Abstract: In an effort to remain competitive in the ever increasing globalised economy, multinational corporations (MNCs) continue to benefit from expatriates as a competitive necessity (Chen & Shaffer, 2018; Gudmundsdottir, Gudlaugsson & Adalsteinsson, 2019; Hwang, Quast, Center, Chung, Hahn, & Wohkittel, 2015). A key challenge of managing expatriates is the issues of adjustment to new work environment and social relations in different cultural settings, and assignment failure. Expatriates’ cross-cultural adjustment (CCA) is concerned with their psychological comfort and successful integration into their work and social systems in a foreign environment (Oh & Kjan, 2020; Arokiasamy & Kim, 2020). If adjustment processes are not properly managed, they could lead to expatriation failure with huge consequences (Arokiasamy & Kim 2020; Templer, 2020) including interrupting organizational goals and damaging international relationship and reputation (Fitzpatrick, 2019). Hence, for expatriates to be successful in international operations, MNCs ought to be committed to ensuring appropriate level of expatriates’ adjustment cross-cultural intelligence (CCQ) training and social support to avoid premature return to their home countries (Peltokorpi & Zhang, 2020; Naeem, Nadeem & Khan, 2015). Cross-cultural intelligence is defined as “a system of interacting knowledge and skills, linked by cultural metacognition that allows people to adapt to, select, and shape the cultural aspects of their environment” (Thomas et al., 2008, p.127). Expatriates with adequate CCQ may not only be able to navigate through new cultural norms but also obtain adequate social support from actors within and outside their work domains to increase their adjustment as their cultural abilities and knowledge can help to develop and strengthen connections with their colleagues from other cultural origin to adjust properly to their new environment (Ng, Van Dyne, Ang & Ryan, 2012; Ratasuk & Charoensukmongkol, 2020). Social support includes the social activities from which assistance can be provided to expatriates while on their foreign assignments (Osman-Gani & Rockstuhl, 2008; van der Laken, van Engen, van Veldhoven, & Paauwe, 2019). These supports which may come from the work and non-work sources to expatriates tend to facilitate their adjustment and the success of their assignments (van der Laken et al., 2019). A growing body of research has examined CCQ as an outcome of expatriate adjustment (e.g, Akhal & Lui, 2019; Zhang, Frost, Rong, Jiang, Cheng, 2021). For instance, Zhang et al. (2021) argued that CCQ is associated with expatriates’ sociocultural adjustment. Likewise, Sethi, Sommovigo and Argentero (2020) found that expatriates’ CCQ is positively related with their work adjustment in the Middle East. Many studies have documented significant relationship between social support and adjustment (e.g, Gudmundsdottir et al., 2019; Khedher & Asadullah, 2019), however, studies focusing on both social adjustment, and work adjustment simultaneously are limited. According to Khedher and Asadullah (2019), social support arranged by organizations for expatriates enhances their successful adjustment. However, the differential roles of social support in the link between cultural intelligence and adjustment limited. Consequently, calls have been made for investigations into the social context of expatriates’ adjustment experience (Nadeem & Mumtaz 2018; Gudmundsdottir et al., 2019; Pustovit, 2020), especially, the moderating roles of social support from both work and non-work domains on the link between CCQ and expatriate adjustments (see van der Laken et al., 2019). Cross-cultural pre-departure training for all employees is very important and no assumptions should be made about an employee’s cultural intelligence (Yawson, 2011). This study therefore seeks to investigate the role of social support on expatriate’s CCQ and adjustment. Specifically, the study seeks to: (1) examine the influence of CCQ on expatriate social adjustment, and work adjustment; (2) determine the moderating role of social support in the association between CCQ and expatriate adjustment. The study accomplishes its objectives by reviewing literature on social support, CCQ and adjustment, and draws on the social support theory and social identity theory to frame and develop conceptual links between the study’s variables. This study adds to the HRD literature on expatriate management by building on the expatriate adjustment and social support literature. Second, we propose a conceptual framework of social support, expatriate CCQ and adjustment for future expatriate management research. Finally, it would benefit International HRD practitioners and professionals with better understanding of the need to improve the social context of expatriates for better adjustment experiences. The implication of this study for the practice of HRD is significant in that, this study is to equip HRD professionals to not only pay attention to social support from work domain but also the non-work domains, as well as CCQ to enhance their work and social adjustments in different cultures.
