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Institutional discrimination of women and workplace harassment of female expatriates: Evidence from 25 host countries

Benjamin Bader (Department of Strategic Management and Organization, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Lueneburg, Germany)
Sebastian Stoermer (Department of HRM and Asian Business, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany)
Anna Katharina Bader (Department of HRM and Asian Business, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany)
Tassilo Schuster (Department of International Management, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany)

Journal of Global Mobility

ISSN: 2049-8799

Article publication date: 21 February 2018

Issue publication date: 21 March 2018

6862

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate workplace gender harassment of female expatriates across 25 host countries and consider the role of institutional-level gender discrimination as a boundary condition. Further, the study investigates the effects of workplace gender harassment on frustration and job satisfaction and general job stress as a moderator.

Design/methodology/approach

The sample is comprised of 160 expatriates residing in 25 host countries. The authors test the model using partial least-squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results show that female expatriates experience more workplace gender harassment than male expatriates. This effect is particularly pronounced in host countries with strong institutional-level gender discrimination. Moreover, the authors found significant main effects of gender harassment on expatriates’ frustration and job satisfaction. Further, the authors identified a significant association between frustration and job satisfaction. No significant moderation effect of general job stress was found.

Research limitations/implications

The study’s data are cross-sectional. Future studies are encouraged to use longitudinal research designs. Further, future studies could center on perpetrators of harassment, different manifestations of harassment, and effective countermeasures.

Practical implications

The study raises awareness on the challenges of harassment of female expatriates and the role of the host country context. Further, the study shows the detrimental effects of gender harassment on female expatriates’ job satisfaction which is a central predictor of variables crucial to international assignments, for example, performance or assignment completion.

Originality/value

The study is among the first endeavors to include institutional-level gender discrimination as a boundary condition of workplace gender harassment of female expatriates, and therefore puts the interplay between macro- and micro-level processes into perspective.

Keywords

Citation

Bader, B., Stoermer, S., Bader, A.K. and Schuster, T. (2018), "Institutional discrimination of women and workplace harassment of female expatriates: Evidence from 25 host countries", Journal of Global Mobility, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 40-58. https://doi.org/10.1108/JGM-06-2017-0022

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited

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