Acculturation and career adaptability of international Chinese hospitality students

• The aim of this study is to investigate how Chinese international hospitality students’ home and host culture orientation is related to their career adaptability. Home culture orientation and host culture orientation are the two strategies that travellers use to deal with the challenges of living in a new culture. “Home culture orientation helps individuals maintain and identify with their own cultural heritage, whereas host culture orientation motivates individuals to participate in and identify with the host society's culture’’ (Guan et al., 2018, p. 229). Career adaptability depends on the problem solving strategies of the individual which influence on his or her career control, concern, curiosity and confidence (Del Corso & Rehfuss, 2011).According to Guan et al. (2018), acculturation (both home and host culture orientation) has an impact on international students’ career adaptability. This can be explained by the fact that international students often interact and socialise with students from their own culture, other international students and domestic students to seek support to understand how their cultural adaptation and career development are influenced by the environment. Guan et al., 2018 further suggest that international students’ home culture orientation may lead to difficulties in acculturating to the host culture which may demotivate them to engage in career exploration activities which impedes their career adaptability. Therefore, it is relevant to investigate further how home and host culture orientation is related to career adaptability. In the last decades, an increasing number of Chinese students are studying overseas in different Western countries (Liu, 2009).  Many Chinese students choose to study in Australia (Davis & Mackintosh, 2011; Yang, 2007) and hospitality management was the sixth most popular degree among Chinese international students within business and commerce in Australian higher education in 2016 (Australian Government Department of Education and Training 2016). Furthermore, Gribble and Li (2013) have argued that employment outcomes are a crucial factor for Chinese students and their families when considering study abroad options (Gribble and Li, 2013), which makes this case relevant for the current study. The methodology of the study is qualitative, including semi-structured interviews with 19 international Chinese students studying hospitality management in an Australian East Queensland university. The results demonstrated that in most cases the country of the students’ work /internship experience (either Australia or China) and their interaction on campus with local and international students had an influence on where they would like to work after the completion of their studies. Furthermore, the career control of their parents seemed to be significant having an influence on the students’ acculturation. Finally, most students seemed to have confidence about their future career. Even though some of them had a lack of confidence regarding their English language skills they might still want to pursue a career in Australia. The theoretical and methodological contribution of the study is the application of acculturation and career adaptability theories with a qualitative inductive perspective. Finally, the study will provide a practical contribution through recommendations about how universities can assist international students in their career development and acculturation process.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

MEDICIN OCH HÄLSOVETENSKAP  -- Hälsovetenskap -- Hälso- och sjukvårdsorganisation, hälsopolitik och hälsoekonomi (hsv//swe)

MEDICAL AND HEALTH SCIENCES  -- Health Sciences -- Health Care Service and Management, Health Policy and Services and Health Economy (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)