Toward a person-centered approach to cross-cultural adjustment: comparing profiles between female and male expatriates

This study advances our understanding of expatriate adjustment by integrating a person-centered approach with the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory to compare the cross-cultural adjustment profiles of female and male expatriates. We examine how gender, marital status, extraversion, cultural intelligence (CQ), and host-country language proficiency collectively impact cross-cultural interaction adjustment. Using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) on 106 expatriates in the Czech Republic, we find that female expatriates can achieve adjustment levels comparable to their male counterparts; however, success requires a broader and more integrated set of personal resources, especially for married women. These findings challenge assumptions of homogeneous expatriate experiences and highlight the need for profile-specific strategies in expatriate management. The study extends COR theory by demonstrating how structural disadvantages shape resource accumulation processes and by expanding the principle of equifinality to emphasize configuration-based pathways to adjustment. It also shows that expatriate adjustment depends on the interplay and synergy of multiple personal traits rather than isolated characteristics. Our results offer practical implications for developing targeted support mechanisms tailored to different expatriate subgroups.