Fostering longevity attitudes in women expatriates: the role of general and targeted types of organizational support

Although organizational support has long been considered a cornerstone of expatriate success, more research is needed to understand how different types of support affect the career outcomes of women expatriates. We draw on strategic human resource management theory to show that organizations interested in gaining or maintaining a strategic competitive advantage should attend to the under-representation of women expatriates. We posit that general (i.e. perceived organizational support [POS]) and targeted (i.e. organizational cultural intelligence [OCQ], family-supportive work perceptions [FSOP]) support perceptions can foster a strategic advantage by addressing the barriers barring women from expatriate assignments. We use two samples to test a model wherein general and targeted support perceptions increase three longevity attitudes (i.e. commitment, career satisfaction, and community embeddedness) through adjustment. Results showed that POS did not significantly increase adjustment and subsequent longevity attitudes for men or women. Then, OCQ aided male employees’ adjustment (as did FSOP to a lesser degree), leading to heightened commitment, career satisfaction, and community embeddedness. Women, in contrast, were aided by FSOP, but not OCQ.