Acculturation: an exploration of professional Chinese immigrants in the Australian workplace

Professional Chinese immigrants (PCIs) encounter many adjustment difficulties due to significant cultural and social differences in the Australian workplace. The way in which PCIs position and re-position themselves in the workplace after migrating to Australia has been significantly under-researched. This study attempts to grasp the complexities surrounding this issue based on 23 interviews. Our results revealed that most PCIs highly valued the Chinese culture and adopt separation as their acculturation strategy in daily life. Although many do feel like to develop more connections with the mainstream society, they find difficulties discovering appropriate channels to do so. To adapt to the work environment, they had to switch between cultures and negotiate identities depending on the situations at hand. The findings strongly suggest that organizations should pay greater attention to the function of acculturation in the workplace and manage immigrant employees via effective acculturation programs.