The Women and Foreign Assignments

 





Although the number of women in senior domestic management have been risen up in recent years, women in international management remains as low in all countries. The researchers had found that in USA, it is about 18% from total foreign managerial assignments. Despite a growing qualified women cadre, there is a barrier for women to enter international executive suite. (Izraeli and Adler, 1994 cited in Scullion and Collings, 2006) Only few organizations have willingness to allow women to grow their career across the borders. The British research had revealed that 91 percent of expatriates were male. (Linehan et al.,2003, Harris, 1995 cited in Scullion and Collings, 2006) Since formal organizational policies are formed on gender base social assumption, women have to face more challenges and barriers in international management compared to men. But according to Davison and Punnett (1995) gender and race have little impact on expatriation compared to religion and personal characteristics. (Scullion and Collings, 2006)

US based MNCs has found that female expatriates can effectively perform equally as well as male counterpart in international assignments. But attitudes of HR directors are major barrier to select female expatriate. As the example in most of Austrian organizations, female has to specially request foreign assignment whereas male are required to take them. The female managers should be determined and ask international managerial positions since they are not offered them. (Linehan and Scullion, 2001 cited in Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2013)

  Fischmayr disclosed that women should be partly responsible for their under representation. Further he said that women have their self -barriers such as age, family concerns, unwillingness to relocate or less self- confidence. But according to Kanter (1977) the reason for less participation not the lack of motivation but the blocked opportunities. The results of American research done by Stroh, Varma and Durbin had been shown that there is a great willingness among the US and Canadian women in partaking international assignments. (Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2013)

In the male dominant business world women also have courage and capacity to compete with male counterparts unless they decide to sacrifice. The professional women are capable to compete aggressively and succeeding the corporate world and prepare to sacrifice their own career as well as personal need for the sake of her family. Even non-traditional women may experience external pressure due to lack of support from organization or society. (Gallos, 1989, Linehan and Scullion, 2001 cited in Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2013) The gender inequality in organizations and role in the family often prevent from reaching key positions in career. The female managers are forced to choose between expatriate career or family. (Scullion and Collings, 2006)

Failure to develop effective strategies to increase women participation in foreign managerial assignment has become key challenge for International Human Resource Management. It implies additional cost and limit the potential supply of international managers. (Caligiuri et al.,1999, Linehan, 2000) Considering rapid decline in international managers in the world it is high time to encourage, support and facilitate the talented women for international managerial assignments. (Scullion and Collings, 2006, Dowling, Festing and Engle, 2013)

Introducing training and development strategies to meet needs of women, developing distinctive career model for women, changing organizational IHRM policies and practices, creating organizational culture without gender discrimination, being more sensible towards needs of female mangers related to international transfer processes and repatriation can motivate women towards international assignments. Female managers have proven that they are capable of succeeding and having appropriate qualities and skills for international management positions. Therefore the MNCs ensure to create environment without outdated attitudes and practices for women. (Scullion and Collings, 2006)

 

REFERENCES

Dowling, P.J., Festing, M., Engle, A.D. (2013) International human resource management. Cengage learning EMEA, India

Scullion, H. and Collings, D.G (eds.) (2006) Global staffing. [online] New York USA: Taylor & Francis e library available at https://ereader.perlego.com accessed on 16th April 2022

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

  1. Lushani AbeygunawardeneApril 24, 2022 at 11:27 AM

    This topic is one of the crucial factor that make gender discrimination comes live. Women tend to show progress in industrial sectors, that make them take a step forward to become a part of the management. According to Culpan and Wright (2002) it is suggested that the out-dated stereotypical assumptions the willingness of women to go on international assignment, but it directly affects the fact of married women are liabilities versus the good old fashioned stability of a married man. And also the paradox reveals that equality as a matter of law is not only about treating two things equally because they are the same or share a quality of sameness (Emon, 2011).

    ReplyDelete
  2. P.Janaka Chaminda PereraApril 26, 2022 at 9:01 AM

    According to ( Kollinger, 2008) Over the years the speedy tempo of world hobby and international opposition has led to global paintings assignments gaining in significance and increasingly personnel spending a number of their operating lives overseas. Given the strategic significance of overseas assignments in organizing international cooperation and keeping the fine of human resources, their powerful control and improvement have emerged as essential elements for the fulfillment of world business. But, because the willingness of personnel to head overseas seems to be declining in a few western nations and the feasible destiny loss of an ok and enough certified recruitment pool for international assignments, identifying, attracting, growing, and keeping global expertise will become a key project for multinational corporations (MNCs)
    Reference
    Kollinger, I. and Linehan, M., 2008. Women on international assignments. In International Human Resource Management (pp. 285-310). Routledge

    ReplyDelete
  3. Geethal PereraApril 29, 2022 at 6:34 PM

    Women have great opportunities mostly in European but not in Asia since Asia has a mother or a women centralized family culture. Most women have been offered international assignments, but they remain an insignificant minority compared to men. The first decade of the 21st century has seen a gradual increase in the number and visibility of women in international assignments.
    References.
    Altman, Y. and Shortland, S. 2008. Women and international assignments: Taking stock-a 25-year review. Human Resource Management. 42 (2), pp. 199-216. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20208

    ReplyDelete
  4. Rohitha SamarathungeMay 1, 2022 at 2:23 AM

    Companies need to make a commitment to “walk the talk” and provide international relocation opportunities for all eligible employees, both male, and female. Also, Companies need to ensure that their recruitment and selection policies encompass women for all home-based and international assignments.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Sajith JayakodyMay 2, 2022 at 4:11 AM

    Women's empowerment can be defined as promoting women's self-esteem, ability to make their own decisions, and right to influence social change for themselves and others. It is closely related to female empowerment, which is a fundamental human right that is also critical to achieving a more peaceful, corporate world.

    In this blog, the blogger discusses gender equality and equal opportunity using research data from the United States and the United Kingdom. As solutions, introducing training and development strategies to meet the needs of women, developing a distinct career model for women, and changing organizational IHRM policies and practices are proposed. Below are some additional resources for readers.

    References
    1) UNFPA (2015). Issue 7: Women Empowerment. [online] Unfpa.org. Available at: https://www.unfpa.org/resources/issue-7-women-empowerment.
    2) United Nations (2021). Gender equality and women’s empowerment. [online] United Nations Sustainable Development. Available at: https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality/.
    3) World Vision (2021). Womens Empowerment - Facts, Stories and How To Help | World Vision Australia. [online] www.worldvision.com.au. Available at: https://www.worldvision.com.au/womens-empowerment/.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Kasun WarnapuraMay 2, 2022 at 1:07 PM

    In the 1990s, more women were offered international assignment opportunities but they remained a negligible minority compared to men. The first decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed a gradual increase in the number and visibility of women in international assignments.

    (Altman, and Shortland,2008)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ishari WeerasingheMay 6, 2022 at 6:28 PM

    Women international assignees noticeably emerged as a significant field of study in the 1980s; the challenge for women who reached managerial positions – and thus passed the “glass ceiling” – was to cope with the “glass border”, a new barrier restricting women’s access to international careers (Mandelker, 1994; Linehan and Walsh, 1999c). Since then, research on female expatriates has grown, and our knowledge about women’s experiences in the different stages of the expatriation cycle has increased considerably over time (e.g. Taylor et al., 2002; Hutchings et al., 2012a).

    ReplyDelete

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