Factors Influencing Decisions in the International Assignment: A

Case from Indonesian Female Employees

Amanda Fitri

, Nayunda Andhika Sari

, Ayu Aprilianti Lizar

, Riani Rachmawati

Universitas Indonesia, Jl. Margonda Raya, PondokCina, Beji, 16424, Depok, Indonesia

Keyword: Factor, Influence, Decision, Female Employee

Abstract: The growing number of companies operating in global markets has led to the rising popularity of international

assignment practices. Companies that are competing globally require employees to acquire global

competencies and therefore international assignment has become a common practice to develop their talent.

However, there is still a disparity between female and male participants asthelow level of women's

participation is affected by a variety of factors.Given the low level of women's participation in international

assignments, this study is aimed to explore factors that influence their decisions to participate in

international assignments, especially in the context of Indonesian women. Qualitative data were obtained

from 9 participants working in multi-national companies through in-depth interview. The results confirmed

previous literatures on some important factors women consider if they were offered an international

assignment opportunity, namely family and career issues. Interestingly, the role of female assignees as their

“role model” and Management Training program that includes global mobility emerged in this research as

the significant factors these female employees consider in international assignment decisions.

1 INTRODUCTION

The increasing number of companies operating in

global markets led to the growing popularity of

international assignment practices. International

assignment is viewed as a tool or medium to

improve the global competence of individual

employees (Dickman and Harris, 2005). In addition

to its function as a career development tool,

international assignment also helps companies to fill

strategic positions with potential employees and

address skills gap issues (Vorhauser-Smith, 2013).

Consequently, Dragoni et al., Stroh et al. and

Takeuchi found that companies that are competing at

a global level require employees with global

competencies, and therefore international

assignment serves as a crucial tool to develop these

talents (Bolino, Klotz and Turnley, 2016).

Moreover, the increasing intensity of global

competition among companies has increased the

demand for expatriates, which became the key

success factor of multinational companies (MNC)

(Salamin and Hanappi, 2014). Due to the importance

of international assignment in MNCs, the number of

international assignees significantly increased up to

an estimate of 25 per cent in the past decade since

2010 and is estimated to increase up to 50 per cent in

2020 (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2010). However,

women's participation in the international

assignment program is still lacking compared to the

participation of men (Harris, 2004) as women only

fill 25 percent of the entire population of the

international assignees while 75 percent participants

are men (Dunlea, Thiel, Sojo and Westbrook, 2015).

Research have discussed some factors that make

employees generally reluctant to live and work

abroad, including family and career issues (Bolino,

Klotz and Turnley, 2016). These factors serve as the

top indicators of the lack of women's participation in

international assignment. Surveys show that as many

as 59 per cent of women face greater challenges than

men in accepting international assignment offers

(Brookfield GRS, 2016). In the context of

Indonesian women, the female labour force

participation is still much lower than men

(International Labour Organization, 2016). In

addition, the Indonesian traditional view that the

major role of women is as a wife and mother and not

as a breadwinner is still embedded in the society

(Utomo, 2004). Therefore, MNCs operating in

Indonesia are likely to experiencegreater challenge

Fitri, A., Sari, N., Lizar, A. and Rachmawati, R.

Factors Inﬂuencing Decisions in the International Assignment: A Case from Indonesian Female Employees.

DOI: 10.5220/0009999400002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 23-28

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

in improving the participation of female employees

in international assignments.

Developed from this particular problem, the

research is aimed toexplore factors

affectingIndoensian female employees’ decision to

participate in an international assignment.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

This research utilises previous studies on

international assignment and women issues as its

basis.

2.1 International Assignment

An international assignment is occurred when a

company assigns a local employee to work overseas

for a set period (Mercer, 2015). In 2005, Harris and

Dickmann found that large MNCs see international

assignment as a key to develop leaders at a global

scale (Dickmann, Doherty, Mills and Brewster,

2008). In addition, Edstrom and Galbraith stated in

1977 that the function of the international

assignment is to fill a certain position or skills gap

and develop their management and company. Over

time, companies find difficulty in financing their

assignee to work on their international engagement,

and there is a shortage of employees who agree to

move abroad. These issues are addressed by a non-

standard type of assignment where short-term

assignment becomes the most popular method

implemented in the companies (Tahvanainen, Welch

and Worm, 2005).

2.2 Decision Making Factors in

International Assignment

Regardless of their gender, the main consideration

behind employees’ reluctance to live and work

abroad is family and career (Bolino, Klotz and

Turnley, 2016). Brookfield Global Relocation

Services found that most often the reason to refuse

an international assignment is family (38%), their

partner’s income or career (18%), uncertain reward

from the relocation (16%), a perception of

insufficient compensation (15%), the relocation site

itself (4%) and others (8%) (Brookfield GRS, 2016).

In accordance with the latest survey from

Brookfield Global Relocation Services, the

determining factors in deciding whether to pursue an

international assignment among others are the

employee’s individual characteristics (e.g. gender,

age, and previous international experience), family

(e.g. responsibility or role in the family, their

partner’s response to the assignment), the

assignment itself (e.g. the duration, whether the

relocation site has cultural similarities to their home

country, and personal security) and variables within

the company (e.g. rules concerning relocation,

compensation and benefits) (Bolino, Klotz and

Turnley, 2016).

2.3 Women and International

Assignment

The low participation of women in international

assignment remains relevant today. This issue is

caused by several factors. One of the reasons for a

woman to refuse the assignment is because of their

married status, which makes them take up more

crucial role in the family (Van der Velde, Bossink

and Jansen, 2005). It is also found that women are

less likely than men to be considered by the

company for an international assignment (Linehan,

Scullion and Walsh, 2001). When there is an

opening for an international assignment and there

are women who would want to apply, senior

management will assume that women are not

inclined to take the opportunity to relocate because

of their marital status.

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study was conducted using qualitative method

to acquire the depth and breadth of data on the

factors that affect Indonesian women’s decision-

making to pursue an international assignment

(Raco, 2010). Data collection was done using an in-

depth interview with eight female employees and an

HR employee working for some MNCs. Gathering

data both from employees as well as management

(HR function) is required to satisfy data source

triangulation as an effort to increase the research

validity (Yazan, 2015). Employees involved in this

research must have a minimum of two years

working experience in the company to filter out

employees that have not completed their employee

induction and orientation period. In addition,

employees are assumed to already know the working

environment well.

Each interview was recorded from the beginning

to the end. The process of recording the interview is

approved by each participant. Each interview lasts

for approximately 40 to 60 minutes depending on

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

their openness and flexibility in answering the

interview questions. The next step after the

interview is transcribing the contents of the recorded

interviews into a verbatim or transcript format

(Guion, Diehl and McDonald, 2001). The document

containing the verbatim functions as a reference to

conduct data processing. The data was processed

using NVivo software which is used to organize data

and conduct the coding process which is conducted

in accordance with the method of Strauss and Corbin

(Corbin, and Strauss, 1990).The analysis process

used the grounded theory, which allows emergent

categories developed during coding process that

contributes in building the emerging theory (Glaser

and Strauss, 1967). However, according to Robert

Yin’s case study research design approach, it is also

necessary for researchers to conduct literature

review relevant to the case prior to data collection.

In this case, researcher included some literatures on

social and cultural context of Indonesian women,

which was used during data analysis (Yazan, 2015).

4 FINDINGS

Most of the participants are eager to benefit from the

international assignment by gaining new experience

and to grow professionally and personally. In

addition, there are participants who seek to gain a

promotion, use the international assignment as a

stepping stone to their career or further education,

increase their exposure, expand professional links

and network, acquire new perspectives from other

countries, seek greater compensation and learn about

diversity.

However, the participation of female employees

in the international assignment program is still

lacking. Among other factors, the participation rate

tends to be low due to the mobile nature of the work

nowadays, which is reflected in the answers from

most participants. An example is from Participant 7

(39 years old, married, Associate Director) who

stated that "[...] with the current digitisation, there

may be job positions that can be taken without

having to relocate."

Although the participation is still lacking, the

company is trying to balance the level of both

female and male participants. This is supported by

the following statement made by the HR Participant.

"[...] the ratio of women and men is now 50%

[...] but it depends on women’s willingnessto

geographically mobile or not. Indeed, the family

tradition in Indonesia may make it difficult. But we

never make any restrictions, so we have a ratio of

50%." (HR Participant)

The lack of women's participation, especially in

Indonesian, in international assignment is not

because of the system applied by the company but

because of the emerging factors, such as family,

career and relocation site. In addition, factors of role

model and whether the international assignment

program is available during management training

were also taken into consideration by the

participants. The family factor is influenced by

marital status and age. For married participants, they

are reluctant to leave the country as they do not want

to leave their families behind. However, there was

also an unmarried participant reluctant to be

internationally assigned due to her traditional view

on the role of women in the family.

"[...] from the get go I have been told that the

breadwinner duty is not on women [...] I am a

woman. If I were to be far away from my parents

and family, I would then abandon my responsibility

regardless of whether I want to marry and what my

plans are for myself right now. However, I feel that

it is my principle from the start that I do not want to

do this [international assignment] for work. I would

gladly go abroad for further studies

though."(Participant 6, 24 years old, unmarried,

Senior Officer of Learning for Development).

Career factor is influenced by the type of

employment and marital status of the employee. If

the type of work is dynamic and heavy, they do not

want to do the international assignment.

Furthermore, for married women, they choose not to

do the assignment as they are less ambitious to boost

their career by pursuing the international

assignment. The next factor is the relocation site

which includes questions of security, how advanced

the target country is, how the market will be, and

others. The reluctance of taking up the international

assignment due to the factors surrounding the

relocation site is as follows.

"[...] If I am told to go to India, I would not go

because the market is super messy [...] whereas, in

Europe, they are more into the creative aspect of

product marketing and how the communication

works, which is something that I can handle

better."(Participant 2, 25 years old, unmarried,

Product Executive).

Moreover, the presence of role models also

became a consideration which Participant 7

presented as follows.

"[...] aside from the people at a high-level

position, I see that the people who fly out are the

ones who are unmarried anyway [...] So I actually

Factors Inﬂuencing Decisions in the International Assignment: A Case from Indonesian Female Employees

want to do it but there has not been any role model

who really breaks down the barrier and has the same

condition and situation as me "(Participant 7, 39

years old, married, Associate Director).

The participants also pointed out the difference it

will make had the international assignment was

made available in the management training program.

This would spark more interest in the international

world early in their career as an entry-level

employee as they already pursue the management

training program in the first place. If the program

management training has an international

assignment, the participants may consider joining it.

5 DISCUSSION

It can be concluded from the interviews that most of

the participants adhere to the no gender bias

international assignment practice. Hence, the low

participation of women is caused by a lack of desire

to join the practice and not due to any gender bias

practices. Due to the many factors that the female

employees need to take into consideration, the

company is hesitant to offer the position to them.

This finding confirms previous study, which

discovered that companies have a negative

assumption of women’s desire to grow, and in the

end, male employees are chosen to be the

international assignees (Adler, 1994). The low

participation of women in the international

assignment is also showed in MNCs that have a

closed system of international assignee recruitment

and selection. Thus, the low level of participation

can be caused by a lack of information

dissemination by the company on the existence and

benefits of the program. The HR Participant stated

that although they opened an equal opportunity for

employees of all sexes and diverse backgrounds,

they do not want to boast the existence of

international assignment to the employees. The

reason is because they do not want to make the

program as something to be eagerly awaited by their

employees, as they cannot promise that everyone

will get a turn. From the company’s perspective, all

of the decisions need to be viewed from business

needs ranging from the required position and the

skills that entail.

Traditional view of women also plays a

significant role in international assignment

decisions. In the context of Indonesia, currently it is

even more common for women to have a job

(Utomo, 2004). However, according to previous

literatures, although both spouses work, the wife

continues to be a secondary earner. By being a

secondary earner, the wife is expected to generate

extra income for the family with her career, which

does not interfere with her primary role as a wife

and mother (Utomo, 2004). The low participation of

women can also be due to the universal idea shared

by women in Indonesia, which requires them to get

married and have children (Utomo, 2004). This puts

aside orientation of career and influence the person

to uphold family-oriented values. Therefore, this

research is supported by earlier studies, which found

that married women tend to decline the offer as they

have a more important role in the family (Van der

Velde, Bossink, Jansen, 2005).

6 CONCLUSION

The study found that most of the companies do not

see sex as a determining factor in the international

assignment selection and recruitment process, which

shows that there is no gender bias performed at the

policy level. However, women’s participation is still

classified as low and is caused by the deciding

factors, which made them reluctant to join the

program. In addition, there are several mobile jobs

that can be performed which the participants are

more inclined to take. In general, the most

influential factors are career and family. The family

factor is influenced by the employee’s marital status.

A married female employee pays more attention to

this aspect due to their greater role in the family,

especially when children are involved in their life.

Career is also a factor that the employees take

into consideration in accepting an international

assignment. Differences in the participants’

responses are due to their age, marital status and the

type of work they perform. The relocation site is

also a factor in their decision. They consider the

security level and distance of the relocation site,

whether the location is favourable for the

development of their career and how much of a

minority will they be when they relocate. The

absence of role models who have been or are

currently doing international assignment is shown as

a significant factor for married participants and for

the ones with children. Due to the absence of role

models who have taken their career to an

international level, the female employees who

wanted to join the program were discouraged as

their situation and condition are limited yet they do

not know how to resolve such issue.

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

7 IMPLICATIONS AND FUTURE

RESEARCH

Since the availability of mobile job positions are

also a trigger for the low level of participation in the

international assignment, further research could

explore whether international assignment is still

essential to MNCs. If international assignment is not

an important goal for female employees in

Indonesia, the company should give them a project

that is global in scale in the hope that they can still

feel the euphoria of working internationally without

having to relocate. Further researches could examine

which form of global project and involvement that is

suitable for the employees.

Moreover, it is also important to involve two

groups of particpants in the future research, where

the first group includes female employees who

already have been on an international assignment

and the second group includes female employees

that have been offered the job but declined. In doing

so, the factors that they consider would be more

diverse and in-depth because the participants are

involved in the international assignment process. In

addition, because in this study we acquired the data

from HR personnel and employees who do not work

in the same company, further researches should

examine HR personnel and employees that are

within the same company for their answers to be

aligned and allows them to be analysed in an “apple

to apple” manner.

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