The Influence of Work Adjustment of Malaysian Expatriate Executives in Malaysian Construction Companies Overseas

Faculty of Architecture, Planning and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA (Perak), Perak, Malaysia.

Abstract

The development of Malaysia’s economy gives the opportunities for companies to explore and operate overseas. A company has to ensure that the selected individuals are willing to work abroad, have high perseverance and always ready to meet challenges. The success of implementing the overseas assignment does not solely depend on technical expertise. It also depends on non-technical issues such as the ability to interact with colleagues at work, adaptability to the new environment and openness to the local culture. Past studies found 65% of the companies indicated that 5% of their expatriates returned prematurely from their assignment. This research, however, proved that non-technical factor such as work adjustment ought to be considered by the company. One of the non-technical factors that contribute to the failure is the expatriate’s inability to adapt to the new environment. This paper will also look into the factors that are faced by the expatriates during expatriation. The findings are obtained from empirical study and 64 respondents from Malaysian expatriate executives overseas. Suggestions and recommendations are given to improve the work adjustment of the expatriates.