Implications For International Human Resource Management Research Articles

Mind the gap: the role of HRM in creating, capturing and leveraging rare knowledge in hostile environments

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) have increasingly entered markets in less developed regions of the world afflicted with weak institutions and political conflict. Some are characterised by ‘extreme’ cases of institutional voids and terrorism, creating a hostile environment for the organisation and its people. This in-depth qualitative study of a service company, a European telecommunications joint venture in Afghanistan, seeks to shed light and build theory on the human resource management (HRM) dimension of managerial learning and knowledge acquisition in hostile environments, as part of the MNE’s organisational learning process. Specifically, we investigate how knowledge gaps can be addressed through supportive HR practices, and how knowledge classified as ‘rare’ can be captured and leveraged through HR interventions such as debriefing. We stipulate that HR practices and interventions adapted to hostile environments, together with expatriate willingness to learn and share new knowledge, play a critical role in the creation, capturing and leveraging of rare knowledge for subsequent use by the MNE in other hostile locations. The study has implications for international HRM and organisational resilience, under the proposition that competitive advantage can be gained through exploitation of rare knowledge acquired in hostile environments.

Short-term international assignments. Military perspectives and implications for international human resource management

Short-term international assignments have been under-explored in international human resource management (IHRM) literature and research. Equally, there is a dearth of studies on international mobility beyond multinational corporations. Drawing on an exploratory study of short-term international assignments in the Irish Defence Forces, this paper considers the implications for IHRM.

Customers cocreating value with the firm: implications for IHRM

The purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical framework for governing an organization's relationships with customers engaged as contributors to the organization's business processes (i.e. customers as quasi-employees). Based on our suggested framework, we explain how appropriate customer-centric HRM practices can support more cost-effective and accommodating adaptations in the organization's governance of its relationships with customers. We complement these propositions with practical examples illustrating how customers who take different cooperative roles will increasingly become valuable organizational assets. The collaborating customers not only provide the information necessary for the successful performance of the service exchange, but also contribute human and social capital in performing tasks that are a complement to or a substitute for employee tasks. In conclusion, we outline implications for international human resource management (IHRM), as well as future research directions for examining the relationships among customer governance, role configurations, and IHRM practices.

Perceptions of business cultures in eastern Europe and their implications for international HRM

Perceptions of the business culture of different countries are important factors in international human resource management (IHRM); affecting the development of human resource management (HRM) and impacting on existing and potential expatriate managers sent to those countries. This paper analyses such perceptions as a contribution to the discussions about whether the central and eastern European (CEE) states form a separate variety of capitalism and IHRM. We focus on six of the CEE countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Slovakia, using a large sample of expatriate managers working in those countries and a control group of local managers. Data from two small and peripheral western European states is used to contrast the findings in these CEE states. We find that in general local managers are rather more positive than expatriates but otherwise share the same perceptions; that there are both positive and negative perceptions of CEE states in general and in particular; but that the negatives outweigh the positives. We examine both the similarities and the differences between these states. We draw out the theoretical and practical implications for multinational companies (MNCs’) international HRM policies and practices.

International human resource management: a North American perspective, a thematic update and suggestions for future research

The past 15 years have witnessed tremendous advancements in the research and practice of international human resource management (IHRM). This paper describes several sub-themes in IHRM that have evolved during the past 15 years; introduces and expands upon one major sub-theme in IHRM, cross-border alliances; and suggests several topics for future research and investigation. First, while the review and update is based on the framework introduced by Schuler et al. (1993), the ideas of several other approaches that have been taken to in the field of IHRM (e.g. Sparrow and Brewster, 2006; Taylor et al., 1996) are incorporated to present a thematic framework of IHRM that organizes and updates the existing IHRM literature within five thematic areas: strategic MNE components; exogenous factors; endogenous factors; IHRM issues, functions, policies, and practices; and MNE effectiveness. Within each thematic area, several sub-themes are described that reflect important changes in and evolutions of IHRM issues. Second, the paper offers a major extension to the thematic framework by incorporating the cross-border alliance (CBA) theme. The article highlights one of the most complex forms of CBA, the international joint venture (IJV), and develops a typology as a way of illustrating the complexity of IJVs and the challenge of crafting an effective set of IHRM activities for them and MNEs more generally. Third, 20 avenues or topics are suggested for future research and investigation that build on the work of the past 15 years in IHRM and reflect the realities of MNEs and their implications for IHRM. A brief summary concludes the authors' thoughts on the future of IHRM and its increased importance.