HRM Practices and Agendas for Equality in Global-South Contexts

Abstract

Although macro-social influences on managerial and international HRM practices have been extensively reported in the literature, the alignments and contentions between these practices in post-colonial states are, however, poorly understood. This paper examines the HRM role and practices of traditional and Western-informed, non-traditional, elite managers in introducing and progressing universal HRM practices and agendas, under a Praetorian regime in post-colonial Pakistan. In-depth interviews were conducted with HRM professionals, union representatives, and managers working in the Pakistani public and private sectors and multinational organisations. Through the lens of Foucauldian discourse, analyses of the interviews revealed the coexistence of managerial global-HRM orientated elite and Praetorian post-colonial elite managers and how their HRM practices impacted employees’ experience of equality and inequality within their organisations. This intertextual `union` is predicated on the dynamics of hierarchical and heterarchical relations of power and resistance within the organisation, and the imbrication, or interleaving, of local history and culture, global culture, and influential HRM practices. Our findings suggest the need for greater consideration of social practices, including forms of subjectivity, meanings, and power relations, when managing human resources to achieve equality in organisations within post-colonial countries.