Women in Global Business-Female Expatriation

Women in Global Business-Female Expatriation

A number of eminent, and quite interesting, assertions are both made and proven in "Women in Global Business -- Female Expatriation," which was co-authored by Mari Kooskora and Elena Bekker. It is fairly common knowledge that there is a widely perceived "glass ceiling" that prevents women from achieving upper management positions in numbers as bountiful as that of men. Yet the disparity between men and women in these positions increases nearly exponentially when one considers the numbers of these professionals in international positions, specifically those that require expatriation assignments -- which are typically the most prestigious and require the most accomplished of mangers to fill (Adler, 1984). This article explores stereotypes surrounding the dearth of women in such positions, in an attempt to uncover the true reasons for such lack of female professionals in upper management expatriate positions. To that end, it utilizes a qualitative study of both junior and senior managers who have been employed by international companies within the hotel industry.

One of the most enlightening facets of this paper is the difference in style of management and ways of performing business practices that women inherently bring to organizations. Not only does the employment of such professionals in these top-tiered positions increase amounts of diversity and the effectiveness which such diversity produces, it also provides alternate methods of motivating workers and utilizing means of production that were not previously existent. This notion contrasts starkly with the typical leadership associated with males, as the following quotation readily indicates. "The ideal leader was seen as an independent, tough, individualistic hero. But now a new generation of women is bringing to business a style often described as more consensus-building, more open and inclusive, more likely to encourage participation by others and even more caring than that of many males (p. 71)."

Interestingly enough, in several situations, these same attributes have been perceived as reasons for the lack of women in international expatriate positions. An inclusive, encompassing caring style of leadership may be ideal for a corporation, but when it is mingled with domestic concerns of an equal or even greater degree of emphasis, such character traits may play a role in the scarcity of female managers in such international roles. Women frequently have to choose between their careers and their family at some stage in their lives, and as the following quotation from one of the participants in the qualitative study performed (a marketing and sales director of the Corinthia Nevskij Palace Hotel in St. Petersburg, Russia) indicates, such a choice may be a significant contributing factor. "Respondent 2 believed… also, a lot depends on family situations and most of the women she knew were happy to stay in less in a less challenging position so they could combine work and family life (p. 77)."

Aside from familial obligations -- since the vast majority of expatriate roles assume that such positions would require managers to live their spouses and progeny in their native countries while they worked abroad -- another particularly interesting facet revealed in this article was the fact that initially, women were just as eager to pursue international careers in management positions as men were. This notion was confirmed by a survey performed by Adler (1993) that surveyed over a thousand MBAs who were graduating from seven highly esteemed business schools in throughout Europe, Canada, and the United States, and revealed that both men and women had equal aspirations for international careers.

Perhaps the most valuable result gained from the survey conducted in "Women in Global Business -- Female Expatriation" is the worth of including women in the decision making process endemic in upper management positions. Due to the variety of thought-process and the means by which they guide other employees, women play an integral role in the achieving of a particular company's business vision -- particularly when they are engaged in an expatriate position -- as the following quotation evinces. "The female expatriates questioned in our research found that including women in international business is very important, since women bring diversity to the organization with their different way of thinking and understanding. By hiring women, multinational companies taking a global approach can act as role models for firms in many countries that have seriously considered promoting women to managerial positions (p. 82)."