The increase in globalisation has led many organisations world-wide and in South African tosend more employees on international assignments than ever before, with every indicationthat the use of expatriates will continue to expand into the 21st century. Expatriateassignments are important to the success of multinational companies because they can helpbuild the level of global competence within the organisation, and expatriates often fill criticalpositions in host countries (e.g. new market development, technology transfer, joint venturenegotiations and subsidiary management).Given the strategic importance multinational companies attach to global assignments, theharm an unsuccessful expatriate may cause in the host country can be detrimental to themultinational company's future global business. Implications of poor expatriate cross-culturaladjustment include inadequate performance, psychological stress, premature termination ofthe assignment, negative effects on the expatriates' families and the long-term careerrepercussions upon repatriation after failed expatriate assignments. Thus, in order to remaincompetitive in today's global marketplace, multinational companies have recognised that theattraction, selection, development and retention of employees who can live and workeffectively outside their own national borders are crucial to their success. This study proposedthat personality dispositions, coping, stress and expatriates' motivation for accepting theassignment can predict three criteria of expatriate success, namely (a) the desire to terminatethe assignment, (b) performance, and (c) the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates.The study population consisted of 95 expatriates from eight multi-national organisations. Theresearch method for each of the three articles consists of a brief literature review and anempirical study. A cross-sectional survey design was used to achieve the research objectives.Descriptive statistics ( e g means, standard deviations, skewness and kurtosis) were used toviianalyse the data. Cronbach alpha coefficients and exploratory factor analysis were used toassess the reliability and validity of the measuring instruments, and multiple regressionanalyses was conducted to determine the percentage of the variance in the dependentvariables that is predicted by the independent variables. The Neo-Personality InventoryRevised, Work Locus of Control Scale, Expatriate Stress Inventory, a biographicalquestionnaire, which included expatriates' motivation for accepting the assignment(independent variables) and expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment. their desire to terminatethe assignment and their performance (dependent variables) were administered.The results showed that external locus of control is related to avoidance. Avoidance coping ofexpatriates' was best predicted by an external locus of control and approach coping ofexpatriates' was best predicted by an internal locus of control.The results showed that expatriates' desire to terminate the assignment is related to theircross-cultural adjustment and that personality dimensions are related to their cross-culturaladjustment and their desire to terminate the assignment. Personality dimensions explained12% of the variance in expatriates' cross-cultural adjustment. Assertiveness and cross-culturaladjustment explained 17% of expatriates' desire to terminate the assignment.The results showed that cultural stress explained 17% of the variance in expatriates' cross-culturaladjustment. Assertiveness and cross-cultural adjustment explained 28% ofexpatriates' desire to terminate the assignment and extrinsic motivation explained 20% ofexpatriates' performance.Recommendations are made regarding future research and practical implications forexpatriate management.
