Conceptual and methodological issues in international and comparative HRM: Transferring lessons from comparative public policy

Abstract

In 2016, a special edition of Human Resource Management Review established a theoretical and empirical development framework to address the fundamental issue of convergence/divergence. An intriguing question raised by the review was whether one could cross the comparative human resource management (CHRM) stream with its international human resource management (IHRM) counterpart to theoretically and empirically benefit both. This paper addresses a similar topic, albeit looking outwards to the archetypal context-driven comparative public policy (CPP) discipline rather than inwards to two adjacent international and comparative streams. Centering on the standardization-convergence divide in IHRM and the practice-divergence conundrum in CHRM, the paper demonstrates how CPP's rich conceptual and methodological heritage can help overcome tensions in both streams while informing several meta-analytic review and future research suggestions.