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Underpinned by upper echelons theory, this study examines a mediated model to understand the link between human resource (HR) managers' international experience and the adoption of supportive HR practices, and whether their attitudes towards women as managers and anticipated affective reactions mediate this link. Structural equation modelling based on a sample of 183 organisations in Bangladesh reveals that HR managers' international experience has both direct and indirect effects on theadoption of supportive HR practices. Our findings indicate that the extent to which supportive HR practices are implemented in the organisation is contingent upon the cognitive and affective evaluation of managers' attitudes towards the initiative of a gender‐balanced top management team. Therefore, our study offers novel contributions to our understanding of how HR mangers' attitudes shape the adoption of supportive HR practices in organisations. Key points: Our findings suggest that international experience, one of the important demographic factors of HR managers, does have a significant influence on their attitudes towards women as managers.The mediating role of attitudes towards women as managers also suggests that supportive HR practices are implemented in the organisation contingent upon the cognitive and affective assessment of attitudes of HR managers towards the efforts dedicated to ensuring a gender‐balanced top management team.Our findings further reveal that anticipated affective reaction appears as a significant predictor of attitudes of HR managers toward women as managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]