Ayca Demiran
Mrs Ayca Demiran holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology. She is working as a Graduate Teaching Assistant and pursuing her Ph.D. in Business Psychology at Heriot-Watt University. Parallel to her academic career, she has over 15 years of HR management experience in the consumer goods, manufacturing, construction, and government sectors in the MENA region. Ayca is passionate about combining literature findings with professional work environments to create a culture where employees thrive. Her research interests include well-being, leadership, psychological safety, organizational development, and workplace culture.
Managing Change: The role of social and supervisory support in enhancing well-being among expatriate workers.
As global mobility increases, expatriates face challenges such as cultural adaptation, separation from family, and workplace integration, particularly in dynamic environments like the UAE (Bashir, 2012; Chen et al., 2024; van der Laken et al., 2016; van der Laken et al., 2019), thus effective social and supervisory support is crucial to enhance adjustment, decrease isolation, and improve overall workplace engagement (Bellingan et al., 2023).
Expatriates, who often face limited social interaction at work, may experience lower psychological well-being and higher role overload, highlighting the importance of robust social networks (Liu & Zhang, 2015). In this context, supervisor support is crucial for reducing emotional exhaustion and improving both job satisfaction and overall well-being (Döbler et al., 2022).
Additionally, in culturally diverse environments like the UAE, social support helps mitigate feelings of isolation while improving a sense of community. This support enables expatriates to navigate cultural and professional transitions by building strong workplace networks, which in turn enhance job satisfaction, engagement, psychological well-being, emotional stability, and organizational commitment (Bashir, 2012; Chen et al., 2024).
However, challenges exist when supervisory support is inconsistent or perceived as inequitable when favoritism in workplace support reduces employee well-being and increases stress (Björk et al., 2022).
The aim of the current study is to highlight the importance of tailored support mechanisms in enhancing expatriates’ adjustment to cultural changes, well-being, and performance to benefit both employees and organisations in managing the complexities of global mobility. To address these issues, organisations should actively develop inclusive social environments by creating opportunities for peer interaction, building expatriate communities within the workplace, and facilitating cross-cultural team activities. Practical recommendations for organisations operating in the UAE include structured onboarding programs with mentorship initiatives, enhanced social support systems, cultural training and language support (AlMazrouei & Pech, 2015).
References
AlMazrouei, H., & Pech, R. J. (2015). Working in the UAE: Expatriate management experiences. Journal of Islamic Accounting and Business Research, 6(1), 73-93.
Bashir, S. (2012). Perceived organizational support and the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriates in the UAE. Education, business and society, 5(1), 63-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/17537981211225862
Bellingan, M., Tilley, C., Kumar, M., Batista, L., & Evans, S. (2023). Uncovering the link between well-being and factory performance among workers in China: a longitudinal study [Article; Early Access]. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 20. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-11-2022-0744
Björk, J. M., Bolander, P., & Forsman, A. K. (2022). Investigating employee perceptions: Association between recognized individual talents and social wellbeing. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 959559.
Chen, W., Vasudevan, A., Al-Daoud, K. I., Mohammad, S. I. S., Arumugam, V., Manoharan, T., & Foong, W. S. (2024). Integrating cultures, enhancing outcomes: Perceived organizational support and its impact on Chinese expatriates' performance in Dubai. Herança, 7(3 In press).
Döbler, A.-S., Emmermacher, A., Richter-Killenberg, S., Nowak, J., & Wegge, J. (2022). New insights into self-initiated work design: the role of job crafting, self-undermining and five types of job satisfaction for employee’s health and work ability. German journal of human resource management., 36(2), 113-147. https://doi.org/10.1177/23970022211029023
info:doi/10.1177/23970022211029023
Liu, B., & Zhang, W. (2015). The happiness difference between two Chinese worker groups: A comparison between migrant workers on production line and local workers in railway electrical supply section [Proceedings Paper]. 6th Internation