Studies of expatriate adjustment have traditionally focused on corporate expatriate assignments where foreign employees are often the only expatriate, or one of a handful in a host organisation. Multicultural not-for-profit organisations such as United Nations organisations have largely been ignored. It was hypothesised that classic predictors of expatriate adjustment – Spousal Adjustment, Culture Novelty and Acculturation Style, and novel variables of Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment would predict Expatriate Adjustment and subsequent Cognitions to Withdraw prematurely from the assignment. 181 expatriates representing 38 countries from all economic levels completed an online survey investigating their experiences on assignment to a United Nations Organisation in Rome, Italy. Black & Stephens (1989) classic scales of Expatriate Adjustment, Spousal Adjustment, Culture Novelty and Cognitions to Withdraw were employed along with Acculturation Style, Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment measures designed for this study. Qualitative data was also collected around expatriates’ cognitions to withdraw from their assignment and reasons to stay in order to gain a richer understanding of the expatriate experience. The best predictors of Expatriate Adjustment and subsequent Cognitions to Withdraw for United Nations expatriate employees in Rome were classic predictor Culture Novelty and novel predictors Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment. Structural Equation Modelling indicated the best fitting model of Expatriate Adjustment and subsequent Cognitions to Withdraw demonstrated moderate fit (!2 = 1045.19, df = 486, p =.000, TLI = .80, CFI = .82, RMSEA = .08) with Culture Novelty predicting General and Interaction Adjustment; Economic Adjustment predicting General Adjustment; and Adjustment Stage predicting General, Interaction and Work Adjustment. General Adjustment was the only significant predictor of Cognitions to Withdraw. Qualitative analysis suggested that the classic adjustment measures used did not adequately capture the experiences of these expatriates and that caution should be taken in generalising the literature to not-for-profit populations. Furthermore the outcomes of this study suggest that the inclusion of novel variables of Economic Adjustment and Stage in Assignment as predictors of expatriate adjustment could be warranted for future research. Sample size and adequacy of measures both limited the extent to which analysis could be conducted and results generalised. More research into the expatriate experience in the not-for-profit sector is desperately needed.

This study tested the relationship of the personality variable of hardiness to the organisational outcomes of job satisfaction, performance and intention to turnover. These relationships were also tested via two alternative transactional models, with a sequential and simultaneous structure for the appraisal and coping processes. Employees (N = 297) from a range of large New Zealand organisations completed a questionnaire on hardiness, appraisal, coping, affect and the three distal outcomes. Bivariate correlations revealed significant positive relationships between hardiness and job satisfaction, hardiness and performance, and a significant negative relationship with intention to turnover. Structural equation modelling results revealed that the direct relationship between hardiness and job satisfaction was the strongest path, which indicates that the higher an employees level of hardiness the higher their likely level of job satisfaction. The simultaneous model provided best fit to the data, revealing a positive path from hardiness through challenge appraisals to positive affect, and a negative path through threat appraisal and emotion-focused coping. This study concludes that higher levels of hardiness are associated with more positive situational appraisals and more effective coping responses.

This thesis explores the relevance of Bio Data verses Personality for predicting Cultural Competence among Industrial and Organisational Psychology and Human Resource Management professionals and students in New Zealand. It also explores the relevance of the model (D.W. Sue, 2001) of Cultural Competence currently in use by the New Zealand Psychologists board and also the relevance of a four factor model of Cultural Intelligence (Early & Ang, 2003). The sample consisted of 113 participants drawn from a population of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, and Human Resource Management professionals and students. A questionnaire which measures the predictors of the Big Five Personality Factors (Goldberg, 1999), and Bio Data, and the criterion variables of Cultural Intelligence (Earley & Ang, 2003) and questions constructed specifically for this thesis was distributed online. The criterion variables were based on an existing three part (Awareness, Knowledge and Skills) Multidimensional Model for Developing Cultural Competence by D.W. Sue (2001). The results of this research were obtained through exploratory factor analysis and subsequent multiple regression analysis. A new model was constructed to represent the tested predictor and criterion relationship. Results suggest that overall Personality is a better predictor of Cultural Competence, with the Personality Factor of Agreeableness being the highest weighted Personality Factor. D.W Sue’s (2001) Multidimensional Model for Developing Cultural Competence maintained its three part structure in the analysis and consequently seems relevant to the unique socio-cultural, organisational and professional setting of the tested group. Ang and colleagues (Ang, Van Dyne, Koh, Ng, Templer, Tay & Chandraseker, 2007) Cultural Intelligence Scale maintained its four part factor structure and was reliable for this thesis.

This research endeavors to understand people's experience of working in a highly engaged team, and specifically to understand the aspects of the work environment that contribute to their engagement. As participants' own perspectives and views are central to gaining a rich insight, a qualitative approach is taken. Twenty-five participants from a large government agency who had worked in highly engaged teams took part in five focus group discussions. The discussions were analysed following thematic analysis techniques, and a thematic network of three interrelated layers was developed to explain the findings. This thematic network focuses more on people's experiences of working in an engaging environment and the feelings associated with these experiences, whereas the literature focuses more on describing engagement and the aspects of the environment which contributes to engagement. At the base of the engagement model, developed from this research, are the seven aspects of the workplace that contribute to people's engagement: leadership; challenging and or varied work; access to knowledge; latitude and responsibility; social atmosphere; safety, trust and support; and respect. Above this are the feelings people connect with working in this environment: feeling at ease and relaxed, having a sense of achievement and satisfaction, and being valued or validated. The top layer of the model is the overall sense of what working in an engaging environment is about: feeling good in one's self. Three further observations are made. Firstly, the team is an important aspect in people's engagement, and a duality exists where the person and the team simultaneously influence each other. Secondly, engagement is an active process; it changes over time, has a lifecycle over people's careers, actively transfers between people and exists within a reinforcing loop. Lastly, engagement within this organisation, refers to a connection to the work or workplace: people were interested, participated, enjoyed and were connected to their work, but maintained a separation. There was no sense of merging one's identity with the work as noted within some of the literature on engagement.

Fairness, forgiveness and grudge-holding are concepts which underlie many aspects of our interpersonal relationships. Fairness is the foundation of our day-to-day communication with others and forgiveness is concerned with a positive strategy used to manage negative emotional experiences of underserved [i.e. undeserved] unfair treatment. Grudge-holding results as an accumulation of negative feelings, which are associated with the original experience of unfairness. Two experimental studies investigated children’s perceptions of, feelings about, and reactions towards the unfair behaviour of a mother and a friend, by individually inviting the children to scenario-based interview sessions, which included three imaginary tasks. The children were asked to judge the fairness of a mother and a best friend’s treatment towards a child protagonist and to report their associated feelings, after listening to a scenario that described an interaction between a child and a mother and an interaction between a child and a friend. They further responded to three scenario-based experimental tasks, regarding their willingness to grant forgiveness, as opposed to expressions of hostility. In the first study, the children’s willingness to forgive, as a result of unfairness, was explored with 82 local primary school children in Palmerston North, New Zealand, whose ages ranged from 8- to 11-years-old, in addition to 50 parents of these participating children. The parents also completed a questionnaire about their approaches to their children’s common misbehaviours. The study found that the children were typically willing to grant forgiveness to a mother, even though she had been unfair. Their forgiveness tendencies were not related to aspects of parental disciplinary behaviour. However, an examination of the children’s verbatim responses through the use of thematic analysis revealed the complex nature of the relationship between parent and child concerning tolerance for mistakes. In the second study, I explored on whether the children’s repeated exposure to unfairness would contribute to their display of grudge-holding against a mother or a best friend in the scenarios and this investigation involved 55 local primary children, whose ages ranged from 8- to 12-years-old, in Wellington, New Zealand. The children participated in individual scenario-based interview sessions, which included three imaginary tasks over the two time periods, one week apart from each other. The children’s levels of grudge-holding was measured by analysing the possible increase in hostility, which the children expressed from Time 1 to Time 2. The study showed that a repeated experience of unfairness had a noticeable effect on the children’s level of hostility towards the person who was unfair and especially towards the best friend. The children’s verbatim comments also suggested some evidence of accumulated negativity in their responses to an unfairness experience. Thus, this study proved to be a suitable paradigm for operationalising grudge-holding in children.

Rural experiences are under-represented in the end-of-life care literature. In addition, population projections indicate that the numbers of older rural people are increasing. In an attempt to better understand their needs, this study considers how older people experience end-of-life (EOL) care in a rural New Zealand setting. Having responded to local media and community notices, seven participants, who in the last eighteen months had cared for someone over the age of 65 with a terminal illness, spoke about their experience of rural EOL care. Their stories were then transcribed and analysed, using narrative analysis. Participants spoke about similar issues, but from different, sometimes conflicting, perspectives. Positioning themselves primarily as carers, rather than as rural people, the participants’ stories nevertheless reflected their social location for caring, as they talked about exhaustion and needing 24 hour support; limited access to specialist palliative care services; and the difficulties of caring for people with complex needs. At the same time they spoke of the joys and rewards of caring. The ambivalence and conflict evident in the stories indicates the participants’ location in a particular place and time in the history of dying. Caught between two paradigms of care, these participants vacillate between the desire for the empathic, compassionate care of yesteryear and the best that modern medical technology can offer. Discussing when to continue and when to stop medical intervention produced the most conflicting perspectives. However, all agreed that having time to form therapeutic relationships is a key component of EOL care. Overall, the stories demonstrate that the multiple and complex experiences of older rural people render stereotypical assumptions about rural life and dying at home problematic. However, as this study demonstrates, simply talking with people provides access to and understanding of their lived realities. Incorporating this kind of approach in future rural EOL care planning will move us closer to achieving contemporary goals of positive ageing and dying well.

Resilience is a term of increasing prevalence in many aspects of society including the workplace. This thesis has sought to examine the relationship resilience has with coping, engagement, and life satisfaction. Data was collected via a survey that included standard measures for the variables of interest and two open-ended questions targeting sources of stress and sources of satisfaction. Findings show a positive relationship between resilience and task-focused coping, engagement, and life satisfaction. No relationship was found between resilience and maladaptive coping or social support. Additionally, it was found that resilience acted as a full mediator in the relationship between task-focused coping and engagement, but had no mediating effect in the relationship between task-focused coping and life satisfaction. The open-ended questions identified that the same demand frequently acted as both a source of stress and a source of satisfaction.

Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) is an autoimmune syndrome characterized by a severe and rapid onset of paralysis that ascends without warning. It has an unknown aetiology and is generally unknown by most people, including medical professionals. When a person who has had GBS is asked to speak about their experience, they are likely to talk about aspects of it that are personally meaningful. Their account can be likened to a story in that it collates seemingly unconnected facts, episodes of activity and emotional attributions into a sequence that provides knowledge and understanding. A story is a powerful form for expressing suffering and experiences and so is particularly suitable for the study of trauma and illness. The actual process of creating the story, plus its presentational and organisational forms, provides sources for uncovering the identities authors choose to create and present of themselves. Six people who have had GBS were interviewed about their experience, and their stories were analysed using a narrative inquiry to discern the meanings attributed to GBS from the participants’ own understandings and perspectives. The intended focus of the research was holistic and content based. The result of the narrative inquiry was a plot common to all six narratives. Namely, GBS is an inexplicable condition, during which horrendous things happen, but people do recover with time and it is likely their life view will be changed in the process. Four fundamental issues, identity, meaning, making sense and meaningfulness were drawn from the stories and configured into a narrative of the researcher’s making. What the participants chose to speak about became the meanings, or themes, major and minor, of their stories. No event has meaning in itself, however traumatic events can precipitate crises of meaning. When these crises are viewed within the context of other events, and are perceived to add value to life, then they have meaningfulness. In the telling of meanings and meaningfulness, the purpose for storying and the audience to whom the story is directed are the criteria for which the storylines are chosen. Both the story and the storying provide opportunities for the authors to create and offer images of themselves, that are then open to interpretation by an audience. As a traumatic experience, GBS enabled six people to tell their stories. In doing so they were able to make sense of important issues for themselves, and re-examine the way they saw themselves and the world.

Despite evidence to the contrary, policy makers, some researchers and many who provide health and social services to sex workers continue to reflect and reinforce the notion that sex workers are dysfunctional and constitute a threat to public health. This thesis presents the results of a study which explicitly examined how indoor sex workers look after their psychological wellbeing. Twelve participants (who had worked as sex workers for at least 3 years) took part in semi-structured interviews and discussed how they looked after themselves both at work and in their wider social context. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Two main themes emerged from the data. The first, “doing sex work”, relates to workplace practices. The second theme, “being a sex worker”, relates to how the women understand their experience of being a sex worker in their social context and how they care for themselves in this arena; also apparent in this theme are aspects related to entry and exit of the industry. All participants took part in the study to increase understanding of and social justice for sex workers. Most of the participants see sex work as having a positive contribution to their personal growth. The findings show that participants are resilient and employ self-care practices that are commonly used by many in occupations that deal with people or who are stigmatised in some way. Major conclusions drawn from the study are that working in a supportive environment, prior understandings of sex work, personal traits and reasons for entering the sex industry are closely related to positive psychological wellbeing.

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