Managing Expatriates in China by Ling Eleanor Zhang Anne-Wil Harzing & Shea Xuejiao Fan

Author:Ling Eleanor Zhang, Anne-Wil Harzing & Shea Xuejiao Fan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London

4.4.3 Segregated Relationships

In the companies that we studied, the majority of expatriates were not selected for overseas assignments primarily because of any language skills they might possess, but for other pertinent reasons. Unsurprisingly, some expatriates did not feel the need to invest time and effort in learning a new language during their busy expatriation period. For it might have seemed to them to be a decision that would not have any significant impact on their actual work. They might have thought that if they could just learn a few words or phrases, it would make their living in China slightly easier. Many expatriates did not see how the amount of effort invested in learning a language like Chinese, however difficult, could actually benefit them in terms of their career. And that not making any attempt to learn the language could be to the detriment of their workplace relationships. In our study, we found that expatriates’ lack of willingness to learn the local employees’ mother tongue clearly had a negative impact on the relationship between expatriates and their local colleagues. The main reason was that local employees connected the host country language closely to the host country. When expatriates did not demonstrate an interest in learning Chinese, local employees became guarded and suspicious. These feelings could degenerate into contempt towards such expatriates, as suggested below: He (the expatriate) has never studied it (Chinese), although there are free classes provided by the company [...]

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