International assignments to/from India: do race and gender matter?

Abstract

This paper examines two research questions pertaining to international assignments to/from India. One, should western multinationals adopt the predominant criterion of technical competence and ignore other factors, such as race and gender, for expatriate assignments to India? Two, in light of the increasing incidence of foreign direct investment from India, do Indian selectors place greater emphasis on technical competence vis-à-vis race and gender in international assignments to other countries, such as the US? To shed light on these research questions, Indians managers and professionals enrolled in executive management education programmes at three prestigious Indian Institutes of Management were asked to rank-order the suitability of four candidates for the positions of (a) director of Indian operations and (b) director of US operations of an Indian multinational. In both scenarios, the woman candidate is portrayed as superior to the male contenders in terms of educational background and managerial experience. In the case of the director of India operations, the woman candidate is African–American; in the director of US operations, she is presented as white. Using the Hare method, the African–American woman was ranked number 2 for the position of director of Indian operations; while the white American female emerged as the number 1 choice as the director of US operations. In the former scenario, there were differences in rankings between the male and the female respondents while there was no observed difference in the latter situation. These findings suggest that race does matter in international assignments to India, whereas it does not in the Indian operations in the US.