**4.2 Results category by region and country**

From the perspective of expatriates working overseas in various regions and countries, as shown in **Table 4**, their working places in this survey mainly included USA, China, Taiwan, Thai, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, etc. Their average satisfaction degree values were 2.24, 2.6, and 2.2 during expatriation, after repatriation, and after a career change, respectively.

The satisfaction degree was higher than the average levels in the following cases: during expatriation of those in USA, Singapore, and Indonesia; after repatriation of those in USA, Thai, Singapore, and Indonesia; and after a career change of expatriates working in the USA and China during expatriation. Thus, it seems that working


#### **Table 4.**

*The satisfaction degree in different countries.*

in USA, Singapore, and Indonesia creates a higher job satisfaction degree than working in other places.

#### **4.3 Reasons based on industry and the sales and marketing job type**

It is necessary to analyze the reason why the satisfaction degree relating to the sales and marketing industry is high during expatriation, while it is the lowest after repatriation. As this industry's mission is to explore foreign markets, it is easier for it to adapt to overseas environments and new cultures, compared with other industries. Due to its characteristic of being open minded, its satisfaction degree during expatriation is high. Since after repatriation, the objective that needs to be explored changes, expatriates have to adjust the direction of their work, try to acquire knowledge of new products and related fields, and build relationships with new domestic clients. Because of resource peculiarity and culture distance between the host country and parent country, the knowledge, experience, and even local personnel relationship they acquired or built in foreign subsidiary in the host country are not able to be utilized fully any more in the headquarter in parent country sometimes after repatriation. In some cases after repatriation, Japanese expatriates are assigned to positions where work contents are very different with before, which has negative impact on job satisfaction degree and some expatriates quit after repatriation. This can also be considered as a part of the reasons why the satisfaction degree is not low after career change. Usually, people turn to work in companies where their experiences and knowledge can be taken full advantage. If their knowledge and experiences can be used to a relatively high extent, this has positive influence on their job satisfaction degree. Furthermore, they have to once again cope with the culture shock.

In government industries, the work stress is not as heavy as in the sales and marketing or service industries. Their main work is to build relationships with local governments and big companies. Since government expatriates also conduct some surveys in terms of foreign markets and society-related issues, their satisfaction degree is high.

Contrarily, expatriates in the service industry have higher work stress because they have to carefully understand the local culture and customs, and use them correctly and flexibly, so that they are able to explore and retain enough foreign new clients. Their communication and interaction with local clients have a significant influence on their company's performance.

#### **4.4 Reasons based on regions and countries**

This section analyzes the reasons in terms of the characteristics of culture and institutions in different regions and countries. The reasons partly lie in the characteristics—economy, culture, institutions, and history—of these 3 countries: USA, Singapore, and Indonesia, in which, the satisfaction degree of Japanese expatriates is higher.

USA has a long-term trading partnership with Japan—one of its biggest trading partners. It also respects culture building itself and promotes cultural communications with other countries. In past decades, it promoted a lot of cultural products to countries all over the world. Being an immigrant country, its cultural characteristics comprise diversity and openness in populations and regions. Its annual GDP exceeds 60000 dollars per year and it has a good economic environment. In USA, people use data and manuals to manage employees, rather than relationships or personal networks. Thus, it is easy for employees who work hard since they will not have the difficult task of trying to develop skills to build good relationships with supervisors. Hence, Japanese expatriates find it a good place to live and work.

#### *Expatriate Satisfaction and Motivation in Multinational Corporations DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.97046*

Singapore too, has an open cultural environment, and Japan is one of its biggest trading partners. It is located in Asia and more than 70% of its population are Chinese. It embraces several religions, and with England's long and important influence on its history, it follows English traditions that contribute to its stable circumstances. It is famous for its cleanliness because of its comfortable weather. Singapore is also a developed country and among the best international financial centers in the world, along with New York, London, and Hongkong. Since its finance and other related rules and institutions are very well organized, it is easy for Japanese expatriates to adapt to its institutional environment.

Indonesia has many nations and is a multicultural country. It has many religions and beautiful places, such as the Bali island, a world-famous place. It also has many kinds of delicious food, which attract many travelers every year. Hence, it is easy for foreigners to live and work in Indonesia, although it is not an advanced country and its weather is a little hot in summer.

In contrast, the satisfaction degree is lower than average in China, Taiwan, and Australia.

China is a multicultural country with a very long history. Its open culture environment and delicious food welcomes foreign investments, companies to establish subsidiaries, and foreigners to work in China. Both the Chinese and Japanese use Chinese characters in their language, which is a commonality between China and Japan. Hence, it is convenient for Japanese expatriates to learn Chinese, adapt to the Chinese lifestyle, and work there. However, it is not an advanced country and its institution and policies for business management as well as other fields still need improvements and innovation. Taiwan is similar to China to some extent in terms of culture. Moreover, Japan is a country with a high context communication environment, where people express their opinions more implicitly. This kind of communication style of Japanese expatriates needs better understanding and cooperation of local Chinese employees.

In China, economic reforms and opening-up that have been prevalent for more than 40 years, have brought about a lot of wonderful changes to many facets of China. However, its management style and communication-related issues have existed during the whole developing process. In China, relational governance is still the main style. Contrarily, Japan is an advanced and developed country, where hierarchical governance is implemented to a large extent. Rules and law are set in detail in terms of a lot of facets of society and business. This is another big difference between Japan and China.

Australia is at a high World Happiness Index ranking. It also has several religions and a multicultural environment, along with beautiful mountains and rivers for people to enjoy. Its economic situation is also stable. Therefore, it is a comfortable place, where foreigners find it easy to work. Yet, expatriates have a lower than average satisfaction degree. The reason is worthy of discussion. It has been stated that the methods of performance appraisal of Australian expatriates in Singapore and Singaporean expatriates in Australia are greatly different in terms of performance against set indicators, rating of specific competencies, set and evaluate personal goals, management by objectives, informal discussion with superior, et. [25]. Previous literature also indicates that Japanese expatriate managers rely on cultural mediators more [26]. The themes of cultural mediators' features refer to reliance on a third party individual, role of "go-betweens", and bicultural characteristics. Other scholars state that becoming mutual sunao (accepting) is crucial in trust and intercultural communication based on research on Japanese expatriate managers and Australian supervisors [27]. These conclusions provide hint to consider the reason from intercultural communication and performance evaluation system of local subsidiaries.
