Managing Expatriates in China: A Language and Identity Perspective

Providing fresh perspectives on managing expatriates in the changing host country of China, this book investigates expatriate management from a language and identity angle. The authors’ multilingual and multicultural backgrounds allow them to offer a solid view on the best practices towards managing diverse groups of expatriates, including Western, Indian, and ethnic Chinese employees. With carefully considered analysis which incorporates micro and macro perspectives, together with indigenous Chinese and Western viewpoints, this book explores topics that include the importance of the host country language, expatriate adjustment, ethnic identity confirmation, acceptance and identity. The book presents a longitudinal yet contemporary snapshot of the language, culture, and identity realities that multinational corporation subsidiary employees are facing in China in the present decade (2006-2016). It will thus be an invaluable resource for International Management scholars, those involved in HRM and other practitioners, as well as business school lecturers and students with a strong interest in China. 

Ling Eleanor Zhang is Lecturer of International Management at the School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her research centres on interaction across boundaries. She examines the boundary spanning of multicultural employees, social categorisation and conflict management between expatriates and host country employees, and the language challenges employees face in subsidiaries of multinational corporations.

Anne-Wil Harzing is Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, UK. Prior to that she was Associate Dean Research at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Her research has been published in the field’s leading journals and has received numerous awards. She currently plays a major role as research mentor and provides extensive academic resources on www.harzing.com.

Shea Xuejiao Fan is Lecturer in International Business at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, and has also studied and worked in China, the Netherlands, and the USA. She specialises in expatriate management, cross-cultural management and identity in international management.