Senior Female International Managers

Margaret Linehan

• Publisher: Taylor & Francis
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780415791472
• eBook ISBN: 9781351812603
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Business Skills
• Index: Social Sciences

This title was first published in 2000: Linehan (management, Cork Institute of Technology) studies 50 European senior female managers in a variety of organizations who have made at least one career move across national borders. She compares the careers of these women with a number of theoretical explanations for the relative dearth of women in these positions. She finds that many of the problems facing domestic female managers also face international managers specifically, assumptions that management skills and organizational commitment are societally associated with masculinity.

1 Introduction

1.1 Introduction

This study is an assessment of the international career move made by senior female managers in Europe. The perspective explored is that of currently employed senior female managers in a wide range of organisations, who have made at least one international career move. The study is based on data collected from interviews with fifty senior female international managers. The voices of the female managers illustrate difficulties they encounter in 'a man's world' and remind us that there is still much to be changed. The study, for the first time, assesses an exclusively senior sample of female international managers. Previous studies have established that, throughout Europe, women's advance into senior domestic management positions has been very slow, despite legislative changes, including the European Union's social protocol, to enforce issues related to equal opportunity such as equal pay and sex discrimination (Davidson and Cooper, 1993; Hammond and Holton, 1991). The number of female managers pursuing international management careers, however, remains considerably lower than the number in domestic management. Harris (1995b) and Adler (1993b) estimate that only three per cent of expatriate managers are women. This study examines a number of explanations from the relevant literature and analyses the empirical data collected from the fifty interviewees in order to develop a more complete model of the senior female international career move in Europe. This research is particularly relevant, as existing European studies have not specifically addressed issues pertaining to the senior female expatriate manager.

This chapter provides an overview of the study. First, the changing role of women in management is discussed. Second, recent findings and trends in international human resource management and European management are outlined. Various gaps in the international human resource management literature are identified which help to justify the rationale for the study. Finally, the research focus of the study together with details of the interviewees and the methodological choices made are presented.

1.2 The Role of Women in Management

One of the most significant features of the global labour market in the last half of the twentieth century has been the increasing labour-force participation rate of women. In recent years, in particular, there has been an increase in the number of women pursuing managerial careers (Harris, 1995; Davidson and Cooper, 1993; 1992; Gordon and Whelan, 1998). According to Alimo-Metcalfe and Wedderburn-Tate (1993), however, in terms of the managerial population, it is difficult to establish accurate figures for the proportions of women in management since definitions of management used by different studies may vary. Despite these definitional difficulties, however, it is evident from die extant research that women are not progressing to senior management positions at comparable rates to their male counterparts (Harris, 1995; Smith and Hutchinson, 1995; Burke and Davidson, 1994; Izraeli and Adler 1994; Berthoin-Antal and Izraeli, 1993; Davidson and Cooper, 1992).

Berthoin-Antal and Izraeli (1993) noted that, until the late 1970s, women managers were virtually invisible in most countries. In the mid 1980s, Ho (1984, p. 7) observed that:

Statistics show that women represent one third of the world's workforce, do two-thirds of the world's working hours, but they earn only one-tenth of the world's income and own one-hundredth of the world's goods . . . they hold less than one per cent of the world's executive positions.

Berthoin-Antal and Izraeli (1993) reported that, during the 1980s, the under-representation of women in positions of power emerged as a 'problem', and became an item of high priority on the agenda of industrialised countries. Adler and Izraeli (1988) highlighted globalisation, skill shortage, labour-force participation, and women's resources and commitment as the forces that contributed to this change. Adler and Izraeli believed that, first, the globalisation of competition created the need to encourage excellence and maximise the human potential in the workforce. Second, demographic forecasts indicated a shortage of qualified white men for top-level jobs. Third, the increased participation of women in the labour force contributed to the perception of women as an underused source of human resources. Finally, the continuing investment in education and training made by women themselves, and their active searches for promotion, made it more difficult to overlook women in recruitment and promotion decisions (Adler and Izraeli, 1988).

Despite the awareness of the under-representation of women in management in the 1980s, however, studies have indicated that the situation has not yet greatly improved. Research from the USA, Australia and Europe reports similar trends in the position of women in management, for example, statistics from the USA have established that women constitute nearly half of the labour force and occupy a significant and growing proportion of entry and mid-level managerial positions, but less than five per cent of executive positions are held by women (USA: Department of Labor, 1996). A 1995 USA census further revealed that while women accounted for ten per cent of corporate officers, they represented just 2.4 per cent of the highest ranks of corporate leadership, and held only 19 per cent of the most highly compensated officer positions in Fortune 500 companies, and only four of the Fortune 1000 CEO positions are held by women (Catalyst, 1996).

Research from Australia established that women constitute 42.3 per cent of the Australian workforce (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1994). Women, however, are still under-represented in middle and senior managerial positions, occupying an estimated 21.1 per cent of all management positions (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1993). According to Korn/Ferry International (1993), women are moving into middle management positions in industries such as banking and finance, but, only three per cent reach senior executive positions.

Statistics from Europe indicate that females make up 41 per cent of the working population (Eurostat, 1996). Throughout all the European Union countries, however, there is still job segregation based on gender, and over half of women are employed in the service sector which includes trade, education, retail, health-care and clerical duties (Davidson and Cooper, 1992). Women in corporate environments tend to be at the lower end of the managerial hierarchy, even after being employed for a decade or more in management jobs, with fewer than five per cent in senior management positions (Davidson and Cooper, 1993). Research by Davidson and Cooper (1992) concluded that, overall, women employed in European Union countnes do not enjoy the same job conditions, pay, status and career opportunities as their male counterparts.

As outlined, the figures given for women in senior domestic management positions in most industrialised countries remain negligible. The figures for die number of women pursuing international managerial careers, i.e., who relocate to a different country to work for an extended period, are even lower, remaining at between two and five per cent (Reynolds and Bennett, 1991; Adler, 1984). Very little research has been carried out concerning female international managers, mainly due to their relative scarcity (Harris, 1995b), The available research, however, on women international managers in the USA, Britain and some Asian countries such as Japan, indicates that, of those organisations which promote women through their domestic managerial hierarchy, few are prepared to allow women to expand their career horizons via international placements (Adler, 1993; Adler and Izraeli, 1988).

Adler's extensive research conducted in North America with female expatriate managers shows that none of the participants in her studies occupied her company's most senior position in North America or in any country. The majority were employed in junior managerial positions supervising from zero to twenty-five subordinates, with the average falling just below five. Interestingly, research conducted by Izraeli et al. (1980) concluded that only exceptional expatriate women could succeed as heads of multinational corporations, as outstanding competence was necessary to overcome the additional barriers.

Harris (1995) conducted research with female British expatriates, but only 20.5 per cent of the participants were in the managerial category and only ten per cent were based in western Europe. Harris suggested that further research might be conducted with female expatriates who are employed in cultures similar to those in their home countries, rather than concentrating on females assigned to traditionally male dominated countries. This research agenda, therefore, extends previous work by examining the experiences of female managers moving to countries with cultures similar to those in their home countries.

McGee-Calvert and Ramsey (1992, p. 80) suggested that the study of women in management has not experienced 'any dramatic leaps forward in quite a while', because using men as a standard of comparison and 'adding' females to the sample has not really changed the nature of the research. This research has taken as its starting point the unique perspectives and experiences of senior female international managers. From these different perspectives and experiences, different assumptions about women in international management and female lifestyle choices are arrived at. McGee-Calvert and Ramsey also suggested that women's collective voice has been silenced in die field of management, because of pressures placed on women to conform to the existing norms of organisations and because of the rejection by women themselves of the notion that they are different, as difference has most often been defined as inferiority. This research has given women an opportunity to break the silence in the field of international human resource management. The findings from the research resonate with the description of women's voice put forward by Aptheker (1989, p. 83):

Women have a distinct way of seeing and interpreting the world. This is not to say that all women have the same consciousness or share the same beliefs. It is to say that women of each particular culture or group have a consciousness, a way of seeing, which is common to themselves as women in that it is distinct from the way the men of their culture or group see things.

Arising from the lack of empirical data which details the role and career moves of the senior female international manager, a number of largely untested assumptions have been used in an attempt to explain the low participation rate of females in international management. This study (i) highlights a number of these assumptions, (ii) discusses and analyses both the covert and overt barriers faced by women in their progression to senior managerial positions, and (iii) empirically tests the reasons which have been given in the literature in an attempt to explain the relative scarcity of female international managers.

1.3 International Human Resource Management

Successful international managers, whether mobile, or non-mobile, must be able to act locally, but to plan and think strategically and globally (Barham andRassam, 1989, p. 149).

According to Torrington (1994), in order to examine what international human resource management is, it is important to first of all consider two things that it is not. First, international human resource management is not copying the practices from the Americans, the Germans, the Taiwanese, the Koreans, or the Japanese. Torrington suggests that whereas technical and financial operations may transfer across all countries, people-management methods do not necessarily transfer from one culture to another. Second, international human resource management is not a matter of managers learning the cultures of every country in which they have to deal with and modifying their own behaviour when dealing with those nationals. Torrington (1994, p. 4) cautions that cultures are both robust and subtle and 'we have great difficulty in achieving more than a modest level of behaviour adaptation', Torrington (1994, p. 6) suggests tiiat:

In many ways international human resource management is human resource management on a larger scale; the strategic considerations are more complex and the operational units are more varied, needing co-ordination across more barriers.

Dowling (1988) similarly summarises that the difference between domestic and international human resource management is that international human resource management is more complex than domestic human resource management. He further adds that in practice many organisations are still coming to terms with the human resources issues associated with international operations. Scullion (1995, p. 352) defines international human resource management as:

The human resource management issues and problems arising from the internationalisation of business, and the human resource management strategies, policies and practices which firms pursue in response to the internationalisation process.

Tung (1984) argues that, in the international arena, the quality of management seems to be even more critical than in domestic operations. The effective management of human resources has increasingly been recognised as a major determinant of success or failure in international business. This is primarily because the nature of international business operations involves the complexities of operating in different countries and employing different national categories of workers.

Most of international human resource management research has been conducted by American researchers, has been primarily concerned with American expatriates, and was written from an American rather than an international perspective. Scullion (1995) suggests that the research on international human resource management has focused on two general areas. The first is international staffing, which primarily deals with the problems of selecting and managing expatriate managers. The second is international management development. The reasons research has focused on these two areas are because, in all countries, organisations have to address the same human resource management issues: how to obtain and keep people to perform relevant tasks; how to develop them to be able to fulfil such tasks; how to resolve the dilemma of control and commitment. Brewster and Tyson (1991) suggest, however, that the means found in each country to resolve these issues will be based on and be part of the culture of that country. Studies have shown that national cultures affect organisation structures and policies as well as the work-related values and attitudes of employees. National cultures also influence the process of organisation decision-making and the relationships between people in organisations. Laurent (1986, p. 93) suggests that corporate cultures may also have a profound behavioural effect and points out that 'international human resource management may only be international in the eyes of the designers'.

1.4 European Human Resource Management

Several comparative analyses of European and international human resource management have been carried out in order to identify the most significant influences that have shaped human resource management. According to Brewster and Bournois (1991, p. 4-13), however, these studies have tended to describe the general national practices of human resource management and have focused on differences and similarities, thus providing 'a glimpse of the uneven way in which concepts of human resource management have been applied across Europe'.

Given its largely North American origins, Sparrow and Hiltrop (1994) suggest that it is important to first of all develop an understanding of what human resource management is in a European context Brewster and Hegewisch (1994) suggest that, in a global perspective, Europe has a coherence of its own and a distinctiveness from other major blocs. Remer (1986, p. 363) similarly suggests that, although there are differences in human resource management conditions and circumstances within western Europe, taken as a whole 'they stand out as being distinct from other economic areas like the USA, USSR or Japan'. According to Brewster and Tyson (1991), throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s a process of 'Europeanisation' has taken place and this provides an opportunity to re-evaluate human resource management in a regional context, by examining and interpreting differences in labour markets, participation structures, legislation, rewards, recruitment patterns and the harmonisation of qualifications. Sparrow and Hiltrop (1994), however, make the point that the need for the re-evaluation of what ts meant by human resource management in a European context is not just driven by international developments. Such a requirement is also dr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Tables and Figures
• Acknowledgements
• 1 INTRODUCTION
• 2 BARRIERS TO WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT
• 3 WORKING AT SENIOR MANAGEMENT LEVEL: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
• 4 CHALLENGES FOR FEMALE INTERNATIONAL MANAGERS: FURTHER EVIDENCE
• 5 A MODEL AND PROPOSITIONS FOR THE FEMALE INTERNATIONAL MANAGERIAL CAREER MOVE
• Bibliography
• Index