The Global Mobility management team at Company Z currently has a narrow role in selecting and supporting an overseas assignment. The process for an overseas assignment typically begins with a manager identifying a need for a department (either their own or within a department abroad). Since the Global Mobility team does not have a role in candidate or assignment selection, it does not complete an in-depth analysis of the success rates of the overseas assignments.
One of the most researched factors in the field of global mobility is the impact that social support has on the success of an assignment abroad. However, social support that was closer to the foreign delegate was a key factor for the success of the overseas assignment (van der Laken et al., 2019). The Global Mobility team at my partner organization is interested in increasing the number of successful overseas deployments that occur annually.
How, if at all, age affects the likelihood of success for an overseas assignment. How, if at all, does the duration or length of an overseas assignment affect the likelihood of success? How, if at all, does gender affect the likelihood of success for an overseas assignment.
How does marital status affect the chance of success in a foreign assignment?
How, if at all, does age impact the probability of success for an overseas assignment?
How, if at all, does the duration or length of an overseas assignment impact the probability of success?
How, if at all, does gender impact the probability of success for an overseas assignment?
How, if at all, does marital status impact the probability of success for an overseas assignment?
How, if at all, does the assignment home city impact the probability of success? Is the probability the same for both men and women?
Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between employee age, duration of assignment, employee gender, and employee marital status on the likelihood that an assignment will be successful from Alameda, California. It was found that, holding duration, employee age, and marital status constant, the odds of the assignment being unsuccessful increased by 316% (95% CI) if the assigned employee was from Alameda, California. Logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship between employee age, duration of the assignment, employee gender, and employee marital status on the likelihood that an assignment will be successful from Apex, North Carolina.
Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between the age of the employee, the duration of employment, the gender of the employee and the marital status of the employee regarding the probability of an. It was found that the probability that the assignment will be unsuccessful, holding constant the duration, age of the employee and marital status. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between employee age, tenure, employee gender, and employee marital status on the probability of successful assignment from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
It was found that, holding duration, employee age, and marital status constant, the odds of an assignment being unsuccessful increased by 297% (95% CI) if the assigned employee was from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between worker age, task duration, worker gender, and worker marital status on the probability that a task is successful from Orlando, Florida. It was found that, holding duration, worker age, and marital status constant, the odds that the assignment to be unsuccessful increased with CI if the designated employee was from Orlando, Florida.
Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between employee age, tenure of assignment, employee gender, and employee marital status on the probability of a successful assignment from Pittsburgh. It was found that, holding duration, employee age, and marital status constant, the odds of the assignment being unsuccessful increased by 192% (95% CI) if the assigned employee was from Pittsburgh. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between employee age, job duration, employee gender, and employee marital status on the probability that a job will be successful from Apollo Beach, Florida.
It was found that, holding duration, worker age, and marital status constant, the odds of task failure increased by 360% (95% CI) if the assigned worker was female. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between age of the employee, duration of the assignment, gender of the employee, and marital status of the employee on the probability that an assignment will be successful from Alpharetta, Ga. It was found that, holding duration, age of the employee, and marital status constant, the likelihood that the assignment was unsuccessful increased by 636% (95% CI) if the assigned employee was female.
How, if at all, does the assignment country impact the probability of success? Is the probability the same for both men and women?
To determine whether there is a statistically significant relationship between host country and probability of success and gender differences, I performed a logistic regression by host country. Logistic regression was used to analyze the relationship between the age of the employee, the duration of the assignment, the gender of the employee, and the marital status of the employee on the probability of an assignment being successful in Germany. It found that, holding duration, employee gender, and marital status constant, the odds of the task being unsuccessful increased by 193% (95% CI) if the assigned employee was female.
I did not find a statistically significant correlation between task country, gender and the probability of success in the other countries. When I analyzed the selection data, I found that 67.66% of the employees selected for overseas assignments were male. Nearly 74% of the selected employees were from the Abilene, Texas office, 6% were from Orlando, Florida, and 2.3% were from the Apollo Beach, Florida office.
I found that the probability of success increased by 0.22% with each additional year of age, but this finding is weak due to the confidence interval. The probability of success decreased by 0.34% for each additional day of overseas assignment duration. Men are 14% more likely to have successful overseas assignments than women when controlling for other factors (but again, the confidence interval suggests this is a weak finding).
As a result, the vast majority of employees participating in the assignments are US citizens and speak English as their first language. For example, the research for this paper shows that women posted on overseas assignments in Germany have a higher probability of failure than men, but because of the breadth of the data set, the research does show that women posted from the States of Women in Germany have a higher probability of failure than men for overseas assignments. The dataset only includes information on Company Z employees who participated in overseas assignments between 2019-2021.
Most of the employees selected for overseas postings in this study were single men. I suggest that company Z take measures to discourage possible unconscious bias in the selection of employees for postings abroad. Only 11% of HR professionals have ever worked abroad (Black & Gregersen, 2016), and as a result, they are not aware of the obstacles that arise while abroad.
Create Shorter, More Frequent Assignments
I suggest including race, educational background, job level, tenure at Company Z, performance review ratings, and salary as additional data the organization should collect to get a more complete picture of who is assigned an international assignment. I suggest that Company Z establish a selection and recruitment committee led by employees who have participated in previous assignments and understand the possibilities. This article only finds trends among those selected for assignment abroad and does not take into account characteristics of those who are not selected.
Second, tasks should have a specific focus or goal that can be completed within a specific time period. In order to improve the performance rate, the design and purpose of the workplace must be strategic and co-created between sending and host country managers, as well as among employees (Black & Gregerson, 2016). Optimum length determination matrices can be used to document the intent with the required duration.
Collectively, but Clearly, Define Success Key Performance Indicators
For example, the choice of the home city should be based on evidence that the home city office can prepare the employee for a successful delegation and repatriation. The objectives of the business unit must be transparent to the Global Mobility Team, employee, managers and colleagues of the employee. The selection trends found in this study are not unlike those of many other multinational corporations.
I suggest that Company Z conduct more research into their selection patterns to determine if the selection represents the company's desires. Due to the nature of this research, I was able to compare overseas assignments that were similar in all components by duration (which is unique due to the large number of overseas assignments offered by Company Z) and found evidence that shorter overseas assignments increase success rates. Further, some locations have a significantly higher failure rate of female employees compared to male employees.
Although it is currently unclear why specific locations have higher success rates, it would be worthwhile for Company Z to collect further data on these specific office environments, management structures and cultures. Overall, Company Z is in a unique position as they have robust data available that can be cross-examined to determine company-specific and employee trends. This includes improving the selection and recruitment method of employees for the purposes of reducing unconscious and self-selection bias, creating shorter overseas assignments where possible, and being strategic in the goals and success measurements.
Pushing the boundaries of global staffing: bringing global talent management, alternative forms of international assignments and unemployment into the discussion. Changing patterns of global employment in multinational firms: Challenges to conventional expatriate assignment and emerging alternatives. Themes in emigrant and returnee research over four decades: What we know and what we have yet to learn.
A new mobility landscape for business travelers and daily migrants. https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/tax/hr-international-assignment-services/business-traveler-commuter-survey.html. Assignments Abroad: Improving Success and Reducing Failure. 1981) Selection and Training of Personnel for Overseas Assignments.
