Corporate and Environmental Influences on Personnel Outcomes in Organizational Labor Markets: A Cross-National Comparison of US and German Branch Offices of a Multinational Bank

Abstract

Many firms competing in the current global economy are multinational corporations (MNCs) that operate across national boundaries. Multinational corporations have the dual imperatives of maintaining internal consistency among their subsidiaries while simultaneously adapting to different local environments. Comparing personnel outcomes between subsidiaries of the same multinational corporation located in different countries would provide a specific context within which we can examine the relative importance of these two imperatives. Using personnel data from a multinational bank, we compare personnel outcomes such as turnover and hiring rates, tenure distributions, proportion of part-time workers, and gender composition of its subsidiary retail banking operations in the Federal Republic of Germany and in the United States. We further analyze differences in outcomes between comparable job levels in each country, recognizing that different levels in the hierarchical structures of MNCs may face varying pressures for internal consistency and local adaptation. Our results show that the local environment has a strong effect on personnel outcomes, although differences between countries decrease at higher job levels. The possible sources and implications of increasing similarity at higher job levels is discussed.