Comparing the success of male and female expatriates from a US-based multinational company

Int. J. of Human Resource Management 10 :5 October 1999 763-782

Comparing the success of male andfemale expatriates from a US-basedmultinational company

Paula M. Caligiuri and Rosalie L. Tung

Abstract This paper examines the differences between male and female expatriateemployees along three criteria of global assignments : (1) cross-cultural adjustment,(2) desire to terminate the assignment and (3) supervisor-rated performance . Participantswere ninety-eight expatriate employees from a US-based multinational organization . Thecountries to which these expatriates were assigned varied along the four work valuesproposed by Hofstede (1980) . These dimensions were used first to determine which of theunderlying cultural work values are associated with the number of women in managerialpositions . The results suggest that all of the dimensions, except masculinity, were relatedto the participation of women in managerial roles . Second, these dimensions were usedto examine whether these work values differentially affect male and female expatriates'success . Two work-values (power distance and masculinity) negatively affect the cross-cultural adjustment of expatriate women (compared to their male counterparts) . Theseresults suggest there are no significant differences between men and women in eithersupervisor-rated performance or desire to terminate the assignment, regardless of culturalvalues . The implications for why certain work values may negatively affect women'scross-cultural adjustment are discussed .

Keywords Global Assignments, women as expatriates, cross-cultural work values,women in management

A comparison of male and female expatriates' success in countries differing inwork value orientations

Despite the fact that women make up nearly half of the productive workforce in theUnited States, they are grossly under-represented at the senior management level and inpositions of authority domestically and as expatriates internationally. According toCatalyst, a non-profit research organization, women occupy only 2 .4 per cent of thehighest ranking corporate positions in Fortune 500 companies (Smith, 1997) . InCanada, under 5 per cent of senior management and boards of directors in the privatesector are women (Burke, 1997) . Thus, a glass ceiling appears to persist . In theinternational business arena, until the late 1980s, only 5 per cent of all Americanexpatriates, 1 per cent of Japanese expatriates and 9 per cent of Finnish expatriates werewomen (Black et al ., 1992; Moran et al ., 1988; Stone, 1991) . This situation appears to

Paula M. Caligiuri, Rutgers University, School of Management and Labor Relations,Department of Human Resource Management, 94 Rockafeller Road, 200B Levin Building,Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA (tel : (732) 445 5228 ; fax : (732) 445 2830 ; e-mail :Caligiur@rci .rutgers .edu) . Rosalie L . Tung, Simon Fraser University, Faculty of BusinessAdministration, Burnaby, British Columbia V5A 1S6, Canada (tel : (604) 291 3083 ; fax :(604) 291 4920 ; e -mail: Tung@sfu .ca) .

The International Journal of Human Resource ManagementISSN 0958-5192 printJlSSN 1466-4399 online © 1999 Taylor & Francis Ltd

764 The International Journal of Human Resource Management

be changing, however. In a worldwide study of 225 expatriates by Florkowski andFogel (1995), 11 per cent of the respondents were female . More recently, 13.9 per centof the respondents in Tung's (1997) study of 409 US expatriates and inpatriates into theUnited States were female .

Despite the increasing deployment of women as expatriates in US multinationals,they are still under-represented . This substantial under-representation of women inexpatriate assignments is significant from the perspective that, with the increasingglobalization of industries and business operations, international experience is increas-ingly considered as a requisite for promotion to the top of the organizational hierarchy(Black et al., 1992) . Multinational organizations will send their `fast track' managerialemployees on expatriate assignments to develop global competencies . . Expatriates inthese positions find them to be developmental experiences and report having gainedtangible skills which are value-added for their organizations (Oddou and Mendenhall,1991) . For example, Oddou and Mendenhall (1991) surveyed expatriates and found that90 per cent reported an increase in their global perspectives ; 80 per cent indicated beingable to communicate more effectively with people from culturally diverse backgrounds ;and 80 per cent were better able to comprehend business trends . While these data wereself-report data, the trend would seem to suggest that the experience of living andworking in another country is valuable for all managers, both male and female,managing in a multinational organization .

While the experience of a successful global assignment may be equally beneficial forboth male and female managers, the predictors of success on global assignments maydiffer somewhat for men and women (Caligiuri and Cascio, 1998) . Caligiuri and Cascio(1998) propose four categories of predictors : (1) individual characteristics (e.g .language skills, technical skills, open-minded personality), (2) family (supportive andwell-adjusted spouse and children), (3) organization (support from headquarters andmaintaining the psychological contract) and (4) host nationals' attitudes towards theexpatriate . While the first three predictors are not very different between the sexes,the fourth (host nationals' attitudes towards the expatriate) may differ depending on thegender of the expatriate. More specifically, female expatriates, as compared to maleexpatriates, may be negatively stereotyped by host nationals - especially in countriesthat do not value women as professionals (Caligiuri and Cascio, 1998) .

This concern, while largely untested, has driven global staffing decisions in the past .One frequently cited reason for the limited use of women expatriates is the reluctanceof host-country nationals to transact business with Western women (Adler, 1987) . It hasbeen proposed that female expatriates' acceptance by host nationals may, in part, bepredicted by the values and beliefs of the host nationals towards women at work . Froma series of qualitative research studies, Adler (1987, 1993) found that decision makersin American MNCs tend to make two assumptions, based on popular beliefs (myths),which result in the disproportionately small number of female expatriates . One, womendo not seek international assignments ; and, two, host-country nationals refuse totransact business with women . In her research, Adler (1987, 1993) has appeared todispel these myths .

American female expatriates were found to be just as successful as their malecounterparts overseas - even in male-dominated cultures such as Japan and Korea(Adler, 1987) . Taylor and Napier (1996) found that there were no significant differencesbetween American male and female expatriates in their adjustment to the work situationand overall living conditions in Japan. Asian businessmen tend to view a femaleexpatriate first as a parent-company representative, second as a foreigner and third asfemale. Essentially, the first two factors combined render the expatriate's gender a `non

Caligiuri and Tung : Comparing the success of male and female expatriates 765

issue' (Adler, 1987) . Adler (1984) found that men and women, in both single- and dual-career situations, were equally likely to be attracted to and be successful in foreignassignments . Adler found that 97 per cent of the female expatriates in her study self-reported that their assignment had been successful . Other indicators, aside from theseself-report ratings, (e .g . being offered another global assignment after completion of thecurrent one) also suggested that these women were successful .

According to Adler (1987), female expatriates who were assigned to Asian countriesperceived that they were treated as if they were (and, in all likelihood, they actuallywere) very competent . Based on these observations, Adler deduced that the hostnationals most probably assumed that ìf a woman was sent by a company, then shemust be exceptionally competent' . In a similar research study, female expatriates inHong Kong believed that ìf you are perceived as a competent manager and could dothe job', gender was incidental (Westwood and Leung, 1994) .

This line of research is encouraging for female expatriates . However, while 97 percent is an impressive success rate, it may be unrealistic and not generalizable in viewof some estimates that the success rate for expatriates, in general, is lower . In a meta-analysis of published literature on expatriate failure, Harzing (1995) found that `thepersistent myth of high expatriate failure rates seems to have been created by massive(mis)quotations of three empirical articles' only one of which, Tung (1981), containedempirical evidence stating that in US MNCs, 93 per cent of the firms had recall rates of20 per cent or lower . Therefore, the results of Adler (1987) and Westwood and Leung(1994) must still be viewed with some caution, given that the attitudes of the hostnationals' and the expatriates' performance were inferred from the responses ofthe female expatriates . As such, it would be hard to draw conclusive support for thefemales' high success rate . To address this, the current study will examine thesupervisors' ratings (instead of self-reported ratings) of expatriate performance todetermine whether men and women differ in their success on global assignments .

In a study that did directly assess host nationals' preferences for expatriates, Stone(1991 : 15) asked Asian and Australian host-national managers, and expatriate managersto respond to the following statement : `given people of equal ability, it is preferable toappoint a man to an international position .' Over half of the expatriates (56 per cent)and Asian managers (53 per cent) agreed with this statement . Over half of theAustralian managers disagreed with this statement (56 per cent) . When asked whetherthey agreed that èxpatriate women managers are not appropriate for countries such asJapan and Korea' over half of the managers in all three categories agreed (Australians64 per cent, Asians 53 per cent and expatriates 59 per cent) . Izraeli et al . (1980 : 56)found similar results with a sample of European host nationals from Germany, Britain,France, Holland and Belgium . They were asked: `Can a well-qualified womansuccessfully head and manage a MNC subsidiary?' While 60 per cent responded `yes',follow-up interviews suggested that the men answered in the affirmative with muchhesitation . This suggests that a dichotomy (i .e . yes or no) did not allow for the varianceof true feelings in the sample . Izraeli et al. (1980) reported that many of the respondentsexplained their hesitation as stemming from society's not being prepared to accept (orrecognize the competence of) a woman in a position of authority. Since the Izraeli studywas conducted almost twenty years ago, the attitude towards women may haveundergone some changes .

While Izraeli et al. (1980) and Stone (1991) found that foreign women may, in fact,experience discrimination while overseas, discrimination does not have to result infailure . The findings of Izraeli et al . (1980) and Stone (1991), on the one hand, andAdler (1987), Taylor and Napier (1996), on the other, are not conflicting . Nevertheless,


the findings that multinationals and host-country nationals may have an aversion tousing women in international assignments suggest that further research should beconducted in this area to obtain a more accurate understanding of whether or notwomen will be accepted as expatriate managers and whether such perceptions mightaffect success . This study will examine the work-value orientations which are related tothe number of host-national women in the workforce and the number of host-nationalwomen in management . These work-value orientations will then be examined for theiraffect on expatriate women's success .

Cultural values and women in management

Before testing the effect of host nationals' cultural values on the acceptance ofexpatriate women, this paper first examines how cultural values affect the acceptance ofhost-national women within a given culture . This is an appropriate place to start giventhat the concern for sending female expatriates to various countries stems from the wayin which host-national women are treated in a particular country . The assumption isthat, if host-national women are not accepted as professionals, expatriate women mayhave difficulty being accepted .

We hypothesize that certain cultural values within a society will ultimately affect itsacceptance of women in the workforce . Since people of any given nation often sharecultural agents such as history, leaders, religion, literature and economic systems, thesecultures often develop along national boundaries (Hofstede, 1980 ; Ralston et al ., 1992) .A host-national culture, then, will vary in the extent to which it is different from anexpatriate's home culture. This difference between the host and home cultures has beenidentified as culture toughness (Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985), culture distance(Church, 1982) or country difficulty. These terms are collectively referred to as `countrydifficulty' .

Some researchers suggest that the tougher or more different the culture, the moredifficult it would be to adjust and perform (e .g ., Black et al ., 1992 ; Church, 1982 ;Mendenhall and Oddou, 1985 ; Torbiorn 1982) . For example, country difficulty shouldbe lower for American expatriates sojourning in other Anglo-countries such as Englandand Australia, and higher in non-Western societies, such as Japan and the Middle East(Mendenhall and Oddou 1985, 1986 ; Mendenhall et al., 1987) . However, otherresearchers (e .g . Adler, 1987) have found that there is no association between thedifficulty of the culture and the effectiveness of the expatriate . Tung (1997) found that,where expatriates adopted an open attitude towards interacting with people in the hostsociety (including socializing with them both during and after work, learning about thehost country's culture and adapting to norms in the host country), they were equally assuccessful in countries with varying degrees of cultural toughness . These expatriateswere assigned to fifty-one countries, including Asia, Latin and South America, Africa,Eastern Europe and the Middle East .

To determine whether cultural distance really matters in the deployment of Americanwomen as expatriates, Hofstede's (1980) four work values are used to discuss thetheoretical underpinnings for how work-value dimensions can affect a culture'sresponse to American women in managerial positions .

Masculinity According to Hofstede (1980), a country that adheres to more masculinework-related values tends to be more focused on assertive interests such as thecompletion of the task, earnings and advancement . A more feminine set of values, onthe other hand, would be focused on nurturing interests such as relationships with


managers and co-workers, and cooperation among members in a work group . The mostmasculine countries in Hofstede's (1980) study were Japan, Austria, Venezuela andItaly ; whereas the most feminine countries were Denmark, Netherlands, Norway andSweden. Ford (1985, cited in Hofstede, 1998) found that there was a significantnegative correlation between the masculinity dimension and female representation inmanagement . This suggests that greater masculinity is related to less female representa-tion in management .

Studies have generally concluded that American women are less likely thanAmerican men to assert their authority in the work setting (e .g . Hopcroft, 1996) .Women also tend to emphasize cooperation versus competition in their managementstyle (Tung, 1995) . In addition, women tend to have a preference for indirectness incommunication (Tannen, 1990) . As such, women, who favour nurturing, indirectnessand cooperation, may encounter more difficulty in adjusting to highly competitive andaggressive work environments . Conversely, women may be better suited for success infeminine countries .

Hypothesis I There will be fewer women in the workforce (and in management) incountries that are high in masculinity .

Power distance Countries low in power distance (i .e. egalitarian societies such as theUS and Scandinavian countries) tend to accept people (women included) as equals,while in high power distance countries, such as Japan, the rigid hierarchies andprotocols, many of which are based on century-old traditions, may stifle theadvancement of women to positions of authority . Hofstede (1998) showed there is anincreased level of participation by women in technical and professional jobs in societieswith low power distance. This level of participation becomes even more marked if thecountry also scored high in femininity .

Hypothesis 2 There will be fewer women in the workforce (and in management) incountries with higher power distance .

Uncertainty avoidance Countries low in uncertainty avoidance, such as the US andCanada, are more prone to risk taking and are tolerant of change . Since women'sadvancement in managerial and professional ranks is a relatively recent phenomenon, itmay be viewed as more risky since there is no long-established track record . There arestill some organizations that falsely perceive the deployment of women in positions ofauthority as a poor human capital investment, citing reasons such as lost working daysdue to child bearing and rearing and women's greater responsibility for maintainingtheir home . Research (e .g. Hopcroft, 1996) has shown that these perceptions are, byand large, unfounded, however . Countries which are risk averse, such as Japan, feelthreatened by change and, hence, are less willing to entertain situations which mayupset the status quo . The use of women in managerial roles may be considered as oneof these situations. As Hofstede notes, `uncertainty avoidance' stands for `what isdifferent is dangerous' . Uncertainty avoidance, along with the masculinity index,accounts for 37 and 52 per cent, respectively, of the difference in women'srepresentation in parliament and at the ministerial level in twenty-two countries(Hofstede, 1998) .

Hypothesis 3 There will be fewer women in the workforce (and in management) incountries with greater uncertainty avoidance .


Individualism Individualistic societies, such as the US, tend to value each person onthe basis of his or her attributes and abilities, rather than his or her affiliation and/orassociation with a particular group . As such, there should be less stereotyping of whatroles are suitable for men versus women. In collectivistic countries, such as Japan andKorea, on the other hand, a person's worth is often judged by the group to which he orshe is affiliated . Hence, there is a greater tendency to characterize women, as a group,in such roles as home-makers and clerical staff, rather than as managers andprofessionals .

Hypothesis 4 There will be more women in the workforce (and in management) incountries with greater individualism .

The effect of culture on Western female expatriates' success

The hypotheses presented in the previous section suggest that Western femaleexpatriates on assignment to countries characterized as culturally difficult for womenwill have to interact and transact business with people who possess work values thatmay not be receptive to women in managerial or professional roles. However, aspointed out in a previous section, it is unclear whether these discrepant work values canaffect Western women's success in these culturally difficult societies . As noted in aprevious section, some preliminary research suggests that host nationals will treatfemale expatriates as competent company representatives, rather than `women' -rendering gender as incidental if the female expatriate is competent (Adler, 1987 ;Westwood and Leung, 1994) . This research, however, is not conclusive, leading to thefollowing research questions .

Research question 1 Will male and female expatriates (from US-based MNCs)achieve the same success on their global assignments,regardless of the degree of participation of women inprofessional and managerial ranks in a given country'sworkforce?

Research question 2 Does male and female expatriate success differ depending onthe over-arching work values of the countries to which theyare assigned?

Defining expatriate success

Past research argued that cross-cultural maladjustment of expatriates and their familieswere the most common reasons for the premature termination of foreign assignments(Tung, 1981) . It is important to note, however, that not all maladjusted expatriatesterminate their cross-cultural assignments . Some, despite their inability to adjust to thehost cultures, remain abroad even though they dislike the foreign environmental setting .These individuals are willing to `do the time' and finish their foreign assignmentsbecause they fear the negative impact a failed assignment may have upon theirsubsequent advancement within the organizational hierarchy (Benson, 1978 ; Tung,1981) . This motive may be especially true for those who are abroad primarily foroverall career development .

These findings suggest that `success' in an international assignment may not be aunidimensional construct, rather it is multi-faceted . Caligiuri (1997) has shown thatthere are three separate constructs associated with success of an expatriate assignment:premature termination, cross-cultural adjustment, and actual job performance on the


assignment . The first construct, premature termination, is the most basic behaviouralcriterion for assessing the outcome of an expatriate assignment . Success, according tothis construct, occurs when an expatriate remains in the host country for the entirescheduled duration of his or her assignment. Premature termination has beentraditionally defined as an expatriate requesting or being requested to return to his orher home country before the assignment has been completed (Black and Gregersen,1991) . Cross-cultural adjustment, the second construct, is the extent to whichexpatriates are psychologically comfortable with living abroad (Black, 1990 ; Black andGregersen, 1991 ; Nicholson, 1984) . Cross-culturally adjusted expatriates `represent amore integrative approach to a new culture, [they] are open to the host culture, butintegrate new behavior, norms and roles into the foundation provided by [their] homecultures' (Church, 1982 : 542) . Above and beyond these two constructs, actualperformance on the assignment (the third construct) is important . Very simply,multinational organizations would want their expatriate employees to perform theirassigned tasks and responsibilities successfully while they are abroad . This paperexamined the extent to which male and female expatriates (from a US-based MNC) aresuccessful along each of these three criteria for success .

Methods

Participants

As part of a larger study on global relocations, questionnaires were sent to allexpatriates on assignment in foreign subsidiaries of a large US-based multinationalcompany. The participating MNC is in the information technology industry . As such,expatriates in this organization are sent primarily to work on host-national client sites .Only American expatriates in host-national locations were included in this study(inpatriates and third-country nationals were excluded) . With this restriction, ninety-eight surveys (out of 280) were usable, for a response rate 35 per cent . The expatriateswere located in twenty-five different countries . These were Argentina, Australia,Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Guam, Hungary, Hong Kong, Italy,Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, Spain, Sweden,Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom .

With respect to the sample characteristics, the average age of the participants was 39years. Eighty-two per cent were male and 78 per cent were married. (All but two of themarried expatriates had their spouses with them on their overseas assignments .) Sixty-two per cent of the expatriates reported having children (average number ofchildren = two) . (Of the sixty-eight expatriates with children, forty-six had theirchildren with them on the assignment.) Eighty-four per cent of the participants had abachelor's degree or higher. The participants had been in their assignments an averageof 1 .8 years and their expected duration of stay in the foreign assignment was 3.2years .

To assess the expatriate's performance, the immediate supervisor of each expatriatewas surveyed using a separate questionnaire. Each expatriate who chose to participatewas asked to distribute a copy of this separate questionnaire to his/her immediatesupervisor. Both sets of questionnaires were returned to one of the authors independ-ently . This method of collecting data from the supervisors limited the possible samplesize to the number of expatriates who participated and had complete data (ninety-eight) .Therefore, the response rate for the supervisors was calculated with ninety-eight in thedenominator rather than the original 280. The response rate was 73 per cent (N = 72)


To test the first research question, moderated regression analyses were conducted . Inthe first block of the regression analysis the expatriate's gender, the percentage ofwomen in the host country's workforce and the percentage of women in managerialpositions in the host country were entered . In the second block the two moderators wereentered : sex X the percentage of women in the host country's workforce, and sex X thepercentage of women in managerial positions in the host country . This moderatedregression analysis was repeated for the three dependent variables : desire to terminatethe assignment, cross-cultural adjustment and supervisor-rated performance . Theoverall R2 was not significant for either of the regression analyses predicting desire toterminate the assignment (R2 = . 09, ns) and supervisor-rated performance (R 2 = .10,ns) . In the regression equation predicting cross-cultural adjustment, however, thesecond block was significant (R2 = . 18, p < .05) . The moderated term, sex X thepercentage of women in the host country's workforce was significant ((3 = 1 .26,t = 2.81, p < .01) . A graph of this moderator variable suggest that the male expatriates'are unaffected by the percentage of women in the workforce, whereas women reportlower adjustment in countries with fewer women in the workforce . Figure 1 illustratesthe graph of this result .

To test the second research question, the success of male and of female expatriateswas compared in countries differing on each of these dimensions . First, a correlationmatrix is presented for all criteria variables and dichotomous work value variables(Table 2) . Tables 3, 4, 5 and 6 present the 2 (male/female) X 2 (low/high work-valuedimension) ANOVA results for each of the three success criteria and their respectivecell means . For the masculinity/femininity dimension, a significant two-way interactionbetween masculinity/femininity and sex was found for cross-cultural adjustment(F = 5 .90, p < .05) . The cell means suggest that women (as compared with men) wereless adjusted in masculine countries ; they, however, were equally adjusted in feminine

4 .1

.25

Percentage of women in the workforce

Figure 1 A graph of the moderator sex X the percentage of women in the host country'sworkforce

.60


Table 2 Means, standard deviations and correlations for variables examining therelationship between work values and expatriate success

I Desire to terminate assign .2 Cross-cultural adjustment3 Supervisor-rates perform.4 Power distance5 Uncertainty avoidance6 Individualism7 Masculinity

Notes**p<.01 ; *p< .05 .N=98 .Alpha coefficients are presented in the diagonals where appropriate .

Table 3 Cell means and the 2X2 ANOVA results for affect of masculinity and expatriategender on expatriate success

Men

2.02

1 .84Women

1 .97

2.12

Both

1 .90

2.01

NotesaN=90 (73 men, 17 women/50 in masculine, 39 in feminine countries) .bN=65 (52 men, 13 women/19 in masculine, 46 in feminine countries).

NotesaN=90.bN=65 .**p< .0l ; *p< .05 .

cultures . There were no significant differences between men and women in either theirsupervisor-rated performance nor their desire to terminate the assignments . For theuncertainty avoidance dimension, a significant two-way interaction between low/highuncertainty avoidance and gender was found for cross-cultural adjustment (F = 10 .55,

Desire toterminate

assignment'Fem.

Masc.

Both

Mean SD 1

2

3

4

5

6

2.06

.51

(.83)3.91

.74 - .33** ( .86)3.97

.73 - .20

-.12

(.81)1 .32 .47 - .02

.14 - .041 .43 .50

.03

-.06

.05

.39**1 .75 .43

.05

-.18 - .07 - .50** - .24*1 .66 .47

.12

-.02 - .10 - .20

-.42** - .02

1 .96

3.95

4.18

4.03

3.95

4.00

3.972.03

3.96

3.17

3.68

3.72

4.37

3.92

1 .98

4.95

3.98

3.96

3 .91

4.08

3.96

Desire toterminateassignment'

Cross-

Supervisor-ratedcultural

performancebadjustment'

Fem.

Masc.

Both

Fem.

Masc.

Both

Cross-


performancebadjustment'

Main effectsSex

0.33

3.69

0.05Masculinity

1 .25

0.04

0.67

2-way interaction

1 .58

7.36**

1 .43

Explained

1 .05

3.69*

0.74


Table 6 Cell means and 2 X 2 ANOVA results for the affect of individualism andexpatriate gender on expatriate success

NotesaN=98 .bN=72 .

The second hypothesis was supported, suggesting that countries lower in powerdistance had a higher percentage of women in management . This finding makesintuitive sense given that societies, such as the US, which are more likely to holdegalitarian values tend to believe all people should be treated equally . These countrieswill often have (and enforce) equal opportunity laws to ensure the egalitarian value isupheld . High power distance countries may have a greater tendency to uphold rigid(often patriarchal) hierarchies . The underlying tendency to prefer men in positions ofpower may permeate organizations in high power distance countries (e .g . Japan) eventhough many countries today have equal employment opportunity laws .

The third hypothesis was also supported, suggesting that countries low in uncertaintyavoidance are more likely to have women in the workforce, in particular, in managerialpositions. This finding parallels the expatriate adjustment literature at the individuallevel . This literature suggests that people who are more tolerant of ambiguity (i .e. lowuncertainty avoidance) will be more acceptant of differences and will more readilyembrace their host culture (Tung, 1997) . Given that women in positions of authority isa relatively new phenomenon worldwide, countries which could accept the ambiguity ofwomen in management are more likely to adjust to the change and encourage theirparticipation through all spheres of their societies .

The last hypothesis was also supported, suggesting that women would be more likelyto achieve positions of management in individualistic societies which tend to value eachperson on the basis of his or her attributes and abilities. Collectivistic societies may bemore likely to categorize individuals on the basis of their affiliation with a particular

Desire toterminate

assignment'Low

High Both

Cross-


performance'adjustment'

Low

High

Both

Low

High

Both

Men

1 .99

2.04

2.03

4.12

3.87

3.95

4.06

3.95

3.98Women

2.25

2.12

2.13

4.43

3.74

3.77

4.00

3.93

3.94

Both

2.00

2.06

2.05

4.14

3.84

3.91

4.06

3.94

3.97

NotesaN=98 (78 men, 20 women/74 in individualistic, 24 in collectivistic countries) .bN=72 (56 men, 16 women/54 in individualistic, 18 in collectivistic countries) .

Desire to

Cross-

Supervisor-ratedterminate

cultural

performance'assignment'

adjustment'

Main effectsSex

0.44

0.34

0.02Individualism

0.11

2.50

0.81

2-way interaction

0.11

0.34

1 .37

Explained

0.27

1 .26

0.74


group (e.g . gender) . As such, there should be less stereotyping of men into managementand women into support (e .g . clerical) roles in individualistic societies .

From the premise that countries differ in the underlying values affecting women inmanagerial positions, the next goal of this study was to assess whether or not thesework values would affect expatriate women . Before the effect of work values onexpatriate success was examined, the first research question was tested to determine ifmale and female expatriates would achieve the same success on their globalassignments, regardless of the presence of women in a given country's workforce. Theresults suggest that women will perform equally well regardless of the percentage ofwomen in the workforce. This result is consistent with past research (e .g . Adler, 1987) .When examining the cross-cultural adjustment dependent variable, however, the resultschange. Female expatriates in this study self-rate their adjustment lower in countrieswith fewer women in the workforce. The cause of this difference is unclear . It may bethe case that female expatriates in these countries have a heightened awareness of theirsalience in the professional ranks, and respond with a modesty bias when rating theirown cross-cultural adjustment . On the other hand, it may be the case that certaincultural values may affect the way expatriate women adjust . That is, host nationalsrespond to female expatriates differently on the basis of certain cultural values, thuslowering their rate of cross-cultural adjustment .

The second research question was posed to examine the latter possibility a bit moreclosely. This research question asked whether male and female expatriate success (inparticular their cross-cultural adjustment) differed depending on the work values of thecountries to which expatriates were assigned . The empirical evidence in this studysuggests that cultural work values did not affect whether women were likely to succeed,as defined by either their desire to terminate the assignment or their supervisor-ratedperformance, while on global assignments. As with the previous finding, femaleexpatriates self-rated their own adjustment lower than their male counterparts incountries greater in uncertainty avoidance and masculinity . In other words, whilewomen expatriates reported greater difficulty in adjusting to countries which are lessrisk averse, it did not appear to have any impact on their performance . The same is truefor masculine countries : although women expatriates may have greater difficulty inadjusting to masculine countries, it does not appear to have affected their per-formance .

It may be the case that women are sensitive to their ability to `fit in' in cultures thatare reluctant to accept them, and are able to read the societal cues which translate intotheir psychological discomfort . Such findings provide further support for the idea thatmultinational companies should not preclude women from assignments to certaincountries - for fear that host-country nationals will refuse to transact business withthem, hence affecting their performance . On the contrary, this study lends support toprevious research (Adler, 1987, 1993 ; Taylor and Napier, 1996 ; Caligiuri, Joshi andLazarova, 1999) which suggested that male and female expatriates can perform equallywell in international assignments, regardless of cultural responses towards women .

Limitations and future research

This study was a preliminary test of the effect of gender on success in globalassignments . Like all studies, this study has limitations . First, the results of this studymust be interpreted with caution given the small sample sizes within each cell . Thisresearch is especially challenging when attempting a study comparing male and femaleexpatriates in one multinational organization because the number of female expatriates


will, for the most part, be small . The primary concern for using ANOVA with smallsamples is the violation of the assumption of a normal distribution . To test whether ornot our dependent variables are normally distributed for the subsample of females in oursample, we conducted the Kolmogrov-Smirnov Goodness-of-Fit test for each cellagainst a normal distribution . None of the cells had a distribution that significantlydiffered from a normal distribution . That said, the results should still be interpreted withcaution and further replication is warranted.

The sample was also from only one organization . The organization participating inthis study was typical in the sense that it offered no pre-departure training and selectedprimarily on the basis of technical skills . Given that this organization was from theinformation technology industry, future studies should expand the sample to includemen and women from many organizations in diverse industries .

There are other attributes of the participating organization which may limit thegeneralizablity of this study . For example, a large number of American expatriates arereporting to Americans . This is the case given that expatriates in this organization areon client sites and not in host-national subsidiary offices per se . The expatriates,therefore, are likely to be reporting to either higher-level US expatriates at the client siteor an American account manager at headquarters in the United States . Another potentiallimitation of the generalizablity of this organization is its stage of global development.This organization would, by most indicators, be in a multi-domestic stage of globaldevelopment . The effects of both organization and stage of global development shouldboth be examined in future studies .

The study also used data from Hofstede's classic work, which, admittedly is notwithout critics . Given that these data are over twenty years old, one must question thestability of a these scores as a true descriptor of countries' work values . Culture does,after all, change over time . While Hofstede's dimensions have been criticized onconceptual and methodological grounds, we felt that it still is the best available proxyof this societal characteristic on a worldwide basis . While other (more current)researchers have introduced additional work-value dimensions (e .g . Hampden-Turnerand Trompenaars, 1993; Brake et al ., 1995), they still include the four dimensionsoriginally cited in Hofstede . Thus, we contend that Hofstede's data should beconsidered as a general tendency, rather than a true description of a given country'sculture . We have tried to overcome this by using general estimates (e .g . high or low) foreach dimension in the analyses wherever possible . That is, we limit the use of these datain the absolute sense. Future studies should examine the stability of these work-valuedimensions over time . Furthermore, other recent research has introduced additionalwork-value dimensions (e .g . Hampden-Turner and Trompenaars, 1993 ; Brake et al.1995). Future studies should consider these additional work values which may affectwomen in management .

Because cross-cultural work values, there may be other dimensions that can serve aspredictors of female expatriates' success (e .g. training, personality, family) . Futureresearch should focus on whether there are significant differences between male andfemale expatriates along these predictor variables . In addition, we suggest that futureresearch examine the differential predictors of the three criteria which compriseexpatriate `success' . This study has provided some support that cultural work valuesmay affect the cross-cultural adjustment of female expatriates, an aspect of success,while having little or no effect on either their desire to terminate their assignment or theperformance on their assignment, other aspects of success .

Our method for assessing expatriate performance was limited in that the expatriatesgave the performance-assessment survey directly to their supervisor . It may be the case


that the truly poor performers opted not to have their performance rated in this study .This would have restricted the range of the performance variable . While the variance ofthis variable seemed reasonable in this study, it may be a skewed interpretation of thereality of the expatriates' performance on the whole . Future studies should consider adirect measure of expatriate performance . In addition, future studies should consideradopting a multi-rater approach to assessment.

Lastly, the way in which women adjust to and perform in their global assignmentsshould be examined in future studies . This current study suggested that there was nodifference between men and women in the outcome of their global assignment . Theremay, however, be a difference in the process while they are on the assignment . Forexample, Tung (1995) argued that women tend to possess three attributes that makethem more suitable for overseas work, compared to the tendencies in their malecounterparts . These are : one, indirectness in communication ; two, emphasis oncooperation over competition ; and, three, isolation in a foreign setting . According toHall and Hall (1987), 70 per cent of the world's population is high-context whereindirectness in communication is the norm . Tannen (1990) showed that women aremore indirect in their communication styles . In Tung's (1996) study of 409 expatriates,only 13.9 per cent of whom were women, the vast majority of respondents (both maleand female) considered indirectness in communication as critical to effectiveness inrelating to people in the host society . Tannen (1990) also provided evidence that womentend to emphasize cooperation over competition. In a global economy whichemphasizes strategic alliances and the network structure, this `female' attribute mayprove advantageous. Taylor and Napier (1996: 80) found that women's greateradeptness at building interpersonal relationships, as illustrated in sending a graduationcard to a client's son for example, served them well in Japan and other Asian countrieswhere `attention to the personal side of a business relationship can be critical' . Theseare examples of ways in which women may differ in their approach to their globalassignments .

In addition to interpersonal tendencies women may have, they may also adapt to thestress of the global assignment in ways different from their male counterparts . Forexample, a major source of frustration and distress associated with overseas living is theisolation experienced in a foreign setting . Taylor and Napier found evidence thatbecause women `have long experienced exclusion from traditional corporate networks,adapting to [the isolation in Japan] may be slightly easier than for a white male' (1996 :80) . In a study of occupational stress profiles of school administrators along fourdimensions (task-based, role-based, conflict-mediating and boundary-spanning stress),Tung (1980) found that female administrators experienced lower levels of stress on allfour dimensions as compared to their male counterparts, while controlling for age, yearsof experience in present position and years of administrative experience . Womenadministrators experienced significantly lower levels of stress along the dimensions ofconflict-mediating and boundary-spanning stress, skills which are necessary for effectivecross-cultural interaction . In addition to women's potential better stress management,Taylor and Napier (1996) found that women expatriates enjoyed certain advantages,including greater visibility, enhanced memorability, greater adeptness in building inter-personal relationships and greater ease in living in fairly isolated settings .

Implications for management

Given that the female expatriates in this study self-rate their adjustment lower incountries with fewer women in the workforce, it is important for organizations to


implement strategies to facilitate the adjustment of female expatriates (especially inthese more challenging countries) . According to Caligiuri and Cascio (1998) there aresome specific strategies which MNCs can implement to maximize the potential offemale expatriates. These strategies include (1) pre-departure training, (2) organiza-tional support and (3) selection .

Training Cross-cultural training for women who will be going on global assignmentsmay include training on the norms, values and traditions of a host country regardingwomen, and deriving solutions for the potentially challenging situations that femaleexpatriates may encounter . Especially in countries differing in key value orientations,cross-cultural training may also provide a realistic expectation of what is to come in theglobal assignment. Having realistic expectations may also help to reduce anxiety forfemale global assignees (Caligiuri et al., 1998) .

Organizational support In addition to training their female expatriates, Caligiuri andCascio (1998) suggest that MNCs should actively promote expatriate women as their`best qualified' candidates, in order to dispel the `token' image . In particular, this wouldbecome more important in subsidiaries of US-based MNCs `where most host nationalmanagers know that US civil rights laws exist - and may assume that their femaleexpatriate colleague fulfills an affirmative action quota' (Caligiuri and Cascio, 1998) .

Selection While training and support are important, it may be the case that certainwomen are better suited for the more challenging positions in countries where there arefewer women in management. Caligiuri and Cascio (1998) suggest that Western womenin global assignments (even more so than men) will need self-efficacy and self-confidence in order to be successful . More confident women will doubt themselves less- especially in the face of personal challenges . In addition to confidence, openness willalso be important for female expatriates because they . . . `may be placed in situationswhere these cultural differences have a more direct impact on their performance on thejob, and the ability to be open to differences in values, norms, and behaviors may be allthe more important' (Caligiuri and Cascio, 1998) . This suggests that women should beselected for global assignments based on their efficacy, confidence and openness .

Overall, this study suggests that male and female expatriates can perform equallywell in international assignments - regardless of the country's predisposition to womenin managment . Thus, multinational organizations would benefit from widening theirpotential expatriate candidate pool to include their talented women. In addition, theywould serve their female expatriates well by engaging in activities (i .e . training, supportand selection) to facilitate their cross-cultural adjustment in the more challenging globalassignments .

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Comparing the success of male and female expatriates from a US-based multinational company

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