Many companies hire international talent to meet the needs of their business. These international employees have to work well together with the locals who already work there. I am starting a new study in both Denmark and New Zealand in fall 2025 that focuses on these working relationships within one particular company. Interested to share your own experiences or just to hear more? Let me know!
Benefits of contact between internationals and locals
Plenty of research has shown that good connections between expats and locals are important for performance, knowledge sharing, culture learning, social support and adjustment. But we actually don’t know all that much about how these relationships develop, and how the locals experience it. This is also vital knowledge to better manage these relationships and might also help retain both international and local talent.
Looking for internationals and locals who work together
We are looking for pairs of international and local employees who regularly work together and would like to (confidentially and anonymously) share their intercultural interactions with each other. We are looking for pairs of colleagues to sign up together because this will really show how the intercultural interactions work.
• The international colleague should have arrived to work in New Zealand or Denmark within the past 5 years. We are particularly looking for international hires.
• The local colleague should be a Danish or New Zealand citizen (preferably grown up in the country).
Sharing your experiences
The research takes place during 4 workweeks in fall 2025 (10 Nov – 5 Dec), where you are asked to tell me about your interactions with your colleague. Every workday, you will get a prompt via the app Indeemo, so that you can easily reflect on what happened that day – how often did you meet, what did you talk about, and what you thought about these interactions. Your experiences can be a blend of positive and negative aspects, and I am interested in all the details you’d like to share – the more the better! You can share your reflections through the app itself (via a note or a video) or via your computer.
Here is what one participant in the pilot study had to say: ‘The app was very easy to manage. And I actually enjoyed taking some time at the end of the day to think back. I find myself being more aware of my interactions even now that the study is finished.’
Anonymity and confidentiality
The data will be anonymised and kept strictly confidential. It will not be shared with your colleague or even the company itself. The company will, of course, receive a generalized report with recommendations. I will also check with you if I would like to include any of your (anonymized) direct quotes in my publications, just to make sure you are not recognizable. This is so you can safely share whatever happens during these interactions, without fear of it getting back to your colleague or the company in more general. It is crucial for me to hear about both the good and the bad experiences, so the company can ultimately offer a better intercultural workplace to all of their employees.
What’s in it for you?
You will be able to let your experiences be heard. The lessons that will be derived from this study will contribute to improving intercultural relations between international and local colleagues in the future. Additionally, you will receive a free electronic version of my new book Breaking out of the Expat Bubble which is about making intercultural connections and friends, both within and outside of the workplace. I will also keep you posted on what we learn from this research via a yearly research update via e-mail and via this blog.
Are you interested in this study, send me an e-mail at msvba[at]dtu.dk!
This study is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation.