Trajectories of adjustment: conceptualising expatriate spouses' narratives of stress, coping and identity construction

This research explored the multifaceted adjustment experiences of the accompanying spouses of expatriate employees. Narrative interviews were conducted longitudinally, throughout participants’ first year living in Sarawak, Malaysia. Adjustment was conceptualised as a process of coping with threats or challenges to identity. Patterns in experience emerged over time, from which a typology of four trajectories of adjustment was developed. In the typology, adjustment experiences are characterised as: (a) redefinition, (b) maintenance, (c) interruption, or (d) dislocation of the self. Contributing to knowledge of adjustment processes and outcomes associated with global mobility, the results have application in international human resource management practice.