In my Ph.D. thesis In Touch with the Dutch I looked 
at the impact of a local host on the success of the expatriate assignment. My first research question focused on the impact of a local host on adjustment, performance, intercultural competence and social support. Secondly, I examined the impact of the quality of the contact between expats and local hosts – are those with higher quality contact better off? Thirdly, I focused on how high quality contact between participants was created. That is the topic of this blog post*.
Importance of contact quality
The quality of the contact with the local host was important for the benefits that the expats got out of the contact: the higher the quality of the contact, the more benefits were derived. Happily, about two third of the expats developed high quality contact with their host; they rated the contact a 7 or higher on a scale of 1-10. But why did certain participants hit it off, and others didn’t? What caused these expats to really enjoy the contact with their host?
What helped the development of the contact?
I found nine factors that influenced the development of the contact:
- Similarities: Do participants have something in common on which they can base the relationship? In this study, we matched participants based on similarities in age, location and family situation.
- Motivation: To what extent are the participants motivated to make the contact work? Are they willing to make an effort to meet even if it is difficult to find a time, or if they do not live very close to each other?
- Benefits: Do the expats benefit from the contact? Various benefits were found in terms of help with adjustment, offers of social support and other benefits such as enriching contact or a different perspective.
- Anxiety: To what extent are participants anxious about the first meeting or their language skills? This could hinder the development of the contact.
- Expectations: Do participants have similar expectations about the contact, for example about who should take the initiative? In quite a few cases the initiative lay more with the local host, who found this regrettable. This can slow down the development of the contact.
- Busy schedules: How busy are the
participants? Both expats and hosts lead busy lives, which doesn’t always make it easier to make appointments. - Suboptimal timing: Is the contact with the local host established at the right time for the expat? The expats had been in the Netherlands only for maximum one year when they joined the project, yet two of them expressed that they would have preferred the contact to take place earlier than only after 7 or 8 months because they felt they did not need as much anymore.
- Communication breakdown: Is there any communication breakdown between participants, either on a technical or a personal level? Sometimes e-mails do not arrive, or life events (e.g. birth of a baby) occur which can disrupt the contact.
- Cultural differences: In some cases, cultural differences hindered the development of the contact. One example was a different tradition with regard to who takes the initiative to contact the other after the birth of a baby. This disrupted the contact in one case because both parties were waiting for the other to take the first step.
Key factors
From looking at the cases with the four highest and 
the four lowest contact quality it became clear that three factors were more important than others: similarities, motivation and benefits. These are important factors because they help overcome some of the barriers. If there is a ‘click’, people really want to make an effort, and they get something out of the contact, it does not matter as much that there may be an age difference or that they do not live very close to each other.
Putting expats in touch with a local host can be a good way to support expats during their international assignment. The nine factors mentioned above shed light on how you can stimulate the quality of the contact between expats and their local host. This is important because the higher the quality of the contact, the more benefits for the expats.
* This blog post is a summary of the third academic article that has appeared about my PhD thesis, in March 2015 in the Journal of Global Mobility.
References
Van Bakel, M.S., Van Oudenhoven, J.P. & Gerritsen, M. (2015). Developing a high quality intercultural relationship: expatriates and their local host. Journal of Global Mobility, 3(1), pp. 25-45 (see Publications to read the article (post-print)).
Photo of the schedule by Photosteve101 and of the thermometer by Acid Pix, both via Flickr.
[…] Implications for practice Our study shows contact with a local host is a low-risk HR intervention with many benefits for expats. With little effort, organisations can use this intervention to support their expats. Implementing a system in which expats are put in touch with a local host mostly demands time and effort. Because of its voluntary basis and the fact that it takes place outside of work, the program is not costly; although this depends, of course, on how the system is designed. A crucial aspect is to promote the quality of the contact between the expat and their local host. Would you like to know more about that could be done? Then read more about how to develop a high quality relationship between expats and their local host. […]
[…] Implications for practice Our study shows contact with a local host is a low-risk HR intervention with many benefits for expats. With little effort, organisations can use this intervention to support their expats. Implementing a system in which expats are put in touch with a local host mostly demands time and effort. Because of its voluntary basis and the fact that it takes place outside of work, the program is not costly; although this depends, of course, on how the system is designed. A crucial aspect is to promote the quality of the contact between the expat and their local host. Would you like to know more about that could be done? Then read more about how to develop a high quality relationship between expats and their local host. […]