Expatriate Women Managers. Gender, Culture and Career

Citation

Hartl, K. (2004), "Expatriate Women Managers. Gender, Culture and Career", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 414-415. https://doi.org/10.1108/02621710410529839

Studies of international managers and expatriates have predominantly focused on the careers and experiences of male managers and this book begins to fill a significant gap in the literature on expatriation – the under‐representation of women as expatriate managers. Through interviews with women expatriate managers, the author sets out to analyse the concept of a career within an “intercultural” setting.

The book is structured around an extensive initial introduction to a diverse range of theoretical approaches to the position of women managers in organisations, careers and international management. This is followed by a theoretical framework for gender; culture and career based on structuration theory. From this highly theoretical beginning, the book moves to an explanation of the methodological approach adopted and the presentation of empirical data. Finally, conclusions are drawn which attempt to link empirical findings to theoretical propositions.

The subject of this book is an under‐researched area and the careers of expatriate managers are not fully explored within the existing literature. The book provides an informed appraisal of existing sources, although the literature reviewed is highly diverse and the treatment somewhat fragmented and compartmentalised.

Hartl also provides a number of interesting case studies that illuminate the working lives of women expatriate managers. She explores the concept of career through the “lived” experiences of 12 western women managers in Hong Kong. A wide diversity of personal experiences is presented and the empirical material is potentially deep and rich. However, the coverage suffers from a number of analytical flaws which detract from the overall objective of “… increasing knowledge about women's international career paths from the standpoint of the actors in the situation” (p. 67).

Given the focus of the analysis, namely the biographies and career experiences of a number of expatriate women managers, I would have expected some consistency in the presentation of the profiles of respondents. However, the presentation of case material lacks such consistency and commonality. There is no real introduction or explanation of the order in which “lives” are narrated and it would have been much easier to follow if brief biographical details for each woman had been given at the beginning of each narrative. As it stands the life stories, whilst very rich in their content, do not read as a coherent narrative. The great diversity of the life stories and experiences might have been a great strength of the book but it comes across as a weakness because of the paucity of analysis. The treatment is highly descriptive and narrative and whilst rich in detail, there is no analysis of commonality or contrast in terms of background, aspiration or experience. The analytical stance taken also fails to link back to theoretical issues. As a result, opportunities for significant insight, interpretation and illumination of the earlier theoretical framework are not exploited. The referencing is inadequate in parts that also detracts from the book as a whole. It suffers from a lack of editing. Much of the detail of the research lacks relevance in this context and the theoretical background overwhelms the data rather than supporting or illuminating it.

This was a highly ambitious undertaking and perhaps too much was attempted at the outset. The conclusions reached and discussion presented is very brief and scant in comparison with the very full discussion of a number of different theoretical perspectives presented at the beginning of the book. As a result it does not convincingly demonstrate how changes in individuals’ concepts of career occur in responses to different circumstances within a new intercultural setting. Overall, although the data are rich, detailed and diverse, a more thorough analysis of the material and perhaps a narrower focus would have done the study greater justice.