Search results

The objective of this paper was twofold-revisiting the in-kind public distribution system (PDS) – India's flagship food security intervention and seeking beneficiary perspectives on its efficacy. The feasibility of cash transfers as an alternative mechanism is also examined, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Primary and secondary data from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu were used. In-depth interviews with beneficiaries using phenomenology were conducted to evaluate their perception and willingness to shift to a cash-based PDS in the pre and post-pandemic periods. Secondary district-level data were also used to ascertain institutional preparedness for this shift.

In-depth interviews of 105 beneficiaries revealed valuable insights, which seem to have significantly changed post-pandemic. Beneficiaries in the post-pandemic period seem much more inclined toward cash transfers, though a combination of cash plus in-kind benefits seems to be strongly preferred. Secondary results pointed out to the lack of institutional preparedness in financial inclusion. The research suggested that while the existing PDS needs to be overhauled, policymakers should look at a model of cash plus in-kind transfers as a probable alternative to pure cash transfers.

There is a dearth of in-depth state-specific studies on beneficiary perception of PDS, and this is important since the economic and sociocultural milieu in each region is unique. Being the only state with universal food security, its experience could yield important insights for other states or even middle or low-income countries similar to India.

As a developing country, India initiated several labor measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic. This study analyzes the impact of the Covid-19-induced comprehensive labor measures by Indian states on the Case Fatality Ratios and Recovery Rates. Such an analysis will provide deeper insights into the importance of labor measures during a health emergency. It will also be a reality check to the existing National Health Policy.

The study examines the four major aspects of labor measures on migration, social security, state-specific needs and health and human rights. The authors use these to formulate a composite labor measure index to comprehend the Covid-19-induced various labor measures. Additionally, the authors apply pooled ordinary least squares and panel random-effects models with the state-wise monthly data to examine the impact of Covid-19-induced labor measures on the severity of the pandemic.

Covid-19-induced comprehensive labor measures reduce fatalities and increase recovery rates. In particular, the measures on labor migration, state-specific needs and health and human rights adopted by the Indian states successfully reduce the Covid-19 fatalities and improve the recovery rates. However, the measures taken to address social security have been ineffective in reducing the severity of the pandemic. The study results are robust to various other specifications.

The time period covered in this research is very brief and does not account for the qualitative impact of labor measures on the severity of the pandemic. This study specifically addresses the number of Covid-19-induced labor measures and not the resources allocated to their implementations or the number of people who benefited from the measures.

This study emphasizes the need for subnational comprehensive labor measures to reduce the severity of the pandemic in developing countries. The study confirms the need for effective Covid-19-induced social security measures to cope with the pandemic in India. This study also ascertains the beneficial impact of the measures on migration, state-specific needs and health and human rights.

The authors make a composite labor measure index that captures state-level Covid-19-induced labor measures on diverse aspects, namely migration, social security, state-specific need and health and human rights, hitherto unexplored. In addition, the authors analyze the impact of these labor measures on the severity of the pandemic.

Based on a review of multiple literatures, a comprehensive content domain of essential intercultural competencies for effective global leaders is presented. This domain is then used to guide the development of the Global Competencies Inventory (GCI), a 160-item self-report measure that assesses the degree to which individuals possess the intercultural competencies that are associated with global leader effectiveness. Using sample sizes ranging from several hundred to nearly 9,000 subjects, evidence from several studies is presented showing the GCI to have convergent validity, predictive validity, and freedom from demographic and ethnic subgroup biases. Implications for theory and future research are also discussed.

Using an international field study of 196 US executive expatriates from multiple industries on assignment in South Korea, Japan and the Netherlands, this study aimed to explore the relationship between three facets of cross‐cultural adjustment (work, interaction, and general) and expatriate attitudes (job satisfaction and non‐work satisfaction), and to examine the role of cross‐cultural adjustment in mediating the relationship between family adjustment and expatriate attitudes. The results demonstrate the influence of each facet of adjustment on expatriate attitudes, and provide evidence that the relationship between family adjustment and non‐work satisfaction is mediated by general adjustment. Future research directions and implications for practice are offered.

The literature on business expatriates has been increasing rapidly, but research on expatriate academics has remained scant, despite the apparent increasing globalisation of the academic world. Therefore, more research is needed on the latter group of expatriates. This paper aims to fill some of the gaps.

A questionnaire was directed electronically towards expatriate academics occupying regular positions in science faculty departments in universities in northern Europe.

Results showed that job clarity was the dominating job factor with strong relationships with all of the five investigated work outcome variables, work adjustment, work performance, work effectiveness, job satisfaction, and time to proficiency. Job conflict and job freedom had an association with some of the work outcome variables but not with all of them. Neither workload nor job novelty had a relationship with any of the work outcome variables of the expatriate academics.

The paper shows that the findings are only partly consistent with previous research results concerning business expatriates, suggesting that the work situation for expatriate academics could have both similarities and discrepancies as compared to that of business expatriates.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been troubled with the problem of expatriate premature return. This paper suggests addressing this problem by conducting realistic expatriate assignment previews (REAPs) for expatriate candidates. A model is proposed to explain the mechanism between REAPs and expatriates' intention to prematurely return from an assignment. Specifically, providing REAPs to expatriate candidates may reduce expatriates' early return intention and ultimately reduce the chance of expatriate premature return through the self‐selection effect, the role clarity effect, the adjustment of expectations effect, the worry effect, the freedom of choice effect, and the organizational honesty effect. This model also proposes that expatriate candidates' prior expatriate experience moderates the effect of self‐selection, role clarity, adjustment of expectations, and worry.

The purpose of this paper is to propose emotional intelligence (hereinafter EI) competences as a key predictor for overall cross‐cultural adjustment of managers and professionals in its three respective dimensions: work, interaction and non‐work adjustment. This explorative study contributes to the assessment and selection of potential professionals for international assignments by identifying the combination of soft competences and selected pre‐existing personal factors that can predict cross cultural adjustment beyond traditional technical or functional skills.

Data were gathered via a pre‐validated multi‐item questionnaire. The latter was administered in two languages: English and Spanish and two steps of multiple hierarchical regression analyses were conducted, in addition to the main variables (i.e. main effect). A total of 16 individual, organisational and context‐related control variables were used in this study.

The main findings indicate that EI is related to overall cross‐cultural adjustment measured in its three dimensions. However, EI was most strongly related to interaction adjustment following overall cross‐cultural adjustment. Furthermore, by isolating some important variables, the predictive role of EI on cross‐cultural adjustment above and beyond these control variables was shown.

EI is still a new and debatable construct. Researchers are continuing to explore this construct from different angles. Moreover, there is keen interest in ascertaining whether the findings reported herein are sustainable. With the exception of one external source (culture distance), all data for the current study were collected via a self‐reported questionnaire and although additional effort was made to reduce some potential method‐variance problems, they cannot be entirely ruled out. The authors encourage future studies to improve the design by gathering data from multiple sources and from diverse settings.

The paper reviews the possible advantages of including EI assessment in international postings selection process.

This paper fills the need to study the predictive role of key soft skills in understanding cross‐cultural adjustment of international assignees. This study analysed the role of emotions in cross‐cultural settings by specifically examining a set of competences stemming from the EI construct. Although EI has been extensively used in the organisational behaviour literature, to the best of the authors' knowledge, there is still a need to empirically explore the relationships of this construct within the context of overseas postings and cross cultural encounters.

This study focusses on exploring the little-researched adjustment experiences of those expatriates who self-initiate (SIE) their employment in foreign countries. The Black et al. (1991) model of expatriate adjustment is the theoretical foundation used for this study.

An online survey was administered to expatriate academics in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Quantitative data analysis was subsequently performed to include factor analysis, Pearson correlation, regression modeling, ANOVA, and Tukey HSD analysis.

Hypotheses regarding correlation of previous overseas work experience and culture novelty with adjustment for this SIE population were supported, whereas hypotheses regarding foreign language ability were not supported. In addition, exploratory analysis through the use of regression models and ANOVA determined an influence on SIE adjustment by factors such as age, gender, length of employment, and location.

The results indicate that further research into this area is warranted, particularly given the dearth of information currently available on the adjustment experiences of SIEs. In addition, this research is limited by its narrow focus on academics in the UAE; therefore it should be replicated in other locations with different types of SIEs to ensure generalizability.

This paper provides suggestions for practical HRM implications, particularly with regards to recruitment and selection stages for organizations that target SIEs as potential employees.

This paper provides suggestions for practical HRM implications, particularly with regards to recruitment and selection stages for organizations that target SIEs as potential employees.

This study provides new evidence regarding factors which influence SIE sociocultural adjustment and, through exploratory analysis, highlights factors which may need to be explored further in order to develop a more thorough understanding of SIE sociocultural adjustment.

The purpose of this pioneering study is to explore spillover effects between non‐work and work adjustment of public sector (PS) expatriates.

US Department of Defense (DoD) administrators assigned to US embassies world‐wide were targeted by a survey.

Results indicated that, in contrast with recent studies of private sector expatriates, there were no spillover effects. Neither general adjustment nor interaction adjustment had any positive association with work adjustment. Additionally, the extent of self‐efficacy of the DoD administrators was not associated with work adjustment, neither directly nor indirectly.

Research on PS expatriates is not very common, despite their increasing numbers. This is lamentable, since the much more advanced knowledge about private sector expatriates may be less applicable to their public sector counterparts. Even for private sector expatriates, research on spillover effects between non‐work and work domains is less than abundant and such studies are virtually non‐existent for PS expatriates. The findings are consistent with the view that the situation of PS expatriates may be different from that of private sector expatriates.

The purpose of this study is to (re-)evaluate the explanatory power of the stressor–stress–strain model and its' current operationalization by examining the influence of general and interaction adjustment and the mediating effect of general satisfaction on expatriates' and spouses' intention to prematurely return from an assignment or overseas location. Though expatriates' premature return intention has been well examined in prior literature, this is the first study to focus on spouses' premature return intention from the expatriate's assignment.

To evaluate the hypotheses, a sample of 104 expatriates and a sample of 64 spouses were collected and analysed utilizing structural equation modeling.

The results show that adjustment, as the opposite of distress, is not a direct negative driver of expatriates' nor spouses' premature return intention. Instead, the findings underscore the relevance of the general satisfaction with the international assignment (IA) as a mediator for both expatriates and spouses, which emphasizes the importance of attitudinal factors in the model. Overall, the results indicate that adjustment, in particular interaction adjustment, might not be a timely measure of distress anymore.

In order to reduce expatriates' and spouses' premature return intention multinational corporations should aim at maximizing satisfaction levels during the IA. To achieve this, both should be included in the selection process prior to the IA to tailor support mechanisms to satisfy their expectations.

This study is the first to investigate the premature return intention from the expatriates' and spouses' perspectives, while (re-)evaluating the explanatory power of the stressor–stress–strain model at present.