What do managers look for in candidates for international assignments?

• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Date: 01 November 2018
• Author: Yener Kandogan
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/tie.21916

THE CHANGING NATURE OF EXPATRIATION

What do managers look for in candidates for international

assignments?

Yener Kandogan

School of Management, University of

Michigan–Flint

Correspondence

Yener Kandogan, University of Michigan–Flint

School of Management, University of

Michigan, Center for Russian, East-European

and Eurasian Studies, 303 E. Kearsley, Flint,

MI 48503.

Email: yener@umich.edu

Globalization of business highlights the need for individuals with the right skills and experiences

for international assignments. Gender, age, ethnicity, family situation, professional qualifica-

tions, past international experiences, as well as psychological characteristics can be counted

among the selection criteria of a candidate for such assignments. This current study examines

the role of assignment context and selecting manager characteristics in the selection process.

First, these candidate characteristics are considered together with features of the assignment

such as duration, destination, and task performed to examine if their consistency are critical.

Second, whether managers draw from their own past and consider their own family situation

and international experiences, or select a candidate with same gender, age, or ethnicity is inves-

tigated. The findings suggest that without matching manager characteristics and assignment

features, candidate characteristics are of little importance.

KEYWORDS

assignment types, supervisor-subordinate relationship, contingency theory, homophily

1|INTRODUCTION

According to Global Relocation Trends survey (2014), 47% of compa-

nies reported an increased number of international assignees in 2013

over the previous year, and 40% had expected further increases.

Additionally, the percentage of assignments unrelated to headquar-

ters increased over the years, with 46% in 2012. This figure was 37%

in 2005. The need for business professionals with necessary skills

and experiences for international assignments is clearly critical for an

increasing number of companies.

However, the globalization of business has accelerated at a pace

that exceeded the ability of companies to meet this need with an

adequate number of qualified employees (Stroh & Caligiuri, 1998;

Welch, 1994). The survey states that while companies report an

increasing population of professionals on international assignments,

91% choose their current employees for international assignments

rather than new hires. Furthermore, the majority of the companies

report that less than 6% of their assignees were previously assigned

internationally. This raises the question of what qualifications compa-

nies are looking for in their employees for international assignments.

According to Arthurand Bennett (1995) and Tung (1998), selecting

the right personfor an international assignment is crucial for itsaccom-

plishment. However, making the right selection is not easy (Scullion &

Collings, 2006). Reviewing the process, Varma, Stroh, and Schmitt

(2001) conclude that there are curious anomalies in the selection. The

expatriate management literature has identified several criteria based

on candidate characteristics.Accordingly, an assignee needs topossess

a complex amalgamation of technical,social, organizational,and cultural

knowledge and skills (Ghoshal & Bartlett, 1997). Specifically, these

include biological characteristics (Mamman, 1995; Tung, 1981), family

situation (Harvey, 1985), job performance (Caligiuri, 1997), technical

expertise(Mendenhall, Dunbar,& Oddou, 1987), completionof previous

foreign assignments (Shaffer& Harrison, 1998), personality traits (Black,

1990; Caligiuri, 2000; Mol, Born, Willemsen, & Van Der Molen, 2005),

and cross-cultural competencies such as cultural adjustment(McEvoy &

Parker, 1995), cultural flexibility (Shaffer, Harrison, Gregersen, Black, &

Ferzandi,2006), and cultural intelligence(Earley & Ang, 2003).

The article contributes to the literature by performing an analysis

that incorporates the interaction of these factors with features of the

assignment such as duration, destination, and task performed, as well

as selecting managers’biological background, family situation, and

international experiences. It proposes that assignee selection is con-

tingent on the environment, and that the role of candidate character-

istics is less significant unless there is a match between these and the

assignment features, and a match with manager characteristics based

on the homophily paradigm.

DOI: 10.1002/tie.21916

Thunderbird Int Bus Rev. 2018;60:823–835. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/tie © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 823