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Western Business Expatriates' Coping Strategies in Hong Kong vs the Chinese Mainland

Hong Kong Baptist University

Two groups of western business expatriates, one in Hong Kong and one on the Chinese mainland, mainly from the US, France and Britain, responded to a survey regarding their ways of coping. It was found that the expatriates used overall more problem- tban symptom-focused coping strategies. Surprisingly, more symptom-focused coping was used in Hong Kong than on the Chinese mainland while the extent of problem-focused coping was almost identical for the two locations. As could have been expected, the British expatriates used more problem-focused coping than the other two nationalities in Hong Kong as they could have felt more emotionally attached to the former colony, and hence regarded themselves capable to handle their adjustment stress in a constructive manner. On the other band, the French expatriates obviously did not feel that way, since they used more symptom-coping strategies than the others in Hong Kong. The French managers also used more symptom-focused coping strategies on the Chinese mainland than the other expatriates. Implicationsfor interna tional business firms and future research of these findings are discussed in detail.

Key Words: coping strategies • expatriates in Hong Kong • expatriates in mainland China • cross- cultural management

Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, Vol. 37, No. 2, 92-105 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/103841119903700208


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