The choice of an employee for an international assignment is a critical decision. Because most expatriates work under minimal supervision in a distant location, mistakes in selection are likely to go unnoticed until it is too late. To choose the best employee for the job, management should:

• ▪ Emphasize cultural sensitivity as a selection criterion Assess the candidate’s ability to relate to people from different backgrounds. For instance, one large electronics manufacturing firm conducts in-depth interviews with the candidate’s supervisors, peers, and subordinates, particularly those whose gender, race, and ethnic origin are different from the candidate’s. Personal interviews with the candidate and written tests that measure social adjustment and adaptability should also be part of the selection process.

• ▪ Establish a selection board of expatriates Some HRM specialists strongly recommend that all international assignments be approved by a selection board consisting of managers who have worked as expatriates for a minimum of three to five years.69 This kind of board should be better able to detect potential problems than managers with no international background.

• ▪ Require previous international experience Although not always feasible, it is highly desirable to choose candidates who have already spent some time in a different country. The major reason the state of Utah is in the forefront of international business is its large Mormon population, whose church requires them to spend a minimum of two years as missionaries in another country. Some schools (such as the American Graduate School of International Management in Phoenix, Arizona) and some MNCs offer overseas internships. A growing number of business schools, including UCLA and the University of Southern California, are broadening their collaboration with universities and businesses abroad. In this way, candidates acquire some knowledge of a country’s language and customs before taking on a full-blown expatriate assignment.

• 

  ▪ Explore the possibility of hiring foreign-born employees who can serve as “expatriates” at a future date Japanese companies have been quite successful at hiring young foreign-born (non-Japanese) employees straight out of college to work in the home office in Japan. These recruits enter the firm with little experience and exposure to work in their host country and, thus, are blank slates on which the Japanese MNC can write its own philosophy and values.70 Some U.S. companies, such as Coca-Cola, have been following a similar practice for years.

• 

  ▪ Carefully consider the expatriate’s ethical values in the selection process Of course, ethics is important for all employees, but it is particularly critical for expatriates because they enjoy much discretion and autonomy overseas. One issue that most expatriates will encounter is the temptation to pay bribes to secure local contracts (see the Manager’s Notebook, “The Temptation to Pay Bribes”). Even though paying bribes is illegal for U.S. firms, they may justify it by thinking “This is normal here” and “Otherwise, we couldn’t get much done.” Training can also be helpful in reducing ethical problems, but training most likely will not overcome a person’s willingness to commit unethical acts if they don’t perceive this as being wrong (for instance, if they believe that the end justifies the means).

• ▪ Screen candidates’ spouses and families Because the unhappiness of expatriates’ family members plays such a large role in the failure of international assignments, some companies are screening candidates’ spouses. For instance, Ford formally assesses spouses on qualities such as flexibility, patience, and adaptability, asking questions such as: “How do you feel about this assignment? Do you feel you can adjust?” Exxon, too, meets with spouses and children during the selection process.71

• ▪ Develop an effective selection program not only for expatriates, but also for those locals who will help the expatriate manager carry out his or her mission The international firm should generate a pool of needed human resources at the local level to help accomplish its objectives. The expatriate’s job becomes easier if he or she can focus on broader issues while delegating other tasks to expert local staff.

MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK The Temptation to Pay Bribes

Ethics/Social Responsibility

Despite the fact that paying bribes to foreign officials to secure contracts has been illegal in the United States for over 35 years (since passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act [FCPA] in 1977) and that many European countries also ban this practice, bribes continue to be alive and well when it comes to international management. Consider the following well-publicized cases during the past decade or so:

• ▪ Hewlett Packard has been accused of paying several million dollars in bribes for the delivery and installation of an information technology network in Russia.

• ▪ Siemens AG paid several million dollars to secure a contract for installing a traffic control system in Moscow. During the past decade, Siemens has paid over $1 billion in fines in the United States and Germany for paying bribes to win contracts in Russia, Argentina, China, and Israel.

• ▪ Daimler paid over $100 million in fines after getting caught for improper payments in South America, Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

• ▪ Halliburton, a U.S. contractor once headed by former vice president Dick Cheney, paid a fine of nearly $560 million to settle claims by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Department of Justice that a former subdivision of the firm paid kickbacks to Nigerian officials.

Cases concerning well-known firms and large sums of money such as the ones listed here most likely represent the tip of the iceberg. Many smaller companies probably pay bribes overseas on a fairly routine basis. In other countries, bribes may be hidden under legitimate business terms such as “commissions,” “transaction expenses,” and “special fees.” ▪▪

The assumption that people everywhere respond in similar fashion to the same images, symbols, and slogans has hurt U.S. companies offering their products in international markets. See the Manager’s Notebook, “The Challenge of Overcoming Cultural Barriers.”

MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK The Challenge of Overcoming Cultural Barriers

Customer-Driven HR

You think you speak the language, and you discover you don’t.” That was the reaction of David Rosenberg, a Texan recently assigned to England as a project manager who used trial and error to communicate with British colleagues. For instance, the word scheme is interpreted as “service” in England, while in the United States, it has a connotation of deceit.

Cross-cultural communication can present many pitfalls to the unprepared. A U.S. marketing vice president who works overseas says, for instance, that it is sometimes difficult to recognize the word “no” when, as in Japan, it comes couched in terms such as “This is very interesting; we’ll certainly give it serious consideration.”

Alert Driving, a firm that provides online training courses to companies with vehicle fleets, was surprised to realize that the direct language used in its online training courses was found to be offensive to speakers of many Asian dialects. It was often interpreted by trainees as disrespectful. The company spent about $1 million honing its use of language dialects to avoid cultural blunders in different local markets.

Nonverbal communication is potentially perilous as well. The emphasis of Chinese philosophy on harmony and balance means that it is preferable to give presents in pairs in China. In addition, business gifts should be reciprocated, and the giving of cash is considered to be rude. Pairs of gifts are appreciated in Japan as well and should be presented with both hands, but it’s unlucky to give four or nine of anything. In Saudi Arabia, only intimate friends exchange gifts, and always with the right hand.

Training is one of the best ways to ready people to experience cultures around the world. For example, to prepare members of the military at Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base for combat as well as humanitarian missions, the Air University, which is based there, has adopted a new course on cross-culture competency. Already scheduled to expand over the next five years, the course will focus on kinship, language, religion, sports, and conflict resolution. “This is not a hollow exercise,” says the director of the effort. One reason for the emphasis on kinship is because power structures differ in matrilineal and patrilineal societies, a point that could be important in negotiating conflict resolution abroad.

It’s equally important to be prepared at home. As more workers from developing nations join the U.S. workforce, working effectively with colleagues from other cultures will grow more important. “You don’t have to leave the U.S. to face these issues,” said one New York native and owner of a family business who almost made a costly mistake by misconstruing a message from a customer in Louisiana. “We’ve got plenty big enough differences here.” Ninety percent of respondents in a recent survey expect their organizations to grow more culturally diverse over just the next three to five years.

Source:Based on Maltby, E. (2010, January 19). Expanding abroad? Avoid cultural gaffes. Wall Street Journal, B-5; Payne, N. Cross-cultural gift giving etiquette. Business Know-How, www.businessknowhow.com . Accessed April 12, 2009; Rowell, J. (2009, April 3). Military to lessen culture shock via classroom lessons. Montgomery Advertiser, www.montgomeryadvertiser.com ; Paton, N. (2009, April 1). How to bestride continents with confidence. Management Issues, www.management-issues.com ; Sandberg, J. (2008, January 29). Global-market woes are more personality than nationality. Wall Street Journal, C-1. For related stories see Kraimer, M. L., Shaffer, M. A., and Bolino, M. C. (2009, January/February). The influence of expatriate and repatriate experiences on career advancement and repatriate retention. Human Resource Management, 48(1), 27–48; Benson, G. S., and Pattie, M. (2009, January/February). The comparative role of home and host supervisors in the expatriate experience. Human Resource Management, 48(1), 49–68; Herman, J. L., and Tetrick, L. E. (2009, January/February). Problem-focused versus emotion-focused coping strategies and repatriation adjustments. Human Resource Management, 48(1), 69–88.▪▪

Cross-cultural training sensitizes candidates for international assignment to the local culture, customs, language, tax laws, and government.72 Ideally, the training process should begin nine to twelve months in advance of the international assignment.73

Although training can cost $1,600 and more per manager in 2009 estimates, many companies feel the expense is minor compared to the huge cost of failed expatriate stints. For instance, despite massive cost-cutting moves at General Motors, the auto giant still spends nearly $500,000 a year on cross-cultural training for about 150 Americans and their families headed abroad. GM’s general director of international personnel attributes the very low (less than 1 percent) premature return rate of GM expatriates to this training. The experience of a Cortland, Ohio, family transferred to Kenya by GM is typical. The family members underwent three days of cross-cultural training that consisted of a crash course in African political history, business practices, social customs, and nonverbal gestures. The family’s two teenagers, who were miserable about moving to Africa, sampled Indian food (popular in Kenya) and learned how to ride Nairobi public buses, speak a little Swahili, and even how to juggle.74

One survey found that 57 percent of companies provide one day’s worth of cross-cultural preparation; 32 percent provide it for the expatriate employee’s entire family; and 22 percent for only the expatriate employee and spouse. Surprisingly, only 41 percent of firms mandated participation in cross-cultural preparation.75 The least expensive type of cross-cultural training, the information-giving approach, lasts less than a week and merely provides indispensable briefings and a little language training. The affective approach (one to four weeks) focuses on providing the psychological and managerial skills the expatriate will need to perform effectively during a moderate-length assignment. The most extensive training, the impression approach (one to two months), prepares the manager for a long assignment with greater authority and responsibility by providing, for instance, field experiences and extended language training. Ideally, at least a portion of these training programs should be targeted to the expatriate’s family. It is also possible (indeed desirable) to use similar “decompression” training programs for returning expatriates to help them cope with reverse culture shock.

Perhaps the most critical part of expatriate training occurs “on the job” and takes place shortly after the expatriate’s arrival. Local managers need to be prepared to train incoming expatriates to ensure a smooth transition and to warn them of unexpected cultural pitfalls they may encounter. For instance, Dennis Ross, general manager of offshore operations at Convergys, a call-center company based in Cincinnati, works closely with Convergys’ Indian Vice President Jaswinder Ghumman. When Convergys was building its company cafeteria in Gurgaon, a suburb of New Delhi, Ghumman was obliged to point out to Ross that Indian food must be served hot, and the cafeteria had to be able to support hot meal service. In addition, U.S. managers had to be educated on Indian food preferences and learn that cold sandwiches were not considered a meal item. According to Ross, “Who’d have thought tuna on rye could be such a stumbling block? We’ve succeeded by fostering open communications with our local people by taking nothing for granted.”76

A key goal of selection and training by multinational firms is to have employees and managers located around the world who understand the norms, values, and expectations of the local community and how these may be blended with the firm’s own culture and strategies. For instance, Disney at first faced major problems attracting visitors to the Disneyland Park in Taiwan, which opened in 2005. But by 2012, the situation had changed.

Visitors who do come find themselves in a thoroughly Chinese version of Disneyland. Among the attractions are an employee costumed as Cai Shen Ye, the Chinese god of wealth, and special red New Year’s outfits for Mickey and Minnie to celebrate the Year of the Rat, renamed the Year of the Mouse inside the park. The upside-down Chinese character for “luck,” a New Year’s tradition, even featured a set of mouse ears on top, and the traditional parade down “Main Street USA” includes a dragon dance with traditional Chinese music, bird and flower puppets, and costumed figures representing the gods of longevity and happiness.

Apart from learning how to deal with cultural differences, another major challenge of training programs is to help prospective expatriates navigate risky international environments where politics can interfere with operations. The expatriate should never forget that sovereign governments have the power to facilitate, hinder, or even prevent her or his company from operating in their territories. Often business practices that are normal in the United States are considered illegal or proscribed in other countries (see the Manager’s Notebook, “Learning How to Cope with Political Risks”).

MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK Learning How to Cope with Political Risks

Emerging Trends

Two of the most challenging tasks for expatriates and managers dealing with global issues are anticipating and dealing with political risks. Mistakes in these areas can be very costly because the company may miss important business opportunities, may be subject to fines and expensive legal suits, and in the extreme invite undesired government intervention into the business. A few examples within the last five years are listed here:

• ▪ IKEA is trying to open retail stores in India, but its business model of having all stores fully owned by the company has made this impossible so far. India’s regulations require IKEA to have a local business partner and limit its stake in the joint venture to 51 percent. Unfortunately, according to IKEA’s CEO, the company’s business model “doesn’t lend itself to a joint venture.” This means losing out on one of the largest furniture markets in the world, estimated at $380 billion. Ninety-five percent or so of furniture in India is sold through small mom-and-pop shops.

• ▪ China has recently threatened retaliation against United Technologies, Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin, even though these companies were not responsible for China’s anger. Chinese leaders were enraged by U.S. plans to sell helicopters and antimissile systems to Taiwan.

• ▪ In a separate case concerning China, the Chinese government is trying to compel foreign automakers that want to produce electric vehicles in China to share critical technologies by requiring the companies to enter joint ventures in which they are limited to a minority stake. The plan is “tantamount to China strong-arming foreign auto makers to give up battery, electric-motor, and control technology in exchange for market access,” says a senior executive at one foreign automaker. “We don’t like it.”

• ▪ U.S. firms of all sizes are introducing hotlines so that any employee can anonymously report to company officials what he or she believes is an ethical problem (such as managers falsifying accounting numbers, lying to customers, shortchanging safety requirements, committing or overlooking sexual harassment, overcharging the government, and the like). Many firms are trying to use these hotlines not only in the United States but also in their international operations. But they are encountering some unexpected opposition. For instance, France blocked McDonald’s and Exide Technologies from using hotlines, asserting that they violate French privacy law because accusations can be anonymous. Anonymity—a key feature of U.S. hotlines—raises hot-button issues across Europe. In much of the European Union, notes London-based law firm Faegre & Benson LLP, “there is an historical unease over the concept of encouraging individuals to inform against others.” The law firm Proskauer Rose LLP says that to Europeans—especially in Germany and France—anonymous reporting can “smack of WWII-era authoritarianism, neighbor spying on neighbor.”

Source:Based on Global Political Risks (2013). www.riskwatchdog.com ; www.thinkingethics.typepad.com . (2013). Thinking ethics; Wall Street Journal (2010, September 21). IKEA Cozies Up to India, B-10; BusinessWeek (2010, February 15), Thunder from China, 8; Gomez-Mejia, L., and Balkin, D. B. (2012). Management. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall; Shirouzu, N. (2010, September 17). China spooks automakers. Wall Street Journal, A-1.▪▪

The expatriate’s motivation to perform well on an international assignment, to remain in the post for the duration of the assignment, and to be a high performer upon returning to the home office will depend to a large extent on the career development opportunities offered by the employer. At a minimum, successful career planning for expatriates requires the firm to do three things:

• ▪ Position the international assignment as a step toward advancement within the firm The firm should explicitly define the job; the length of the assignment; and the expatriate’s reentry position, level, and career track on return. Some companies are shortening the length of expatriates’ assignments. Three-quarters of firms responding to one survey indicate that the typical expatriate assignment is less than 12 months.77 One reason is to ensure that the expatriate does not become too far removed from the company’s mainstream. A second is that in 79 percent of cases, the family remains behind. One obvious drawback of this policy is that it may take a minimum of three to six months for an expatriate to feel comfortable with the local culture, just when it is time to return back home. Successful performance often depends on the establishment of internal and external social networks that take time to develop.

• ▪ Provide support for expatriates Maintaining contact can be accomplished in a number of ways.78 A popular method is the buddy system, in which a manager or mentor at the home office is appointed to keep in touch with the expatriate and to provide assistance wherever necessary. Another approach has the expatriate employee coming back to the home office occasionally or at specified intervals to foster a sense of belonging to the organization and to reduce reentry shock. Some firms will pay for the expatriate’s family to return home with him or her during this time. Although perhaps not a substitute for any of the above, technology now makes it possible for expatriates to be much more connected to the home office on a daily basis. (See the Manager’s Notebook “Staying Closer to Home While Far Away.”)

• ▪ Provide career support for spouse If the spouse is giving up his or her job to move, it can reduce family income by an average of 28 percent.79 A recent Merrill Lynch survey indicated that most expatriates now expect the company to provide dual-career support.80

MANAGER’S NOTEBOOK Staying Closer to Home While Far Away

Technology/Social Media

One of the main complaints of expatriates is that they are forgotten in a foreign land.

Not long ago an expatriate assignment meant an almost total disconnect from the corpo-ration’s mainstream, with survey after survey showing that expatriates often felt “out of sight, out of mind.” This translated into a perception that international assignments were not a good way to climb up the corporate ladder. Companies are now finding creative avenues for senior managers in corporate headquarters to remain in close contact with expatriates. For instance, a recent study reports that “one company created web portals that allowed employees to view expat policy statements and also to communicate with bosses, colleagues, and other expats around the world in chat rooms. Another used advanced video conferencing technology.” Inexpensive programs requiring minimal investment such as Skype now allow for instant face-to-face communication from almost any country in the world by clicking a few keys—yet this was science fiction in the Star Trek movies of the 1990s.

Source:Based on McEvoy, G.M., and Buller, P.F. (2013). Research for practice: The management of expatriates. Thunderbird International Business Review, 55(2), 213–226; Ananthran, S., and Chan, C. (2013). Challenges and strategies for global human resource executives: Perspectives from Canada and the United States. European Management Journal, 31, 223–233; Zhuang, W. L., Wu, M., and Wen, S. C. (2013). Relationship of mentoring functions to expatriate adjustments: Comparing home country mentorship and host country mentorship. International Journal of Human Resources, 24(5), 905–921; Shaffer, M., Singh, B., and Chen, Y. (2013). Expatriate satisfaction: The role of organizational inequities, assignment stressors and perceived assignment value. International Journal of Human Resource Management, www.tandonline.com .▪▪

Firms can use compensation packages to enhance the effectiveness of expatriate assignments. However, compensation policies can create conflict if locals compare their pay packages to the expatriate’s and conclude that they are being treated unfairly. Planning compensation for expatriates requires management to follow three important guidelines:

• ▪ Provide the expatriate with a disposable income that is equivalent to what he or she would receive at home This usually requires granting expatriate employees an allowance for price differences in housing, food, and other consumer goods. Allowances for children’s schooling and the whole family’s medical treatment may also be necessary. The best-known cost-of-living index for world locations is published by Corporate Resources Group, a Geneva-based consulting firm that surveys 97 cities worldwide twice a year.

  The U.S. State Department also maintains a current cost-of-living index for most major cities around the world. Some of the most expensive locations around the world—including Tokyo, Osaka, London, and most Scandinavian cities—cost at least 50 percent more to live in than New York City. For short-term stays, the Runzheimer Guide provides per diem costs for 1,000 cities around the world. This index is used by hundreds of organizations to approve, benchmark, and budget travel expenses.81

  Maintaining income equality with the home office is not an exact science (for example, finding housing in Japan comparable to that available in U.S. suburbs is nearly impossible), but as a general rule, it is better to err on the side of generosity. See Figure 17.4 for a comparison of living costs in various cities around the world.

• ▪ Provide an explicit “add-on” incentive for accepting an international assignment The company may provide a sign-on bonus before departure. Or it may offer the employee a percentage increase over his or her home base salary; the standard increase is 15 percent of the base salary.82 Or it may provide a lump-sum payment upon successful completion of the foreign assignment. Some firms offer a combination of these incentives. Generally, the greatest incentives are reserved for the least desirable locations. For instance, MNCs hoping to lure Western managers to Eastern Europe—where poor air quality, political instability, and a shortage of quality housing make assignments unattractive—often offer packages that include company-paid housing, subsidized shipment of scarce consumer goods, up to four trips home a year, and weekend getaways to Western Europe.83 Oil companies operating in Colombia amid civil war face a constant threat of terrorism. Expatriates have been kidnapped and murdered. Occidental Petroleum alone has seen its pipeline bombed by rebels about 170 times a year.84 In this situation, most expatriates receive hardship pay three to five times greater than the pay they would earn at home.

• ▪ Avoid having expatriates fill the same jobs held by locals or lower-ranking jobs Local employees tend to compare their pay and living standards to those of expatriates, and feelings of unfairness are more likely to surface if an expatriate at the same or lower rank than the local is receiving greater pay. Unfortunately, it may be impossible to prevent those feelings of inequity, particularly if a U.S. firm sends one of its top executives overseas. Compared to Western European countries, for instance, U.S. executives may earn as much as 20 times what a similar executive makes locally.

In some local labor markets, such as India, wages are increasing quickly for certain occupations as outsourcing outfits scramble for talent. For instance, controlling for inflation, the salary of a project manager in India in 2014 was more than three times what it was in 2000, and turnover in 2014 is running at 25 to 35 percent annually. As a result, companies in India and other places are starting to hire U.S. talent in order to fill a void at the local level as the cost of native skilled labor rises.85 Ironically, many skilled Indian workers leave the country each year for the Persian Gulf or Singapore, where wages are higher.86

Calculating compensation packages for expatriate employees is one of the most difficult tasks facing MNCs.87 Compensation used to be a relatively simple issue: Low-level local hires got paid in the local currency, while expatriate managers’ pay was pegged to U.S. salaries. However, in an era of dramatic corporate restructuring to cut costs, expatriate packages based on U.S. salaries are increasingly being considered too expensive. Moreover, as companies move into the later stages of internationalization, they work with a team of international employees operating out of the home office rather than just expatriates.

Still, some companies continue to compensate their expatriates generously. To avoid potential pay inequities when employees are transferred from one international post to another, 3M compares net salaries in both the old and the new country and provides the transferred employee whichever pay package is higher.88 And Seagram Spirits and Wine Group has come up with an “international cadre policy” for those expatriates who work abroad permanently (as opposed to expatriates who will return to the United States in the future). The package features a standardized cost-of-living adjustment and a global standard employee housing contribution that is the same regardless of location. For temporary U.S. expatriates, Seagram maintains what it terms a “pure expatriate” package that keeps people up to par with U.S. compensation standards.89

One thing that makes these pay comparisons easier today is the availability of international pay and benefit surveys on the Web. For instance, Personnel Systems Associates offers a directory of 1,500 such surveys covering hundreds of job titles.90

Several other excellent sources that provide comprehensive global pay data include the Radford International Survey ( www.radford.com ), the Culpepper Global Compensation Survey ( www.culpepper.com ), and the ERI Economic Research Institute Survey ( www.erieri.com ).

One issue that continues to complicate compensation design for expatriates is fluctuating exchange rates. For instance, in 2000 each dollar was worth approximately 1.22 euros. By 2005, each dollar was worth .70 euros. By summer 2008, each dollar was worth .54 euros, and by 2014 it was around .66 euros. Pay equity ratios between natives (paid in local currency) and expatriates (paid in dollars) can change very quickly. Firms usually handle this problem by adjusting the pay of employees who are “losing” (those whose currency is being devalued), but this needs to be done carefully because the value of the currency may change again.91 Paying all employees (locals and expatriates) in U.S. dollars adds even more complexity to the pay equity issue. As recently noted by one analyst, “This has often resulted in distortion of several local pay markets as natives in countries with relatively weak currencies compared with the U.S. dollar (e.g., Africa, Asia-Pacific) who are paid in dollars received compensation of 200 percent to 300 percent more than local norms.”92

A recent survey asked expatriates, “What advice would you have for HR departments about handling expatriates?” According to Professor Joyce Osland, who conducted the study, “What they want most from the HR department is to have unnecessary uncertainty eliminated. There is enough ambiguity overseas—they don’t need any more from the HR department. Expatriates want HR to remove obstacles.” According to one survey respondent, “The first thing that HR needs to do is to make sure it knows how to handle the logistics such as getting the furniture moved. Because you have all of these little . . . [problems] that take up all of your time when you are trying to deal with other things . . .”93

Another survey by Polak International Consultants, an international human resources consulting firm, confirms that most expatriates are unhappy with the services provided by their HR departments; the survey respondents considered the HR department unprepared to meet the requirements of a global workforce. This suggests that a priority in coming years is for multinational corporations’ HR departments to be more aware and sensitive to the needs of an international workplace.94 To achieve this requires not only better service to expatriates but also better tracking of HR trends overseas.

Although in 2014 women represented almost half of all managers in the United States, only 13 percent of U.S. managers sent abroad are women. According to a study by Catalyst, an international consulting firm, there are three misconceptions about women’s ability and willingness to handle international assignments: (1) Companies assume that women are not as internationally mobile as men, yet 80 percent of women have never turned down an expatriate assignment offered to them, whereas only 71 percent of men have never turned down expatriate assignments. (2) Companies assume that women encounter more work–life conflict working on a global schedule. However, nearly half of both women and men report they find work–life balance difficult. (3) Most companies believe clients outside the United States are not as comfortable doing business with women as they are with men. In fact, 76 percent of expatriate women said being a woman had a positive or neutral impact on their effectiveness overseas.95