International adjustment of female vs male business expatriates

Abstract

Despite a host of supportive anecdotal evidence and an increasing demand for business expatriates, women are a relatively untapped source for expatriate assignments. To compare their international adjustment, Western female and male business expatriates responded to a mail survey in Hong Kong. Controlling for differences in background variables between the two gender groups, there was no gender difference in terms of general adjustment, but there were indications that female expatriates had higher interaction and work adjustment than their male counterparts. On the other hand, the men may have experienced a higher degree of psychological adjustment than the women. Implications of these findings for globalizing firms, as well as for their female employees, are discussed in detail.

Keywords:

• Adjustment
• female and male expatriates
• Hong Kong