Cultural Adaptation Factors and States
3
Factors of Culture Adaptation and Adaptation States
In a Multicultural Organization
Introduction
Research on cultural adaptation has focused on individuals, especially,
immigrants in the U.S. Studies of cultural adjustment, assimilation, acculturation, are
some of the similar concepts to cultural adaptation. Most studies identify influential
factors in immigrants’ life (e.g., Berry, 1990; Berry, Kim, & Boski, 1987; Kim, 1977;
Kim, 1988; Kim & Ruben, 1988) and stages of the adaptation process (e.g., Dodd, 1991;
Levine & Adelman, 1982)), focusing on their experiences in the host culture (Chen,
1994; Chen, 1995) or those who transfer from one organization to another (Lester, 1984).
Few studies seem to give attention to how individuals who work in an organization in or
of a different culture.
In recent years, many international corporate companies have set up production
sites in foreign countries. Tijuana, Mexico is a typical location for such sites. By an
examination of a Korean-Mexican joint venture – the Samsung Tijuana Park, we study
how Korean employees try to fit in the local Mexican culture as well as how the Mexican
employees adapt to the Korean organizational culture.
Samsung Tijuana Park: A Maquiladora
In 1995, there were more than 2,000 joint venture companies along the border
between the United States and Mexico (McDaniel & Samovar, 1996). They are often
called “maquiladoras”
”labor-intensive foreign-owned industries which assemble
products for export to other countries” (Kras, 1995, p. xxi). Most maquiladoras are U.S.-
Convention