Talent management in German multinational firms in China: the role of headquarters-subsidiary relations

Abstract

Despite the bourgeoning interest in talent management (TM) in the last two decades, limited research has been carried out to understand the diffusion of TM strategies and practices from home-country headquarters to their subsidiaries in host countries. Furthermore, extant firm-level research on TM tends to neglect the role of the macro-level context, particularly in emerging economies where talent shortage is acute and their institutional distance is large, with headquarters in developed countries. This study fills these knowledge gaps by exploring the TM of German multinational corporations (MNCs) and their subsidiaries in China. Drawing on qualitative data collected from 42 semi-structured interviews with senior managers, human resource professionals, and operations managers from six German MNCs and their subsidiaries in China, the study uncovers headquarters-subsidiary relations. We identify a portfolio of what we refer to as ‘institutional shapers’ and develop a model for future research. This study contributes to extant knowledge by contextualizing multi-level TM shapers from an institutional-cultural perspective, supported by cross-country empirical data based on informant triangulation.