Unlocking inhibitors to women’s expatriate careers: can job-related training provide a key?

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine what job-related training interventions female expatriates seek and can access in order to build necessary knowledge and skills to progress into further career-enhancing expatriate positions. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a cross-sectional qualitative research approach, drawing upon semi-structured interviews in respect of organisational training practice with 26 current female expatriates and nine Human Resource, International Assignments and Training Managers in two oil and gas exploration firms. Findings Budgets, time and travel restrictions, and competitive business pressures constrain on-the-job training provision for expatriates. Assignees require specific knowledge and skills ahead of appointment to subsequent expatriate positions. HR personnel believe training provides appropriate knowledge and capability development supporting women expatriates’ career ambitions. Women assignees view training available within their current roles as insufficient or irrelevant to building human capital for future expatriate posts. Research limitations/implications Longitudinal research across a wider spectrum of industries is needed to help understand the effects of training interventions on women’s access to future career-enhancing expatriation and senior management/leadership positions. Practical implications Organisations should ensure relevant technical skills training, clear responsibility for training provision, transparent and fair training allocation, positive communication regarding human capital outcomes, and an inclusive culture that promotes expatriate gender diversity. Originality/value Set within the framework of human capital theory, this study identifies the challenges that female expatriates experience when seeking relevant job-related training to further their expatriate careers. It identifies clear mismatches between the views of HR and female assignees in relation to the value of job-related training offered and women’s access to it

A rotating electrical transfer device

The design, development, and performance characteristics of two roll ring configurations - a roll ring being a device used in transferring electrical energy across a continuously rotating or oscillating interface through one or more flexible rolling contacts, or flexures are described. Emphasis is placed on the design problems and solutions encountered during development in the areas of flexure fatigue, contact electroplating, electrical noise, and control of interface geometry. Also, the present status of each configuration is summarized

CompendexWeb Review

Review of interface changes in CompendexWeb

Smoothing the Transition to Mandatory Electronic Theses

After a year of voluntary submissions, Caltech is requiring electronic thesis submission for all graduate students effective July 1, 2002. Website development, user education, collaboration between library and campus computing staff, and with faculty and the dean's office are all integral to the transition

Online Journals: Utility of ToCs vs. Fulltext

The Caltech Library System (CLS) has maintained an extensive list of online journal websites for several years. The online journal list has grown to over 3000 entries, representing a mixture of free and subscription-based fulltext journals, as well as websites featuring tables of contents and abstracts. During the winter of 1999/2000, the online journals list was converted to an online journals database. Additional user functionality was added, without loss of previous features. In a previous study, search engines were employed to map the adoption rates of online journals into the web pages of research groups and individuals on the Caltech campus. It was established that the vast majority of online journal use on-campus was through the access avenues presented by the library, the online catalog and the online journals database. One of the new features introduced in the online journals database was an ability to limit displays to journals containing fulltext. Anecdotal evidence has been less than clear-cut with regard to the utility of non-fulltext resources. This study will allow for a thorough analysis of the question with hard data. It should be feasible to determine if there are discipline-based preferences or if personal preferences are the controlling factor. Analysis of the web server logs will also allow for a direct comparison of user preferences for searching and browsing. Again, we expect to be able to determine if there is a subject-specific bias or if behaviors are more individually idiosyncratic. Results of the study will inform the further development of the CLS online journal efforts - database development, online journal promotion, new candidates for licensing. The technologies employed in this project are well documented and may be exploited by other libraries seeking to gather empirical data for collection decisions and web development efforts