Culture and Learning of Chinese Doctors in Expareiate Abroad

Sammanfattning: This paper explores the relationships between the indicators of five factors from cultural adjustment model and the cultural adjustment, as well as the influence of cultural adjustment on learning outcomes for Chinese doctors in international expatriate assignments. Furthermore, this paper refined the cultural adjustment model based on Bhaskar-Shrinivas (2005)’s study in Chinese healthcare industry. There are two research questions in this study, what are the relationships between the indicators of five cultural influential factors and the cultural adjustment of Chinese doctors when having international expatriate assignments? And how cultural adjustment influences the learning outcomes of Chinese doctors in international expatriate assignments? The research is based on data collected from 161 questionnaires and five semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data was tested by using the LISREL and confirmatory factor analysis is conducted. The results show that anticipatory factors such as previous experience and  language ability, individual factors including self-efficacy and relational skill, and organizational factors related to coworker support and logistical support are positive and significantly related to expatriates’ degree of cultural adjustment. Moreover, the paper shows that cultural adjustment has a positive influence on the learning outcomes of Chinese doctors during the international expatriate assignments.