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Expat partner can develop multicultural skills

Dutch expat partners who live abroad can further develop their multicultural skills (Cultural Empathy, Open-mindedness, Social Initiative, Emotional Stability and Flexibility) through focused and personal coaching.

This is what Tanya Verspay, psychologist and coach/trainer at Verspay-Coaching, says. She intensively counselled and coached thirteen Dutch expat partners (12 women and 1 man) for three months through weekly telephone and e-mail coaching for her final project to complete her higher vocational education course in psychology focusing on “Counselling & Mediation”. The expat partners lived all over the world and not in one specific country. “It is a conscious choice not to choose one specific country where the participants live,” says Tanya Verspay, “because research has shown (including Van der Zee, Van Oudenhoven, 2000,2001) that it doesn’t matter in which country you live, you absolutely need multicultural skills everywhere. Moreover, the five multicultural skills are more person linked than country or culture linked”.

The contents of the interviews and e-mail coaching were both directed towards becoming aware of the five multicultural skills and in discussing (and together finding a possible solution) individual issues that the expat partner was experiencing whilst living abroad. Tanya Verspay used the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) to measure whether the five multicultural skills had changed after coaching. 
The MPQ was presented to the thirteen participants twice during the study: before and after the coaching process.

Although the number of participants in the study group (13) was not large, the results were surprising. The study has shown that the score of the MPQ rose by an average of 32% after coaching. Growth is visible with 12 of the 13 expat partners while the total scores remained the same with one expat partner.

Open-mindedness shows the largest growth (growth of 60%), followed by Social Initiative (39%), Emotional Stability (35%), Flexibility (22%) and, as last, Cultural Empathy with a growth of 19% (see the graph).

The graph below shows the results of the MPQ before and after the coaching process.
 

“I wasn’t expecting this considerable increase of the five multicultural skills,” says Tanya Verspay. “I, however, realised at the same time that finding an increase of multicultural skills after coaching didn’t say much when it was not compared with a control group. You can, of course, ask yourself whether it is not quite logical that multicultural skills would increase by just living abroad and all the new experiences that you are gaining there. I received data from ir. K. van Erp (PhD student at the University of Groningen) so that I could form a control group (this group of expat partners has not been coached) to offset the data from the study.

The MPQ was also presented to this control group of expat partners. And what was the result? There was not a single increase to be seen with regard to the average MPQ scores in relation to expat partners who have been living abroad for a longer period of time. This applies to both the first year and to a longer period (for up to 25 years) of living abroad: no development can be seen with regard to the MPQ scores (N=103).
“From this we can conclude that just experience and living abroad for a longer period do not cause an increase of the five multicultural skills on the MPQ. The increase of the MPQ scores of the coached study group (the total average and per multicultural skill) can, therefore, be ascribed to the coaching process,” says Tanya Verspay.

The study has also shown that all participants (13) enjoyed distance coaching through telephone interviews and e-mail contact and that it has positively contributed towards their situation and life abroad. The fact that face-to-face-contact is not being missed by the expat partners is remarkable (86% of participants). It is, in particular, this little bit of anonymity that offers a safe environment to discuss their problems and emotions. “Specific signals, of course, are missing that you can determine from non-verbal communication (the expression of the face, body language and body and hand movements) but, on the other hand, you can obtain a lot of information from the voice and the choice of words of the expat partner. I personally always use headphones and, therefore, I can concentrate a lot more on the conversation. Not just with regard to content but also in relation to non-verbal communication.”
 
Tanya Verspay indicates that many of the issues that an expat partner has to face are related to one or more multicultural skills. “The best option is to use a few examples to clarify this. One of the expat partners finds the behaviour of Australians disagreeable and is experiencing great cultural differences, which she had not expected despite being well prepared. She would very much like to be given some clues to ensure she can learn to deal with this in a positive manner. This approach is strengthening the cultural empathy and open-mindedness multicultural skills. Another example is that an expat partner says she is finding the difference between having your own career and a busy life in the Netherlands and being a full-time mother and housewife abroad difficult. Finding a new daily structure, finding new goals and learning how to deal with a completely new role are given pride of place during the coaching process. The emphasis is on strengthening emotional stability, flexibility and, depending on the goals, social initiative with regard to these issues. “

The issues that the expat partner experiences are, of course, in part dependent on the place where the expat partner lives. For example: to which extent is the country or the environment safe? Are there sufficient facilities? Are there sufficient options to make social contacts? Can you work or do voluntary work?  The expectations and personal characteristics of the expat partner, however, probably play an ever bigger role to be able to adjust and feel comfortable in his or her new homeland. “I strongly believe that multicultural skills and the issues that the expat partner encounters are interlinked,” says Tanya Verspay. “Coaching does not just offer good support to the expat partner with regard to the adjustment process and having to deal with emotions such as homesickness, bleakness and disappoint but, at the same time, it can significantly develop multicultural skills. “

More information about the study and distance coaching to expat partners can be found on the following website: www.verspay-coaching.nl
 

Explanation of the five multicultural skills:

Cultural empathy 
The capability to have empathy with the feelings, ideas and behaviour of people with a different cultural background.

Open-mindedness Open and unprejudiced attitude towards other groups and different cultural standards and values.

Social Initiative 
Tendency to face social situations actively and to take the initiative.

Emotional Stability 
The capability of dealing with stress and change.

Flexibility 
The capability of people to modify their behaviour to fit in with new and unknown situations (including Van der Zee, Van Oudenhoven, 2000, 2001).

Publication Date: 17th April 2009
Source: www.verspay-coaching.nl

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