Challenges Facing Women Expatriates Working for MNCs or on Other Types of International Assignments - Coursework Example

Challenges facing women expatriates working for MNCs or on other types of international assignments The concept of globalization has brought with it the need for organizations operating globally to have employees representing them in different countries. Therefore, the need for expatriate assignments on behalf of the multinational corporations or other global institutions has increased over the history of globalization and modernity, but there is few women manager expatriates representing such organizations (Bensimon, 1998:22). This is because, while there are several challenges that face the expatriates sent in assignments to conduct business in different countries on behalf of their organizations, women are particularly a more vulnerable group to higher challenges. The vulnerability of women to numerous challenges while on international assignments derives from the social-cultural and political aspects of the society that has often relegated women to a lesser important role in relation to the issues of leadership and high-profile management (Harris, 1999:72). The major reason for sending expatriates to foreign countries where an organization has business interests is to help the organization gain full understanding of the international clients’ needs, due to the social, cultural, economic and political contexts in those countries, which could be different from the contexts in the mother countries of the Multi-national Corporation (Harvey & Fung, 2000:154). Nevertheless, while women form a substantial percentage of the workforce in the multi-national corporations and other global institutions, they only form a small percentage of the expatriate managers representing such organizations abroad (Tung, 1998:27). This is a simple indication that there is various challenge that affect women expatriates, thus limiting the number of women who succeeds in these assignments. Thus, the challenges facing women expatriates working for MNCs or on other types of international assignments include: Safety Risks Safety is a major challenge that faces expatriate managers sent on assignments to represent their organizations in foreign countries, and most especially a for women (Adler, 1984:85). This is because, whether the foreign environment in which women expatriate managers are sent is hostile or friendly, women are always vulnerable to numerous personal safety issues. Thus, the challenge is even higher for a woman working in a foreign country, where they do not have their families and friends around, making them even more vulnerable psychologically (Solomon, 1995:44). In this respect, women expatriates working in foreign countries are faced with the challenge of balancing the responsibility of exuding confidence and taking sensible precautions not to endanger their lives or expose themselves to safety threats (Shay & Bruce, 1997:36). Thus, for example, while a woman expatriate manager is supposed to attend dinner parties and other private functions organized by the organization or the customers and business partners, the expatriate female manager is also supposed to take huge precautions to ensure that attending such functions do not expose her to any safety risks. The major safety risk that leaves women highly vulnerable is unfamiliarity (Shay & Bruce, 1997:34). While a female worker could be well acquainted with the work environment and its surrounding in her own country, perceiving the surrounding and the cultural atmosphere in a foreign country is a major challenge for a female expatriate. Thus, to control the problem of safety risks, it becomes very essential for a woman expatriate to know the streets or the neighborhoods that are safe for travelling, while also necessitating the need to put the cultural, social, historical and contemporary issues of the new society into perspective, for a woman expatriate to feel safe (Bensimon, 1998:24). This however is not a major concern for their male expatriate counterparts, who are not as much vulnerable to safety risks as does the female. Therefore, the safety risks remain a major challenge facing expatriate women working for MNCs or other international assignments, thus reducing the number of successful women expatriate managers currently representing global organizations in the world. Social and cultural attitudes against women expatriates The social and cultural contexts facing women expatriates representing their organizations in foreign countries are different from what they are used to in their countries most the times (Caligiuri & Cascio, 1998:397). This is most especially under situations where there is a cultural conflict between the dynamic/liberal and conservative social and cultural settings, which affects the very personal aspects of the women expatriates’ lives. For example, for a woman expatriate representing a western organization that has business interests either in Asia, Africa or the Middle East, the first major social and cultural challenge that the woman expatriate is likely to face is the culture of dressing, where the expatriate may be required to change the dressing mode completely, to suit the desired cultures and social standards of the new society (Heran & Piekkari, 2005:429). Such challenges do not only impact on the outlook of the woman expatriate, but also on the psychological health, which eventually impacts on the confidence and self-esteem levels of the expatriate. The consequence is that; such a woman expatriate may not be able to deliver appropriately, and thus they may not succeed in representing their organizations productively (Lucas, Lupton & Mathieson, 2006:21). The other social-cultural challenge facing women expatriate is the challenge of bias, stereotype and social prejudices, which defines the roles of men differently from those of women, most especially in relation to leadership. Thus, women may not be expected to hold certain leadership roles within certain societies, which are reserved for men, owing to the nature of the responsibilities involved and the social value attached to such positions (Nishii & Özbilgin, 2007:1889). In this respect, women expatriate sent to represent their organizations in such social-cultural settings will often have to deal with high levels of social resistance to their authority, making them less effective. Further, the sexuality concept has made women bodies to be perceived as objects for fulfilling the male sexual desires, and thus most often, women who are unaccompanied by men will always be perceived and targeted for sexual pleasure (Tung, 1998:25). This is also a huge social-cultural challenge that women expatriates must deal with in the foreign countries where they are on assignments to represent their organizations, most especially because such women are likely to have left their families back home, meaning they will always be perceived as singles. This perception puts them at a position where they are likely to be targeted for sexual favors, an aspect that renders women expatriates representing their organizations in foreign countries less productive, and thus reduces the chances of having many women managers being sent to represent their organizations in international assignments (Hogan & Goodson, 1990:50). The multinationals can amend their HR policies and practices encompass the rigorous training of the expatriates on the cultures and social contexts of the foreign country before they are sent on the assignment, to encourage more women to pursue an international career (Bensimon, 1998:23). Stress, loneliness and low psychological morale The fact that women are vulnerable to high safety risks and social-cultural biases that hinder them from dispensing their international duties appropriately simply means that they are likely to be more stressed and poorly motivated (Poelmans & Caligiuri, 2008:63). In addition, the fact that such women do not have a close source of consolation, inspiration and motivation such as family and friends adds to the chances of such women becoming more stressed and lonely. The stress, loneliness and low morale is added to, by the role that women play in their families. Women are primarily the major forces behind a united family, considering that they play an important role in nurturing their families and ensuring that such families remain bonded together, through playing the role of a balancing the health of the family with the family responsibilities (Solomon, 1995:45). Therefore, while women expatriates are sent to represent their organizations in foreign countries, they bear the concern of their family’s health and wellbeing. Further, even under circumstances where such women travel with their families in the foreign country where they represent their organization, it is also their responsibility to ensure that their family, more especially their children will get used to the new environments, social and cultural settings (Punnett, Crocker& Stevens, 1992:591). In this respect, women expatriates are faced by double challenges, where they are supposed to help their families adjust to their new surroundings, while they themselves are also trying to adjust. The result is that; such women expatriates are overwhelmed by these duties, to the extent that they are not able to perform productively in their assigned duties for the organization. Reports have indicated that it is mothers with teenage children who are highly affected by this family adjustment problem, although it has also been observed that women expatriates with their families in the foreign countries are in a better place to get adjusted easily than those without their families around (Hogan & Goodson, 1990:51). Thus, the family plays an important role in helping women expatriates adjust to their new environments in the countries where they are representing their organizations, although the family is also a major challenge on the other hand, which eats into the time of such women expatriates, resulting in their low productivity (Hogan & Goodson, 1990:51). The need to adjust to the family requirements such as looking for new schools for their children, and the concern regarding the adaptability of their in the new schools will also be psychologically draining experiences for the women expatriates. Such concerns do not help the women to settle easily in their new responsibilities, because they need to ensure the welfare of their families, before they start concentrating on the work responsibilities (Sipola & Smale, 2007:907). Thus, Stress, loneliness and low psychological morale plays a major role as challenges that hinder women expatriates from being productive in their international assignments, making the global population of women expatriates who succeeds very low. Through changing the organizations HR policies to allow expatriates to move with their families, while also ensuring changing the policies to give the expatriates sufficient time to settle before they embark on their duties, the organization can enhance the participation of more women in international career (Bensimon, 1998:24). Connection Women are the most social and connection-needy group, when the socialization aspect is concerned. In this respect, women are always in need of their families or friends to connect with, not just through any other means, but through physical connection (Adler, 1984:68). Despite the fact that the female gender is the most social gender of the two genders, it has a slow pace of forming social connections, owing to the low rate at which the female gender accepts strangers as new friends. Therefore, women are associated with forming friends at a low pace, but sustaining and keeping connection with them for long (Hogan & Goodson, 1990:50). Thus, this characteristic trait serves as a major impediment to the success of women expatriates who are sent to foreign countries to represent their organizations. The major challenge here is the lack of connectivity, and the slow rate at which women forms such connections. Thus, such women expatriate are likely to stay for a longer duration before they form reasonable connections that they can share their personal and professional lives with, creating a room for women to feel empty and at times frustrated by the lack of connections (Adler, 1984:68). Despite the fact that the technological advancement has played an important role in ensuring that expatriates can keep connection with their friends and families back at home such, technological connectivity cannot replace the need for physical contact, especially the need for physical connection between the women expatriates and their spouses (Tung, 1998:25). This means that women are most of the times left without suitable connectivity compared to their male expatriate counterparts, who are easily acclimatized to the new environments and are open to embrace strangers and form friendships with them, the major impendent for the women to embrace strangers is the fact that; due to the high safety risks faced by women, they are not always open to embracing strangers (Poelmans & Caligiuri, 2008:65). They first treat them with a high degree of caution, and can only accept them once trust has been established and grown to satisfactory levels, especially when such friends are male. Further, the fear of being different and not fitting into the new social and cultural settings in the foreign countries where they represent their organizations, makes the women expatriates to tread with caution, trying not to go beyond the boundaries set by the social and the cultural values and barriers (Solomon, 1995:44). In addition, the connection challenge is increased by the language barrier, where the women expatriates are sent to countries where the spoken language is different from their own, since it increases the chances of the women expatriates taking long before they are able to forge any meaningful friendships and relationships. Therefore, physical and language connectivity forms a major challenge that is faced by women expatriates seeking to represent their organizations in foreign countries, rendering them less effective in discharging their duties, and thus effectively reducing the percentage of women expatriates representing their organizations in international assignments (Caligiuri & Cascio, 1998:412). In his respect, the organizations can amend their HR policies, to ensure the entail thorough training of the expatriates on the foreign language of the country they will be sent, to help break the language barrier problem, and thus enhance more women to pursue international careers. The breach of psychological contract The breach of psychological contract occurs in the form of the failure by the multi-national corporations and other global institutions to honor their obligations to provide the essential support to the expatriates once they have been sent to represent those organizations in international assignments (Harris, 1999:75). The psychological contract between the employer organizations and the expatriates provides that the organization will assist the expatriates to settle in their new responsibilities, by providing them with an enabling environment and the support that such expatriates would require to settle down effectively in the foreign countries. However, there has been a tendency for the MNCs and other global institutions to immediately bombard the expatriates with tough responsibilities and duties even before they are fully settled, while denying them the much needed moral and social support to settle down gradually (Harvey & Fung, 2000:155). The consequence is that the expatriates find themselves overwhelmed by the responsibilities and the duties they are required to fulfill for the organizations, in addition to the responsibilities to their families, and the safety risks, stress and loneliness that the expatriates faces (Poelmans & Caligiuri, 2008:91). The result is that the women expatriates are eventually rendered incompetent, since the overwhelming duties and the social and psychological instability that such expatriates face plays the role of demoralizing them. This is even worse, where the organizations have set certain targets that must be met by the women expatriates, within a specified duration of their international assignment (Sipola & Smale, 2007:902). Such targets make the women expatriates more anxious and stressful, rendering them incapable of discharging their duties productively. Secondly, the breach of the psychological contract between the expatriates and their employer organizations can occur in the form of the organizations failing to give the women expatriates commensurate positions when they are repatriated back home after the end of their international assignment contracts (Adler, 1984:69). Such women are at times reverted back to the lower positions they held before they were sent on the international assignment, or they are at times given lower positions in the organizations, when they find that their positions have been replaced with others. Further, under circumstances where the women expatriates are not able to execute their international responsibilities due to the numerous challenges they face, such women end up demoted or even denied any meaningful position in the organization (Caligiuri & Cascio, 1998:403). The consequence of the breach of this psychological contract is that, it makes women more apprehensive regarding international assignment to represent their organizations. In this respect, such women often prefer to remain in the same position they hold within the organization, rather than risk losing their positions out of the challenges associated with international assignments (Caligiuri & Cascio, 1998:399). The overall consequence of the breach of the psychological contract by the organization employers is that, fewer women are engaged in international assignments to represent their organizations. Thus, the challenges facing women expatriates are numerous, and without adequate support from the organization, family and friends, women expatriates cannot succeed in their international assignments. Therefore, to address this challenge, the HR policies should be amended to ensure that the positions of the expatriates are secured even after the expiry of their contracts internationally (Bensimon, 1998:23). Further, the HR policies should also be amended to comprise the right repatriation programs for such expatriates after the expiry of their contract, so they can be easily settled in their original place of work and continue to discharge further duties for the organization. References Adler, N (1984) ‘Women in international management: Where are they?’, California Management Review, 26(4), 78-89. Adler, N (1984) ‘Women do not want international careers: And other myths about international management’, Organizational Dynamics, 13(2), 66-79. Bensimon, H. (1998). Is it safe to work abroad? Training & Development, 52(8), 20-24. Caligiuri, P. & Cascio, W.F. (1998) ‘Can we send her there? 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