In the context of increasing levels of international activities and globalisation of market competition, international human resource management has attracted increasing attention. Women are under‐represented within the ranks of expatriate managers despite steady increases over the past decades and research on expatriates has predominately favoured the study of male professionals.
In Expatriate Women Managers, Katharina Hartl aims to analyse expatriation of Western women managers from a career theory perspective. It elaborates on how a career is socially constructed in an intercultural setting, how it is reproduced and modified and also which structures are relevant for the social agency of western women managers in the Far East.
The book is organised into five main sections. The first section includes the author’s definition of gender, career and expatriation, as well as a statement about why the research is needed. She notes here that the significance of this study arises out of a socio‐political commitment to ensure equal opportunities and the managing diversity approach which values different perspectives individuals bring to the workplace.
The second major section provides a systematic review of the literature on women in management and international management. An analysis of the literature shows that much of the research conducted on expatriate women managers builds on a set of hypotheses about women in (domestic and international) management on the one hand and (anecdotal) collections of women’s expatriate experience on the other. In fact, Hartl argues that the issue of women’s availability for expatriate postings is complex and subtle and is linked to stereotypical assumptions about women in (international) management and discriminatory practices in organisations. Most significantly, research on expatriate women managers lacks coherent theory building from a career theory perspective.
In the third main part, Hartl develops a theoretical framework “gender”, “culture” and “career” by drawing on Anthony Giddens’ Theory of Structuration, which provides an excellent theoretical tool for the analysis of structure and agency. The structurationist assumptions are linked with a perspective that conceives of “gender” as a medium and outcome of social interaction (“doing gender”), and a model of career according to which career emerges over time in interaction through the interplay of an individual’s self concept and organisational structures that are both shaped by culture. Conceptualising expatriation as “rites de passage” (or status passage) it is argued that expatriation leads to a re‐composition of an individual’s self‐ and career‐concept, simultaneously (re)producing social structures.
The fourth major section focuses on the empirical research part itself. In correspondence with the problem statement and the theoretical framework, she chose a qualitative research design. The selected research approach is case studies. In contrast to a number of qualitative researchers who feel they need to defend their methodological choices vis‐à‐vis quantitative approaches, Hartl explicitly rejects this “dilemma of difference” and does not want to perpetuate what she considers to be an “inferiority complex”. Instead, she thoroughly lays out the reasons for her methodological choices and explains all steps of data collection and analysis in detail. She critically reflects on both the potentials and the limitations of the selected research approach as well as her role as a researcher.
To make sense of the data generated predominately from case‐interviews with 12 Western women expatriate managers in Hong Kong, she employed the methods of cross‐case analysis and qualitative content analysis. Following a within‐case analysis, participant profiles were set up. The cross‐case analysis resulted in a systematic description of the work and life experiences of the interviewees.
These interviews are the essence of the book. So we meet a rather unique sample of successful women who have made it into senior management positions (and about half of them have done so in a particular environment as a Western expatriate in Hong Kong). We read about their personal thoughts and experiences as a woman manager in Hong Kong (and other Asian countries), about their expatriate work experience and their attempts in balancing work and private life experience. Hartl needs to be applauded for her analytical and interpretative achievements in assembling extracts from the interviews into a convincing, vivid picture of the work and life experiences of her interviewees. It is obvious that her theoretical background provides a (largely subtle) framework for the presentation of the empirical findings.
The final section of the book is one chapter that attempts to pull it all together. The discussion summarises the key results, relates the data to the theoretical framework and discusses implications for theory and practice (such as intercultural trainings). This passage would have been worth further elaboration. I believe that in particular the book could have been enhanced by the addition of managerial guidelines. For example, “What can managers learn from such relocation experiences?”, “How do they know that expatriation has effects on organisational structures?”, “May there be any spill‐over effects to the headquarters?” Without answers to these questions, the “So what?” question comes inevitably to the fore.
Despite this, the book is thought‐provoking in the breadth and depth of knowledge presented. The contribution to the scientific community lies in a theoretically grounded analysis of work and life experiences of Western women managers in a different socio cultural setting. The research shows that changes in an individual’s (career) self‐concept are likely to occur when faced with different life circumstances in a new socio‐cultural, economic and organisational environment.
