This study examines how local employees gain information and make sense of new expatriates’ roles and responsibilities in multinational corporations by applying Weick’s sensemaking theory. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews of 17 local employees working for a Japan-based automotive manufacturing company in a Midwestern U.S. city. Results revealed that local employees extracted cues from their environment to make sense of expatriates’ roles and responsibilities by communicating directly with others, observing expatriates communicating with others, and applying knowledge from previous experiences with expatriates. In making sense of the information, local employees compared their expectations for expatriates with their experiences and interpreted expatriates’ roles and responsibilities negatively when there was a discrepancy between them. This study provides valuable insights into the sensemaking process of local employees as they adapt to expatriates as part of their ongoing socialization process.

本研究通过应用 Weick 的意义建构理论来检验本地员工如何获取信息并理解新外派员工在跨国公司中的角色和责任。数据是通过对在美国中西部城市的一家日本汽车制造公司工作的 17 名当地员工的半结构化访谈收集的。结果显示，当地员工通过直接与他人交流、观察外派人员与他人的交流以及应用与外派人员的以往经验，从他们的环境中提取线索来理解外派人员的角色和责任。在理解信息的过程中，当地员工将他们对外派人员的期望与他们的经历进行比较，并在他们之间存在差异时负面地解释外派人员的角色和责任。这项研究为当地员工在适应外派人员作为其正在进行的社会化过程的一部分时的意义构建过程提供了宝贵的见解。