Culture shock is a phenomenon, that affects people in different ways and upto varying degrees. In this paper, through literature review and interviews, the culture shocks of expatriates in an institution in Kazakhstan and the various adjustment and coping strategies are examined. Once the shock is understood, it can be changed from a frustrating experience, to an enlightening or learning experience.

The Republic of Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia, and the people in this society are naturally diverse. People belonging to 132 nationalities live here (George, 2001: 3), and Kazakhstan's 14.951 million people come from different cultures. About 50 percent are Kazakhs, 40 percent are Russians, Ukrainians and other Slavs, while the remaining 10 percent consist of perhaps 100 others, including Germans, Uyghurs and Koreans. Besides, there are four groups of Cossacks in Kazakhstan - the Semirek, Uralsk, Orenburg and Siberian (George, 2001: 134, 135).

In the field of International Human Resource Management, the inter-country cultural differences can cause cultural shocks to expatriates working in their host countries. Such cultural shocks need to be minimized so that expatriates can adjust and cope well in their respective host country; which enables them to succeed in their overseas assignments.

Indeed, expatriates may fail or `be shocked' in their overseas assignments, but `failure' as indicated by Dessler (2005: 666) may mean different things to different people. Moreover, such failures may be caused by cultural shocks; and such shocks indeed also mean different things to different people. In essence, cultural shocks are taken as "the pronounced reactions to the psychological disorientation that is experienced in varying degrees when spending an extended period of time in a new environment" (Czinkota, Ronkainen and Moffet, 2002: 487).

Management Research Journal, Human Resource Management, HRM, Cultural Shocks, Cultural Traits, Cultural Environment, Coping Strategies, Social Skills-Training, Cultural Knowledge, Customer Service, Psychological Disorientation, Relational Systems.