ABSTRACT
In one of the earliest, comprehensive reviews of the sojourner adjustment literature, Church (1982: 563) concluded, ‘that a single, comprehensive theory of sojourner adjustment is not likely to be found’. Although a single theory has dominated much of the business expatriate adjustment research over the past 25 years, this chapter will demonstrate that Church's conclusion is as valid today as it was 30+ years ago, the great advances in our understanding of expatriate adjustment notwithstanding. Intense research efforts including hundreds of studies have not invalidated other conclusions drawn more than three decades ago. Church lamented the nonlongitudinal nature of most studies of sojourner adjustment. So do Lazarova and Thomas (2012) in another review 30 years later. Church deplored the emphasis on outcomes over process in adjustment research. Lazarova and Thomas come to the same conclusion, although pointing out that the importance of process has recently gained greater recognition. The question to what extent the measurement of adjustment is confounded with job performance (Benson 1978) has not received a satisfactory answer in the 35 years since it was put.
