Dear Expatriate,
My name is Stefan Mol and I am a Ph.D. candidate at the Institute of Psychology of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. At this moment I am conducting a large-scale longitudinal study, with which I hope to uncover the personal characteristics of expatriates that make them successful in their jobs. Could it be that high performers on expatriate jobs all have certain personality factors in common, or is there no such thing as the
[quote]In addition you could also win 100$ gift certificates from one of the Amazon.com sites for each of our questionnaires that you complete.
[/quote]
“Could” win or “Will” win? I didn’t get where I am today on the expatriate pecking-order by giving things away for nothing. 
Just kidding – kind of. I’ll do just about anything for a few $100 gift certificates.
Sounds interesting. I’ll toss my hat in. What the hell. 
I’m not at all successful in any way. Perhaps you could use me as a control.
If you would like to participate, please contact me directly at expatriateresearch@fsw.eur.nl. Thanks in advance!
I joined this thing. I’ll let you all know how it goes.
the Dutch researcher seems to be wanting hotshot amcham members (no offense Fred Smith), who are doing well in their expat postiton.
Hmmm, let’s see, who do we have?
None.
[quote=“Mr He”]the Dutch researcher seems to be wanting hotshot amcham members (no offense Fred Smith), who are doing well in their expat postiton.
Hmmm, let’s see, who do we have?
None.[/quote]
Well I certainly didn’t get that impression from the email I received in reply to my offering to do this. But, I’m usually oblivious to these kinds of things. 
[quote=“Mr He”]the Dutch researcher seems to be wanting hotshot amcham members (no offense Fred Smith), who are doing well in their expat postiton.
Hmmm, let’s see, who do we have?
None.[/quote]
This would be my main concern with such a survey - bias in the sample. It is the same as when Mercer etc do their COL index work. It samples MNC’s, ‘embassies’ and “packaged” expats abroad, thus giving distorted (in my opinion) results.
I hope this guy gets a reasonable cross section of expats for this survey.
that’s not a distortion.
that’s the target group they are after. people working in their own firm, on local or modified local contracts are usually not among the people they are targeting.
Also… Remember that Mercer’s COL indices are for the HR departments in MNC’s. They need the “expat” figures… Not the figures for people eating NT$50 biandangs, living in NT$20K flats, and riding a scoot.
Also… If I were a mid level manager in a Danish company being sent to Taiwan, there would be no way in hell they could get me on the plane, if I ended up living in local quality accomodation and eating cheap food, as it was what i could afford…
I too would like to know more about the working definitions of “successful” and “expat.” Well, how about it?
[quote=“Mr He”]that’s not a distortion.
that’s the target group they are after. people working in their own firm, on local or modified local contracts are usually not among the people they are targeting.
Also… Remember that Mercer’s COL indices are for the HR departments in MNC’s. They need the “expat” figures… Not the figures for people eating NT$50 biandangs, living in NT$20K flats, and riding a scoot.
Also… If I were a mid level manager in a Danish company being sent to Taiwan, there would be no way in hell they could get me on the plane, if I ended up living in local quality accomodation and eating cheap food, as it was what I could afford…[/quote]
I think its a total distortion. Many of the successful expats I have met in Taiwan do NOT work for MNC’s on massive packages. And many of the expats I have met that work for MNC’s are not successful at all. The rate of expat failure is huge amongst this group - be it due to language, spouse or the fact they hate the environment. So therefore, surveying only from this pool is a distortion.
The Mercer surveys are also a distortion for the same reasons. MNC’s, foreign governments etc pay well above market rates for sending their staff offshore purely because of such distortions. Real estate agents rub their hands with glee when they get a local admin assistant ringing and saying “I am from (insert foreign office/MNC here) and one of our expat staff needs an apartment…”. The price is jacked up accordingly.