Paper Title
Drivers for Cultural Adaptation of Colombian Expatriates in The U.S.

Abstract
This research aims to analyze the relationship between personality traits and cultural competence with the adaptation of Colombian professionals who have made the decision to migrate to the United States without the sponsorship of a particular organization and in search of personal and professional growth. Cultural Adaptation is understood as the degree of psychological comfort that an individual achieve with a new environment and leads him/her to function effectively in his/her their personal and professional work. The research is carried out with data from 46 Colombian participants mostly residing in the Washington DC metropolitan area and a control group of 21 professionals from India. The results showed that all dimensions of Cultural Competence (strategy, knowledge, motivation and behavior) are related to the different levels of cultural adaptation and, on the other hand, personality traits such as extroversion and emotional stability had positive effects on the levels of cultural adaptation for Colombian professionals. This means that the higher cultural competent, the more extroverted and emotionally stable the Colombian professional is, the greater the degree of cultural adaptation. Keywords- Expatriates, cultural adaptation, Colombian professionals, United States Conference Topic: Business Management, Human Resources