Determining and Classifying Factors of Employees’ Expatriation Willingness Using Rough Set Theory

Abstract

The objective of this research is to identify and classify the factors affecting the expatriation willingness (EW) of engineering consulting company employees. A total of 13 EW impact factors are summarized from a review of the literature and divided into four categories. From the collected factors and expert interviews, 22 impact factors are obtained and divided into eight categories, with the exception of demographic variables. A survey aiming at the top five engineering consulting companies is carried out. Out of a total of 1,000 questionnaires sent out, 41.3% valid responses are returned. The statistical analysis shows that the survey is reliable and one of the 22 factors is removed. Rough set theory (RST) is utilized to classify these factors into three classes based on impact level. The conclusions provide practitioners with six core impact factors on employees’ EW. The findings can be of benefit to employers, helping them to save recourse and to target the most appropriate employees for expatriation.