adjustment and performance. A related question revolves around the subject of
culturally determined managerial behaviours and their relationship to perfor-
mance during assignments abroad. According to the ‘cross-cultural’ school of
thought, the effectiveness of a particular managerial behaviour is a function of
the culture in which the behaviour is performed. The basic logic for such a
position is that because managerial attitudes and values differ from one culture
to another, so do effective managerial behaviours.
Despite conflicting research results as to the extent to which cross-cultural
differences can affect expatriate management performance, it is important to
note that these issues relate to the expatriate management population as a
whole. One can then question the validity of the argument put forward by very
many companies that women will not perform successfully in expatriate man-
agement positions as a result of host country cultural sanctions against
females. It is necessary to examine the exact nature of these claims; for
instance, to which countries do they refer, what is the basis for the claims –
women’s actual experiences, the opinions of host country managers, of exist-
ing male expatriate managers or of home country managers? Unless women
can be seen to be directly prevented from entering and working in a country as
a result of cultural sanctions, it would appear that they would be subject to the
same problems as men in terms of cross-cultural effectiveness. Evidence from
the literature supports the claim that women are potentially better suited to
international management in view of their superior interpersonal and com-
munication skills. However, Adler’s survey of women expatriates in the Pacific
Rim region found they had experienced numerous instances of corporate resis-
tance to sending them abroad. For example, according to one woman being
considered for an assignment in Malaysia:
‘Management assumed that women don’t have the physical sta-
mina to survive in the tropics. They claimed I couldn’t hack it.’Several women were offered positions only if there were no suitable male can-
didates for the post:
Japan: ‘They never would have considered me. But then the
financial manager in Tokyo had a heart attack and they had to
send someone. So they sent me, on a month’s notice, as a tem-
porary until they could find a man to fill the permanent position.
It worked out and I stayed.’Firms often expressed their hesitancy by sending women in temporary or
lower-status positions:
Hong Kong:‘After offering me the job, they hesitated, “Could
a woman work with the Chinese?” So my job was defined asWomen’s Role in International Management 371