Abstract:
Expatriate adjustment research has identified a number of challenges that expatriates experience when adjusting to the host
country. These include spousal influence, cultural training/understanding,
fluency in the host language and the personality
or emotional readiness of the expatriate. These challenges are amplified when considered in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
(KSA), which has large cultural distance when compared to the average Western culture and therefore provides a setting
for an interesting study. This paper describes how the degree of information
flow", a substantive category derived through
the grounded theory methodology, provides an understanding of the emotional relationship expatriates in KSA have with
the Internet. An expatriate information
ow model was developed explaining the pre-conditions to and the consequences
of information
ow. The paper shows that the pre-conditions to information
ow include overcoming the challenges
experienced by Internet users in KSA in addition to their intention to use the Internet based on their personal needs,
status and personality. The consequences of information
ow were indicated as having an overall positive impact on the
expatriate's well-being. This was operationalised as giving expatriates an extended control over their environment, increased
social presence and an increased exchange of information between the expatriates and their benevolent communities.
