Free Essay on
International Management
First 3 Pages
In order to achieve a
competitive advantage in an increasingly global economy, it is necessary for
today’s organizations, both private as well as public, to consider the
management of expatriates as the most important aspect of their international
human resource management strategy. While developing the strategies for
expatriate employees, on should keep in mind that employing an expatriate costs
approximately three to four times higher as compared to what it costs to employ
the same individual at home. It is therefore important for the decision makers
to consider some important aspects like who is picked for international
assignments, why is a certain individual chosen for the assignment, why is it
necessary to send an expatriate, and whether it meets the overall organizational
objectives. While sending an individual for international assignments, the
management should also consider that although the nature of the assignment is
very challenging but it no longer consequentially leads to a promotion on
return. This negativity may harm the personal interests of the individual being
sent and may lead to job dissatisfaction. Although, there is an increasing trend
of sending executives for international assignments but it is surprising to note
that employers are usually hesitant to send women for expatriate assignments.
However, with the emergence of supportive studies, which indicate that women
have higher probability to succeed in international assignments as compared to
men, the number of women sent for international assignments is rising. It is
also interesting to note that the expatriate women faces entirely different
challenges and problems in their jobs internationally as compared to what their
male counterparts are exposed to.
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Several American women give up their possessions, take new job responsibilities,
move to regions thousands of miles away from their homeland along with their
families and risk their career advancement. For majority of these women, giving
up their usual way of life, leaving their possessions at home and beginning
their personal life from the start is altogether a horrible experience. However,
there are some other women who consider it an exciting new adventure. Most of
the times, women move abroad because of their spouse’s job but sometimes the
reason is their own job assignments. While considering to move abroad, they have
to consider every detail of moving abroad and have little hope of getting any
help from their employer or even from their spouse’s employer. They have to look
after several professional as well as personal issues like taking care of their
children’s needs including schooling, socializing etc., relocating the house and
looking after several other legal aspects like passports. Along with these
challenges they have to face the challenge of cultural adjustment and
frustration. Employers generally are unaware of the disrupting effects of a move
on their employees and their dependants. There are very few employers who have
formulated policies for the assistance of their employees during the relocation
process. The general practice is that the company offers a openhanded financial
package but mostly fails to offer practical support in different important
issues like looking for the new house, providing assistance and information on
children’s education. These concerns are even more worth consideration in case
of women because they are more exposed to problems while living abroad.
Several studies have found that a very small proportion of expatriate managers
are female. Experts have defined several reasons for this failure to send women
on expatriate assignments. One of the primary reasons is the fear about
acceptance of women by local residents. However, studies have revealed that this
fear stands to be true only in the case of a very small percentage of foreign
countries. In the contrary, it is surprising to note that the careful handling
of cultural prospects by women have often resulted in successful expatriation
experiences, even in case of considerably unfriendly situations. It is also
evident from studies that women are equally interested and motivated to accept
expatriate appointments as compared to their male counterparts. Although, the
dual-career consideration is itself a problematic issue especially in case of
women but this challenge is not just limited to females. The most problematic
obstacle faced by women while accepting the international assignments is
considered to be the selection systems through which candidates are selected for
the international assignments. In most of the cases, employees are not informed
that they will be considered for any such option and there are no selection
criteria. In most of the cases the selection decisions made by managers are
subject to their personal preferences and suppositions. Considering the
awesomely higher proportion of male expatriates, the option of selecting a woman
for an international assignment is often considered as a highly risky one,
especially in case of a high cost and high profile position.
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