The Impact of Headquarter Control Mechanism on Psychological Difficulty and Work Engagement of Host Country Nationals Working at MNC Subsidiary in Korea

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among the headquarter control mechanism, psychological difficulty and work relative attitude of host country nationals (HCNs) working at MNC subsidiaries in Korea. We focus especially on the effect of headquarter control on HCNs’ psychological difficulty, that is, relative deprivation, acculturative stress and work engagement. The analysis was conducted on 231 HCNs, in 23 MNC from 7 countries and the findings are as follows. First, centralization is negatively related to the relative deprivation of HCNs; however, the formalization is not related to acculturative stress. Second, both relative deprivation and acculturative stress of HCNs negatively influenced on their work engagement. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of this study, and suggest the direction of future research.