What Do Managers Look For In Candidates For International Assignments?

Globalization of business highlights the need for individuals with the right skills and experiences for international assignments. Gender, age, ethnicity, family situation, professional qualifications, past international experiences, as well as psychological characteristics can be counted among the selection criteria of a candidate for such assignments. This current study examines the role of assignment context and selecting manager characteristics in the selection process. First, these candidate characteristics are considered together with features of the assignment such as duration, destination, and task performed to examine if their consistency are critical. Second, whether managers draw from their own past and consider their own family situation and international experiences, or select a candidate with same gender, age, or ethnicity is investigated. The findings suggest that without matching manager characteristics and assignment features, candidate characteristics are of little importance.