Content area
Full Text
Keywords
Women, Expatriates, Mentoring, Interpersonal communications
Abstract
The particular focus of this paper is female expatriates in Europe, which is a relatively under-- researched area. A total of 50 senior female expatriate managers were interviewed, representing a wide range of industry and service sectors. The aims of the paper are to highlight a number of critical factors which are necessary for successful female expatriate assignments. The results of the study show that female expatriates are disadvantaged in their careers because of the lack of organizational support which is readily available to their male counterparts. This lack of organizational support, together with the invisible barriers which constitute the glass ceiling,
Foreword
Recent years have seen rapid increases in global activity and global competition in all industrialised countries, which has resulted in more women entering lower-level managerial positions. Despite women's increased investment in higher education, their greater commitment to management as a career, the shortages of international managers, and equal opportunity legislation, female expatriate managers in every country remain a small fraction of those in senior positions.
Research investigating the position of women in management has, largely, been confined within national boundaries. Over the last 15 years, empirical studies of women in expatriate management have been undertaken, predominantly in north America. In this research field, many questions remain unanswered or have been only partially addressed. In particular, there is a dearth of empirical research which details the role and career moves of the senior female expatriate manager. Studies in Europe, the USA and Australia have shown that the majority of expatriates are men, usually married men, which means that the research which has been undertaken has typically focused on the male expatriate career move (Smith and Still, 1996; Harris, 1995a; Torrington, 1994).
According to Smith and Still (1996), the international human resource management literature has given very little attention to women as expatriates, "probably because international assignments have long remained a male preserve". Dallafar and Movahedi (1996) noted that, up to the early 1980s, research on women in international management was primarily restricted to the role of the expatriate wife - especially the wife of a Western manager - in facilitating or hindering her husband's performance overseas. Brewster (1991) suggested that a negative reason...