Social support on international assignments: the relevance of socio-emotional support from locals

Abstract

Social support takes on a special significance in the context of sojourners. Using the matching/specificity hypothesis we hypothesized that sojourners’ satisfaction is increased if there is an optimal match between type and source of social support. The Index of Sojourner Social Support (ISSS; Ong &Ward, 2005) Scale was used to examine this hypothesis in the context of instrumental and socioemotional support for sojourners on work assignments. The results showed that (a) both types of social support are positively related to satisfaction with the sojourn, (b) socioemotional support is more important in predicting satisfaction with a sojourn than instrumental support, and (c) support from locals is the most important source of social support. Furthermore, we found partial support for the matching/specificity hypothesis: Only the amount of support from locals was a significant moderator and only the relationship between socioemotional support and satisfaction with a sojourn was moderated. We discuss the relevance of source and type of support for cultural adjustment and the importance of contact with locals during international sojourns.