Organizational practices for the expatriates’ adjustment: a systematic review

Abstract

Purpose The globalization of work has contributed to a great increment in cross-cultural interactions, contributing to a new impetus in the expatriates’ topic. The costs associated with the failed international missions are high, and the identification of effective adjustment strategies is of extreme importance, both for organizations and for individuals. The purpose of this paper is to identify the kind of practices that are developed by organizations and their impact on the adjustment of expatriates. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the proposed objective, a systematic review of literature (from the late 1980s to the present day) will be carried out. Findings Based on five articles on the topic, the results show that there are few studies that assess the impact of the types of adjustment to organizational practices, with the cross-cultural training and language training being the most common. These practices have shown a positive effect on performance and adjustment of expatriates. Originality/value The authors feel the lack of studies that have adequate indicators to measure the integration and effectiveness of the adjustment of expatriates.