Why and when expatriates’ experiences of daily meaningful work facilitate life satisfaction: The roles of positive affect and calling

Expatriates’ life satisfaction is related to the success of international assignments and has long been the focus of expatriate research. However, our understanding of why and when positive work experiences (e.g., daily meaningful work) influence expatriates’ life satisfaction is limited. Grounded in affective event theory, we proposed that expatriates’ daily meaningful work, as salient work-related affective events, trigger positive affect, which in turn improves their life satisfaction. Furthermore, we suggest that calling—the persistent way in which expatriates view their work—moderates the effect of meaningful work on positive affect. A daily within-person examination of 71 Chinese working expatriates stationed in foreign countries who completed surveys for 14 consecutive days (within-person N = 815) revealed that expatriates’ experiences of daily meaningful work were positively associated with life satisfaction through positive affect. These effects were stronger for expatriates with a weak (vs. strong) calling. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications.