THE CHALLENGES OF WOMEN EXPATRIATES REGARDING INTERNATIONAL ASSIGNMENT

Abstract

With the ever-increasing amount of global business conducted in today’s world, the need for expatriate assignments on behalf of the workplace is increasing also. There is a deficit in the amount of female managers currently on international assignment. The primary objective of this thesis was to identify the challenges facing women, which would have prevented more women from embracing international assignments, and to more thoroughly explore stated challenges in order to pinpoint possible small-scale solutions. The thesis was based on IHRM. The main research method was a collective case study, which consisted mainly of dual perspective qualitative research. The primary conclusions of this thesis are that with additional local support, the support of the corporation and better repatriation strategies, more women would be likely to enter into the field of international assignment. Further research is needed in industry specific aspects of these fields, as well as return on investment.