Does International Assignment Matter?: Indonesian Women's

Perception on Multi-national Companies’ Attractiveness

Mutia Salsabila Andini

, Nayunda Andhika Sari

, Ayu Aprilianti Lizar

, Riani Rachmawati

Universitas Indonesia, Jl. Margonda Raya, Pondok Cina, Beji, 16424, Depok, Indonesia

Keyword: International assignment, women’s perception, multi-national attractiveness

Abstract: International assignment has been a popular global staffing activity in multi-national companies (MNCs)

because of its numerous benefits. However, women’s participation in international assignment is still low

compared to men while actually women were found to have suitable eagerness, skills, and characteristics for

international assignment. Besides, today’s competition in acquiring qualified talent with global talent is

fierce. Since international assignment contributes to organizational attractiveness, particularly in

development value, MNC needs to deploy some strategies to promote the benefits of international

assignment in order to distinct themselves from the competitors therefore build a bigger talent pool. Hence,

this study aims to explore the role of international assignment and its branding practices on Indonesian

women’s perception towards MNC’s attractivenss. The study was conducted with qualitative method using

in-depth interview technique to 10 participants. It is found that international assignment is less significant

factor of MNC’s attractivess compared to other factors, especially interest and economic value. This finding

is also supported by MNC’s lack of branding efforts in international assignment branding, family-related

issues, and the time periode of the assignment.

1 INTRODUCTION

Globalization is widely considered as a major

catalyst in the emergence and implementation of

international assignment activity (Point and

Dickmann, 2012). Expansion into growing foreign

markets and international businesses also contributes

to popularize international assignment activities

because these companies are increasingly tied to

global staffing activities (Collings, Scullion and

Morley, 2007). The number of expatriates sent by

companies grows higher and organizations

increasingly see the value gained from international

assignment, as evidenced by 89% of organizations

planning to increase the number of their mobile

workers in the next few years based on the

Pricewaterhouse Coopers survey

(PricewaterhouseCooper, 2016). Despite the trend in

the past few years that saw an increase in the

number of woman assignees, this increase is

stagnant at around 20% and still way lower than

80% of men percentage (PricewaterhouseCooper,

2015). McCutcheon and Morrison suggested that

women experience work-life conflict greater than

that of men because demands in the workplace have

a greater impact on women in balancing their roles

at home and at work (McCutcheon and Morrison,

2017). In addition, decision makers in international

assignment are mostly men which make their view

in women clouded by traditional views and

stereotypes (Stroh, Varma and Valy-Durbin, 2000).

In fact, previous research said that women have the

skills needed in international assignment such as the

ability to build relationships and have suitable

characteristics in cross-cultural situations such as

empathy, more sensitivity, and interpersonal

awareness (Guthrie, Ash and Stevens, 2003).

International assignment program is one of major

components in employer attractiveness represented

by development value dimension (Berthon, Ewing

and Hah, 2005). Point and Dickmann suggested that

implementing international assignment could boost

employer attractiveness, thus attracting more

candidates to join Multinational Companies (MNC)

(Point and Dickmann, 2012). Unfortunately, there

are not many companies who optimize the upsides

gained from the activity in order to promote

employer image to external parties. In fact, earlier

studies emphasized the importance of being an

employer of global choice for MNCs in order to

Andini, M., Sari, N., Lizar, A. and Rachmawati, R.

Does International Assignment Matter?: Indonesian Women’s Perception on Multi-national Companies’ Attractiveness.

DOI: 10.5220/0010000000002917

In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Laws, Arts and Humanities (BINUS-JIC 2018), pages 59-63

ISBN: 978-989-758-515-9

 2022 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All r ights reserved

ensure the fulfillment of talent supply in accordance

with needs (Scullion, Collings and Gunnigle, 2007).

Generation Y (Millennials) dominating today’s

employment market is a potential target for

international assignment Since most of them

expressed their desire to work outside their home

country and they believed that having an overseas

assignment experience could help improve their

careers (PricewaterhouseCooper, 2016). However,

conditions in Indonesia can be different due to social

and cultural factors. The level of female labor

participation is still far below that of men, which is

50.8% (World Bank, 2018), while men are 81.6%

(World Bank, 2018). Gender inequality rate in

Indonesia is considerably high, ranking 105 out of

188 countries in Gender Inequality Index (United

Nation Development Programme, 2018). In addition,

women’s empowerment in Asia Pacific region in

general is still hindered by cultural norms, values,

assumptions, and stereotypes about women that have

firmly rooted in patriarchal and religious traditions

(Tatli, Vassilopoulou, and Özbilgin, 2013). All of

these conditions will be challenges and conditions

for companies to carry out international assignment

branding in Indonesia.

Based on the background above, this study will

explore the role of international assignment on

Indonesian women’s perception towards MNCs’

attractiveness.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 International Assignment

International assignment is defined as employee

transfer internationally within an MNC (Collings,

Doherty, Luethy and Osborn, 2011); while

expatriates or international assignee are the

individual participating in international assignment

(Tarique, Briscoe and Schuler, 2016). International

assignment is considered as an activity that brings

mutual benefit because it is beneficial for the

success of the company and employees’ career

development (Dickmann and Doherty, 2008).

Research have identified three main objectives of

international assignment, they are 1) position fillers:

to fill in vacant positions within a company where

the skills needed in that position are not available in

host country 2) organizational development: as a

form of organizational development program that is

closely related to the objectives of control and

coordination and 3) management development: as an

instrument for managerial development that focuses

on developing skill sets from employees assigned

abroad (Collings, Doherty, Luethy and Osborn,

2011). According to existing literature (Collings,

Scullion and Morley, 2007: Dickmann and Doherty,

2008; PricewaterhouseCooper, 2010), broadly,

expatriation or international assignment is divided

into two, namely traditional international assignment

or some would call it traditional expatriate

assignment (Collings, Scullion and Morley, 2007),

and nontraditional international assignment that are

now popular.

2.2 Women and International

Assignment

There is an ample number of studies discussing the

cause of low women’s participation in international

assignment. The exclusion of women from the

consideration of international assignment is not

really a wise move since studies have shown that

female expatriates have equal level of success with

that of male expatriates in terms of the performance

in international assignment (Cole and Mcnulty,

2011). In addition, in the case of international

mobility, many studies and researchers have shown

that women have desires that are as great as men and

even in certain cases, women show greater desire

(Stroh, Varma and Valy-Durbin, 2000). In addition,

women are likely to have special abilities in

managing internationally, including preferences for

working together, the ability to reach consensus, and

the ability to lead through an egalitarian team; the

ability to work on multiple tasks simultaneously,

emotional sensitivity, and verbal proficiency (Cole

and Mcnulty, 2011).

2.3 International Assignment and

Employer Attractiveness

To date, little is known about how international

companies communicate the goals they want to

achieve from implementing international

assignments and what benefits employees can get

(Point and Dickmann, 2012). This is supported by

the results of the PricewaterhouseCooper survey

which showed that more than 50% of global

mobility leaders surveyed said that their

organizations did not convey to their key talents

regarding expectations of international assignments

(PricewaterhouseCooper, 2016).

Because international assignment will be

regarded as part of the factors contributing in

developing employer attractiveness (Berthon, Ewing

and Hah, 2005), the interest of prospective

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

employees to participate in international assignment

is something that needs to be considered (Point and

Dickmann, 2012). An explorative study has

investigated the enthusiasm of college graduates in

Europe to participate in international assignment

(Taillieu, 1992). In addition, it was also examined

the level of willingness of college graduates in

Australia to work abroad (Tharenou, 2003). The role

of international assignment is increasingly relevant

for Generation Y since the majority of this

generationwant to work abroad

(PricewaterhouseCooper, 2016).

3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This study used qualitative methodby collecting data

with in-depth, semi-structured interview technique.

Some criterias were applied for the participants:

participants are Generation Y/ Millennials, that were

born between 1980 and 1999; majoring in

economics, businessor, or business administration

(FIA); currently in their last semester of their study

or already graduated and actively seeking for

employment; and must have desires to work in

MNCs. For participants from the company's HR,

there were no specific criteria that needed to be met

in addition to having extensive knowledge regarding

international assignments at the company.

The interviews were conducted with 7 female

students from the Faculty of Economics and

Business (FEB), 2 people from the Faculty of

Administrative Science (FIA) and 1 person from the

HR department from MNC A. Gathering data both

from employees as well as management (HR

function) is required to satisfy data source

triangulation as an effort to increase the research

validity (Yazan, 2015). Also, since no additional

data can be found among the FEB student

participants, researcher moved to another group

category (FIA student participants). This data

collection method supports data saturation concept

in qualitative research (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).

Interviews were conducted for 30 minutes to 60

minutes. During each interview a voice recording

has been obtained with full consent from the

participants. The analysis process used the grounded

theory, which allows emergent categories developed

during coding process that contributes in building

the emerging theory (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). This

process is assisted by NVivo software.

4 FINDINGS

All participants confirmed thet they are aware and

understand the basic functions and benefits of

international assignment for both employees and

organizations. Improvements in terms of knowledge,

experience, and expertise are those mentioned by all

participants as one of the benefits of international

assignment. In terms of personal development, the

participants thought that the behavior and way of

thinking of the employee would be more or less

influenced by the culture and characteristics of the

people in the country, for example being

increasingly disciplined, more willing to argue, and

so on. These benefits are in their top of mind.

Furthermore, according to two participants (P1

and P8), international assignment is a way to refresh

and motivate the employees to improve their

performance. One participant also said that the

benefits of international assignment are that

employees can have lots of ‘instagrammable’ stock

photos to be posted on Instagram or other social

media. One participant (P6) also argued that a

company sends its employees abroad to prepare the

employees before being promoted to the next career

path. However, even though all the participants

agreed on the importance of international

assignment and showed their desire to participate in

the event, international assignment was not an

important factor that made them want to work in

MNCs. This is related to interest and economic

values of MNCs which are the dimensions that are

most considered by most participants.

“And there is dental plan there (red: in MNCs),

you do not always get it in national companies since

it is expensive. That is why only big companies

provide it” (Participant 9, FEB, 23 years old)

The examples of interest value dimension are

work environment (P2, P4, P5), the flexibility

offered (P4, P5) and challenging work (P2 and P4).

As for economic value, the examples are higher

wage (P1, P3, P6, P7, P8, P9) and benefits offered

(P3, P9) such as dental care that is not offered by

other companies. It can be said that these two

dimensions are the main factors that make them

interested in working in multinational companies

and are among important distinctions between

MNCs and other types of companies such as

BUMN, government, or domestic BUMS.

The factor that causes international assignment to

be less attractive to them is the lack of information

they receive about international assignment. The

participants themselves (P1, P4, P7, P8) said that

they felt less exposed to information about

Does International Assignment Matter?: Indonesian Women’s Perception on Multi-national Companies’ Attractiveness

international assignment. Thereby, their awareness

of international assignment is also lacking so they do

not see it as a matter of great significance.

“I know it from my aunt and friends who work

there. They frequently broadcast the information on

family group chat.” (Participant 3, FEB, 22 years

old)

In terms of information sources, almost all

participants relied on word of mouth (WOM) as

their source of information, such as stories from

seniors, families, and friends. In addition, the

internship experience is also a way to gather

information about international assignment or

general information about a company. Information

collected during this internship is also the source of

their WOM.

“it is one of the selling points. […] However, we

also always bluntly said that international

assignment is not something we can promise […] So,

international assignment is one of our selling points,

but we would not oversell it. We cannot oversell it

because it is not something we can give it to

everyone.” (Participant HR, MNC A)

According to the source from MNC A's HR, he

acknowledged that international assignment is

indeed one of their selling points, but the efforts

made to promote international assignment are not

great. They share more information about

international assignments when job applicants have

entered the interview stage. The main reason why

international assignment branding is not conducted

optimally is to maintain employee expectations.

Since not all employees who have entered later can

eventually take part in international assignment, the

company does not want to massively promote

international assignment. In addition, not everyone

will be interested in international assignments,

therefore MNC A does not "sell" international

assignment as a separate attraction or benefit, but is

sold along with other benefits as a total reward

package.

Interestingly, the factors used by women to

consider international assignment will change when

families are included as part of their consideration.

Like Participant 8 who said she would accept

international assignment when she was already

married, given that she was allowed by his husband

when the opportunity arise. Even one participant

(P9) said that she was not interested in taking part in

an international assignment because she did not want

to be away from his family, unless it was mandatory

as part of her work. This is consistent with MNC A's

HR statement that although there are many reasons

that make employees refuse international

assignments, reasons related to family are the most

common reasons not only for female employees but

also male employees.

5 DISCUSSION AND

CONCLUSION

This study showed that international assignment,

which is part of development value, does not

influence Indonesian women’s interest to work in

MNC. In contrast, two other employer attractiveness

dimensions, interest value and economic value,

emerged as main consideration. This is in line with

the results of InHerSight survey, which showed that

the top three things most desirable for women from

their workplace relate to economic values and

interest values, namely paid time off, decent salary,

and work environment (InHerSight, 2018). The first

factor contributing to this situation is the lack of

information they received regarding international

assignment. In this case, WOM dominates as the

source of information. This strong reliance on WOM

can be caused by the Indonesian culture itself, which

upholds the value of collectivism, hence they

heavily rely on personal sources of information

(Fong and Burton, 2008). The companyitself also

admitted that they did not carry out large-scale

international assignment branding to avoid excessive

expectations from job applicants. Because of

insufficient external branding effort, prospective job

applicants do not view international assignment as

an important consideration in choosing between

MNC and other organizations. In this case, the role

of international assignment which is supposed to be

a distinction for one company with another company

(Point and Dickmann, 2012) is not effectively

deployed.

Given the poor effortsin promoting international

assignment, companies need to improve the number

of media used and the volume of information,

especially on their website,which is their main

source of information. In addition, the dominant role

of WOM as a source of information requires

companies to also strengthen their attractiveness.

One of them is by providing meaningful internships

for the interns. Moreover,since family issue and the

assignment period Indonesian women’s interest in

internatioanl assignment, early assignment and the

use of international non-traditional assignments

might be effective to attract these women to MNCs

Future studies should attempt to determine if the

solution to improve MNCs’ attractiveness is whether

BINUS-JIC 2018 - BINUS Joint International Conference

to improve the international assignment branding or

to focus on other form of international assignment.

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Does International Assignment Matter?: Indonesian Women’s Perception on Multi-national Companies’ Attractiveness