Proactive personality and cross-cultural adjustment: Roles of social media usage and cultural intelligence

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Abstract

Proactive personality has been theoretically defined as a natural disposition that determines the manner in which an individual responds to social environmental changes. However, in cross-cultural context, knowledge about the role of proactive personality and its boundary conditions in expatriate cross-cultural adjustment remains limited. To address the gaps, this study aims to investigate whether and how proactive personality accounts for variance phenomena in expatriate cross-cultural adjustment with intervention of boundary conditions. A survey was conducted in three public universities in China, and 247 informative responses were obtained for hypothesis testing analysis. Results reveal that proactive personality contributes to expatriate cross-cultural adjustment. This contribution occurs through the conduit of cultural intelligence (CQ). CQ partially mediates the relationship between proactive personality and academic adjustment but fully mediates that between proactive personality and social adjustment. Moreover, social media usage for gathering information negatively influences the relationship between proactive personality and CQ. Implications and future research directions are discussed as well.

Introduction

Cross-cultural adjustment refers to the extent of expatriate psychological comfort and acquaintance with various aspects of a foreign environment during international expatriation (Black, Mendenhall, & Oddou, 1991; Huff, Song, & Gresch, 2014). It has been identified as an important factor that underlies expatriate survival and success in a foreign environment (Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, Shaffer, & Luk, 2005; Chen & Lin, 2013; Earley & Peterson, 2004; Khilji, Davis, & Cseh, 2010). However, developing the ability for cross-cultural adjustment remains a great challenge for expatriates because of the uncertainties and risks related to living in a foreign environment (Caligiuri, 2000a; Koveshnikov, Wechtler, & Dejoux, 2014). Accordingly, scholars paid increased attention to the exploration of potential antecedents that may affect expatriate cross-cultural adjustment (Koveshnikov et al., 2014; Lee, Li, & Wu, 2018; Wechtler, Koveshnikov, & Dejoux, 2015). For instance, the literature has examined the role of personality factors in cross-cultural settings and presented them as key factors related to expatriate adjustment (Klimstra, Crocetti, Hale, Fermani, & Meeus, 2011; Caligiuri, 2000a, 2000b; Ang, Van Dyne, & Koh, 2006). As a disposition to initiate changes and enact behaviors to influence the environment (Bateman & Crant, 1993), proactive personality drives individuals to challenge the status quo and improve the current circumstances rather than passively accept roles (Parker, Williams, & Turner, 2006; Rodrigues & Rebelo, 2013; Wang, Cullen, Yao, & Li, 2013). The literature has indicated that proactive personality should be positively related to cross-cultural adjustment. However, few studies have empirically investigated the explanatory mechanisms and boundary conditions, under which the influence of proactive personality may be strengthened or weakened.

The literature has proposed that the psychological process can be a potential underlying mechanism in explaining how proactive personality is related to cross-cultural adjustment (Lee & Sukoco, 2010; Ward & Fischer, 2008). Several scholars, for example, suggested that personality can affect cross-cultural behaviors through the primary psychological process, such as cultural intelligence (CQ) (Earley & Ang, 2003; Lee & Sukoco, 2010; Ward & Fischer, 2008). CQ, which refers to an individual’s competence in effectively engaging with a culturally diversified environment, has been presented as an effective conduit whereby cross-cultural adjustment occurs (Lee & Sukoco, 2010; Ward & Fischer, 2008). As contented by Black et al. (1991), expatriates must cognitively and emotionally reach congruence with the values, norms, and attitudes rooted in their host culture to appropriately adapt to the new environment. This requirement pushes expatriates to acquire the necessary new cultural knowledge, integrate into the host cultural assumptions, and behave in a culturally appropriate manner (Nolan & Morley, 2014). This condition indicates that CQ can be an important psychological process in bridging proactive personality and cross-cultural adjustment.

In addition, person–environment (P–E) fit theory (Edwards, 1996) highlights the importance of the congruence of personal and environmental attributes (Nolan & Morley, 2014; Selmer, 2005). The theory contends that individual performance is derived from the relationship between the person and his/her environment and not separately from each other (Jiang & Gu, 2015). Recently, the emergence of information technology, such as social media, has greatly affected individuals’ social and information environments (Chung & Koo, 2015). Social media networks (e.g., Facebook and Twitter) have become increasingly important portals that affect the trait-related performances of an individual and change the actual and virtual worlds of expatriates during their international assignments (Hsu, Tien, Lin, & Chang, 2015; Hu, Gu, Liu, & Huang, 2017). Scholars examined the relationships between personality characteristics (e.g., openness, extraversion, and neuroticism) and social media usage (Hamburger & Ben-Artzi, 2000; Marshall, Lefringhausen, & Ferenczi, 2015; Song, Cho, & Kim, 2017). However, the existing findings about the role of social media usage on individual performance remain inconsistent (Li & Tsai, 2015; Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010). Particular trait-related outcomes may occur when proactive individuals are involved in the use of social media for specific purposes. Accordingly, unveiling the role of social media usage for proactive expatriates can help uncover the underlying mechanisms of processing cross-cultural adjustment (Takeuchi, 2010).

To address the cited gaps, we aim to develop a research framework to explore the influencing mechanism of proactive personality and cross-cultural adjustment in the higher education context. Indeed, international college students have become the main and quickly increasing population of international expatriates. For example, China has become the largest destination in Asia for international students with the total number of international students increasing from 110,844 in 2004 to 492,185 in 2018 (Ministry of Education, People’s Republic of China, 2019). These international students normally face problems that are similar to those of other expatriates when exposed to cross-cultural settings. However, in contrast with other expatriates, international students not only face the challenge of social adjustment but also adjustment in academic requirements, instructional styles and methods, and classroom activities. In this regard, we followed Gong and Fan (2006) to investigate the mediating role of CQ in the relationships among proactive personality, cross-cultural academic adjustment, and social adjustment. Moreover, basing on P–E fit theory, the present study tests the moderating role of informational and socializing social media usage in the aforementioned mediating mechanism.

Section snippets

Person–environment fit and cross-cultural adjustment

An expatriate’s cross-cultural adjustment is often fraught with unexpected setbacks and risks, which may lead to feelings of anxiety and uncertainty (Bücker, Furrer, & Peeters Weem, 2016; Gudykunst, 1998; Malek & Budhwar, 2013; Sit, Mak, & Neill, 2017). The successful management of these feelings is strictly associated with individual’s cultural competence and exerts profound influences on personal performance in cross-cultural adjustment (Bücker, Furrer, & Lin, 2015; Earley & Ang, 2003; Gong &

Samples

We conducted a questionnaire survey in three Chinese public universities to examine the propositions with the assistance of the administrators from the three universities who engage in international education. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed to international students selected at random with a guarantee that the research is only for academic purposes. After two weeks, reminder emails were sent and follow-up calls were made to the students to increase the survey response rate.

Results

Structural equation model analysis was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses. Consistent with H1, the results show that proactive personality is significantly positively related to CQ (β = 0.474, p < 0.001). Thus, H1 is supported. Furthermore, CQ is significantly positively related to social adjustment (β = 0.277, p < 0.001), which supports H2. And CQ is also significantly related to academic adjustment (β = 0.224, p < 0.001). Thus, H3 is supported. And Meanwhile, we found that social

Discussion

The current research proposes a model that examines the mediating role of CQ between proactive personality and cross-cultural adjustment. Furthermore, the study investigates the moderating role of two dimensions of social media usage on the relationships between proactive personality and CQ. Regression analysis supports the hypothesized relationships among proactive personality, CQ, and cross-cultural adjustment. That is, proactive personality is positively associated with CQ and cross-cultural

Conclusion

This study is one of the first trials that combined the fields of cross-cultural studies with information management by investigating how proactive personality impacts individual cross-cultural adjustment with the intervention of ubiquitous social media. The findings indicate that proactive personality is positively associated with individual cross-cultural adjustment through the mediation of CQ. Social media usage for informational purpose is found to mitigate the positive effects of proactive

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge professor Saba Safdar and three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this article. This work was supported by 2019’ National Education Sciences Planning Project of China (BBA190019).

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