The JGM BitBlog: Social media expatriate training.
Stephanie Bilderback, Austin Peay State University, United States
Matthew Farrell, Austin Peay State University, United States
Social media has had a bad few years in both popular media and scientific literature, with popular platforms becoming synonymous with unproductive activity. Further, scholars and commentators have devoted extensive attention to societal consequences of social media use including algorithmic biases, data exploitation, or even facilitating the spread of misinformation. In parallel, a large literature on expatriates has shown that loneliness, homesickness, and cultural unfamiliarity are some of the major factors keeping expatriate employees from reaching their true potential.
The purpose of our study was to explore the idea that social media might help expatriates to overcome some of these issues, therefore demonstrating that it can have positive social value if employed as a learning tool. We developed a conceptual framework drawing from Kolb's experiential learning theory (ELT) to investigate this further. ELT proposes that individuals learn best through a cyclical process of experiences, reflecting on those experiences, abstract conceptualization and experimentation, thus enabling them to learn through direct activity. This dovetails nicely with the strengths of social media as well as the needs of expatriates. Specifically, we argue that language training, acculturation, and professional networking can all be achieved through experiences with social media platforms. In turn, positive outcomes along these dimensions should enhance both expatriate adjustment to their new environments and performance within them. The relative anonymity permitted by some platforms may also help to shield expatriates from social sanctioning for well-intentioned missteps.
Further research is needed to verify and add depth to our model. For example, specific home and host countries are likely to be influential in terms of formal institutions (e.g., laws) and informal institutions (e.g., national culture). Consequently, individuals may demonstrate varied learning outcomes based on environmental factors. Similarly, individuals are cognitively diverse. It is conceivable, for example, that more extraverted expatriates might benefit less from social media use for professional networking than more introverted ones. We would also expect that some platforms may be more efficacious for specific tasks, and it has yet to be determined whether social media use results in better outcomes than other prospective training methods.
In sum, we argue that social media use, even in the workplace, is possibly not as detrimental as previously believed, particularly in the context of expatriates.
To read the full article, please see the Journal of Global Mobility publication:
Bilderback, S. and Farrell, M. (2025), "Integrating social media platforms into expatriate training and development programs: an experiential learning perspective", Journal of Global Mobility, Vol. 13 No. 1, pp. 59-76. https://doi.org/10.1108/JGM-03-2024-0024" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.1108/JGM-03-2024-0024
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Professor Jan Selmer, Ph.D.
Founding Editor-in-Chief
Journal of Global Mobility (JGM)
Department of Management, Aarhus University
E-mail:
selmer@mgmt.au.dkTwitter: @JanSelmer_JGM
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