Developing cultural sensitivity among Malaysian registered nurses as self-initiated expatriates in Saudi hospitals

This conceptual study explores the prerequisite to develop cultural sensitivity among Malaysian female Registered Nurses (RN) residing in Saudi Arabia who aim to become knowledge workers in the healthcare sectors. Key questions examined are: How do female RN knowledge workers acculturate themselves in a new environment and acquire cultural sensitivity? What adjustment processes were involved? In this study, we introduce a conceptual framework to explain this adjustment process and develop propositions to explain how female RN as knowledge workers adjust to a new environment where there is a large cultural distance between their home culture (Malaysia) and the host culture (Saudi Arabia). Using cultural adjustment theory we propose three classes of antecedents: individual, contextual and organizational.