The mediating effect of cross-cultural adjustment on the relationship between spouse and job satisfaction among the self-initiated academic expatriates in Malaysia

This study contributed to the field of the Human Resource Development by focusing on the following non-work factors. First, this topic focused on community of academics which has not been much studied in job satisfaction, specifically in Malaysia. Second, through this study we have found out that family factor of spousal cross-cultural adjustment abroad has an important relationship with job satisfaction. This study enriched a vanguard topic of expatriate management literature by investigating the sociocultural adjustment experiences of a little-researched subpopulation of expatriates; those that self-initiate their own foreign work experiences. This study employed a quantitative web survey to generate data about the sociocultural adjustment experiences of academic expatriates teaching at colleges and universities in Malaysia. Three hypotheses were generated and tested regarding the relationship of the antecedent factors of previous overseas work experience and foreign language ability and the in-country factor of culture novelty with cultural adjustment, interaction adjustment, and work adjustment. Hypotheses regarding foreign language ability were not supported. Hypotheses regarding previous overseas work experience were partially supported. Hypotheses regarding culture novelty were fully supported. Evidence was produced to warrant further examination of the factors of age, education level, and degree of satisfaction with previous overseas work experience, length of employment in current job. Finally, the results of this analysis provided original knowledge about the job satisfaction of self-initiating expatriates, contributed to the understanding of the validity of prior research conducted on traditional expatriates and prompted a reexamination of the dominant theoretical model of expatriate job satisfaction upon which much of the expatriate job satisfaction research is based. The key findings of the current study indicated that if spousal adjustment was achieved then it would lead to expatriate’s adjustment and job satisfaction eventually. In particular, spousal crosscultural adjustment had the strongest effect on the general environment of expatriates, followed by host national interaction, and finally, work adjustment. This finding was noteworthy in that it confirmed the findings of previous research and showed that the role of family was stable in changing time