The Relationship between Perceived Organizational Support and the Intentions of International Students in Hungary to Stay in Hungary: The Role of Conflict Climate and Intercultural Adjustment

Abstract

In recent years, Hungary has seen a dramatic increase in the number of international students, particularly since the government launched a scholarship program to encourage more talented overseas students to study at Hungarian universities. The mobilities of these students have notably increased their participation in part-time jobs or internships in the host country. These work experiences could broaden the perspectives of international students regarding the organizational operation modes in the host country’s firms; moreover, they may impact their ability to interculturally adjust to the host country’s culture, clarifying their intentions to stay or not. This article attempts to find out how perceived organizational support (POS) affects international students’ plans to stay and work abroad (IS), as well as what roles conflict management climate (CMC) and intercultural adjustment (IA) play in this relationship. A linear snowball sampling method was used to collect the data. The study’s sample was taken from international students in Hungary with part-time jobs or internships. A self-administrated questionnaire was distributed to the participants through online channels. The PLS-SEM method was used to empirically test the proposed hypothesis. Later, a total of 433 valid answers were used for the analysis. The results reveal that POS positively and significantly affects CMC and IA but has no significant effect on IS. Moreover, IA is the only factor that has a direct impact on IS and it shows a significant mediating impact on the relationship between POS and IS. The findings contribute to the success of Hungarian organizations in retaining talented young (or soon-to-graduate) employees in their companies by encouraging their intentions to stay in the country.