Use of Expatriates for Business Development - Essay Example

Research evidence suggests that the great majority of western multi-national companies decide against sending female expatriates to non-western countries The use of expatriates for the development of business activities in foreign countries has been a common strategy for companies that have operational units outside their domestic market. It has to be noticed however that the relevant decision (to hire expatriates) usually depends on the culture of the company involved. Another issue, which refers mostly to the differentiation of expatriates from managerial staff in general, is the size of the company involved. In this context it has been found that ‘whereas domestic and multidomestic companies hire primarily local nationals, and therefore must closely adhere to local norms on hiring--or not hiring--female managers, transnational corporations are not similarly limited; because the corporate culture of transnational firms is not coincident with the local culture of any particular country, transnationals have greater flexibility in defining selection and promotion criteria that best fit the firms needs rather than those that most closely mimic the historic patterns of a particular country’ (Adler, 1993, 4). The above differentiation between domestic companies and transnationals regarding the criteria set for the hiring of managerial staff has a significant value for the case of expatriates. Because transnationals, as explained above, are free to decide on their staff (in terms of not being ‘engaged’ by the local cultural demands) their decision on hiring expatriates cannot be examined as of its reasoning. Moreover, in order to understand the position and the role of expatriates we should refer to the following categories of foreign assignments as they have been presented by Bruning et al. (2005). More specifically, in accordance with the above researchers the ‘various types of foreign assignments include: a) Relocating an employee and family to a target country (expatriates); b) Developing management staff from the local country (inpatriates), or c) Utilizing employees in frequent short-terre assignments (flexpatriates) to transfer area-specific knowledge’ (Bruning et al., 2005, 21). According to a definition given by Gentry et al. (2001, 369) ‘business expatriates are sojourners sent to a foreign country by multinationals with the intent to control the company operations and to provide technical and administrative services’. The above descriptions of the role of expatriates are useful in order to understand their responsibilities but also their rights when deciding to be ‘engaged’ on this specific type of employment. At a first level, it has been found by Gentry et al. (2001, 369) that ‘business people are not free from the culture shock experienced in daily life in a new cultural environment; cross-cultural problems may be manifested in the marketplace when individuals fail to understand and accept the local consumption and market practices due to different cultural backgrounds’. On the other hand, the cultural shock caused to expatriates cannot be measured with accuracy in advance; however it can be estimated to be severe if taking into account the conditions and the terms involved in the specific type of employment. The behaviour of corporations towards women regarding foreign assignments has not been friendly. In fact, Feltes et al. (1993, 83) stated that ‘historically, women were discouraged from applying for foreign postings; the differing attitudes of world cultures toward the "male" and "female" role was generally given as the rationale; Women currently (1993) account for approximately 41 percent of the managers in the U.S. work force; however, they account for only 6.6 percent of corporate executives’ The above study which refers to the use of women as expatriates by corporations under the conditions of the specific period of time (1993) can be of significant value in order to understand the development of this situation throughout the years. In this context, in a recent survey (end of 2006 – beginning of 2007) made by the Mercer Human Resource Consulting, a series of 100 multinational companies with about 17,000 male and female employees working oversees has been examined as of their preference for women when choosing expatriates for their units around the world. The above study showed that ‘employers are sending more female workers on international assignments than ever before; nowhere is this dynamic more palpable than it is in the Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, which reports the greatest rise in number of female assignees. Survey respondents in the Asia-Pacific region say they have 16 times more females on assignment in 2006 than they did in 2001’ (Ruiz, 2006). This development is impressive if considering indicative conditions of the past (as in the previous study of Feltes et al. in 1993). Women have managed to participate equally with their male counterparts in foreign assignments. The above Figure verifies this assumption providing information about the percentage of women being employed as expatriates. Figure 1 – Percentage of female expatriates (Source: Mercer Human Resource Consulting) In accordance with the data revealed in the survey made by Mercer Human Resource Management (2006-2007) ‘female expatriates are more likely than males to leave their partners at home when on assignment; while 57% of companies said the majority of their male assignees are accompanied by a partner, just 16% said most of their female expatriates are; female expatriates are also less likely than their male counterparts to have a partner prior to going on assignment; while 74% of companies said the majority of their male assignees had partners before going on assignment, only 25% of companies said this was the case among female expatriates’ (Mercer Human Resource Consulting, 2006). The above data prove that women have an increased sense of responsibility comparing with their male counterparts when participating in foreign assignments. Another important finding of the study is that women can manage to put their work as a total priority (at least for a specific period of time) while for their male counterparts this is not the case. The above assumption is also supported by the findings of a research made by Leung (1994) who studied the cases of women expatriates in Hong Kong. His study (1994, 75) revealed that women expatriates were ‘enthusiastic about the opportunities the Hong Kong work environment provided; indeed, many were committed to staying in Hong Kong for the medium to long term; problems associated with their gender, in conjunction with that specific cultural environment, did not materialize and did not engender any significant impediment to their effective managerial performance in ways that might have been anticipated’. It seems that companies around the world have started to evaluate appropriately the competence of women regarding the foreign assignments. Moreover, the hypothetical ‘weakness’ of women to respond to tasks of such type has been proved to be imaginary. References Adler, N. (1993). Competitive Frontiers: Women Managers in the Triad. International Studies of Management & Organization, 23(2): 3-17 Bruning, N., Mccaughey, D. (2005). Enhancing Opportunities for Expatriate Job Satisfaction: HR Strategies for Foreign Assignment Success. Human Resource Planning, 28(4): 21-35 Feltes, P., Robinson, R., Fink, R. (1993). American female expatriates and the Civil Rights Act of 1991: balancing legal and business interests. Business Horizons, 36(2): 82-87 Gentry, J., Hyun, Y., Jun, S. (2001). Cultural Adaptation of Business Expatriates in the Host Marketplace. Journal of International Business Studies, 32(2): 369-376 Leung, S.M., Westwood, R.I. (1994). The Female Expatriate Manager Experience: Coping with Gender and Culture. International Studies of Management & Organization, 24(3): 64-77 Mercer Human Resource Consulting http://www.mercerhr.com/knowledgecenter/reportsummary.jhtml/dynamic/idContent/1258055;jsessionid=5HJJNOKNS0GS2CTGOUGCIIQKMZ0QUJLW Ruiz, G. (2006) Employers Sending More Women on International Assignments. Workforce Management, available at http://www.workforce.com/section/06/feature/24/57/70/index.html Read More