Expatriates' identity salience, work stressors, and work–nonwork conflict: Moderating role of gender and marital status

• Published date: 01 March 2019
• Date: 01 March 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21986
• Author: Pooja B. Vijayakumar,Christopher J. L. Cunningham

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS THEORY AND APPLICATION

Expatriates' identity salience, work stressors, and work–

nonwork conflict: Moderating role of gender and marital status

Pooja B. Vijayakumar

1

| Christopher J. L. Cunningham

2

1

Department of Management and Marketing,

Kemmy Business School, University of

Limerick, Limerick, Ireland

2

Department of Psychology, The University of

Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga,

Tennessee

Correspondence

Pooja B. Vijayakumar, Department of

Management and Marketing, Kemmy Business

School, University of Limerick, Limerick V94

T9PX, Ireland.

Email: pooja.vijaykumar@ul.ie,

poojabvijaya@gmail.com

Drawing from identity theory, we proposed individuals with high work salience experienced

high work stressors (interpersonal conflict, workhours, and workload), resulting in positive work-

nonwork conflict (WNWC), and individuals with high nonwork salience experienced lower work

stressors, resulting in negative WNWC. Furthermore, we tested for the moderating role of gen-

der and marital status in the relationship. The sample for this study consisted of 415 Indian

expatriates working in the U.S. information technology (IT) industry. Findings supported the pro-

posed model where work stressors completely conditioned the relationship between work/non-

work salience and WNWC. Work-salient men worked longer hours compared to work-salient

women and were more prone to WNWC. In married individuals (in both work- and nonwork-

salient individuals), increased workload was positively associated with WNWC and long working

hours were negatively associated with WNWC. These findings further suggested nonmarried

individuals faced more WNWC when compared to married individuals when managing long

working hours. Therefore, being married does not necessarily lead to higher levels of all forms

of WNWC. Additionally, the participants in this study identified themselves to be more non-

work-salient. We argue that identity salience predicts role behavioral intentions and emphasize

the importance of differentiating expatriates based on their salience. This in turn could help

organizations contextualize various challenges faced by work- and nonwork-salient individuals

and manage issues in a cost-effective manner.

KEYWORDS

expatriates, gender, identity salience, interpersonal conflict, marital status, work hours, work-

nonwork/family conflict, workload

1|INTRODUCTION

Global organizations and increased international mobility challenge

expatriate workers in both work and nonwork (i.e., work–nonwork)

life domains. There is a need to understand individual differences that

may influence expatriates' ability to manage work–nonwork chal-

lenges. In the present study, we focus on how differences in work–

nonwork identity salience might play a role in the work–nonwork

challenges of information technology (IT) professionals from India

who work in the United States. The work–nonwork challenges of

workers in this sector are critical, given the tremendous value of the

American IT sector (i.e., more than a quarter of the $3.8 trillion global

IT market, with more than 100,000 software and IT service

companies; SelectUSA, 2015). According to Chakravorty, Kapur, and

Singh (2017), Indian expatriates form the second-largest foreign-born

group (2.2 million Indian-born), and the most highly educated (espe-

cially, in the field of science and technology) and highest-earning racial

or national subgroup in the United States (p. 27). Indian-born men

represented 29% of 717,000 Indian male IT workers and Indian-born

women represented 15.5% of 415,000 Indian female IT workers in

United States (in the year 2011) (Whatley & Batalova, 2013).

Globalization and technological advances have increased commu-

nication and general work demands to the point where many IT pro-

fessionals essentially face a never-ending work cycle. For example,

global IT professionals working on projects as part of virtual teams

may have to conduct conference calls and interact with customers,

DOI: 10.1002/tie.21986

Thunderbird Int. Bus. Rev. 2019;61:375–386. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tie © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 375