. 9 No. 1, 2014 pp. 2-21 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1746-5265 DOI 10.1108/BJM-05-2013-0087

Introduction In global business today the number of expatriates who leave their home culture on assignment, for business purposes, with the intent of eventual return (Aycan and Kanungo, 1997) is steadily and significantly increasing (Ramalu et al., 2010). One of the main topics related to these expatriates is cross-cultural adjustment (Tung, 1987; Black et al., 1991; McEvoy and Parker, 1995; Black and Gregersen, 1999; Shaffer et al., 1999; Takeuchi et al., 2002). Successful cross-cultural adjustment includes not only understanding the local culture; it also requires being open to relations with local people and new experiences (Huang et al., 2005). Therefore, it is crucial to examine factors that help expatriates to better understand and adapt to a host culture. One significant factor that studies have shown to be important to expatriation is extraversion. This is because extraversion relates to how people establish relationships with both host nationals and other expatriates as they learn the social culture of the host country (Abe and Wiseman, 1983; Black, 1990; Dinges, 1983; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985, 1988; Searle and Ward, 1990). Furthermore, while extraversion is believed to help expatriates build relationships abroad, adopting behaviors specific to a culture (including adoption of context – higher- or lower-context) is also beneficial to expatriate adjustment (Torbio¨rn, 1982). What is not clear, however, is whether the level of extraversion

influences an expatriate to adopt the context of the local host culture (or retain their home-culture context, even while abroad). Therefore, the main research question this paper seeks to answer is whether extraversion predicts one’s level of contexting (adopting higher or lower levels of context) while abroad. With regard to expatriates, on the one hand, the number of employees on lengthy international assignments is increasing. However, the rate of expatriate premature termination and return (between 16 and 40 percent of all assignments) is rather high (Caligiuri, 1997) and most of these are American expatriates, among whom the majority of studies are conducted (Black et al., 1991; Caligiuri and Tung, 1999; Caligiuri, 2000; Morley et al., 1997; Forster, 2000). Some researchers critically argue that many American-based theories assume universality, disregarding cultural diversity (Scullion and Brewster, 2001; Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, 1997). That is why it would be valuable to compare the experience of American expatriates with those from less-investigated cultures, such as those from Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Indeed, Shen and Edwards (2004) point out that Western European and Asian expatriates are overshadowed by the number of studies on American expatriates, and there is little mention of studies on Central or Eastern European expatriates (including from Poland). Lett and Smith (2009) even stress that there is a wide scope for future research on European expatriation (e.g. Polish expatriates). Additionally, Americans are not the only group of expatriates to prematurely terminate their assignments. Shen and Edwards (2004) provide a thorough summary of studies documenting premature departure among expatriates from a variety of nationalities, including Swedish and Australian expatriates. Moreover, Tung (1982) provided evidence that early termination of expatriates was shown not only in American expatriates, but also in Western European (Belgium, the UK, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, Norway, and Switzerland) and Japanese expatriates. Furthermore, in Tung’s study (1982, p. 68), 24 percent of US companies reported recall rates of under 10 percent, 97 percent of Western European companies reported recall rates of under 10 percent, and 86 percent of Japanese companies reported recall rates of under 10 percent. Clearly, premature termination or return to a home culture (“recall rates”) is an issue for companies around the world, particularly US companies sending Americans abroad. Successful completion of an expatriate contract is a priority for companies sending the expatriates, and Caligiuri (2000) stresses the importance of examining factors related to the possible premature return of expatriates (mainly personality traits). Personality traits have been found in several studies to play an important role in increasing cross-cultural adjustment (Ramalu et al., 2010; Caligiuri, 2000; Huang et al., 2005). Because there are differences in personality traits within society, mediated for example by economic situation or gender (Schmitt et al., 2008), groups such as expatriates are suggested to be examined as a separate subgroup, including their examination with respect to gender differences (Caligiuri and Lazarova, 2002). Among expatriates some personality traits (e.g. extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and openness) tend to be more desirable than among other social groups and very often multinational corporations (MNCs) select employees to become expatriates based on personality traits. Moreover, studies showed that people from a variety of cultures differ in terms of personality traits (McCrae and Terracciano, 2005). Therefore, it would be worthwhile to investigate if the same set of traits is “desired”

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among expatriates regardless of the host culture in which they are placed (or, if different personality traits would be desired in some cultures and not in others). A “desired” set of traits helps to understand the host culture context better and therefore facilitates an expatriate’s adjustment. Universalism vs particularism in Poland and the USA Cultural diversity issues are important to consider when preparing expatriates for their assignment as they relate to interpersonal relations. Of the seven cultural dimensions suggested by Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars (1997) as to how human beings deal with each other, universalism vs particularism describes how people relate to others, which is important in understanding human relations (especially within a new culture). Universalism underlines the importance of following the commonly accepted rules (regardless of the abnormal situation) and a belief that the stability of a society is based on rules with a strong conviction for justice. On the other hand particularism seeks resolution by considering the context of the situation, bending the rules (when necessary), and finding exceptions to convention. In a universalistic society there is a fear that if there is an exception made for one rule, then this may snowball into many exceptions, ultimately causing a system collapse. Particularistic society, on the other hand, is based on exceptions as other citizens cannot be treated equally (as some of them are more important, like mother or father, and some are not related). Instead they are always considered as either “my” friend, brother, sister or any person with a unique importance (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, 1997). There are several factors which make clear distinctions between Poland and the USA. One of these is that universalism is the dominant tendency in the USA. Poland significantly differs from the USA on this dimension because Poland has more of a particularistic culture (Ryan et al., 2000; Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, 1997). Contexting and self-construal in Poland and the USA There is a belief that cultural behaviors are relative and, therefore, must be assessed within a certain context (Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, 1997). That is why whether universalism or particularism is appropriate depends on a given situation. Universalism vs particularism is organized around contexting. Contexting, widely described by Hall (1959, 1966, 1983, 1989), illustrates how in some cultures the information from the external environment may influence the perception of certain ideas, concepts, etc. Victor (1992, p. 137) defined the term as “the way in which one communicates and especially the circumstances surrounding that communication”. Hall (1989) relates contexting to a triangle model of shared information ranging from low to high. Moreover, Hall’s model of low-context and high-context cultures became one of the dominant theoretical frameworks for interpreting intercultural communication (Cardon, 2008). Without context a linguistic message is incomplete. A high-context message is one in which most of the information is either in the physical context or internalized in the person, while very little is explicit and straightforward (written down or explicitly stated). On the other hand, a low-context message carries most of the information as an explicit code (Hall, 1989, p. 91). Considering the high-low communication on a continuum, according to Hall (1989), no culture exists exclusively on one or the other end. American culture is more low-context in comparison to the European countries, especially Eastern European countries, such as Poland, which is perceived as a more high-context one.

Contexting, as well as universalism/particularism, is also related to the perception and definition of cultural norms. A norm is “an attitude, opinion, feeling, or action – shared by two or more people – that guides their behavior” (Blake and Mouton, 1985, p. 28). Cultural norms are, therefore, norms that are specific to a culture. In low-context societies there is usually a general norm, which people must obey no matter what, in contrast to high-context societies where norms will be in a reciprocal relationship with a particular situation. Hall (1989, pp. 106-107) writes that in the USA, a low-context culture, “our ideal is that we have a government of laws, not men [. . .]”. Therefore, people from high-context cultures may see American law as cold, impersonal and unjust. This fits the definition of universalism, where law does not depend on the context. Low-context (universalistic) and high-context (particularistic) cultures can also be linked with interdependent self-construal vs independent self-construal. In societies where interdependent self-construal is dominant, close relationships with others are very important and define the identity of a person – in other words, one does not exist without others (Markus and Kitayama, 1991; Singelis, 1994; Triandis, 1995). They also value harmony, which may explain why each case is considered within a given context in order to achieve the best possible solution that does not destroy the harmony (Nisbett, 2003). In societies where people have a dominant independent self-construal, people do not need others in order to construct their individual identity. They do not place that much value on relations with others. The value instead is with the individual (Markus and Kitayama, 1991). Furthermore, in intercultural encounters what matters is the cultural empathy (Pedersen, 2009) and, in particular, inclusive cultural empathy that focuses on the individual and significant others in the societal context. Only then can one assess whether something is morally right or wrong. Therefore, the three concepts (universalism vs particularism, contexting, and interdependent self-construal vs independent self-construal) should not be considered separately, but as interrelated concepts that influence the inclusive cultural empathy process. In other words, the universalistic countries (e.g. the USA) would have more of a low-context culture where people present an independent self. On the other hand, particularistic countries (e.g. Poland) would have more of a high-context culture, where people present interdependent self concepts. It is believed that the structure of self-construal is especially important in understanding migration and interethnic interactions (Nezlek et al., 2012). It shapes the communication between people. Cultural-fit hypothesizes that if people’s self-construal does not match the orientation (the self-construal) of the receiving society, they will be less satisfied with their interaction in the host society because there will be less similarity between themselves and hosting individuals (Nezlek et al., 2012; Cross, 1995; Searle and Ward, 1990). Moreover, Nezlek et al. (2012) showed in their study on ethnic minorities that individuals with a dominant interdependent self-construal more positively assessed their interaction with people than those who were more independent in their self-construal. What is more, they showed that people who were higher in interdependent self-construal felt better among other people and felt they were listened to and accepted more regardless of the self-construal of the majority culture. It seems that what is important in the daily interaction of ethnic minorities is more their dominant interpersonal orientation (either more interdependent or independent self-construal) than a match between their orientation and the dominant orientation of the majority culture (Nezlek et al., 2012). Because personality is also a factor shaping human interaction, it seems reasonable, apart from self-construal, to control it in investigations on cross-cultural interaction.

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Extraversion and social interactions Oguri and Gudykunst (2002) showed that sensitivity to others’ behavior predicted socio-cultural adjustment of sojourners. The more sensitivity to others’ behavior, the more likely the expatriate is to have a successful socio-cultural adjustment. Besides, being sensitive to a variety of stimuli from the environment, being able to notice and concentrate on the stimuli is also related to one’s personality ( Jankowski and Zajenkowski, 2012). Furthermore, the level and quality of social interaction with others are related to personality, particularly with regard to one’s extraversion. Individuals with high levels of extraversion (extraverts) are more assertive, active and outgoing, and positive social interactions seem to be important to them (Barrick and Mount, 1991). This is in line with Furnham (1992, p. 152) who stated that “social contact and stimulation have higher valence for extraverts than introverts”. Also, extraverts highly value positive work relationships, which may imply that they fulfill their need for positive interpersonal social interaction (Forret and Dougherty, 2001; Grover and Crooker, 1995; Haar and Spell, 2003). Numerous studies support the idea that personality characteristics can also predict whether or not individuals can be successful on their expatriate assignments (Arthur and Bennett, 1995; Black, 1990; Church, 1982; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985). Indeed, having the systematic means to predict who is likely to succeed as an expatriate is very important to MNCs conducting business abroad (Caligiuri, 2000). Caligiuri (2000) in her study concentrated on expatriates’ personality, namely on the Big Five personality characteristics, as predictors of expatriate success. Based on the evolutionary roots of the Big Five theory (Buss, 1991), she claims that, for example, a person who is agreeable, extraverted, emotionally stable, conscientious, and open may have a greater ability to form important work relationships, get promoted, attain a higher status, and so forth. The personality dimensions include humans’ ability to learn hierarchies in society (extraversion): [. . .] their willingness to cooperate (Agreeableness), their capacity for reliable work and enduring commitment (Conscientiousness), their ability to handle stress (Emotional Stability), and their propensity for innovation or astuteness in solving problems (Openness, Intellect) (Buss, 1991, p. 477).

Caligiuri (2000), among many, showed that extraversion was negatively related to the expatriates’ desire to terminate the assignment. This is in line with Buss (1991) who determined that people who can understand social structures (e.g. they can distinguish who is who within a society, whom they can trust or who is influential) tend to be more socially successful in society. Caligiuri (2000) claims that extraversion is necessary to learn the work and non-work social culture in the host country and is therefore related to whether they are able to complete their assignment. Moreover, extraversion is especially desirable in terms of general living adjustment, particularly in high-context cultures, such as that of Taiwan (Huang et al., 2005), where communication is more often implied rather than directly stated or written. This is likely related to the idea that more extraverted individuals are able to acquire more culture-specific information (via their openness to communicate with host-country locals), which makes it easier for the expatriates to accurately predict the behaviors of other individuals. This need for predictability is something Torbio¨rn (1982) pointed out as necessary for successful cultural adjustment.

Apart from individual differences among people, there are differences in individual personalities among cultures. Individuals from some countries seem to be more extraverted or less neurotic than others, like for example it was shown by McCrae and Terracciano (2005) that Americans in general were more extrovert then Poles. However, current studies on expatriates’ personality focused more on looking for those traits that will facilitate the adjustment process and not lead to terminating the assignment (Caligiuri, 2000). However, they did not compare the personality of expatriates from different regions. Lett and Smith (2009) stress that an individual approach to investigating an expatriate should be carried out as it may highlight the importance of a range of other factors, such as cultural and personality differences that may influence the functioning of expatriates. Additionally, it was shown that expatriates may differ in terms of the motivation typically discussed in the literature (Lett and Smith, 2009). For some it will be important that the expatriate experience provides an opportunity for an improved standard of living, or educational opportunities, and for others the challenging new tasks abroad will be motivating. In addition to this, Inglehart and Baker (2000) stressed that it is important to understand that the more economic development a country experiences, the greater the shift away from absolute norms and values (low levels of tolerance for abortion, divorce, and homosexuality, an emphasis on male dominance in economic and political life, deference to parental authority, the importance of family life, strong emphasis on religion, etc.) toward values that are rational, tolerant, trusting, and participatory (changes in gender roles, attitudes towards authority and sexual norms, declining fertility rates, broader political participation, etc.). On the other hand, cultural change can leave a lasting impression on the values that endure (derived, for example, from one’s religious, political, or economic belief) despite the progress of modernization. Some of these enduring traditional values include the idea that men make better political leaders than women, a woman has to have children in order to be fulfilled, rejecting foreigners, homosexuals, and people with AIDS as neighbors, etc. (Inglehart and Baker, 2000, p. 27). For example, on the one hand, the USA seems to be a society with modern norms, but on the other hand, Americans hold very traditional values and beliefs (Baker, 1999). Modernization leads societies to be more tolerant, trusting, etc. However, despite their modernization, well-developed countries (including the USA) are still greatly influenced by their broader cultural heritage (e.g. from a belief in Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, Orthodox, Confucianism, or Communism). Furthermore, what motivates a person can also be linked to their personality (Zajenkowska and Zajenkowski, 2012). As part of one’s personality, extraversion is understood as one of the traits responsible for providing stimulation in order to become aroused (Jankowski and Zajenkowski, 2012). It is also believed that extraversion is important in terms of expatriation because it relates to how people establish relationships with both host nationals and other expatriates as they learn the social culture of the host country (Abe and Wiseman, 1983; Black, 1990; Dinges, 1983; Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985, 1988; Searle and Ward, 1990). Therefore, even though in general Americans seem to be more extrovert than Poles, it does not have to be the case in terms of expatriates, where Poles having different motivation can seek stronger stimulation on international assignments.

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Establishing relationships with host nationals is of utmost importance to an expatriate wishing to integrate within the new host culture. Torbio¨rn (1982) realized that there was a relationship between the culture of a country and the frame of reference of the individual. The culture of a country was described as the set of cultural elements or collection of behavioral modes and attitudes – national norms – common to the members of a particular society. The frame of reference of the individual was described as the set of elements or a collection of norms whereby some of these norms can be seen as national norms that represent the culture of the country in which the individual grew up – the individual’s country of origin (Torbio¨rn, 1982). Torbio¨rn (1982) noted that the frame of reference of an individual is attached (connected) to the culture which gave that frame of reference its form. When an individual moves from the home-country culture to the host-country culture, the frame of reference of the individual does not immediately shift. This is because the individual has taken his/her own frame of reference with him/her (Torbio¨rn, 1982). As a person’s frame of reference shifts as he/she adjusts following a move to a new culture, so does the person’s clarity. “Clarity” is in reference to what makes up appropriate ideas, actions and interpreting the new world around the individual. The ideas, actions and the way an individual interprets the world around him/her appear natural and clear when the individual is in his/her own culture. However, these same ideas, actions and perspectives may not apply to the culture of the host country. This is because the host-country culture may require a different set of ideas, actions and perspectives due to its different set of elements, behavioral modes and attitudes (Torbio¨rn, 1982). Therefore, because personality (Arthur and Bennett, 1995) and self-construal are influencing factors of the cultural adaptation process, it is suggested that they be included in studies on expatriates as they may facilitate the shift. Overview of present study Kupka and Kennan (2003, p. 90) pointed out that there is a great challenge when addressing intercultural communication competence (ICC) during intercultural communication trainings (ICT), because “culture is not a harmonious, steady, static construct but rather a complex, dynamic, non-linear and cyclic process that resides in individuals and groups”. Culture can be understood as a: [. . .] shared set of explicit and implicit values, beliefs, attitudes, norms, knowledge, customs, mores, and religions in the form of symbol systems, which affect the behaviors and survival of relatively large groups of people (Kupka and Kennan, 2003, p. 91).

That is why it is so important when preparing expatriates for an international assignment to address the ICT in a proper way, which is not culturally biased. This is particularly important because several modern management methods (influenced by the low-context American culture) seem to be less successful because they often ignore the cultural context by attempting to make everything explicit (as is normal in the low-context American culture) (Hall, 1989, p. 93). ICT was defined by Brislin and Yoshida (1994, p. 2) as the “formal efforts designed to prepare people for more effective interpersonal relations when they interact with individuals from cultures other than their own”. Many companies and organizations use ICTs for their employees on international assignments. One of the challenges of ICTs is that many are based on the idea that more up-front, pre-departure information

about a new host culture will automatically lead to better cultural adjustment for the expatriate. This happens to a certain extent; however, what this fails to address is an idea similar to what van Maanen (1978, p. 21) proposed about new members joining organizations for the first time, namely: that one cannot truly understand an organization until after one has been a part of that organization. This same thinking can be applied to new members of a culture, e.g. one cannot truly understand a culture until one has been placed inside of that culture. However, it has to be pointed out the individual differences (e.g. how extraverted somebody is) related to the level and quality of understanding the intercultural differences. Taking part in an organization (or a culture) provides the person with an ordered view of the organization (or culture) that helps form expectations within the organization (or culture), gives shape to personal relationships within the organization (or culture), and lays the ground rules for dealing with the day-to-day happenings within the organization (or culture) (Zimmerman, 2011, p. 165; van Maanen, 1978, p. 21). Furthermore, as van Maanen (1978, p. 21) correctly points out: When people undergo a transition, regardless of the information they already possess about their new role, their a priori understandings of that role are bound to change in either a subtle or a dramatic fashion.

Once they arrive in the new organization. The purpose of the current investigation was to develop new scientific information useful during ICTs. According to Brislin and Yoshida (1994), ICTs highlight the importance of effective interpersonal relations; therefore, we wanted to examine two important factors related to the interaction of people from other cultures: contexting and personality (mainly extraversion). The researchers chose to focus on Polish expatriates in the US and American expatriates in Poland. As the Polish expatriates are from an under-investigated region of the world (Lett and Smith, 2009), the US expatriates may serve as a reference upon which knowledge from this study (and others) can add. Specifically, the main research question this paper sought to answer was whether extraversion predicts one’s level of contexting (adopting higher or lower levels of context) while abroad. Moreover, the researchers wanted to find out if the Polish and American expatriates differ in terms of contexting related to the universalism vs particularism dimension and personality with regard to extraversion: H1. US expatriates are less context-dependent than Polish expatriates. H2. Polish expatriates are more extraverted than US expatriates. H3. Among both Polish and US expatriates, the higher the level of extraversion the more context-dependent they are. Overall, this work is intended to advance our understanding of the effect of personality (extraversion) on contexting of both Polish expatriates in the US and American expatriates in Poland. Furthermore, this advanced understanding is likely to improve the training of other expatriates for their assignments abroad (via ICT). Method First, participants were asked to fill out online surveys in which they gave their personal information (e.g. gender, approximate age, age at time of arrival in Poland or

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the USA, length of stay in host culture, highest degree earned, etc.). Then, participants were asked to fill out the 50-item set of Big-Five factor markers from the international personality item pool (Pe˛chalska, 2005; Goldberg, 1992) and answer two cases designed to measure whether participants considered context when making decisions in a moral dilemma (French et al., 2001).

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Participants Surveys were sent from the authors to organizations which have contacts with Polish and American expatriates, respectively, in the USA and Poland. These included: . The Polish Mission to the United Nations in New York City, USA. . The American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. . The online group: www.internations.org . Facebook professionals (expatriates from different countries, including Poland and the USA). We received 30 completed surveys from US expats. According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy in Poland in 2011, there were 292 Americans granted work visas (this number includes those who decided to extend their stay and working time in Poland). Based on the data, therefore, approximately 10 percent of the American expatriate population in Poland was reached. We sought to have an equal number of Polish and American expatriates in the sample (Table I). Analyses were done on a sample of 30 American expatriates in Poland (n ¼ 30; F ¼ 15, M ¼ 15) and 41 Poles in the USA. (n ¼ 41; F ¼ 26, M ¼ 15). A total of 23 expatriates from Poland and 22 from the USA had previous expatriate experience. The average age of the participants from the USA at the time of the survey was 41 years, and from Poland it was 35 years. The average time spent as an expatriate in Poland was five years and eight months and in the USA it was eight years and seven months. The group was not very homogenous in terms of the length of the assignment; however, ANOVA did not show a significant impact of the time spent on the assignment on the dependent variable (F(1.67) ¼ 1.01, p . 0.05). In the case of both Poles and Americans, the length of the stay was longer than usual (app. three to four years), because most of them prolonged their stay or moved to another expatriate assignment in a different company.

Table I. Demographic profile – Polish expatriates vs US expatriates

Factor

Polish expatriates in the USA

US expatriates in Poland

No. of completed surveys (n) Gender Avg. age at time of survey completion Average length of stay (tenure in foreign culture) Highest level of education attained

n ¼ 41 Male (36.6%)/female (63.4%) 34.9 years

n ¼ 30 Male (50%)/female (50%) 41.6 years

Eight years, seven months (103 months) High school (0%)/bachelors (22.0%)/Masters (63.4%)/doctorate (14.6%)

Five years, eight months (68 months) High school (0%)/bachelors (26.6%)/Masters (66.7%)/doctorate (6.7%)

Independent variables In order to measure the Big Five personality traits (emotional stability, extraversion, intellect/imagination, agreeableness, and conscientiousness), we used the 50-item set of Big-Five factor markers from the international personality item pool that is a scientific collaboratory for the development of advanced measures of personality and other individual differences (Goldberg, 1999). In Poland, the 50-item set of Big-Five factor markers adaptation was used (IPIP – QPV, Pe˛chalska, 2005). According to Goldberg (1992), the 50-item set of Big-Five factor markers can be considered as an alternative to the scales in the NEO and the Hogan personality inventories, and exhibits good psychometric properties with coefficient a ranging between 0.79 and 0.87. In the present sample Cronbach’s a was between 0.72 and 0.89. Dependent variables Contexting. In order to see whether respondents consider “context” when making a decision in a moral dilemma (where it is understood that “low-context” and a universalistic approach refer to a solution where all parties are treated equally, regardless of the situation, and “high-context” and a particularistic approach refer to a solution where parties are not treated equally, because the context of the situation must be considered – see the Appendix), we used the moral issues utilized by French et al. (2001) in their study on cross-cultural negotiations between particularistic French and universalistic Americans. Those issues originally come from a set created by Kurtines and Pollard (1989) for the purpose of encouraging moral discourse and are labeled as: “a fair day’s pay”, and “you broke it – you bought it”. For the use in the study the first author of the present paper is a native Polish speaker and conducted the translation process into Polish. The cases then were translated for the current study by two experts in English and then back-translated by a bilingual person. Case I. “A fair day’s pay”. Two friends help a third friend to shape up his farm. By the end of the day, the owner of the farm wants to reward his friends. He has five pieces of gold. He cannot divide the gold pieces into 2.5 units for each of his friends. Furthermore, he knows that one of the two has a mother who needs three pieces of gold to pay for medical treatment that the mother needs quite urgently to prevent blindness: The dilemma. Give each of them two gold coins or give one friend three pieces, and the other one two? Case II. “You broke it, you bought it”. Again, two friends help a third one on his farm by working on the fields with a plow borrowed from a local merchant. While the two friends work on the field, the plow (worth 20 gold pieces) breaks because of their carelessness. The merchant wants recompense. It is the farm owner’s responsibility to decide how to allocate the financial recompense from his two friends. One of the friends claims that he cannot afford to pay more than five pieces because he has a mortgage payment on his house that he cannot miss: The dilemma. Make each of the friends pay ten pieces, risking that one of them will lose his (much more valuable) house, or require one of them to pay five and the other one 15 pieces?

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Results Because in Case I both the Polish (34/41 ¼ 82.93 percent) and USA (26/30 ¼ 86.67 percent) expatriates considered context with the moral dilemma (representing a more particularistic approach) and there were no differences between the two groups, the researchers did not include Case I in the further analysis. We refer to this in the discussion section. In other words, a majority of Polish and US expatriates considered the context of the situation by choosing to pay more money to the friend with a sick mother than to the other friend (even though both friends worked an equal length of time). Big Five personality traits The arrow points to extraversion as the only dimension where the two groups significantly differ (t(69) ¼ 2.1, p , 0.05), with Polish expatriates scoring higher on the extraversion dimension than American expatriates (Figure 1). Contexting In order to check whether country and extraversion can predict contexting, we conducted logistic regression analysis. The first block was based on the length of stay (control variable). In the second step we added “country” and “extraversion”. Only “country” was a significant variable explaining contexting (Table II). It means that American expatriates were more context-dependent than Polish expatriates (Figure 2). In the third step of the regression, it turned out that the interaction between “country” and “extraversion” was also significant. It means that extraversion has

Means(SD) Emotional Stability

American expatriates in Poland (N = 30) 31.4 (6.6)

Polish expatriates in USA (N = 41) 34.1 (6.1)

Extraversion

33.5 (8.5)

37.4 (7.2)

Intellect/Imagination

40.4 (5.2)

39 (5.3)

Agreeableness

41.1 (5.2)

39.3 (6.1)

Conscientiousness

38 (7.2)

40.3 (6)

42.0 40.0 38.0

Poles

36.0

Americans

34.0 32.0

lS ta

el le

Ex

In t

na io ot Em

Figure 1. Personality profile of Polish and American expatriates

bi l tra ity v er ct /Im si ag on i A g nat Co reea ion bl ns e ci en nes s tio us ne ss

30.0

Predictor

B

Step 1 Country (0 – Poland) Extraversion Step 2 Country * extraversion Poland Extraversion USA Extraversion (19.9%)

Exp(B)

Wald

1.26 0.02

3.52 1.03

5.46 * 0.59

0.20

1.22

5.92 *

20.05

0.95

1.21

0.15

1.17

4.78 *

Block x 2 5.93 *

Study on contexting and extraversion

7.30 *

2

13 1.25 6.65 * 2

Notes: Significant at: *p . 0.05; step 1 – Cox and Snell R ¼ 0.08; step 2 – Cox and Snell R ¼ 0.17; US Cox and Snell R 2 ¼ 0.20

80.00%

Table II. Regression analysis predicting contexting

73.33%

70.00% 60.00%

51.22%

50.00%

48.78%

40.00% 30.00%

Poles 26.67%

Americans

20.00% 10.00% 0.00% No context

Context

a different effect on contexting among Polish and American expatriates. Such a model explains a substantial amount of variance (Cox and Snell R 2 ¼ 0.18). In order to check the relation we repeated the analysis in the Polish and American groups and found out that in the case of Polish expatriates extraversion did not influence contexting; however, in the case of the American expatriates, the higher the extraversion level the more context-dependent the person was (Table II). Such a model explains a substantial amount of variance (Cox and Snell R 2 ¼ 0.20). Discussion The results from the study highlighted the differences in contexting among expatriates coming from a low-context culture (USA) and a high-context culture (Poland) and revealed that Polish and American expatriates differ in terms of contexting related to the universalism vs particularism dimension. American expatriates in Poland were found to be more context-dependent than Polish expatriates in the USA. It was also shown that they differ in terms of extraversion, with Polish expatriates being more extraverted. Furthermore, results showed that extraversion is related to contexting among US expatriates. The higher the extraversion level among US expatriates in Poland, the more context-dependent they were.

Figure 2. Contexting among Polish and American expatriates

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Main findings The current study showed that US expatriates were more context-dependent than Polish expatriates in Case II, where they decided in favor of the higher-context answer of “one friend pays five pieces and the other pays 15 pieces”. That is why H1 stating that US expatriates are less context-dependent than Polish expatriates must be rejected. On one hand, this result is surprising as it is believed that people from universalistic cultures (e.g. the USA) where an approach exists to treat all situations in the same, neutral and just way (French et al., 2001; Carroll, 1987) would not consider the context of the situation when making the decision. Nonetheless, it could also be speculated from the present results that the adjustment of US expatriates to the higher-context Polish culture influenced the US expatriates to adopt higher-context decision-making processes (Oguri and Gudykunst, 2002). Although the finding that US expatriates behave in a more context-dependent way might be surprising, Yamagishi et al. (2008) stressed, for example, that Japanese and Americans can behave in a similar way (collectively or individualistically) depending on the societal differences. That is why one can believe that different surroundings create different expectations in expatriates and therefore they employ different strategies in their behavior. Additionally it should be noted that even if a culture is considered an individualistic society, it does not relate to each and every person living in this culture (Ha˚kanson and Ambos, 2010). The present study results confirmed H2 showing that Polish and US expatriates differ in terms of extraversion, with the latter having lower scores on the E dimension. This result could be related to the fact that expatriates from different countries vary in terms of motivation to work abroad (Lett and Smith, 2009). On one hand, in the case of Poles in the USA, the expatriate assignment may provide them an opportunity for an improved standard of living, educational opportunities and greater organizational freedom (Lett and Smith, 2009) than what they experience in Poland. On the other hand, for US expatriates in Poland, such motivation might be different considering the lower level of economic development of Poland compared to the USA. Indeed, US expatriates in Poland would likely see Poland as a decreased standard of living with fewer educational opportunities in comparison to their native USA. It is quite possible, however, that US expatriates are seeking a challenging environment (particularly one different from their experiences in the USA). Moreover, for instance among expatriates in Taiwan, a high-context country, social initiative (related to extraversion) was a strong predictor of psychological well-being (van Oudenhoven et al., 2003); that is why it might be believed that E is especially desirable in the case of expatriates in high-context cultures (e.g. in Poland). H3, that among both Polish and US expatriates the higher the level of extraversion the more context-dependent they are, was partially confirmed. The study results showed that that extraversion (E) had a different effect on contexting among US and Polish expatriates. US expatriates with higher levels of E considered context to a higher degree than those with lower levels of E. According to Buss (1991), there is a positive relationship between an individual’s extraversion and considering more context in their decisions (e.g. acting more “high context”). In Poland, where contexting matters to a higher degree than in the USA (Hall, 1989), social intelligence – related to extraversion – helps to understand which behaviors are socially desirable (Vy´rost and Kysˇel’ova´, 2006). Naturally what these results are showing us is that the higher the degree of extraversion in an expatriate, the more likely they are to take the context of the host culture into consideration when behaving in the host culture. These new socially acceptable behaviors

in the host culture make it easier for the expatriate to do a number of things associated with more effective cross-cultural acculturation, among them: more frequent meaningful relationships with members of the host culture, and the acquisition of more relevant host-culture information, which can decrease the effects of culture shock (Ball-Rokeach, 1973; Torbio¨rn, 1982). Furthermore, if the human resource managers (who are making the decisions on whom to send abroad and whom to keep at home) are aware of the positive benefits that extraversion plays for the overall success and adjustment of expatriates abroad, they can test for these qualities when screening expatriate candidates. Therefore, these results are relevant to not only Polish and American companies sending expatriates abroad, but also to any company that does business internationally, especially in high-context countries, where extraversion seems to play the most important role. Additional findings In regard to Case I that was used in the study, French et al. (2001) argue that it is typical in communitarian and particularistic countries (such as Poland) and less typical in individualistic and universalistic countries (such as the USA) to help a friend to shape up a farm/home. In regard to particularism (e.g. in Poland), the situation would be interpreted not as a business situation but as a situation within a certain, social context that also must be considered when making a decision. In this case, the researchers expected the Polish expatriates from the particularistic culture (e.g. from Poland) living in the USA (a universalistic culture) to take in the context (e.g. “contexting” or “high context”) by giving one friend three gold pieces to help cover the mother’s urgent medical treatment while the other friend received only two gold pieces. This was the case for a large majority of the Polish expatriates from the sample. The researchers also initially expected that the US expatriates from a universalistic culture (e.g. from the USA) but living in Poland (a particularistic culture) would not consider the context as much as they did and instead would consider the situation a business encounter, where when money is available it must be given in return for work, even to friends. This was not the case for the US expatriates in Poland as a vast majority of the sample considered the context (e.g. “contexting” or “high context”) by deciding to give one friend three gold pieces to help cover the mother’s urgent medical treatment while the other friend received only two gold pieces. The evidence that both US expatriates in Poland and Polish expatriates in the USA responded with a particularistic approach is somewhat surprising (at least in the case of the US expatriates in Poland). However, some studies show an importance of family and empathy among expatriates (van Oudenhoven et al., 2003) regardless of the expatriate’s culture of origin. Therefore, it is possible that when a mother figure appeared in this case, helping her, as a family member of a friend, superseded what the US expatriate in Poland might otherwise view as a “business”-related issue. Limitations of the current study The current study used only two cases to examine contexting, nonetheless its reliability seems to be as strong as that of French et al. (2001), who used the same two cases. To elaborate, French et al. (2001, p. 149) gave 24 participants (12 from France and 12 from the USA) a short synopsis of two situations in which a moral conflict had to be resolved. Furthermore, French et al. (2001) used the two cases to identify cultural differences between the French and American participants, while also highlighting the cultural similarities between the two groups to help resolve conflict. Following the same line of thinking,

Study on contexting and extraversion 15

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we believe that the two cases of French et al. (2001) are adequate to produce reliable results in their measurement of contexting among Polish and American expatriates. It has to be mentioned that the current study is based on a sample that in respect to personality profile was quite homogeneous. Moreover, most of the expatriates’ occupancy both in Poland and the USA was a long one (the average time spent as an expatriate in Poland was five years and eight months and in the USA it was eight years and seven months). First, the similarity in terms of personality is to be closer analyzed. FFT is postulated to be strongly biologically based, as behavior genetic studies have shown strong heritability of adult personality traits (McCrae, 2004; Bouchard and Loehlin, 2001). Some studies suggest that the estimated heritability of the five factors ranged from 66 to 79 percent (Riemann et al., 1997). Considering that the cultural environment has only a very limited influence on the expatriates’ personality (McCrae, 2004), it would suggest that the group of people willing to go on an expatriate assignment has a similar personality profile. The distinction was shown only in regard to E. When we combine this finding with the long assignment tenure of the studied expatriates, what seems to be worth studying further are their motivations (Lett and Smith, 2009). An expatriate from a developing, economically weak country may have an entirely different set of factors motivating them to go abroad compared to an expatriate from a modern, financially-stable country. Possibly those coming from Poland would be more motivated to improve their standard of living than those selected from the USA. Moreover, because the current study has not provided data on the expatriates’ level of context-dependency before coming to either Poland or the USA, it would be valuable in the future to conduct longitudinal studies. Such studies would help to answer questions regarding expatriates’ motivation and their reasons for prolonging their stay. All of that would support one of the main goals of human resource managers, which is that the international assignment not be terminated prematurely (Caligiuri, 1997). Furthermore, because the “personality of a country” does not equal the personality of each and every citizen, but countries differ in terms of personality, there are some similarities between people coming from a particular culture, personality resemblance among our sample expatriates could also suggest that this group shares some distinct features and possibly culture, what makes it a separate subgroup independent from the culture of origin (Caligiuri and Lazarova, 2002). The current study is based on a rather small sample; however, in general when addressing expatriate samples, the typical response rates for other studies of expatriates are 20-30 percent (Ramalu et al., 2010; Harrison and Shaffer, 2005). That is why having a larger sample should be an objective for future studies. Though, in less-frequented expatriate regions (Eastern Europe, Asia, etc.) collecting a large sample is a challenge, therefore a qualitative approach, such as interviews with the expatriates, could be valuable. It is important to mention that significant results already obtained on a small sample (French et al., 2001) strongly suggest that the direction of the current study is justified for future scientific exploration. References Abe, H. and Wiseman, R. (1983), “A cross-culture confirmation of the dimensions of intercultural effectiveness”, International Journal of Intercultural Relations, Vol. 7, p. 567. Arthur, W. and Bennett, W. (1995), “The international assignee: the relative importance of factors perceived to contribute to success”, Personnel Psychology, Vol. 48, pp. 99-114.

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Appendix

Example quotes from Polish expatriates: Case II “5 and 15” “[. . .] they should pay equally, the house mortgage is a different thing. The guy should have a different job to be able to pay” “15, but as a loan” “each pays 5 and the boss 10”

Quote favors high-context or low-context solution High-context solution Low-context solution High-context solution High-context solution

Notes: Polish expatriates n ¼ 41; answer that was not “pay each friend 10 pieces” was considered a high-context answer; high-context answers ¼ 21/41 (51.22 percent considered the context of the situation); low-context answers ¼ 20/41 (48.78 percent did not consider the context of the situation)

Example quotes from US expatriates: Case II “Require one of the friends to pay 5 and the other 15 and have the friend who paid 5, pay back the merchant in either services or money later” “Both should pay equal amounts [. . .]” “[. . .] they were careless so they are responsible for the plow – each must pay half (10 pieces). The friend can then decide if he wants to help out the other with his mortgage payment when it comes due” “[. . .] Make each friend pay 10 pieces [. . .]”

Study on contexting and extraversion 21 Table AI. Example quotes from Polish expatriates (Case II)

Quote favors high-context or low-context solution High-context solution Low-context solution Low-context solution Low-context solution

Notes: US expatriates n ¼ 30; answer that was not “pay each friend 10 pieces” was considered a highcontext answer; high-context answers ¼ 22/30 (73.33 percent considered the context of the situation); low-context answers ¼ 8/30 (26.66 percent did not consider the context of the situation)

Corresponding author Anna Maria Zajenkowska can be contacted at: [email protected]

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Table AII. Example quotes from US expatriates (Case II)