Social Support and Life-Domain Interactions among Assigned and Self-Initiated Expatriates

摘要

Based upon conservation of resources theory, this study is the first to explore (1) the relations between life-domain support received by internationally mobile employees (IMEs) from their organization, supervisors, coworkers, and family and friends and their life-domain conflicts and enrichments in two directions: work lifepersonal life (WLPL) and personal lifework life (PLWL) and (2) whether these links are different between assigned expatriates (AEs) and self-initiated expatriates (SIEs). The questionnaire data were collected from 182 SIEs and 102 AEs. Results from multivariate analyses show that (1) the more IMEs perceive receiving life-domain support from their family and friends and their organization, the less they report life-domain conflicts and (2) the more IMEs perceive receiving life-domain support from their coworkers, the more they report life-domain enrichments. Finally, it appears that AEs' perceived life-domain organizational support is positively related to their perceived WLPL enrichments and that SIEs' perceived life-domain coworker support is negatively related to their life-domain conflicts in both directions.