The effect of perceived organizational support on different facets of expatriate performance

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UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM

FACULTY OF ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS

Bachelor Thesis

The Effect of Perceived Organizational Support on different

Facets of Expatriate Performance.

Dionysios Skandalos 10418490 29-6-16 2015-2016 Supervisor: Pauline Vromons

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Statement of Originality

This document is written by Dionysios Skandalos who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.

I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it.

The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.

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Abstract

Although expatriate performance in today's hyper-competitive environment represents an important source of competitive advantage to the organizations, a construct that could be universally used to measure expatriate job performance is missing in the field. Moreover, there is little emphasis placed on the role of perceived organizational support (POS) and its influence on expatriate performance. Thus the aim of this study is to provide a construct that clearly breaks down expatriate performance in its various dimensions and can be used universally to assess expatriate performance. Moreover, it is aimed to clearly show the effect of POS on expatriate performance. To achieve this double aim the literature of expatriate performance and POS is examined. Based on this literatures POS is influenced by four factors namely, communication satisfaction, trust, procedural and distributive justice and is divided into six different dimensions. In the literature four major mediating variables where also identified that mediate the relationship between POS and expatriate performance. These are adjustment, affective commitment, effort regulation and motivation. Lastly, based on a thorough investigation of the expatriate performance models in the literature, the proposed model of expatriate performance of this study splits performance into 4 dimensions. These are (1) task performance, (2) teamwork,

communication performance, leadership, (3) maintaining discipline, (4) creativity. Among the most important influences of POS on expatriate performance derived from the integration of POS and performance literatures are the following: (1) POS by the parent and the subsidiary influence

adjustment and then task performance, (2) Career and financial POS influences affective commitment which through OCB influence all three aspects of contextual performance (3) Career and financial POS influence effort regulation and then contextual and task performance and (4) Financial POS impacts motivation which then influences both contextual and task performance.

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1. Introduction

Multinational corporations are investing heavily in expatriates in today's increasingly globalized competitive landscape. Expatriate success is a serious concern not only for the expatriate but also for the organizations as it represents an important source of competitive advantage. Expatriate failure that is depicted by premature return can cost enterprises up to 198000$ (Kawai & Strange, 2014).

Expatriate success is primarily measured in terms of (1) completion of the foreign assignment, (2) cross cultural adjustment and (3) performance on the foreign assignment. The emphasis of the present study will be on the third aspect, namely expatriate job performance.

Job performance represents one of the most influential constructs in industrial and

organizational psychology and human resource management (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). From that it becomes clear that a systematic way to measure expatriate job performance is needed (Caligiuri, 1997). Two main issues however are identified in the current literature that hinder the establishment of a universally accepted framework of expatriate job performance. There are variations in the dimensions in which performance is measured in various studies (Caligiuri, 1997) and there is little emphasis placed on the role of perceived organizational support (POS) and its influence on expatriate performance (Kawai & Strange, 2014)

Concerning the first issue, it is true that every job contains task as well as context dimensions (Caligiuri, 1997). Researchers are trying to deal with this multifacetedness of expatriate performance but only with limited success (Lee & Donohue, 2012). The main problem seems to be that the context dimension is not broken up into its various constituents by researchers universally, when attempting to measure expatriate performance (Arthur & Bennett, 1997), despite the fact that there is the need to expand the factors in which performance is measured from task to the various elements of context performance (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). Up to now the number of different facets that should be captured by a valid construct measuring expatriate job performance varies from two to thirteen facets (Lee & Donohue, 2012).

Regarding the second issue, it must be noted that in many studies a clear delineation between various predictors of performance, such as POS and adjustment, and actual job performance is lacking. This is surprising considering the fact that bad POS can lead to effort regulation, breaking up of the psychological contract, withdrawal cognitions, loss of self confidence, unwillingness to assist others as

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well as decreased well being, all of which are factors that impact either the task or context element of performance (Kawai & Strange, 2014) .

The above two mentioned problems lead to models that only attempt to measure some aspects of expatriate performance and do not examine expatriate performance holistically (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). Therefore, these models suffer from an unclear definition of performance as well as mediating variables (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). An added issue, is that these models are usually based in samples from expatriates in a single region of the globe. It is clear though that the factors affecting expatriate performance in China for example are different than those affecting expatriate performance in the European Union. As a result, the transferability of the results derived from these models is limited (Arthur & Bennett, 1997) and only applicable to the region in which the original study was carried out.

In order thus, to create a construct that could be universally used to measure expatriate job performance the present study will attempt to break contextual performance into its various elements and identify the relationship between POS and expatriate job performance. The research question is the following: How does perceived organizational support influence different types of expatriate

performance? In order to answer this question three sub-questions will also be included. The first is what is POS?. The second is what are the facets of performance that should be included in a

representative construct aiming to measure expatriate performance?. The third is what are other mediating variables that influence the relationship between POS and expatriate job performance?.

The structure of the paper will be as follows. Firstly a theoretical framework will be presented, where the topics of POS and expatriate performance will be illustrated with an emphasis on the

additional mediating variables that determine expatriate performance as well as the types of contextual performance. Then, the new model of expatriate performance will be illustrated and the relationship between POS and expatriate performance will be presented. The final section will include a small conclusion to the topic as well as the limitations and practical and managerial implications of this particular research.

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2. Theoretical framework

2.1 Perceived Organizational Support (POS)

In the first section of this theoretical framework the first important construct of this paper, namely perceived organizational support and the way in which it is conceptualized in the literature will be presented. Firstly the definition of POS will be provided. Then the factors that influences POS will be illustrated followed by the description of the most important POS model in the literature.

POS is defined as global beliefs that employees develop about the extent to which they are valued and cared for by the organization (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). Employees want organizational support to be discretionary in nature (Takeuchi, Wang, Marinova, & Yao, 2009). Actually it has been proven that expatriates are more willing to reciprocate if the resources that are provided from the organization are regarded as being discretionary as opposed to resulting from external circumstances. Summarizing, employees infer the extent to which organizations care about them and this is done through various policies, practices and treatment. They then reciprocate through increased loyalty and feedback (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004).

After having defined POS it is time to examine the factors that affect it. Among the most important factors that determine the beliefs that expatriates develop for the quality of the support that they receive, are procedural justice, distributive justice and communication satisfaction with the supervisor (Moideenkutty, Blau, Kumar, & Nalakath, 2001) as well as an initial level of trust (Venables & Fairclough, 2009). These four factors will be presented in the following sections.

Organizational justice in general focuses on the explanation of the importance of fairness and its applications in the workplace. Organizational justice is divided into procedural justice and

distributive justice. Procedural justice refers to the processes, the means used to achieve the ends. When procedures are fair expatriates have a perception that their rights are respected (Moideenkutty et al., 2001). It also demonstrates that the organization really cares for its employees in practice. So it clearly has a positive relationship with POS. Distributive justice on the other hand, refers to the content and the fairness of the ends achieved (Moideenkutty et al., 2001). It has a positive influence on POS by creating a perception that the organization encourages and rewards extra-role behavior (Moideenkutty et al., 2001).

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The relationship with the supervisor also clearly has a positive relationship with POS. To be more specific, when employees believe that the actions of the supervisor are not meeting the

contractual obligations, a state of psychological contract breach establish itself (PCB) (Aggarwal et al., 2015). Then this breach negatively affects POS. The type of leader that leads to higher perceptions of organizational support is the type that actively demonstrates concern for expatriates' needs on a daily basis (Moideenkutty et al., 2001).

Last but not least, trust can have a significant impact on POS. Trust is primarily the result of procedural justice (Wong, Wong, & Ngo, 2012). Expatriates typically remain in the organization as long as the perceived benefits outweigh the costs. Repeated exchange of benefits have been shown to influence the level of trust of expatriates on their organization (Wong et al., 2012). At the same time POS is a central construct in understanding this exchange process. In a sense, exchange of benefits over time influences POS which influences in its turn trust in the organization. Trust in the organization then influences how organizational actions will be interpreted in the future (Wong et al., 2012).

From the above analysis it seems reasonable to claim that POS is partly a reflection of the psychological contract of the expatriates with their organization (Kawai & Strange, 2014).

Psychological contract refers to promises from the organization of several things to the employees. These promises may include relational inducements such as opportunities for skill development and transactional inducements such as competitive compensation. These promises as a whole represent employees' psychological contract (Aggarwal et al., 2015). Human resource practices in particular have been shown to influence the psychological contract (Tornikoski, 2011). Psychological contract in turn influences expatriate POS ( Lee, Veasna, & Wu, 2013. To be more specific, when employees believe that the actions of the organization are not meeting the contractual obligations, a state of psychological contract breach is created (PCB). PCB is defined as the cognition that one's organization has failed to meet its contractual obligation. This state usually influences the levels of trust in the organization, job satisfaction and turnover intentions (Aggarwal et al., 2015). However when there is high POS over time, employees become in themselves biased in producing positive evaluations of the organization and are less likely to monitor and notice contract breach (Aggarwal et al., 2015).

After presenting the various factors influencing POS and the relationship among them, we can now turn to examine how POS is modeled in the literature. At the beginning only supervisor POS and its impact on expatriate performance was studied by Eisenberger (Takeuchi et al., 2009). In a sense POS was regarded as being uni-dimensional. Guzzo, Noonan & Elron (as cited in Takeuchi et al., 2009)

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were the first to examine POS as a multidimensional construct. They examined POS in terms of work POS, non work POS and expatriation POS (Takeuchi et al., 2009). Following the work of Guzzo et al (2000), Kraimer et al (2001) attempted to further differentiate the sources of POS into POS from the parent company and POS of the foreign subsidiary and connected it to facets of adjustment namely, work general and interaction adjustment. POS from the parent company was related to general adjustment while POS from the subsidiary to all three areas of adjustment (Takeuchi et al., 2009). Building on Kraimer et al (2001), Kraimer and Wayne (2005) proposed a more comprehensive model of POS that included three facets of POS which were adjustment, career and financial POS (Takeuchi et al., 2009). This construct of POS will be used in the present study and its three components will be analyzed in the following section.

Career POS represents the degree to which organization's actions demonstrate concern for expatriates' career needs (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). With career it is meant those developmental needs of the expatriate both during and following their expatriation . Career POS is developed through the policies and practices of the organization that are designed in such a way that permit the expatriate to receive developmental opportunities while being in the oversees location (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). Organizational career plans in particular are such policies and practices that have a serious impact on the perception of support to the expatriate. This is because these plans allow expatriates to concentrate on their job without any concern for their future career (Kawai & Strange, 2014). Other career support may include a mentor offered to the expatriate while being abroad, long term career planning, and career oriented performance appraisals (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004).

Financial POS can be defined as the provision to the expatriate of financial support by the parent company when being sent on an overseaes assignment (Kawai & Strange, 2014). The organization also compensates expatriates for their contribution in terms of monetary rewards and employee benefits (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). Financial POS can include home leaves, cost of leaving allowances (Kawai & Strange, 2014) as well as assignment bonuses and rest and relaxation leave times (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004).

Adjustment POS refers to the extent to which the organization cares about the expatriate's adjustment (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004) and provides support that facilitates his or her adjustment as well as his or her family and especially the accompanying spouse (Kawai & Strange, 2014). Actually adjustment POS is defined as organizations' policies and practices that facilitate the actual transition and adjustment of the expatriate to the foreign facility (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). This form of support

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by the organization may include language training, cross cultural training, relocation assistance (Kawai & Strange, 2014) as well as other anticipatory programs (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). Regarding the anticipatory programs, the organization can use instruments to determine the weaknesses of family members (Rosenbusch & Cseh, 2012) and based on the findings assist the family to acquire the necessary adaptive capabilities for the relocation (Arno & Chris, 2008). This will ensure the satisfaction of family members as their adjustment will be smoother.

2.2 Review of performance literature

After having presented the way that POS is conceptualized in the literature of expatriates, the second construct of this study, namely expatriate performance, will be put into perspective. The issue of expatriate success has been investigated in terms of adjustment, withdrawal cognitions, and performance (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). From these three success criteria performance is the most important one as it is more visible, it can be monitored with greater ease and it is the number one goal of the expatriate in the foreign assignment (Caligiuri, 1997).

For the reason described above, expatriate performance is extensively examined in the literature (Caligiuri, 1997). However, in 1997 researchers (Kraimer, Wayne, & Jaworski, 2001) first argued that in order to examine performance more holistically research should widen its scope beyond task performance alone . This first reference to the importance of contextual performance obliges us to examine its impact on organizational and individual outcomes. Before doing that the definition of task and contextual performance will be provided.

Task performance, refers to the extent to which the expatriate performs the main technical tasks of his job that are core and uniquely required for this particular job (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). Some examples of task performance are the negotiation of joint ventures, the managing of sales accounts, the training of host nationals in new technologies, the start of a production operation (Caligiuri, 1997) as well as the meeting of certain specific goals and targets of projects (Harrison & Shaffer, 2005).

Contextual performance is defined as the extent to which the expatriate engages in tasks or in performance behaviors that are not specific to their actual task at hand but is required because the expatriate belongs to the greater community comprised by the organization (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). Contextual activities improve the effectiveness of the organization as they create the organizational, social and psychological context that acts as a catalyst for the task activities and processes (Caligiury,

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1997). Contextual performance can be broken down into several dimensions. To begin with contextual performance can be measured in terms of finishing the assignment and achieving expected outcomes, communication performance, demonstrating personal effort, maintaining discipline, leadership and administration performance (Lee et al., 2013). Contextual performance can also be measured according to creativity which indirectly lead to better contextual performance (Takeuchi et al., 2009). Contextual performance is also determined by the extent to which the expatriate is prone to relationship building in the new environment (Harrison & Shaffer, 2005). There are also expatriate specific dimensions when measuring expatriate performance that must be taken into account (Caligiury, 1997). The expatriate specific dimension in particular, will be presented elaborately in the next section of this framework that describe prominent expatriate performance models. As the focus of this study is contextual

performance, the next sections will concentrate on how this dimension is presented in the literature. It should be noted here that the distinction of task performance from contextual performance is not always clear cut as in some jobs extra-role contextual activities are actually role-prescribed activities like in the case of managers (Caligiuri, 1997)

All research on context performance share in common the emphasis on how this type of performance meets organizational needs (Kraimer et al., 2001). Its value is empirically validated by supervisors ratings (Kraimer et al., 2001). However, there are some gaps in the literature. To begin with there are several models that examine the effect of various aspects of contextual performance but a single model that examines all the dimensions of contextual performance does not exist (Tucker, Bonial, & Lahti, 2004). This gap is important as a multi-dimensional model of contextual performance is needed as each dimension has been shown to have a different effect (Lee & Donohue, 2012). The second important gap concerns the delineation between various predictors of performance, such as adjustment, and contextual performance (Lee & Donohue, 2012).

There are however two models of expatriate contextual performance that stand out in the literature. These two prominent models are of Campbell (1990) and Caligiuri (1997) respectively. In these two models all these different dimensions of expatriate contextual performance except creativity are captured. These two models will be illustrated in the following sections.

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2.3 Review of the literature on expatriate performance models

Caligiuri (1997)illustrated expatriate performance by breaking it into four dimensions: technical performance, contextual/pro-social performance, contextual managerial performance and expatriate specific dimensions (Lee & Donohue, 2012). The technical performance dimension which is the first dimension that will be presented, includes technical knowledge, skills and abilities and application of technical knowledge (Caligiuri, 1997). In a sense, it is the equivalent of task performance.

The contextual/pro-social performance dimension included carrying out additional tasks as well as maintenance of personal discipline (Caligiuri, 1997). As illustrated in the literature, often the

expatriate is required to carry out additional tasks despite the fact that his or her job title has not

changed when moving to the overseas assignment. The most prominent cases are when expatriates' new tasks require the coordination of the activities of peers while executing tasks inside a team (Caligiuri, 1997). Regarding the maintenance of personal discipline, it is believed that in many cases expatriates must exhibit greater self discipline as the new positions may allow for greater autonomy (Caligiuri, 1997).

The contextual/managerial performance dimension includes maintaining good working relationships among employees, training and developing subordinates as well as representing the organization to customers and the public (Caligiuri, 1997). To begin with, there are cases that

expatriates are sent to destinations very far away from the headquarters’ offices. In the meantime the expatriate must ensure that he or she maintains good relationships with his former-coworkers and that he develops meaningful relationships with the new ones who will most probably be host country nationals. In most cases, he will also be required to train and develop subordinates as most expatriate positions nowadays contain a managerial component. Moreover, the expatriate is often required to play the role of the ambassador of the interests of the headquarters in the host country as in most cases he is the only representative of the headquarters in the subsidiaries (Caligiuri. 1997).

The expatriate-specific dimension includes replacement planning, transferring information, language and cultural proficiency and again establishing good relationships with host country nationals (Caligiury, 1997). To begin with, there are many cases that MNCs realize that the current local labor market does not possess the required qualifications, expertise or talent. In such cases the burden is placed on the expatriates that are sent abroad to fill those gaps or are expected to train host country nationals to perform the task at the required standard (Caligiury, 1997). During this process of training,

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expatriates are required to transfer information from the headquarters to host country nationals. For this integration process of host country nationals to the goals, customs and culture of the headquarters to be successful, expatriates are required to develop meaningful relationships with their colleagues primarily and all the other entities in the foreign country that can facilitate this process directly. These may include customers, suppliers as well as host country government officials (Caligiury, 1997).

The model of Caligiuri presented above is a very comprehensive model of contextual

performance. It is relatively influential and it has been cited extensively (L. Lee & Donohue, 2012). In most of the cases shortened versions of the model are used in subsequent research (L. Lee & Donohue, 2012). However, there are several issues with regards to this model. To begin with, the division of contextual performance into pro-social and managerial does not seem to really work in practice. This is because managers often must exhibit pro-social behaviors as well as managerial ones. In the case of managers there is also an additional issue. In many cases there cannot be a line that distinguishes the task from the contextual aspects of managerial performance (L. Lee & Donohue, 2012). Another issue regarding the model of Caligiury that is probably even more pressing, concerns the incorporation of the expatriate's specific dimension. In many studies there is no clear reason why this dimension should consist of a separate dimension as it is shown that it can easily be subsumed in the other existing contextual dimensions in the literature. For all these reasons and for the fact that Caligiuri has herself used Campbell's (1990) model as a theoretical foundation (L. Lee & Donohue, 2012), the present study will use as a theoretical foundation to examine contextual performance, the model proposed by

Campbell. Also, the expatriate specific dimension will be subsumed in the other dimensions of contextual performance that will be selected for the present study and will not consist a separate dimension of expatriate performance.

According to Campbell (1990), expatriate job performance can be measured using 8

dimensions. These are (1) job specific task proficiency, (2) non job specific task proficiency, (3) written and oral communication (4) demonstrating effort, (5) maintaining personal discipline, (6) facilitating team and peer performance, (7) supervision leadership and (8) management administration (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). To begin with describing its component, the job specific task proficiency and the non job specific task proficiency is the equivalent of the distinction between task and contextual

performance that are present in various other studies. Written and oral communication refers to the ease with which expatriates communicate with fellow co-workers. Demonstrating effort reflects the extent to which expatriates are willing to mobilize effort and resources in accomplishing the task at hand.

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Maintaining personal discipline refers to the extent that the expatriates can control their own behaviors and actions such that they are in accordance with the culture and norms of the organization. Expatriates should particularly avoid absenteeism and rule violations. Facilitating team and peer performance involves coordinating and helping peers in accomplishing the tasks collectively. Desirable behaviors include being a good model and reinforce the participation of everyone in the team (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). The supervisor/leadership dimension builds on the previous one and requires from expatriates to positively influence the performance of subordinates. Finally, the

management/administration dimension includes all the activities of expatriates that are at a higher position than middle managers or direct supervisors (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). Typically these activities include monitoring progress and controlling expenditures (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). According to Campbell (1990), these factors are capable of effectively describing expatriate

performance in the greatest varieties of jobs except some contingencies that are always present (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). Campbell also proved that an eight factor model is the best choice when attempting to measure expatriate performance (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). This was made through excessive empirical validation that compared the eight factor model with an equivalent two and thirteen factor model. The eight factor model explained the greatest percentage of variance in the expatriate

performance than the other two models (Arthur & Bennett, 1997)

In the present study, Campbell's (1990) model will be used but it will be improved in three ways as it has been shown not to be able to capture contextual performance to its fullest extent (Arthur & Bennett, 1997). Despite the fact that (1) it is a very good overview and synthesis of the current expatriate job performance models, (2) it contains sound theoretical propositions about the ways that each dimension influences the global expatriate performance and finally (3) it is the result of sound empirical evidence (L. Lee & Donohue, 2012), there is some overlap in the dimensions proposed and one important contextual factor of performance which is creativity is missing. The three improvements on Campbell’s model will be presented in the following section.

To begin with, the proposed construct of expatriate performance will be based on the shortened version of Campbell's model proposed by (L. Lee & Donohue, 2012). Lee’s model (2012) consist of six dimensions of expatriate performance. These are, (1) task performance, (2) management and

administration, (3) teamwork and leadership, (4) demonstrating effort, (5) communication performance and (6) maintaining discipline. This shortened version is better as it eliminates the overlap that existed among several performance dimensions in Campbell’s (1990) model. In the proposed model of this

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thesis, the management and administration variable will be subsumed under leadership and the communication performance dimension will be included together with teamwork and leadership in order to further eliminate any possible overlap among the performance dimensions in Lee’s (2012) model.

The major difference in the proposed shortened version of Lee (2012) and the model presented in this thesis is the addition of the creativity dimension. Creativity is an extra-role discretionary

behavior that involves the creation and suggestion of novel and useful ideas (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). This form of behavior is particularly important in our current hyper-competitive environment in which competitive advantages accrue to the companies that produce radical innovations (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). POS delivered by middle level managers have been shown to influence work unit and career success expectancy (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). These two variables have been shown to influence creativity and will be included in the proposed model.

The third improvement concerns the elimination of the demonstrating effort variable as a performance measure in Lee’s (2012) model. As it will be shown in the next section of this theoretical framework demonstrating effort can best be used as a mediating variable of contextual performance rather than an actual separate performance dimension. The above analysis leads to the following model of expatriate performance proposed by this thesis that divides contextual performance into four

variables. These are: (1) Task performance, (2) teamwork, communication performance and leadership (3) Maintaining discipline, (4) creativity.

After having presented the POS and expatriate performance constructs, it becomes clear that the three facets of POS presented above are related to several work outcomes such as global job

satisfaction (Worley, Fuqua, & Hellman, 2009), task performance as well as contextual performance. (Takeuchi et al., 2009). Before moving to this, it should be noted that these three facets of POS have distinct and separate impacts on the various performance outcomes that are presented above. As a general remark though, in most cases POS influences expatriate performance through motivating expatriates to engage in more acts of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). To be more specific, research has shown that when employees believe that they receive the support that they deserve, they are more willing to engage in acts of OCB (Liu, 2009), something that results in higher contextual and task performance as it will be shown in the next section of this theoretical framework. Ending this parenthesis, contrary to Eisenberger's first conceptualization as a uni-dimensional construct (Worley et al., 2009), POS is indeed multidimensional. This means that adjustment career and financial POS

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should be viewed as distinct dimensions of the global POS construct that relate differently to the expatriate's outcomes (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004).

2.4 The four variables mediating the relationship between POS and expatriate performance

The relationship between POS and expatriate performance in the literature is mediated by four major mediating variables and two minor ones. The four major variables are adjustment, effort regulation, affective commitment and motivation. The two minor ones are career success expectancy and work unit identification. The models in the literature that contain the four major mediating variables propose that all of them are related (Shaffer, Harrison, Gilley, & Shaffer, 2016) In this relationship adjustment affects affective commitment which then influences effort regulation. Effort regulation finally influences motivation. In the following sections this precise relationship will be illustrated. Then the way that POS influences each of the six mediating variables will be presented followed by the way that these mediating variables influence expatriate performance. This section will end up by demonstrating the model of expatriate performance consisting of the important dimensions of contextual performance that were selected in the previous section. The two minor mediating variables will be illustrated in the conceptual framework section of this study.

In the literature on expatriates, it seems very cruicial to study adjustment since a primary reason for the failure of overseas assignments is expatriates’ inability to adjust (Kraimer et al., 2001). For this reason, adjustment is a very well studied concept based on Tung's article (as cited inKraimer & Wayne, 2004) It is also at the core of the intercultural relations field. However, it is true that there is no

common agreement in defining and reliably measuring adjustment (Tucker et al., 2004). Current literature does not seem to provide consistent criteria of cross cultural adjustment (Tucker et al., 2004). A possible reason for that is that the relationship between intercultural adjustment and performance is complex. That is why it seems reasonable to say that still more research is needed in adjustment and intentions to remain on the assignment (Calliguri, 1997). The most comprehensive definition of

expatriate adjustment is that of Harrison (2005). According to Harrison (2005), adjustment refers to the psychological discomfort in a new environment and has three dimensions, namely work, general and interaction adjustment.

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Several models of expatriate adjustment are proposed in the literature. Of all these models, two stand out as they are cited the most in subsequent studies of adjustment. The first which is proposed by Tucker (2004) contains six factors, namely lifestyle adjustment, interpersonal interaction, nonverbal communication, acceptance of foreign culture, knowledge of foreign culture and affects towards the foreign culture. According to this model, there are certain characteristics that the individual must possess which can facilitate the adjustment. To begin with, trust is an element that is very important in the building of new relationships. Another factor is locus of control and is is related with the psychological adjustment and well-being. The last two factors are flexibility, as well as sense of humor.

The second model which will be mainly used in this research as well is developed by Black and Stephens (1989). According to this model, there are three facets of expatriate adjustment namely: work, general and interaction adjustment (Kraimer et al., 2001) General adjustment concerns the adjustment to general living conditions as well as the culture of the foreign environment. Work adjustment points to the expatriate’s psychological comfort with his everyday tasks and work. Interaction adjustment refers to the ease with which expatriates interact with host country nationals.

Commitment is the second mediating variable in the chain from adjustment to motivation. Commitment like adjustment, is one of the most well-studied subjects in the expatriate literature (Liu, 2009). There are three types of commitment. These are continuance, normative and affective commitment. Of these three types of commitment, affective is the most important in predicting expatriate performance. (Liu, 2009) Affective commitment is the willingness to maintain long-lasting relationships with the employer (Tornikoski, 2011).

These two variables presented above are related. All three facets of adjustment influences affective commitment. To be more specific, adjustment determines the extent to which the expatriate is satisfied in his or her new role and position overseas(Van Scotter, 2000). If this adjustment is facilitaded by the organisation, then the expatriate is likely to be attached to the entity that is the source of this satisfaction derived from his proper adjustment (Van Scotter, 2000).

Effort regulation is the third variable in the chain of adjustment to motivation. According to the model of Harisson & Shaffer (2005) effort regulation is described in terms of withdrawal cognitions, passive task neglect, active task avoidance, time to proficiency and leader-member exchange. For the purposes of our analysis, passive task neglect, active task avoidance and time to proficiency will be combined

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under the more generalised term turnover. In a sense effort regulation consist of the energy and resources that the expatriate mobilise to their fullest potential in accomplishing the tasks (Harrison & Shaffer, 2005).

Affective commitment has been found to influence expatriate’s effort regulation. As affective commitment concerns the attachment to the organization, it is logical to assume that it leads to greater involvement in the activities of the organization that lead to the accomplishment of tasks (Takeuchi et al., 2009). Actually, the effect of affective commitment on effort regulation is clearer in its impact on withdrawal cognitions (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). Employees that do not feel attached to the

organization have been shown to have intentions to leave early. This leads to taking longer to complete the task, intending to withdraw from the job and failing to maintain meaningful relationships with host country nationals (Harrison & Shaffer, 2005).

The last major mediating variable is motivation. The most important model in the theory of motivation is the VIE model (Bin, 2016). According to this model, people have reasoning capabilities and form beliefs and anticipations regarding future events in their lives (Bin, 2016). The force that motivates individual to accomplish their tasks is a multiplicative function of these beliefs and expectations of the future and the value and the importance that the individual places on different possible outcomes. In essence, motivations exhibits an action outcome association (Bin, 2016).

Instrumentality and expectancy is the most important construct in the model of motivation. Expectancy can be defined as an expectation of achieving internal career success that is in line with career goals, which may include promotion, recognition & compensation in the current organization (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). Expectancy theory of motivation is widely researched in the theory of work motivation. It has also been a core research topic in various other similar fields, such as decision making, learning theory, verbal conditioning, achievement motivation, social power, coalition information, attitudes and organizational behavior in general (Bin, 2016). It has also been used as a construct for overbidding a variety of other work related variables in diverse organizational settings (Bin, 2016). The formation of expectancy is based on previous experiences that the organization has of POS.

Motivation is affected by effort regulation. In the literature, performance feedback and task difficulty influences expatriates’ effort regulation and their subsequent levels of motivation in

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accomplishing their tasks (Venables & Fairclough, 2009). Concerning task difficulty, expatriates are willing to mobilize greater effort but up to a certain level. After a certain level of difficulty they are not motivated in accomplishing the task at hand. Moreover, concerning performance feedback, very positive performance feedback may lead to expatriates becoming complacent for their abilities and dedicating less effort (Venables & Fairclough, 2009). This clearly influences negatively their motivation levels.

2.5 The impact of POS on the four mediating variables

With the illustration of motivation, which is the fourth mediating variable, the way that these four mediating variables are related to each other is clear. It is time to examine now how each of the four mediating variables relate to the six facets of POS that are selected for the present study. The presentation of the relationships will follow the same order statrting with adjustment and ending with motivation.

According to the model of Black and Stephens (1989), the three facets of expatriate adjustment are influenced by perceived organization support, leader member exchange and spousal support. From these three factors, the emphasis of the present study is on the impact of POS on adjustment.

POS in this model is divided into POS provided by the parent company and POS provided by the subsidiary (Kraimer et al., 2001). Parent POS influences work and general adjustment while foreign facility POS influences work, general as well as interaction adjustment (Takeuchi, Wang, Marinova, & Yao, 2009). Support from a parent company may include benefits and services before arriving and during the stay of the foreign country that can positively impact the expatriate's quality of life. These are basically in the form of financial support, cross cultural training, assistance in housing relocation, vacational leaves, assistance with schooling for children and spousal employment. It can also reassure the expatriates that his or her position in the organization is not under threat during the assignment (Kraimer et al., 2001). Support from the foreign facility may be in terms of foreign language courses, socialization experiences and other chances to build meaningful relationships with host country nationals ((Kraimer et al., 2001) Summarizing, it becomes clear that all three facets of POS influence expatriate's adjustment in the foreign location (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004).

Leader member exchange is the second factor that according to Black and Stephens (Kraimer et al., 2001) influences adjustment. It refers to the importance of the quality of support provided by the

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organization in general and the supervisor in particular (Lee, Veasna, & Wu, 2013). Although this type of social support represents a key antecedent of adjustment there is very little research that simultaneously measures the impact of social support and transformation leadership on the adjustment of the expatriate (Lee et al., 2013) This type of support is found to impact work adjustment (Kraimer et al., 2001).

There are also other contextual factors that can influence expatriate’s adjustment, including language fluency and spousal adjustment (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). Spousal adjustment though seems to be the most important factor (Kraimer et al., 2001) as it impact work as well as general adjustment. (Kraimer et al., 2001). More specifically, spousal adjustment impacts the failure rate of assignments in two ways. In the first way, the frustration, loneliness and possible cultural shock experienced by unadjusted spouses (Fish, A., & Wood, J., 1997, p. 446), spills over and influence directly the performance of the expatriates (Kraimer et al, 2001, p.75). Inadequate performance may lead to unsuccessful or early termination of the assignment. In the second way, the spouse may find the adjustment so difficult that may prefer to return home before the completion, leading to a premature return of the expatriate himself (Anees et al, 2003, p. 564).

Affective commitment as well, results from cumulative experiences regarding the extent to which adequate support is provided by the organization (Moideenkutty, Blau, Kumar, & Nalakath, 2001). Several factors influence whether employees will be satisfied with the support inside the organization. To begin with, employees are satisfied when the compensation packages that they receive for their effort are fair (Tornikoski, 2011). Moreover, POS must meet the expectations regarding fair procedures and developmental opportunities inside the organisation (Liu, 2009). In a sense affective commitment is primarily affected by financial and career POS. The precise impact of these facets of POS will be illustrated in the next section.

The rewards offered by organizations can greatly influence the attitudes of the employees towards their job and the company (O’Driscoll & Randall, 1999). There are two types of rewards, intrinsic rewards and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic rewards are provided by the job itself and include variety, challenge and autonomy (O’Driscoll & Randall, 1999). Extrinsic rewards include pay benefits, promotion as well as advancement opportunities. Intrinsic rewards can have a greater positive influence on affective commitment. On a more general discussion, affective commitment is built through compensation packages (Tornikoski, 2011). The content of the compensation package by itself is

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important, as not all types of rewards lead to higher levels of commitment. However, the perception of the expatriate of the way that the reward is deliverd to him is also important (Tornikoski, 2011). In this classification of rewards, rewards are treated as a coherent whole. However in many cases, these packages are costly and are avoided by organizations, something that has implications on the development of affective commitment (Tornikoski, 2011).

Financial POS which is described above, mainly in the form of compensation packages, has been shown to be positively related to expatriates' affective commitment both to the parent as well as to the foreign facility (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). Expatriates are committed to the parent company because financial support is coming primarily from the parent company. However, it has been shown that when financial support leads to the expatriate's maintenance of his or her standards of living while being abroad, the expatriate exhibits affective commitment to the foreign facility as well (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004).

Regarding the fair procedures, in the literature of expatriates, it has been identified that distributive justice, impacts, affective commitment (Moideenkutty et al., 2001). More specifically, employees have in their mind a sub-psychological contract for each HR practice. Even a small change in a core attribute of their mental contract can have implications on the affective commitment (Tornikoski, 2011).

Career POS which is described above mainly in the form of satisfaction with the fairness of procedures is shown to influence organizational commitment to the parent company especially, as it is the entity that primarily initiates this type of support (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). More specifically career POS has been shown to impact expatriates' withdrawal cognitions (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). This is because career POS by the parent company serves as an indication that the organisation cares for the anxieties of the expatriate. When the expatriate knows that he or she is in an environment where personal care is provided, he or she does not have reasons to leave (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004)

Effort regulation also exhibits a complex relationship with POS. Withdrawal intentions and turnover, which are two of the three elements comprising effort regulation, are influenced by perception of benefits and support provided by the organization (Shaffer et al., 2016). To begin with, career POS influences intentions to complete the assignment (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004) because expatriates are particularly concerned with their career prospects upon repatriation. Moreover POS reduces the stressors related to new demands in the new setting abroad (Aggarwal et al., 2015). The emphasis on how POS reduces stressors in the literature is not surpising given the negative relationship between

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stressors and productivity. These stressors are again role novelty, ambiguity and conflict. POS reduces those stressors when organisations provide fair dealing with unexpected circumstances, reasonable work load, provision of adequate material financial and human resources that facilitate the completion of the task at hand, and provision of a conducive work environment (Aggarwal et al., 2015). When this kind of support is provided expatriates are willing to mobilise effort in successfully carrying out the assignment.

The fourth major mediating variable, motivation, is also influenced by POS. Past POS, in terms of recognition and rewards have been found to positively influence expectancy. High success expectancy leads to autonomous motivation (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). This success expectancy is influenced by the difficulty of the assignment as well as stressors like role ambiguity and novelty (Tucker et al., 2004), as well as perceived psychological contract for each of the organizations human resource practices (Tornikoski, 2011).

2.6 The impact of the four mediating variables on expatriate performance

The presentation of how POS influences the four mediating variables was the last step before illustrating how these four variables actually affect the four dimensions of expatriate performance that are selected for this study. This will be done in the following section. Once again the impact of adjustment will be presented first while motivation will be the last one to be discussed in this framework.

Adjustment predicts performance because if expatriates are well adjusted, then they have the competence to understand the behaviors that are suitable in their specific work context (Kawai & Strange, 2014). In the literature maladjustment leads to mental fatigue, something that does not allow expatriates to use their resources and energy to their fullest potential(Kraimer et al., 2001). When expatriates are not adjusted properly, the immediate response is to redirect efforts from their task at hand. However, when the adjustment of the expatriate and his accompanying family due to support provided by the organisation is successful, the time that is required to be spent on schooling, houses and legal issues is reduced, something that allows the expatriate to devote this time to work related issues thus maximising his adjustment and subsequent performance to the task at hand (Kawai & Strange, 2014).As a result expatriate adjustment primarily impacts task performance.

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When affective commitment is eventually established it influences the various dimensions of contextual performance in a complex way. Affective commitment behaviors contribute to all the four dimensions of contextual performance (Kawai & Strange, 2014) through organization citizenship actions. OCB have many things in common with contextual performance (Van Scotter, 2000) Actually, employees with a higher level of affective commitment engage in more OCB behavior (Liu, 2009). This is because when the employee perceives that an organization values his or her contributions, he or she has a desire to reciprocate with increased levels of OCB (Liu, 2009). OCB, is in a sense, a behavioral response to affective commitment. Summarizing, affective commitment mediates the relationship between POS and contextual performance with increased levels of OCB (Liu, 2009).

Effort regulation can impact both contextual and task performance. To begin with it has been identified that intentions to return early, despite the fact that they do not exist with the frequency identified in many studies, may in fact impact other aspects of expatriate performance (Harrison & Shaffer, 2005). Moreover it has been identified that mobilizing effort enables expatriates to build meaningful relationships with host country nationals which is an important dimension of contextual performance of the expatriate (Harrison & Shaffer, 2005). The effort that expatriates are mobilizing in building meaningful relationships depend mainly on the type of their leaders. Transformational leaders can inspire followers to go beyond their own self interest and engage also in extra-role behavior like building meaningful relationships (Lee et al., 2013). From a more general LMX perspective again, when supervisors provide support and care to the expatriate he is willing to reciprocate by again engaging in extra-role behavior, a type of which is relationship building and an attitude of acceptance of host country nationals (Lee et al., 2013). A last factor influencing the effort mobilised in relationship building is socialization opportunities provided by the foreign facility (Lee et al., 2013).

Concerning task performance, as performance is a function of the amount of energy and time that is devoted in a task (Bin, 2016), effort regulation can predict task performance as well (Harrison & Shaffer, 2005). The extent to which the expatriate mobilizes effort to the task at hand is influenced by beliefs that the organization compensates greater effort (Worley et al., 2009). This is derived from Eisenberger's (1986) definition of POS which defines it as a global belief that the organization recognizes and values employee's contributions as reflected in pay, rank, rewards and other forms of compensation and benefits (Worley et al., 2009). So employees may be willing to dedicate greater effort when they have perceptions of increasing rewards. Intrinsic rewards in particular have been

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shown to have a significant effect on commitment and job involvement which is a form of effort regulation (O’Driscoll & Randall, 1999).

The impact of motivation on expatriate performance is similar to that of affective commitment with regards to contextual performance but it differs in one important respect. Motivation influences the different facets of expatriate contextual performance by making expatriates engage in more acts of OCB exactly as is the case with affective commitment (Kawai & Strange, 2014). However, an interesting finding in the literature of motivation is that it can lead to creativity (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). This relationship between motivation and creativity is influenced by the presence of transformational leaders (Lee et al., 2013). Transformational leaders have been found to be able to reduce the level of stress and complexity of the assignment, thus motivating expatriates to work harder with the resources that are freed from the reduced level of stress (L. Y. Lee et al., 2013). They also motivate individuals through setting goals that are deemed intrinsically significant to the expatriate or linked to extrinsic motives like monetary incentives (Venables & Fairclough, 2009).

3. Conceptual Framework

At this stage the main constructs of this study are presented. It is time now to summarize the findings in the literature about expatriate performance and POS and illustrate the proposed model of this study. This model is created based on propositions that can be inferred about the relationships between POS, the four mediating variables and performance. Some of the relationships though will be directly taken from other studies as illustrated in this framework. The presentation of the model will be linear starting from the factors that influence POS and ending with the influence of the mediating variables on task and contextual performance.

This model starts with the four factors that influence POS. These are procedural justice,

distributive justice, communication satisfaction with the supervisor and initial level of trust. Each factor has a different effect on the perceptions of support that the expatriate has. To begin with procedural justice creates a feeling to the expatriates that his or her rights are respected as procedures are deemed to be fair. Distributive justice improves POS through feelings that the organizations shows active commitment in rewarding extra-role behaviors through rewards (Moideenkutty et al., 2001). Communication satisfaction now influences perceptions of support as expatriates value leaders that care for their needs on a daily basis (Moideenkutty et al., 2001). Lastly trust influences POS as existing levels of trust influences the way that organizational actions are interpreted by the expatriates. For

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example any deviation of the organization from the expected organizational behaviors can be interpreted by the expatriates as being temporary (Moideenkutty et al., 2001).

In the literature now it is suggested that POS is in effect a reflection of the psychological contract breach (PCB) between the expatriate and the organization (Kawai & Strange, 2014). As a result of this it is suggested that those four factors do not directly influence POS but in turn determine the extent of the psychological contract breach. It is the psychological contract breach then that determines financial, career and adjustment POS. Thus the first two propositions are the following:

Proposition 1: Procedural justice, distributive justice, communication satisfaction with the supervisor

and initial level of trust determines the extent of the psychological contract breach

Proposition 2: The extent of the psychological contract determines financial POS, career POS and

adjustment POS from both the parent and subsidiary organization.

The next block of the model concerns POS. As it is shown in the model in this paper, following Kraimer & Wayne (2004) suggestion, POS is divided in three dimensions and for each dimension the support provided is distinguished into support provided by the parent and the subsidiary. Thus we have financial career and adjustment POS. Each of them also is split into parent and subsidiary POS. In a sense we have split POS into six dimensions following Worley et al’s., (2009) suggestion that POS is a multidimensional construct. Before presenting the impact of POS on the mediating variables it is interesting to note how the mediating variables are depicted in the model.

To begin with, there is the chain from adjustment to motivation described in (Harrison & Shaffer, 2005) . Adjustment, which is the first mediating variable, is divided into work, general and interaction according to Black and Stephens ((Kraimer et al., 2001). The level of the adjustment influences affective commitment which is the next factor after adjustment. Affective commitment then influences effort regulation which is also a multidimensional construct according to Venables & Fairclough (2009). For the purpose of the present study effort regulation is a three-dimensional construct comprised of withdrawal cognitions, turnover and leader team exchange. Effort regulation finally impacts motivation levels. This study also includes two other minor mediating variables that influence creativity (Yu & Frenkel, 2013) as indicated in the theoretical framework. These are career success expectancy and work unit identification. They are depicted in a separate section from the four major mediating variables.

After having presented the block of the mediating variables it is time to see how they relate to each other and what is the impact of the different facets of POS that are identified in the present study.

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To begin with, the linear relationship between adjustment, affective commitment, effort regulation and motivation is adequately described in the theoretical framework. The point is now to identify the stage at this chain that the influence of POS becomes apparent. POS as it became clear in the theoretical framework impacts this chain at every stage. The precise way that this is done will be presented in the following section.

Adjustment is influenced by all six facets of POS. More specifically the three facets of parent POS influence work and general adjustment and the three facets of subsidiary POS influence all three facets of adjustment(Takeuchi et al., 2009).

Affective commitment is influenced by POS through the creation of feelings of reciprocation (Kawai & Strange, 2014). To be more specific in order for the expatriates to feel attached to the organization they expect in return to be alleviated from role ambiguity and other financial stressors in their new jobs (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004; Takeuchi et al., 2009). They also expect that the organisation will ensure that their career prospects will not be in danger while being abroad (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). As a result it becomes clear that mainly career and financial POS will determine the extent to which the expatriate develops affective commitment towards the organization. However it should be noted that it is the parent company mainly at this stage that provides this type of support (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). Summarizing the above analysis, in the present model affective commitment will be influenced by career and financial POS provided by the parent company.

Moving now to effort regulation it has been identified in the literature that POS impacts mainly withdrawal cognitions and turnover. More specifically it has been identified that financial and career POS influences withdrawal cognitions (Shaffer et al., 2016). Career POS influences intentions to withdraw as expatriates have been shown to be particularly concerned with their career prospects and it is not likely to remain in an assignment that hinder their developmental opportunities (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). Financial POS on the other hand mainly as a form of financial resources have been shown to influence turnover by reducing stressors related to new demands in the new setting and allowing the expatriate to concentrate on the task at hand (Aggarwal et al., 2015). However in the literature it is not clear whether the parent or subsidiary organization provide the financial and career support. This leads to the following propositions

Proposition 3: Career POS by both the parent and the subsidiary company influences expatriate’s

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Proposition 4 Financial support by both the parent and the subsidiary company influences expatriate

turnover.

Despite this main effect of the two different facets of POS on withdrawal cognitions and turnover there is also a minor effect identified in the literature. This concerns the impact of subsidiary adjustment POS on the leader member exchange aspect of effort regulation. More specifically it is shown that the provision of socialization opportunities by the subsidiary encourages the expatriate to build more meaningful relationships with their supervisors and fellow host country national co-workers (L. Y. Lee et al., 2013). As a result in the present model adjustment POS provided by the subsidiary will be related to leader team exchange.

The impact now of POS on motivation is clearer. Past POS in terms of financial rewards serves as a signal to the expatriate that the organization compensates the accomplishment of specific tasks and goals (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). This motivates the expatriate to work towards the goal in order to

experience the benefits of the associated rewards. However, again in the literature it is not clear whether the parent or the subsidiary provides this type of support. Therefore in the present model it is proposed the following relationship.

Proposition 5: Financial support by both the parent and the subsidiary influences expatriate’s

motivation.

Except from these four mediating variables that consist the chain from effort adjustment to motivation, they are included in the model two additional minor mediating variables. These are career success expectancy and work unit identification. According to Yu & Frenkel (2013), POS provided by the middle managers influences these two variables which in turn influence creativity. This is because when expatriates feel respected inside their group and among supervisors and are sure that their career prospects are not at threat they will be more willing to discuss ideas that challenge the status quo (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). In the present model the idea that POS by supervisors influences career expectancy and identification will be extended leading to the following proposition.

Proposition 6: Career POS provided by the parent and the subsidiary influences work unit

identification and career success expectancy which in turn influences creativity.

After having presented how POS influences the various mediating variables it is time to turn on the next and final two blocks of this model and examine how these mediating variables influence OCB

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and contextual and task performance. To begin with, proposition six has shown the relationship

between success expectancy, work unit identification and creativity which is one of the four dimensions of expatriate performance in this study. Therefore now, the way that the four remaining variables influence OCB, task performance and contextual performance will be illustrated. Again the influence of adjustment on expatriate performance will be presented first, followed by affective commitment, effort regulation and finally motivation. At this stage it is important to be reminded that contextual

performance for the present study as shown in the model is broken into (1) teamwork, communication performance and leadership (2) Maintaining discipline (3) creativity.

The impact of adjustment on expatriate performance is fairly clear. As presented also in the theoretical framework adjustment mainly influences task performance (Kraimer & Wayne, 2004). This is because if the adjustment of the expatriate is smooth and facilitated by the organization as illustrated in the theoretical framework, the expatriate is able to concentrate on the task at hand and not spent time on other distrusting stressors resulting from maladjustment. It is clear then that in the present model adjustment is related to task performance.

Affective commitment now, contributes to contextual performance through OCB actions (Kawai & Strange, 2014). Contextual performance seem to be the reflection of OCB (Van Scotter, 2000). In the literature it is proven that employees with higher level of affective commitment engage in more OCB behavior that contain many elements of contextual performance like teamwork (Liu, 2009). From this it is clear that OCB influences contextual performance. Although in the literature the

relationship between OCB and the facets of contextual performance that were selected for the present study is not explicitly stated it is reasonable to assume that this relationship exists as OCB behaviors and actions contain element of contextual performance as shown above. Therefore this leads to the following proposition

Proposition 7: Affective commitment influences OCB behaviors which in turn influence (1) teamwork,

communication performance, leadership (2) maintaining discipline (3) creativity.

Effort regulation now impacts both task and contextual performance. As performance is a function of the amount of effort devoted to a task (Bin, 2016), in the present study effort regulation will be related to task performance. The impact of effort regulation on contextual performance is best understood if each element of effort regulation is examined separately. In the present study effort regulation is divided into turnover, withdrawal cognitions and leader-member exchange. Of these three withdrawal cognition and leader-member exchange can best predict contextual performance. As shown

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in the theoretical framework, when supervisors provide support and care to the expatriate he is willing to reciprocate by engaging in extra-role behavior, a type of which is relationship building and an attitude of acceptance of host country nationals. From this it is clear that leader member exchange will influence teamwork, leadership and communication performance which are facets of contextual performance of the present study. Regarding withdrawal cognitions, according to Harrison & Shaffer, (2005) they can influence many aspects of contextual performance. This leads to the following proposition.

Proposition 8: Withdrawal cognitions impact (1) teamwork, communication performance, leadership

(2) maintaining discipline and (3) creativity.

Motivation again in the present study influences both contextual and task performance. The influence of motivation on task performance results is very similar to that of effort regulation described above. It is clear by now that when individuals are motivated to work harder, they will usually perform better. The impact however of motivation on contextual performance is more complex. This impact is again realised through OCB. Motivation has been shown to influence OCB (Yu & Frenkel, 2013). Of the repertoire of citizenship behaviors, an individual motivated by his transformational leader is found to engage more in behaviors that produce creative ideas (L. Y. Lee et al., 2013). Therefore in the present study motivation will influence creativity through more citizenship actions.

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4. Discussion

In the present study we aimed to examine the ways that POS impacts different facets of expatriate performance. For this reason we investigated the literature of both POS and expatriate performance. The combination of these two literatures yielded some interesting findings that can contribute to the theory on expatriate performance and will be summarized now.

To begin with the present study identified the factors that are responsible for the way that expatriates perceive organizational support. These were procedural justice, distributive justice, an initial level of trust and communication satisfaction for the supervisor. These factors also were related to the extent that the expatriate experiencing psychological contract breach. In many previous studies POS was considered the reflection of PCB but the factors that determine it were not explicitly stated. So the model of the present study suggested a more reasonable relationship moving from the factors that determine PCB to their actual impact on POS.

Moreover the present study was among the few ones to present mediating variables between POS and expatriate contextual and task performance. These were adjustment, affective commitment, effort regulation and motivation. Also this study was among the few ones to describe elaborately the relationship between these four mediating factors, starting from adjustment and ending at motivation. When those four mediating variables were related with the six facets of POS in the present study some new insights for the impact of POS was also yielded which are among the most important ones in this study. These will be summarized in the following paragraph.

The impacts were identified when POS was related with the relationship of the four mediating variables. The first important finding was that career POS by the parent and the subsidiary company may influence expatriate’s withdrawal cognition, work unit identification, career success expectancy and creativity. Another notable finding was the proposion that financial POS by both entities can influence expatriate turnover as well as expatriate’s motivation.

The most important contribution of the present study was to break down contextual

performance in its various elements and then relate them to the mediating variables. This was crucial as the intention of this study was to provide a universal construct for measuring expatriate contextual performance that was not readily available in the current literature. This was because each study was examining some aspect of expatriate performance thus failing to provide a global definition of contextual performance. It is believed that the present study fills this gap by defining contextual