International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences

search-icon

Impact of Family Support on Job Performance among Chinese Expatriates: Insights from Separated Families

Open access
With the increasing number of expatriates in the Chinese construction industry, their job performance and the factors influencing it have garnered significant attention from scholars. Family support is considered one of the crucial factors affecting expatriate performance. This study investigates the impact of family support on expatriate performance in the context of separated families, focusing on three aspects: emotional support, communication support, and decision-making support. This approach differs significantly from previous Western studies that primarily examined support provided by accompanying family members. Based on social support theory, this study employs a quantitative research method and utilizes a snowball sampling technique, ultimately gathering data from 355 expatriates. The results, obtained through multilevel regression analysis, indicate that all types of family support have a significant positive impact on job performance. Among these, emotional support has the strongest impact, followed by communication support, and finally, decision-making support. These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive family support in enhancing the job performance of expatriates in the Chinese construction industry. Given the unique challenges faced by separated families, the study highlights the necessity for companies to develop and implement robust support policies. Recommendations include providing regular psychological counseling services, structured family reunion plans, and creating online support groups. This research also validates the practical application of social support theory, offering valuable insights for companies to enhance the well-being and job performance of their expatriate employees through targeted family support interventions.
Abdul Malek, M., Rahim Jaguli, A., & Rizal Palil, M. (2013). Enhancing social integration and work performance: The role of expatriates’ significant other. Asian Social Science, 9(13), 215–228. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n13p215
Aldersey, H. M., Turnbull, A. P., & Turnbull III, H. R. (2016). Family Support in K inshasa, Democratic Republic of the C ongo. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 13(1), 23–32.
Armstrong, R. A. (2019). Should Pearson’s correlation coefficient be avoided? Ophthalmic and Physiological Optics, 39(5), 316–327.
Bader, B., Berg, N., & Holtbrugge, D. (2015). Expatriate performance in terrorism-endangered countries: The role of family and organizational support. International Business Review, 24(5), 849–860. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2015.03.005
Ballesteros Leiva, F., Poilpot-Rocaboy, G., & St-Onge, S. (2018). Social Support and Life-Domain Interactions among Assigned and Self-Initiated Expatriates. European Management Review, 15(3), 293–313. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12149
Bloomfield, J., & Fisher, M. J. (2019). Quantitative research design. Journal of the Australasian Rehabilitation Nurses Association, 22(2), 27–30.
Borman, W. C., & Motowidlo, S. M. (1993). Expanding the criterion domain to include elements of contextual performance. In Psychology Faculty Publications. 1111. Psychology Faculty Publications. 1111.
Caligiuri, P. M. (1997). Assessing expatriate success: beyond just “being there”. In New Approaches to Employee Management, (Vol. 4, pp. 117–140). JAI Press.
Chang, Y.-Y., Chen, H.-Y., & Chau, M.-D. (2023). Is There No Place Like Home? Expatriates’ Locus of Control Personality, Self-efficacy, Cross-cultural Adjustment, and Organizational Support for Expatriate Career. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 93, 101761. https://doi.org/S0147176723000093
Cohen, S. (1992). Stress, social support, and disorder. In H.O.F.Veiel and U.Baumann (Ed.), The meaning and measurement of social support (Vol. 109, p. 124). Hemisphere Press.
Cohen, S., & McKay, G. (2020). Social support, stress and the buffering hypothesis: A theoretical analysis. In Handbook of psychology and health, Volume IV (pp. 253–267). Routledge.
Dang, Q. T., Rammal, H. G., & Michailova, S. (2022). Expatriates’ families: A systematic literature review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 32(4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2021.100877
Feng, L., Li, J., Feng, T., & Jiang, W. (2019). Workplace ostracism and job performance: Meaning at work and family support as moderators. Social Behavior and Personality, 47(11). https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.8244
Furusawa, M., & Brewster, C. (2016). IHRM and expatriation in Japanese MNCs: HRM practices and their impact on adjustment and job performance. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 54(4), 396–420. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12106
Ganji, S. F. G., & Johnson, L. W. (2020). The relationship between family emotional support, psychological capital, female job satisfaction and turnover intention. International Journal of Economics, Business and Management Studies, 7(1), 59–70.
Hair, J. F., Risher, J. J., Sarstedt, M., & Ringle, C. M. (2019). When to use and how to report the results of PLS-SEM. In European Business Review (Vol. 31, Issue 1, pp. 2–24). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1108/EBR-11-2018-0203
Hajiali, I., Kessi, A. M. F., Budiandriani, B., Prihatin, E., & Sufri, M. M. (2022). Determination of Work Motivation, Leadership Style, Employee Competence on Job Satisfaction and Employee Performance. Golden Ratio of Human Resource Management, 2(1), 57–69.
Halim, H., Abu Bakar, H., & Mustaffa, C. S. (2016). The Mediating Roles of Communication in Expatriate Adjustment. Journal of Telecommunication, Electronic and Computer Engineering, 8(8).
He, B., An, R., & Berry, J. (2019). Psychological adjustment and social capital: a qualitative investigation of Chinese expatriates. Cross Cultural and Strategic Management, 26(1), 67–92. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCSM-04-2018-0054
Hutchings, K., & Mcnulty, Y. (2017). Split family expatriation: perspectives from expatriates and their career spouses. (Y. Mcnulty, Ed.). Edward Elgar.
Kalliath, P., Chan, X. W., & Kalliath, T. (2022). Keeping work and family separate: A serial mediation analysis of social workers’ work–family segmentation, work–family enrichment and job performance in Australia. The British Journal of Social Work, 52(1), 236–255.
Kamaryati, N. P., & Malathum, P. (2020). Family Support: A Concept Analysis. Pacific Rim International Journal of Nursing Research, 24(3), 403–411.
Khedher, H., & Asadullah, M. A. (2020). Role of social and organizational support in the adjustment of Tunisian self-initiated expatriates. European Journal of Training and Development, 44(2–3), 171–190. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-08-2019-0142
Kort?Butler, L. A. (2017). Social Support Theory. In The Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency and Justice (pp. 1–4). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118524275.ejdj0066
Kwok, S. Y. C. L., Cheng, L., & Wong, D. F. K. (2015). Family Emotional Support, Positive Psychological Capital and Job Satisfaction Among Chinese White-Collar Workers. Journal of Happiness Studies, 16(3), 561–582. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-014-9522-7
Lages, C. R., Piercy, N. F., Malhotra, N., & Simoes, C. (2020). Understanding the mechanisms of the relationship between shared values and service delivery performance of frontline employees. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(21), 2737–2760. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2018.1464491
Le, H., Lee, J., Nielsen, I., & Nguyen, T. L. A. (2022). Turnover intentions: the roles of job satisfaction and family support. Personnel Review. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-08-2021-0582
Lee, D. K., In, J., & Lee, S. (2015). Standard deviation and standard error of the mean. Korean Journal of Anesthesiology, 68(3), 220–223.
Lo Presti, A., D’Aloisio, F., & Pluviano, S. (2016). With a little help from my family: A mixed-method study on the outcomes of family support and workload. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 12(4), 584–603. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i4.1159
Mardia, K. V, Kent, J. T., & Taylor, C. C. (2024). Multivariate analysis (Vol. 88). John Wiley & Sons.
National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2023). China Statistic Yearbook. National Bureau of Statistics of China.
Parker, C., Scott, S., & Geddes, A. (2019). Snowball sampling. SAGE Research Methods Foundations.
Richardson, J. (2006). Self?directed expatriation: family matters. Personnel Review, 35(4), 469–486.
Rubaca, U., & Khan, M. (2021). The impact of perceived organizational support and job resourcefulness on supervisor-rated contextual performance of firefighters: Mediating role of job satisfaction. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 29(3), 281–292. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5973.12340
Schober, P., & Schwarte, L. A. (2018). Correlation coefficients: Appropriate use and interpretation. Anesthesia and Analgesia, 126(5), 1763–1768. https://doi.org/10.1213/ANE.0000000000002864
Shah, D., Agrawal, N. M., & Moeller, M. (2019). Career decisions of married Indian IT female expatriates. Journal of Global Mobility, 7(4), 395–418. https://doi.org/10.1108/JGM-03-2019-0020
Shrestha, N. (2021). Factor Analysis as a Tool for Survey Analysis. American Journal of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, 9(1), 4–11. https://doi.org/10.12691/ajams-9-1-2
Tabachnick, B. G., Fidell, L. S., & Ullman, J. B. (2013). Using multivariate statistics (Vol. 6). Pearson Boston, MA.
Takeuchi, R. (2010). A critical review of expatriate adjustment research through a multiple stakeholder view: Progress, emerging trends, and prospects. Journal of Management, 36(4), 1040–1064. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206309349308
Laken, P., Engen, M., Veldhoven, M., & Paauwe, J. (2016). Expatriate support and success: A systematic review of organization-based sources of social support. In Journal of Global Mobility (Vol. 4, Issue 4, pp. 408–431). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1108/JGM-11-2015-0057
Warrier, U., Shankar, A., & Belal, H. M. (2024). Examining the role of emotional intelligence as a moderator for virtual communication and decision making effectiveness during the COVID-19 crisis: revisiting task technology fit theory. Annals of Operations Research, 335(3), 1519–1535. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-021-04216-8
Yue, W. G., Hongyang, L., & Chenglong, D. (2018). Job burnout, work-family conflict and project performance for construction professionals: The moderating role of organizational support. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(12), 2869.
Shin, Y., Hur, W. M., & Park, K., (2021). The power of family support: The long-term effect of pre-COVID-19 family support on mid-COVID-19 work outcomes. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(19). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910524
(Ying et al., 2024)
Ying, D., Anuar, M. A. M., & Zulkifly, N. A. (2024). Impact of Family Support on Job Performance among Chinese Expatriates: Insights from Separated Families. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 14(8), 2103–2117.