ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cultural Psychology
This article is part of the Research TopicSociology and Psycho-Demographics of SatisfactionView all articles
Cultural Adaptation, Perceived Incentives, and Job Satisfaction of Expatriate Faculty: An Empirical Study of China and Kazakhstan
Provisionally accepted
- 1Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan
- 2Chang'an University, Xi'an, China
- 3Chang’an University, Xi'an, China
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With the deepening of educational cooperation under the "Belt and Road" Initiative, the mobility of university faculty between China and Kazakhstan has become increasingly frequent. This study aims to explore the complex relationships between cultural adaptation, perceived incentives, and job satisfaction among expatriate faculty, and to compare the national differences between Chinese and Kazakhstani academics. Using a survey methodology, this research collected 550 valid responses from faculty on assignment in both countries. The results indicate that: (1) Both cultural adaptation and perceived incentives are significant positive predictors of job satisfaction; (2) Perceived incentives play a significant partial mediating role in the relationship between cultural adaptation and job satisfaction, suggesting that effective cultural adaptation is associated with faculty's higher sensitivity to organizational incentives, which in turn is linked to higher satisfaction; (3) Nationality moderates the relationship between perceived incentives and job satisfaction, with Kazakhstani faculty demonstrating greater sensitivity to extrinsic, material incentives, while the satisfaction of Chinese faculty is less strongly associated with fluctuations in such incentives; (4) An analysis of variance (ANOVA) confirms the existence of an "adaptation slump" or "satisfaction dip": faculty in their first to third year of service, regardless of academic rank, report significantly lower job satisfaction than other groups. Similarly, lecturers report significantly lower satisfaction than associate professors and professors. This study provides a theoretical basis and practical strategies for enhancing the management effectiveness of expatriate faculty.
Keywords: China-Kazakhstan EducationalCooperation, cultural adaptation, expatriate faculty, Job Satisfaction, Perceived incentives
Received: 13 Jan 2026; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wang, Duisenbayev and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zhan Zhou
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