The Role of Communication in Expatriate Management at SMEs: Evidence from Foreign Employees in Turkey

Abstract

Being an employee of an small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) has distinctive features regarding performance, motivation, and work environment. Along with workers' education, skills, and competencies, work relations and managerial communication are central to success, especially for foreigners working in a socially and culturally different country. This article aims to understand the role of communication in the performance and satisfaction of employees in expat-loaded and small business settings. The originality of the article is the primary data collected through a fresh population whose voices about their work lives as refugees in a foreign country are hardly heard. A sample of 302 foreign employees from Arab and Gulf countries working at SMEs in Turkey is surveyed and descriptive and inferential analysis is conducted. The article underlines the importance of communication in performance and employee well-being. Another finding is the differentiating impact of age in the better work relations between management and employees in SMEs.