Reentry to Vietnam: Career satisfaction among accounting professional returnees

Nội dung text: Reentry to Vietnam: Career satisfaction among accounting professional returnees

1. REENTRY TO VIETNAM: CAREER SATISFACTION AMONG ACCOUNTING PROFESSIONAL RETURNEES TS. Hồ Thị Thỳy Nga – TS. Hoàng Trọng Hựng Trường Đại học Kinh tế - Đại học Huế Abstract This study examines career satisfaction among Vietnamese accounting professionals who studied and/or worked abroad and returned to Vietnam. This study integrates career embeddedness theory with work readjustment theory to understand career satisfaction among accounting professional returnees. Using multiple regression on a sample of 139 accounting professionals returnees in Vietnam, the findings indicate that career satisfaction is affected by career embeddedness (career fit and sacrifice) and work readjustment while work readjustment mediates the links of career fit and career sacrifice to career satisfaction. This study adds to the limited studies on the relationship between career embeddedness, work readjustment and career satisfaction of professional returnees in emerging economies. Key words: career satisfaction, accounting professional returnees 1. Introduction Recruiting and retaining skilled employees are major challenges faced by companies in emerging economies, including Vietnam, due to skill shortages(Scullion, Collings, & Gunnigle, 2007). Especially, Vietnam currently is a member of Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP)which brings both economic opportunities and challenges as Vietnam is facing more foreign competition. In order to prepare for these significant changes, Vietnam needs to not only attract but also retain highly talented Vietnamese with strong global competencies, given the growth in importance of human capital as a source of competitive advantage which underscores the importance of talent in the economy(Jones, Whitaker, Seet, & Parkin, 2012). Vietnamese returnees who possess advanced skills, knowledge, international experiences and foreign language proficiency from developed countries, are vital for Vietnam’s continued economic growth (Gribble, 2011; Pham, 2010). The successful recruitment, motivation and retention of such employees will help firms in Vietnam gain significant competitive advantage(Bjửrkman & Xiucheng, 2002). This is particularly important for foreign and local enterprises in the accounting sectors, which are currently experiencing shortages of skilled staff (Tien Phong, 2008; Uyen, 2010; Vu, 2011). In order to attract and retain accounting professional returnees, Vietnamese government and accounting firms need to understand the career satisfaction of these professionals after returning to Vietnam. It is because when accounting professional returnees do not satisfy with their career in Vietnam, they may re-expatriate to other countries (Ho, Seet, & Jones, 2015).Their skills will then benefit other countries rather than Vietnam. Thus, this study focuses on examining career satisfaction among Vietnamese accounting professionals who studied and/or worked abroad and returned to Vietnam. 395
2. This research focuses on accounting sectors because firms in the accounting sectors in Vietnam have recently achieved high growth rates (Trinh, 2010), but have experienced skills shortages (Tien Phong, 2008; Uyen, 2010; Vu, 2011). In the early 1990s, for example, Vietnam had only two domestic and one foreign auditing firm, this figure rose to 168 firms, including 5 foreign auditing firms registered with Vietnam Association of Certified Public Accountants on15th February 2012 (VACPA, 2012)out of the total 600 firms providing accounting and financial services. It is estimated that the number of auditing firms in Vietnam will increase up to 350 firms with 20,000 employees including 7,000 auditors in the next ten years(Vu, 2011). In order to survive and flourish in international business and trade after WTO accession, it is important from both government and industry perspective to devise policies to attract and retain skilled professionalswith global visibility and foreign language proficiency (Gribble, 2011). In attempting to understand career satisfaction among accounting professional returnees, this study uses two key theoretical underpinnings which include home-country career embeddedness and work readjustment. Home-country career embeddedness refers to 1) perceptions of their fit with their career in the home country, and 2) the sacrifice if they left their career in the home country(Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010).Although career embeddedness is a well developed and tested theory, it has been used to explain voluntary turnover, which involves people quitting their current organization to join another one within a country(Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010). This study extends career embeddedness theory in understanding career satisfaction of returnees. Work readjustment refers to the adjustment of returnees to a job position when they return to their home country. Although prior studies indicate that all different group of returnees face difficulties in adjusting back to their work in their home country, most prior studies have been on antecedences of work readjustment. A few studies have examined the outcomes of cross-cultural readjustment. For example, some studies (Black, Gregersen, & Mendenhall, 1992; Gregersen & Black, 1993; Vidal, Valle, & Aragún, 2010) support the view that if returnees experience better work readjustment, they will perform better at work. Other studies find that better work readjustment also leads to higher organizational commitment (Arman, 2009), better knowledge sharing (Arman, 2009) and less turnover intention (Arman, 2009; Black et al., 1992; Cox, Khan, & Armani, 2013; Gregersen & Black, 1993; Lee & Liu, 2007; Suutari & Brewster, 2003; Vidal, Valle, & Aragún, 2007). This study is the first examining the relationship between work readjustment and career satisfaction and testing the mediating role of work readjustment in predicting the indirect link between career embeddedness and career satisfaction. The paper is structured as follows. It begins by developing hypotheses that explain the factors influencing returnee professionals’ career satisfaction. Thereafter, this study outlines the research method, presents the results of analysis and discusses the findings. The paper concludes with limitations and implications for future research. 2. Development of hypotheses Returnee professionals may find that their career needs fit with their current career in the home country and they will sacrifice their career benefits if they return abroad to live. 396
3. Returnees may fit with the working culture, norms and career opportunities in the home country rather than overseas. Their skills and knowledge may fit with the needs of organisations in the home country. They will sacrifice their job opportunities, career developmentand money that they earn in the home country if they go back abroad to live. The low levels of fit with careers in the home country andthe low level of careersacrifice when they go back abroad make returnees susceptible to career dissatisfaction. In contrast, when returnees have a strong fit with their careers in Vietnam and make a huge career sacrifice if they go back abroad to live, their career needs are more likely to be met, meaning that they are more satisfied with their life in their home country (Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010). Therefore, the following hypotheses are proposed. H1a: Career fit is positively related to career satisfaction H1b: Career sacrifice is positively related to career satisfaction When returnees become fit with their career in the home country and find a big career sacrifice in the home country if they leave to another country, they are more easily to adjust back to their work. It is because work readjustment is a product of uncertainty which may be acceptable and non-acceptable (Black, 1992). The stronger career fit in the home country leads returnees easily accept the uncertainty at their work, thus helps them have smoother work-readjustment process. Therefore, the next hypotheses are: H2a: Career fit is positively related to work readjustment H2b: Career sacrifice is positively related to work readjustment Workreadjustment represents responses of returnees on their work when they return to the home country(Black, 1994). In another word, poor workreadjustment is the negative evaluation of their career aspects in the home country(Bhaskar-Shrinivas, Harrison, Shaffer, & Luk, 2005). Hence, the smoother the work readjustment is, the more satisfied with their work in the home country returnees feel. Thus, the following hypotheses are proposed: H3a: Work readjustment mediates the relationship between career fit and career satisfaction H3b: Work readjustment mediates the relationship between career sacrifice and career satisfaction 3. Methods 3.1. Sample and procedures The sample includes Vietnamese professional returnees who had studied or worked overseas for at least one year, and then returned to Vietnam and are currently working as accountants or auditors in Vietnam. We approached big accounting firms in Vietnam, which have a high density of returnee professionals. These professionals then introduced their friends who also studied overseas and now working in accounting firms (snowball sampling). We also posted the survey questionnaires on social media (e.g., Facebook) of a variety of alumni of Vietnamese students who have studied and graduated offshore and sought the suitable respondents in accounting firms.A total of 160 questionnaires were returned. After 397
4. removing questionnaires that have missing data for important constructs, 139 respondents were retained for further analysis. Table 1 shows the profiles of sample respondents. 398
5. Table 1: Sample profiles N Percent N Percent 20-25 29 21 Up to 2 years 58 41 Length of 26-30 55 40 time 2 to 3 years 22 16 Age 31-35 42 30 since 3 to 4 years 16 12 Over 35 13 9 returning 4 to 5 years 18 13 Total 139 100 to More than 5 years 25 18 Vietnam Total 139 100 Male 58 42 Gender Female 81 58 Upto 2 years 62 45 Total 139 100 2 to 5 years 51 37 Tenure 5 to 10 years 20 14 1 to 2 years 63 45 > 10 years 6 4 Length 2 to 3 years 26 19 Total 139 100 of time 3 to 4 years 22 16 spent 4 to 5 years 11 8 overseas > 5 years 17 12 Total 139 100 Of the 139accounting professionals, the majority of them (91%) were between 20 and 35 years of age and 58 % were female.Eighty percent of professionals lived abroad from between 1 to 4 years and most of them (82%) had returned to Vietnam within the past five years. The overwhelming of them (82%) has worked for their current company for less than 10 years. 3.2. Measures Career fit measures returnees’ perceived compatibility or comfort with their careers in Vietnam (Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010). This study adopted a three-item scale measured career fit from Tharenou and Caulfield(2010), which were scored on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The alpha internal consistency reliability of this construct was 0.70. Career sacrifice measures returnees’ perceived cost of material or psychological benefits that may be forfeited by leaving their careers in Vietnam (Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010). A three-item scale was adopted from Tharenou and Caulfield(2010) to measure career sacrifice of accounting professionals. These items were scored on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (not at all) to 7 (to a very great extent). The alpha internal consistency reliability of this construct was 0.70. Workreadjustment measures returnees’ adjustment to their work in Vietnam after leaving to Vietnam. This study used afour-item scale adopted from Black and Gregersen’s(1991) repatriation adjustment scale to measure workreadjustment. These items were scored on a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (not adjusted at all) to 7 (very well adjusted). The Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency reliabilities of this construct was 0.85. Career satisfaction measures the degree of returnees’ satisfaction with their career after returning home. For measuring this construct, all five items were adopted from the 399
6. career satisfaction of Greenhaus et al. (1990) and were scored on a 7-point Likert-type scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). The internal consistency reliability with reported Cronbach’s alphas was 0.93. 4. Results Table 2 shows the means, standard deviations, Cronbach’s alphas and bivariate correlationsfor all variables. All correlation coefficients in this study were below 0.70 and significant at the p-value lower than 0.01 level, suggesting that all measures were appropriate for further analysis (Tabachnick & Fidell, 1996). Additionally, all variance inflation factors (VIFs) in the regressions were lower than 2, indicating that multi-collinearity is not problematic in this study. Table 2: Descriptive statistics, correlations and scale reliabilities for scale variables Mean SD 1 2 3 4 1 Career fit 5.24 1.02 (.70) 2 Career sacrifice 4.05 1.21 .19* (.70) 3 Work readjustment 4.55 1.33 .29 .25 (.85) 4 Career satisfaction 5.45 1.14 .39 .35 .42 (.93) Notes:Figures in parentheses are Cronbach’s alphas. * p< .05. p< .01 This study usedhierarchical multiple regressions to test Hypothesis 1, 2 and 3.The control variables, including age, gender, tenure, length of time spent overseas and length of time since return, were entered in all regression models. Table 3 shows the regression results of three models. In model 1, the dependent variable is work readjustment and independent variables are career fit and career sacrifice. The results of Model 1 were used to access Hypotheses 2a and 2b. In models 2 and 3, the dependent variable is career satisfaction, and career fit and career sacrifice are independent variables. Career readjustment is an additional independent variable which is entered in model 3. Hypotheses 1a and 1b were tested based on Model 2 while the results of all the three models were used to test Hypothesis 3a and 3b. Hypotheses 1a and 1b stated that career fit and career sacrifice both have positive effects on career satisfaction. The results of Model 2 in Table 3 indicates that both career fit(β = 0.34, p < 0.01) and career sacrifice (β = 0.27, p < 0.01)were significantly positively related to career satisfaction. Therefore, hypotheses 1a and 1b were both supported. Hypotheses 2a and 2b mentioned that both career fit and career sacrifice havea positive impact on work readjustment. The results of Model 1 in Table 3 shows that both career fit (β = 0.25, p < 0.01)and career sacrifice (β = 0.21, p < 0.01) are significantly positively related to work readjustment, supporting hypotheses 2a and 2b. 400
7. Table 2: Regression results Factor and statistic Work readjustment Career satisfaction Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Age -.11 .04 .07 Gender -.09 .05 .08 Tenure .08 -.12 -.14 Length of time spent -.08 -.08 -.06 overseas Length of time since return .06 .11 .09 Career fit .25 .34 .26 Career sacrifice .21 .27 .21 Work readjustment .29 F 3.05 6.44 8.00 R2 .14 .26 .33 Adjusted R2 .09 .22 .29 Notes:* p < .05. p< .01 Hypothesis 3 proposed that work readjustment mediates the relationship for career fit (Hypothesis 3a), career sacrifice (Hypothesis 3b) with career satisfaction. To establish mediation, four conditions must be met(Baron & Kenny, 1986): (1) the independent variable is significantly related to the mediatorvariable; (2) the independent variable is significantly related to dependent variable; (3) the mediator variable is significantly related to dependent variable; and (4) the relationship between the independent and dependent variable should be nonsignificant or weaker when the independent and mediator variables are both entered into the regression model. Table 3 shows results for testing mediation. Model 1 indicates that career fit (β = 0.25, p < 0.01) and career sacrifice (β = 0.21, p < 0.01) are both significantly associated with work readjustment,supporting Condition 1 for both career embeddedness factors. Model 2 shows that career fit (β = 0.34, p < 0.01) and career sacrifice (β = 0.27, p < 0.01) were significantly related to career satisfaction, thus, support Condition 2. Model 3 demonstrates that work readjustment was significantly related to career satisfaction, thus, Condition 3 was met. Model 3 shows that when work readjustment was entered into the regression, the effect of career fit (β = 0.26, p < 0.01) and career sacrifice (β = 0.21, p < 0.01) became weaker, although the relationships are still significant, suggesting partial mediations. To further assess the significance of the mediation, this study appliedSobel’s (1982) test for indirect effects (MacKinnon, Lockwood,Hoffman, West, & Sheets, 2002). Results show that the interveningeffects of career fit( p<.01) and career sacrifice ( p < .05)wereboth significant. Thus, Hypotheses 3a and 3b were both supported. 5. Discussion Both career fit and career sacrifice had a significantly positive impact on career satisfaction, supporting the theory of home country embeddedness (Lo, Wong, Yam, & Whitfield, 2012; Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010). While prior studies (e.g. Lo et al., 2012; Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010) have examined the relationship between job embeddedness and 401
8. job satisfaction of domestic employees, the findings of the current study extend this theory in the context of career satisfaction of accounting returnee professionals who had overseas experiences. The findings demonstrate that being embedded in one’s career, meaning strong fit with career opportunities in Vietnam or making huge sacrifices if leaving Vietnam, accounting returnee professionals have more positive attitudes toward their career in Vietnam. This could be because when returnees’ career fit with the opportunities in Vietnam or when returnees make huge career sacrifices if they leave Vietnam, they find that their career needs are being met, thus, they are more satisfied with their current career(Tharenou & Caulfield, 2010). Prior studies have examined the association between work readjustment and job satisfaction of assigned repatriates(Black & Gregersen, 1990). The current study extends the work readjustment theory (Black & Gregersen, 1991) to explain how it affects returnees’ career satisfaction and how it mediates the links between the two constructs of career embeddedness and career satisfaction. Work readjustment was found to have a significantly positive effect on career satisfaction, indicating that smooth work readjustment is related to returnees’ positive affective responses to their current career, thus, they are more satisfied with their current career in their home country. Further, the findings of this study also suggest that when returnees become embedded with their current career in the home country via career fit and career sacrifice, they adjust better with their career on re-entry to their home country, which, in turn, lead to more satisfied with their career. Practical implications Vietnamese managers can enable accounting professional returnees’ satisfaction with their career in Vietnam by enhancing their career embeddedness through career fit and career sacrifice. In terms of career fit, policies and practices need to focus on enhancing returnees’ fit with their career in Vietnam. For example, managers need to utilise returnees’ skills and knowledge acquired abroad and match them with appropriate tasks and projects. In regard to career sacrifice, home country government and managers can create good working conditions, offer appropriate rewards and financial incentives. The support from their government or organization will make returneesfeel that they will be making huge sacrifices if they re- expatriate, thus they are less likely to re-expatriate. Vietnamese government and managers need to help accounting professional returnees have smooth work readjustment in order to enhance their level of career satisfaction. In particular, they need to develop repatriation programs that help accounting professional returnees deal with the issue of poor work readjustment. The new working cultural values acquired abroad may be in conflict with the working styles and cultures of the home country. In addition, working environment in the home country may have changed while returnees were abroad (Christofi & Thompson, 2007; Haines, 2012). Returnees may not be aware of these changes, which may lead to their discomfort with their career on re-entry (Martin & Harrell, 2004). Therefore, repatriation programs should focus on providing critical information that will help returnees have realistic career expectations during repatriation. The information may include the changes of working environment and career opportunities in the 402
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