Expatriates’ Socio-Cultural Adjustment and Their Career Path - The case study of Korean expatriates in ASML Taiwan Ltd.

With the growing global competition and internationalization of world markets, expatriates’ role is more and more important to successful global assignment for many multinational companies. European company ASML in this thesis is more focusing on Asian market due to the sales growth of Asia.
This thesis is motivated by the real situations within the Korean expatriates’ community in Taiwan. In order to examine the unique Korean expatriates’ characteristics, which may be related to their socio-cultural adjustment and the career path, case interviews were conducted within ASML Taiwan office. Each interview questions are based on the three adjustment stage models: Preparation, Encounter, and Adjustment & Stabilization. Before conducting the case interview, this thesis summarized the previous literatures for about expatriates’ socio-cultural adjustment and the stage models. A number of scholars have attempted to construct the models of the socio-cultural adjustment process and identifying various stages. Among them, Aycan (1997)’s expatriate acculturation model: pre-departure preparation period, post-arrival initial contract, and appraisal and coping on adaptation stage, was illustrated.
The conclusion shows that the relationship of socio-cultural adjustment and factors that influence the adjustment: the marital status, the role of offspring, previous international experience, the location of the host country and three distinctive factors. In addition, the satisfaction at the expatriates’ experience would be positive impact on their career path.