The expatriate career transition and women managers’ experiences

Abstract

Women are under‐represented in the ranks of expatriate managers and research on expatriates, though formally gender‐neutral, has been heavily weighted towards the study of male professionals, thereby reinforcing the image of expatriates as male, middle aged, married with children. What most research has in common is an individualistic, psychological approach to the study of expatriate experience. A focus on (change) processes on individual and organisational level draws our attention towards career theory. This paper presents a theoretical framework that conceptualises expatriate careers as a career transition that triggers individual and social structuration processes. It reviews the key findings of research on Western women managers in Hong Kong and gives insight into the experiences of expatriate women managers in a new socio‐cultural, economic and organisational environment.

Self-Initiated Expatriates: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Professional Female Expatriates

“…The literature on female expatriation highlights that women are still a minority in international management and are still under-represented in the mostly white male, North American dominated research literature on expatriation (Napier & Taylor, 2002;Hartl, 2004;). …”

“…International work experience appears to be crucial for developing the necessary competencies for success in our global environment (Vance, 2005;Hartl, 2004;Richardson & Mallon, 2005) and the diverse group of people choosing to travel abroad to find work is increasing and represents an alternative model of International careers to the one dominated by corporate expatriation (Myers & Pringle, 2005). This group of individuals travelling abroad to find their own work are identified as SIEs if they have been hired "as an individual on a contractual basis and not transferred overseas by a parent organisation" (Lee, 2005, p. 173).…”

“…The face to face interviews provided a more in-depth, information rich discussion and were conducted at the interviewees' place of work or at a neutral location in order to create a relaxed comfortable environment (Fischlmayer, 2002). The interviews were between 40 and 50 minutes in length and were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide, which allowed enough flexibility to allow participants to give their stories in their own way while ensuring a basic line of inquiry was followed throughout (Patton, 2002, p. 343-344;Richardson, 2006;Vance, 2005;Myers and Pringle, 2005;Inkson & Myers, 2003;Janssens et al, 2006;Hartl, 2004;). Interviews were recorded via digital recorder which allowed for the researcher to concentrate on asking questions and listening in order to build a relationship defined by a good rapport and trust with the interviewee (Anderson, 2004, p.151-152).…”

Role models: expatriate gender diversity pipeline or pipe-dream?

“…Drawing upon Ibarra (1999) and Hartl (2004), it would be expected that young assignees in the early stages of their international careers who are seeking more senior roles would observe female expatriate role models in order to help shape their potential selves and identities as well as their career outcomes. As such PFE would be expected to be important to this group.…”

International Journal of Business and Management, Vol. 3, No. 10, October 2008

“…The figure is placed at 13 per cent by Moore (2002) Other research illustrates a number of other reasons for the lack of female expatriate managers, such as closed and informal selection systems that may be male-biased (Selmer & Leung, 2003a) or limited networking opportunities of women in management ), compared with men who have more co-workers in their networks giving them a professional advantage (Myers & Pringle, 2005), others such as Moore (2002) has focused on the perceptions that prevail in the corporate world about the capability and willingness of women to relocate for international assignment and the author challenges the perception that womens' inability to relocate is in most part due to issues associated with dual-career couples. The literature on female expatriation highlights that women are still a minority in international management and are still under-represented in the mostly white male, North American dominated research literature on expatriation (Napier & Taylor, 2002;Hartl, 2004;). …”