| The Female Expatriate Experience: Challenging The Myths |
| | Stroh, Linda K. | Loyola U. | lstroh@loyola.edu | 312-915-6609 |
| | Varma, Arup | Loyola U. | avarma@wpo.it.luc.edu | (312)-915-6664 |
| | Valy, Stacey J. | Loyola U. | lstroh@luc.edu | (312) 915-6609 |
| | The last 15-20 years have seen a most welcome increase in the number of
female employees joining the management ranks in U.S. organizations.
Ironically, in these days of increasing globalization, this trend is
limited to domestic assignments, resulting in an extremely small number
of female expatriates. The present field study was designed to examine
the reasons behind the continuing dearth of female expatriates. In order
to do so, we tested Adler's (1984a; 1984b;1986) three myths on the subject
-- that women are not interested in international careers; that companies
are hesitant to send women on international assignments; and, that prejudice
in foreign countries prevents women from being effective on their jobs.
Results, based on an extensive survey sent to female international
assignees and their supervisors, revealed that a major part of the problem
is the significantly different views that the two sides hold on these
issues, and the lack of communication between all concerned. Strategies
for including women in the loop and for increasing their chances of
competing for international career assignments are discussed. We also
present suggestions for future research.
|
| | Keywords: Female; Expatriate; Career |
| A Gender Comparison of Motivation to Manage of Hong Kong and PRC Managers |
| | Ebrahimi, Bahman P. | Hong Kong Baptist U. | ebrahimi@hkbu.edu.hk | (852)2339-7552 |
| | Young, Sandra A. | Hong Kong Baptist U. | ebrahimi@hkbu.edu.hk | (852)2687-6201 |
| | Luk, Vivienne W. M. | Hong Kong Baptist U. | vivienne@hkbu.edu.hk | (852)2339-7578 |
| | Although women comprise an important part of labor force in Hong Kong and the People's Republic of China (PRC), they remain underrepresented in managerial positions. This study investigates if lack of motivation to manage is a potential explanation for this underrepresentation. Using a culturally modified Miner Sentence Completion Scale (MSCS-H for hierarchic), we compare motivation to manage of Hong Kong and PRC managers. Results indicate that despite some significant differences between Hong Kong and the PRC, females and males in each location possess similar characteristics, qualifications, and self-appraised performance levels. As hypothesized, Hong Kong managers possess significantly higher levels of motivation to manage than their PRC counterparts. There are, however, no significant gender-based differences in levels of motivation to manage in either Hong Kong or the PRC. Lack of motivation to manage does not appear to contribute to the underrepresentation of Chinese women in management in Hong Kong or mainland China. |
| | Keywords: Motivation to manage; Gender; Hong Kong & PRC |
| International assignments for career building: Agency relationships and psychological contracts |
| | Yan, Aimin | Boston U. | aimin@bu.edu | (617)-353-4165 |
| | Zhu, Guorong | Boston U. | gazhu@bu.edu | (617)-353-4405 |
| | Hall, Douglas T. | Boston U. | dthall@bu.edu | (617)-353-4166 |
| | As a result of increased globalization, a major issue for multinational
firms is the task of managing the deployment of their human resources
across national borders. Despite much writing on the subject, we still
have a primitive understanding of how an individual’s career development
is affected by experiences in international assignments. Much of the
writing about international management development and succession planning
has been from the perspective of the employer, neglecting that of the
employee. On the other hand, much of the writing about the psychological
contract in international assignments has looked at the employee’s view of
contract compliance or violations, with little focus on the organization’s
perspective.
In this paper we will present a bilevel view of the international career
development process. Concerning the psychological career contract, what
are the implications if the two parties’ expectations/intentions are
aligned or not aligned? Drawing on career theory, psychological contract
theory, and agency theory, this paper develops a conceptual model for
analyzing the significance of an international assignment in the
individual’s career building from both the organization’s and the
individual’s perspectives. Since each party may perceive the assignment
as either a relational or a transactional contract, in a 2 by 2 matrix,
we identify four different configurations of alignment or nonalignment of
the two parties’ expectations: Loyalty match, dynamic match,
agent-opportunistic mismatch, and principal-opportunistic mismatch. Using
this model, we present propositions about the likely consequences of each
scenario. We conclude with implications for research and practice.
|
| | Keywords: Psychological contract; International assignment; Career management |
| What Makes the Difference at the Top? A Mangement Selection Model Tested on Top Swedish Managers |
| | Collin, Sven-Olof Yrjö | Lund U. | sven-olof.collin@fek.lu.se | +46 46 222 94 87 |
| | Stafsudd, Anna Maj | Lund U. | anna.stafsudd@fek.lu.se | (+46-46)-222-4659 |
| | A model predicting hierarchical position, based on the tournament theory including both
organisational structure signals and social structure signals, was tested on 403 top managers
of Swedish firms. Organisational structure signals, such as frequency of change in
hierarchical level change and age when assuming the first management position were the
strongest predictors, but the social structure signal of class influenced the hierarchical height.
|
| | Keywords: managerial selection; Tournament model; social similarity |