The Purpose of Expatriation: Why Women Undertake International Assignments

• Date: 01 July 2016
• Published date: 01 July 2016
• Author: Susan Shortland
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21686

Human Resource Management, July–August 2016, Vol. 55, No. 4. Pp. 655–678

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21686

Correspondence to: Susan Shortland, London Guildhall Faculty of Business & Law, London Metropolitan University,

84 Moorgate, London EC2M 6SQ, UK, Phone: +44 (0) 20 7423 0000, E-mail: s.shortland@londonmet.ac.uk

THE PURPOSE OF EXPATRIATION:

WHY WOMEN UNDERTAKE

INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENTS

SUSAN SHORTLAND

Women international assignees have historically been successful, but they

make up a relatively low proportion of organizationally assigned expatriates.

By appreciating the factors that encourage women to undertake internationally

mobile careers, organizations can widen their talent pool. Using a triangulated,

qualitative research approach set within two case study fi rms in the oil and gas

exploration and production industry, this article identifi es contrasting views

between female assignees and their organizations with respect to the purpose

of expatriation and the factors women take into consideration in their decision

to undertake it. This research is based on analysis of organizational policy; a sur-

vey of 71 women expatriates and in-depth, semistructured interviews with 26

female assignees (selected from the survey returns using stratifi ed sampling);

and interviews with 14 human resource professionals responsible for interna-

tional mobility policy design and implementation. Career, family, and fi nancial

precondition effects are identifi ed. From these, a model is proposed to link stated

organizational assignment purpose with women’s participation rationales, and

recommendations for practice to increase expatriate gender diversity are set out.

©2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: gender diversity, international HRM, careers, international manage-

ment, international strategy

Business activity today is increasingly

global in its focus and international

assignments are viewed as a critical fac-

tor in organizations’ competitive success.

In this context, multinational corpora-

tions are becoming increasingly dependent on

mobile cadres of individuals to implement their

globalization strategies (Perkins & Hendry, 2001).

While organizationally assigned expatriate careers

are, thus, of significance both to employers and

their employees, women’s relatively low share of

these opportunities comes into sharp relief. For

example, in the 1980s, just 3 percent of expatriates

were women (Adler, 1984). Although women’s

share of expatriate roles has increased, they make

up only 16 to 24 percent of the current expa-

triate population (Brookfield Global Relocation

Services, 2012; Cartus, 2012; Permits Foundation,

2012a). Explanations of women’s low expatriate

representation include negative perceptions of

their availability, suitability, and capability; the

presence of organizational and societal obsta-

cles and barriers to their selection and deploy-

ment; suggested self-induced barriers including

lower career commitment, self-esteem, and career

potential reinforced by poor organizational and

656 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, JULY–AUGUST 2016

Human Resource Management DOI: 10.1002/hrm

The need to

understand what

individuals see

as the purpose of

expatriation and

why they accept

international

assignments is

critical to attracting,

motivating, and

retaining key

personnel to deliver

organizational

strategic goals.

(Sriskandarajah & Drew, 2006). By contrast, orga-

nizationally assigned expatriation addresses the

movement of the highly skilled to meet specific

employer demands and location requirements

(Salt, 1992), and it provides support to the indi-

viduals involved (Bozionelos, 2009).

The need to understand what individuals

see as the purpose of expatriation and why they

accept international assignments is critical to

attracting, motivating, and retaining key person-

nel to deliver organizational strategic goals. An

understanding of gender diversity implications

is also of particular relevance to organizations as

they continue to forecast increasing their expatri-

ate populations, year-on-year (Brookfield Global

Relocation Services, 2012). Expatriate gender

diversity makes sound business sense: Women’s

achievements as expatriates are widely reported

(Shortland & Altman, 2011). They are even her-

alded as being more successful than men in their

international assignments across a wide range

of countries (e.g., Dallalfar & Movahedi, 1996;

Napier & Taylor, 2002; Tung, 2004). This suggests

that organizations are losing out by having so few

female assignees. By appreciating the factors that

encourage women to undertake internationally

mobile careers, organizations can widen their tal-

ent pool.

The Purpose of Expatriation

Expatriate assignments are of strategic signifi-

cance to organizations (Morley & Heraty, 2004).

They are used for a variety of reasons; for example,

expatriates act as agents of control, aligning sub-

sidiary operations with those of the parent, and as

agents in knowledge transfer from the parent to

the subsidiary and in the acquisition of host coun-

try knowledge (Delios & Björkman, 2000). The

deployment of expatriates is of particular impor-

tance within international start-ups, partnerships,

joint ventures, and mergers and acquisitions as

they enable the transfer of learning, expertise, and

other synergies (Briscoe & Schuler, 2004).

The purpose of expatriation is classified in

a variety of ways. For example, Hocking et al.

(2004) suggest a threefold framework comprising

business applications (filling positions), organiza-

tion applications (developing the organization),

and expatriate learning (developing managers).

Lazarova and Tarique (2005) focus on how the

key purpose of an expatriate assignment rests

on knowledge transfer. Novicevic and Harvey’s

(2004) role architecture links assignment purpose

with value and uniqueness: job-based (low value

and uniqueness); learning-based (low value but

high uniqueness); skills-based (high value but

low uniqueness); and competency-based (high

societal networks and other support systems; and

women’s unwillingness to engage in expatriate

careers when the hurdles appear insurmountably

gendered (Altman & Shortland, 2008).

This research study is set in the oil and gas

industry’s exploration and production func-

tion, which is noticeably male dominated.

Understanding why women undertake organi-

zationally assigned expatriation in an industry

that epitomizes the masculine expatriate preserve

brings to the fore women’s motivations for so

doing, especially given the potential for them to

experience even greater discouragement to expa-

triate than in other more “female

friendly” sectors. While the extant

literature has focused since the

1980s on why women do not expa-

triate and the barriers they face in

taking up organizationally assigned

expatriate careers (Shortland &

Altman, 2011), this article contrib-

utes new knowledge by examining

in detail why women undertake

such international postings; identi-

fying the degree of correspondence

between how women view the pur-

pose of their assignments and the

organizational rationale for sending

them; and highlighting pointers for

human resource (HR) professionals

wishing to widen expatriate gender

diversity. As such, the objectives of

this research are to understand how

women view the purpose of their

assignments and to develop a model

to represent the issues women take

into account in their expatriate par-

ticipation decision making. This

study is part of a wider project on

women’s expatriation set within the oil and gas

exploration and production sector.

Literature Review

Expatriation refers to working abroad, outside

of the individual’s home country (Edström &

Galbraith, 1977). While self-directed expatria-

tion is becoming increasingly common as a career

choice (Richardson & Mallon, 2005) and profes-

sional migrants present a significant potential

resource to international organizations (Carr,

Inkson, & Thorn, 2005), they do not hold corpo-

rate knowledge such as understanding of organi-

zational processes (Hocking, Brown, & Harzing,

2004). Self-initiated migration also tends to result

in concentrations of potential labor in loca-

tions where visa regimes permit such activity,

not necessarily aligned with employer demand