International immobility trend among business graduates and students
International immobility trend among business graduates and students
Expatriate management issues remain a critical concern in the IHRM research area. In a small country like Finland, relying heavily on export of both goods and expertise and seeking growth through internationalization, it is crucial for companies to be able to recruit people for international assignments. However, decreasing international mobility among staff in multinational corporations is seemingly becoming a worldwide trend and major dilemma for these companies. Also in Finland, a recent study shows remarkable decrease in interest towards international assignments among business graduates.
The aim of our research is to explore this trend and the reasons behind it further. We have used data from two survey studies on attitudes towards international assignments among a sample of 500 randomly picked members drawn from the 30 000 graduated members of the Finnish union for business graduates (Suomen Ekonomiliitto, SEFE) to explore generational and gender differences in the trends and to find plausible explanations.
Our findings from the survey study indicate that there is indeed an increased immobility trend among Finnish business graduates between the two times and the trend can be partly explained by generational differences, where to our surprise the younger generation is less willing to expatriate than older generations, also when age and life-cycle stage are accounted for. We can also see gender differences and in particular and somewhat paradoxically, while gender equality between spouses is increasing, gender equality in who is being offered expatriate assignments is actually
decreasing. As these are central concerns on the MNC-operational level, as well as theoretically interesting observations, we see a two-fold contribution in our research.
In particular, this research aims at answering the following research questions in more detail:
1. Given the results from our current research, why are business graduates of today, in particular younger ones, more reluctant to relocate than business graduates were 15 years ago? And,
2. Why did the reasons to relocate abroad change between generations?
3. Given the increased focus of business schools to send students on exchange terms and internships abroad, is there a negative correlation between having been on a student exchange or internship and the interest to expatriate later in life?
4. Given the high level of inequality between genders in how companies distribute their expatriate assignments, what are company policies and practices around the selection process of expatriates?
5. Given the immobility trend among business graduates, is the immobility trend prevalent also among other highly educated groups/knowledge workers?
Research team
Ph.D. Pernilla Gripenberg (pernilla.gripenberg (at) hanken.fi , +358 (0)40 3521 338)
M.Sc.(Econ.) Charlotta Niemistö (charlotta.niemisto (at) hanken.fi, +358 (0)9 431 331)
Master student Christa Tattari
Site of research
Hanken School of Economics/Department of Management and Organization
Selected publications and presentations
Niemistö, C., Gripenberg, P. and Alapeteri C. (2009):
Male and female attitudes towards international assignments [pdf] 493k. Presented at NASTA conference (International conference on Leadership through the Gender Lens: Women, men and equality in organisations, October 22-23, 2009, Helsinki, Finland.
Gripenberg, P., Niemistö, C. Alapeteri, C. (2009):
Towards increased gender equality and family centeredness among Finnish business graduates? A comparison between years 1994 and 2008. [pdf] 226k Presented at NFF conference (Business as usual), August 19-21, 2009, Turku, Finland.