Expatriates are increasingly being challenged to execute their roles with a higher sense of responsibility. However, there is a lack of studies that have empirically examined the impact of the recent responsible leadership(RL) approach on expatriates’ performance (EP). Using Anxiety and Uncertainty Management Theory, we examine the relationship between RL and EP and the influence of culture shock(CS) on the relationship. Additionally, the moderation effect of emotional intelligence(EI) and cultural intelligence(CQ) are examined. A sample of 204 expatriates was collected and data was analysed with PLS-SEM. The results show that RL is negatively associated with CS and CS is negatively associated with EP. Moreover, RL is positively associated with EP and this relationship is moderated by the expatriate’s EI. Overall, we emphasize the reducing anxiety and uncertainty ability of expatriates’ supervisors when supervisors demonstrate RL. Moreover, although CQ has been emphasized considerably in extant research, it seems less relevant than EI when RL is concerned in the expatriation setting. Thus, we provide a different perspective for studying leadership complexities in the expatriation context. Our study contributes to illustrate that RL can reduce psychological complexities and increase performance in international assignments, highlighting the reinforcement role of expatriates’ EI for the success.

The study of cross-cultural management involves understanding human behavior, and that requires understanding emotions. However, this concept is so multidimensional that researchers and practitioners can get lost in an interdisciplinary maze. We propose a bibliometric study of emotions with a focus on cross-cultural management. We combine three methods: co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and textual analysis. Our study is based on the analysis of 398 articles extracted from Web of Science. We use VOSviewer for bibliometric analysis and IRaMuTeQ for textual analysis. In the bibliometric analysis, our combination of co-citation analysis and bibliographic coupling helps to identify both the more traditional research topics and the trends that represent the current research in the field. We add a textual analysis to propose an original study of the research avenues as they are formulated in the most influential articles in the field. Thus, in these three steps, we develop an in-depth analysis of past, present, and future research on emotions in cross-cultural management.

Psychic distance (PD) is a perceived obstacle to information flows in knowledge transfer between individuals in different national markets. Prior research has conceptualized PD as a geospatial concept – symmetric, continuous and stable over time. Using appraisal theory and a qualitative study of a Chinese multinational, we analyse individual-level psychic distance stimuli. We examine how perceived psychic distance is impacted in the appraisal of personal concerns, triggering salient emotions in the process of individual’s cross-border interactions. Our key contribution is to trace and explain how individual-level psychic distance is created in intercultural knowledge transfer. We theorize that it is created by a psychological mechanism involving emotionally charged processes of individuals coping with concerns arising from emotional encounter.

This paper examines the coping methods of an extreme expatriate group, missionaries. The 30 missionary expatriates in this qualitative study have worked in 15 countries for an average of a decade. In the narrative material, they describe coping with work, life, and difficulties such as natural disasters, nuclear power plant accidents, political unrest, hostility, terrorism, pandemics, burglaries, assaults, and serious illnesses. Drawing from transactional and resource conservation coping theories, this study investigates coping methods and how missionaries preserve, protect, and build coping resources. In contrast to previous research, this study applies theoretical approaches to expatriate secular and religious coping. The study suggests that religious coping, private, communal, and relational, is significant in troubled environments. The psychophysical dimension was found as a particularly significant proactive coping method. Coping is discussed from both reactive and proactive perspectives.