International Human Resource Management-MJ Version

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to any concrete evidence of failure, are used on the part of home country
managers as reasons for non-selection of female candidates.
This chapter examines the factors influencing the numbers of women on
international assignments. This definition refers only to women sent abroad by
the home country organisation and does not take account of women who
obtain jobs in foreign countries as a result of independent job-search methods.
As selection for international assignments is embedded within home country
managerial promotion processes, we will first examine potential barriers to
women in the home country context. We will then explore how these and
other factors work together to restrict the numbers of women in international
management. The chapter will end with recommendations for increasing
women’s participation rates.


2 WOMEN IN INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT:

GETTING THERE

Women’s participation in international management assignments is influ-
enced by a complex set of cultural, social, legal, economic and political factors
which affect women both within their home countries and in host country
environments. Later in this chapter we shall look in more detail at the effect of
host country cultural barriers on women international managers; at this stage,
however, we need to examine more closely the factors affecting women in
management within their home country environment to determine the extent
to which they may affect women’s ability to gain entry to international assign-
ments and to perform effectively as international managers.
A focus on women’s progression within home country environments is
essential when searching for reasons for their low participation rates, as the
vast majority of international assignments are filled by internal applicants. As
such, selection for an international assignment is very much embedded in
overall organisational promotion and assessment procedures. In particular,
when sending individuals on assignments for developmental purposes, the
extent to which that person has been identified as ‘high potential’ and the
influence of ideas of ‘fit’ can be seen to be problematic, given the substantial
domestically based literature on discrimination in selection and promotion.
The following sections address these issues in more detail.
In the light of more and more women entering the workforce, their failure
to attain the highest management positions is particularly puzzling. This pheno-
menonhas become known as the ‘glass ceiling’ or ‘glass wall’, to denote an
impenetrable barrier which is invisible and which prevents upward – and in the
case of the ‘glass wall’, also lateral – movement. Solomon (1990) explains these
terms as describing the phenomena experienced by women and minorities as


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