Work and non-work-related antecedents of expatriates' well-being: A meta-analysis

Studies show a reduction in expatriates' well-being while abroad which entails a risk of low performance or even termination of the assignment abroad. To extend the knowledge of antecedents of expatriates' well-being, this meta-analytic review combines the empirical results from 24 studies...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Human resource management review 2022-09, Vol.32 (3), p.100889, Article 100889
Main Authors: Biswas, Tania, Mäkelä, Liisa, Andresen, Maike
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Expatriate
Expatriate employees
General well-being
Human resource management
Meta-analysis
Quality of work
Work well-being
Working conditions
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Summary:Studies show a reduction in expatriates' well-being while abroad which entails a risk of low performance or even termination of the assignment abroad. To extend the knowledge of antecedents of expatriates' well-being, this meta-analytic review combines the empirical results from 24 studies. Concerning the conservation of resources theory, we distinguish between work-related and non-work-related antecedents (resources) and expose their relationship with expatriates' work well-being and general well-being. The meta-analysis shows that work well-being is positively anteceded by organizational support, work adjustment, and spousal support, whereas job factors and work-family interference are associated with decreased work well-being. General well-being negatively relates to work-family interference factors. The antecedents with the highest relative effect size are job factors on the negative side (resource loss) and organizational support on the positive side (resource gain). Work-family interference has the broadest impact on both work well-being and general well-being. •We conceptualize expatriates' well-being as being composed of work and general aspects.•We identify several work-related and non-work-related antecedents and analyze their degree of strength in explaining well-being among expatriates.•We conduct a deep dive examination of each antecedent of well-being and specify the most important of those in the expatriation context.•Future research directions in well-being research specifically in the expatriate context are discussed.
ISSN:1053-4822
1873-7889
DOI:10.1016/j.hrmr.2021.100889