
management?,” “What education and training do women need in order to be strong candidates for global
assignments?,” “What personal characteristics do women need to be successful in global assignments?,”
“Do women on international assignments need different support than men?,” “Are women in your class
interested in an IB career? Why and/or why not?,” and “Are there circumstances in which you believe
that the use of women expatriates should be most strongly considered, or perhaps not considered at all?”
The Global Path Ahead
The focus of this The Global Path Ahead explores a student’s decisions to pursue a career in
international human resource management. Her interest in international issues was sparked by her own
international upbringing, which included a broad variety of living and travel experiences. These
experiences clarified the challenges of doing business internationally, and piqued her interest in human
resource management aspects of international business. She discusses her experiences going to work
immediately after graduation in the international human resources group of a Fortune 100 company,
providing an insightful overview for students interested in careers in this area. She provides several
salient recommendations for how students might better prepare themselves for finding and exploiting
opportunities in IHRM. The Resources for Your Global Career section provides a range of useful
suggested resources for understanding global labor trends, global labor issues, and opportunities to pursue
careers in international human resource management.
13 Mini-Case, “Brittany Miller: Should She Accept an International Assignment?”
Answers to this question depend on student judgment and values combined with material in the chapter.
Issues may include the following:
Spouses often can receive assistance from the company in finding a suitable foreign assignment
and work permission, where applicable. The transition is difficult for children, but the
opportunities are also huge. Brittany will want to focus on the expatriate support offered by the
company, especially in the family area, how to keep connected while she is in China, and the
reentry situation. How does this assignment fit into her career development?
14 Lecture Outline
Opening Section
As companies internationalize their activities, they often find value in utilizing expatriates for reasons
such as transfer of skills, control of operations, development of expanded mindsets, and so forth. Since
international assignments are becoming crucial experience for moving into the higher corporate ranks,
successfully managing this experience is becoming more important. HR is playing an increasingly
important role in successfully identifying, preparing, and compensating an expat for a foreign assignment,
and successfully re-integrating the expat into the home office. Trailing spouses and taking the family
abroad are also issues of concern because managers, both men and women, are more vocal about not
wanting to be apart from their families. Developing attractive, yet equitable, compensation packages is a
challenge for HR.
I. Worldwide Labor Conditions
A. Overall size of the workforce
1. Populations in developing nations tend to be growing and becoming younger
2. 38% of the world’s 15- to 24-year-olds live in India and China