INTERNATIONAL CAREER EXPERIENCES OF EXPATRIATE ACADEMICS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Abstract
South Africa is facing a major staffing shortage in scarce skills disciplines.
Expatriate academics have been sourced by universities to run programmes in
these disciplines to create ‘home grown’ talent to solve this problem. This study is
based on Lazarova, Westman and Shaffer’s (2010) model relating to expatriate
work and family performance. It seeks to examine the experiences of academics at
UKZN, as well as provide recommendations on how to improve their experience.
The key question of the paper, deals with the how expatriate academics have
adjusted to their new environment based on job and work environment challenges,
family and lifestyle challenges, organisational support and contextual challenges
in the host country. The results showed that the majorityof respondents are well
adjusted in terms of their relationships with their host country colleagues and their
relationships with family and friends in their home country, as well as in terms of
the fulfilment of their workplace expectations. Their experience of organisational
support could however be improved. It was found that they did not share close
ties with other expatriates or local South Africans at the university or in their
communities. The study is exploratory and involves a single professional group,
as such the findings are not generalisable to other contexts or respondents. A
descriptive quantitative analysis of the career experiences of 83 expatriate
academics was done. The study was unique in that it examined all levels of
academia in conjunction with management and takes place in a South African
context. To improve organisational support, the institution should establish
support systems for international faculty Furthermore, it was suggested in the
study, that there should be the creation of a mentorship or buddy programme by
the university to support the adjustment of new international staff. University
management should set up an international staff office similar to the International
Student Office manned by dedicated staff who deal only with matters concerning
expatriate academics.
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