There is nothing like staying at home: Japanese employees’ dispositional resistance to change and their expatriation willingness

Purpose This study examines how dispositional resistance to change (DRTC) – a change-specific personality trait – affects the expatriation willingness of Japanese employees in multinational corporations (MNCs) headquartered in Japan. We theorize that DRTC affects expatriation willingness through two situationally relevant mediators (motivational cultural intelligence (CQ) and foreign language anxiety) to discover ways in which organizations can change their employees’ attitudes for them to be willing to expatriate. Design/methodology/approach We tested mediation hypotheses using a two-wave survey of 693 Japanese MNC employees in various industries. Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling using Mplus 8. Findings The results indicate that motivational CQ and foreign language anxiety fully mediate the negative relationship between DRTC and willingness to expatriate. Originality/value The current study offers insights into expatriation willingness by revealing that DRTC is a personality trait relevant to be studied in the expatriation context. Second, and more importantly, the study finds that motivational CQ and foreign language anxiety are crucial mechanisms through which DRTC influences expatriation willingness. This is important because the study reveals that MNCs can influence their employees’ career choices even if they cannot directly change their personality traits (i.e. DRTC).