International Human Resource Management Research Articles

Positioning context front and center in international human resource management research

AbstractThe international human resource management (IHRM) field naturally lends itself to spotlighting the importance of internal and external organizational contexts to help understand how to manage employees in organizations effectively. However, we argue that the range of opportunities that the field creates to understand this context has not yet been fully embraced by IHRM scholars. To address this gap, this special issue explores: (a) the variety of approaches to theorizing how contexts promote or constrain organizational practice; and (b) relevant methodologies that might allow us to unearth novel context‐dependent theory in international HRM. We propose a distinction between variable‐oriented theorizing (that explains the effects of internal and external contexts on the phenomena under study) and context‐dependent theorizing (that requires researchers become intimately familiar with the setting under study to understand context as a shaper of meaning). This editorial also highlights how the articles in the special issue contribute to stimulating further context‐dependent IHRM research.

Global migration: Implications for international business scholarship.

Migration is increasingly viewed as a high-priority policy issue among politicians, intergovernmental organizations, NGOs, and civil society throughout the world. Its implications for the private sector, for economic prosperity, and for the cross-border activities of firms are undeniable and likely to grow in importance. Yet, despite its relevance to International Business, treatment of migration in the mainstream International Business literature has been limited. In this contribution, we set out key aspects of migration that are germane to International Business. Specifically, we suggest recent migratory shifts are transforming important elements of the context in which multinational enterprises operate, with significant implications for their international human resource management practices, for firms' entry modes and market selection approaches, and for the manner in which international strategies are formulated and implemented. We offer a research agenda to motivate International Business scholars to study global migration in more depth and to reevaluate the generalizability of aspects of their theories in light of developments in global migration.

Understanding the Evolution of International Human Resource Management Research

This paper aims to depict the evolution of international human resource management (IHRM) research by mapping the semantic structure of the literature over the last 25 years. We conduct a bibliometric analysis of 1,507 articles published in the field of IHRM at the keyword, thematic, and network levels. Our analysis reveals that IHRM research has a complex semantic structure that is socially constructed. We also identify the evolution of main research trends across three time windows and branch out key themes for each time window. This study employs the bibliographic coupling analysis to provide an accurate systematic interpretation of IHRM literature to identify the main research patterns in the field of IHRM and to interpret the core themes that contributed to the evolution of IHRM research.

Language Proficiency, Host-Country Nationals, and Expatriate Ajustment: A Moderated Mediation Model

Studies have shown that expatriates with more polished skills in the host-country language are better adjusted to the host culture. However, the role of host-country nationals (HCNs) in the link between expatriates’ language proficiency and their adjustment has not been thoroughly investigated. Drawing on Social Identity Theory and Network Theory, we propose and test a moderated mediation model focusing on two HCN-related variables, namely HCN support and HCN network size. Based on a survey with 281 expatriates, we show that proficiency in the host-country language has a positive association with expatriates’ general, interaction, and work adjustment through increased social support from HCNs. Moreover, we find that HCN network size moderates this mediation such that the expatriates’ local language proficiency gains more importance when their network size is smaller. In contrast, when expatriates have large local networks, the positive impact of language skills weakens. Our findings have implications for expatriates and international human resource managers.

Personality traits, ESOP attributions, and psychological ownership in the U.S. and South Korea

This study examines linkages from personality traits to employee attributions of employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) and to psychological ownership for the organization (POO) between the U.S. and South Korea. By analyzing survey data collected from 693 employees in two countries, we found that agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, and openness to experience are positively related to POO directly as well as indirectly through commitment-focused ESOP attributions. Also, those mediational linkages are more pronounced among employees in South Korea, which is a collectivist society. Finally, our supplementary analyses confirmed these results by indicating the same pattern of results in the South Korean sample, but not in the U.S. sample. Our findings provide theoretical implications for diverse scholarships such as employee ownership, human resource attributions, and international human resource management.

Rethinking Expat Management - A Systematic Literature Review of Sustainability in Global Mobility

Against the backdrop of VUCA and BANI environments, climate change, and the pandemic, academic coverage of the topic of sustainable development as a potential new economic paradigm has been introduced to various fields, including international human resource management. This article aims to explore sustainable development-related topics in global mobility (GM) or expatriate management. In a comprehensive systematic literature review, relevant articles published in top IB, management, and CSR journals within the last 20 years were screened according to sustainable GM facets and matched to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Although some social aspects were somewhat overrepresented in comparison (e.g., SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being and SDG 5 Gender Equality), we find that other elements, primarily environmental, have not been addressed adequately and thus deserve more attention. Lastly, we draw up a model of how GM departments may impact how to make a change towards a more sustainable GM program.

The Hidden Ways of Layered Resistance to Dominant HRM Transfer (WITHDRAWN)

While resistance to human resource management (HRM) practice transfers from multinationals has been widely researched in economically advanced countries, emerging economies are generally assumed to be institutionally more welcoming. This paper contributes to debates on international HRM diffusion both by highlighting hitherto neglected arenas of host-country resistance and identifying the multiple levels at which this plays out. Specifically, this paper examines the transfer of Japanese multinational corporations’ HRM practices into Indonesia. The study reveals that alongside apparently consensual micro-level (organization) relations between home- and host-country management, important political power games are occurring at the meso-level (subnational). These games involve competing notions of ‘best practice’ with host-country actors more powerful than deterministic models of diffusion would predict. The study shows how local actors seek to defend elements of the established Indonesian business system, while Japanese actors bypass host-country regulations by mobilizing corporate business associations. The findings extend current understanding of cross-border management practice transfer, highlighting contestation and negotiation at the meso-level.

HRM Practices and Agendas for Equality in Global-South Contexts

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.

Japanese self‐initiated expatriates' adjustment to Indian assignments: the role of traditional values

The purpose of the study was to enhance understanding of how self‐initiated expatriates (SIE) adjust to new cultural contexts in the under‐explored Indo‐Japanese inter‐Asian context. A literature review identified that Asian focal case studies are under‐developed, especially regarding the important interactions between major advanced Asian economy and emerging Asian economy settings. Therefore, the study developed an illustrative case of advanced economy Japanese SIE managers’ lived experience in Indian emerging economy cross‐cultural management situations. Deploying a social constructivist epistemology using interpretive analysis, the current study found clear evidence of an interplay of hitherto under‐recognized common Indo‐Japanese spiritual values with roots in Buddhism surfacing in the Japanese SIE's adjustment. The paper offers important insights to complement extant theory on the individual‐level factors influencing SIE adjustment in an inter‐Asian context. The study contributes to international human resource management literature by surfacing contextualized understanding of the role of traditional spiritual values in SIE adjustment.

Informal network context: deepening the knowledge and extending the boundaries of social network research in international human resource management

While informal networking has been universally regarded as an important feature of expatriate effectiveness, respective network constructs (yongo, wasta, blat/svyazi, etc.) remain weakly understood when taking expatriates’ ability to connect to local networks into account. Drawing on informal institution and social capital theory, we present informal networks as an important contextual factor in international human resource management (IHRM), relevant to the work of expatriates in particular. We define informal networks by pointing out their distinctive nature in contrast to social networks and developing central themes to guide future research in this area. This is achieved by integrating the informal network context into research themes relevant to the IHRM domain. In this article, seven research themes centering on focal research questions are developed, which, taken together, constitute a future research agenda and expand the typical domain of IHRM research in the informal network context.

International HRM headquarters as a top management group in Israel

PurposeThis study extends the understanding of the context of IHRM headquarters as one of the top management groups (TMGs) through the application of both upper echelons theory and contextual theory.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted with senior Israeli HR managers from international advanced-technology companies.FindingsThis study expands on theory by explaining how contexts act as constraints or opportunities for IHRM headquarter professionals as TMGs. The organizational context in which the IHRM headquarters take part is based on two themes: organizational structure and shared values. This is followed by the context of IHRM headquarters that includes two foundations for integration: strategic IHRM and trust. Finally, integration is derived from two themes: collaborative behaviors and electronic HRM.Originality/valueThis research has yielded a theoretical framework, which makes progress toward developing an integrative paradigm between IHRM headquarters' behavioral integration and organizational features. The paper presents a valuable “toolkit” for facilitating internal integration in IHRM headquarters.

Contested fields of equality, diversity and inclusion at work: an institutional work lens on power relations and actors’ strategies in Germany and Turkey

In this paper, we explore how institutional actors push or resist equality, diversity and inclusion in light of power relations in their respective country contexts. We conducted interviews with a range of institutional actors, including governmental organizations, employer representatives, unions, professional associations, and civil society organizations working on EDI issues in Germany and Turkey, two countries with very different socioeconomic and political settings. Our findings suggest that EDI fields are structured by country-specific power relations: they appear as competitively dispersed in Germany and politically polarized in Turkey, depending on the social position of the actors and the type of field fragmentation. These field characteristics, in turn, nurture different patterns of actors’ strategies such as framing and mobilizing aimed at maintaining or disrupting the institutionalized status quo of EDI. We propose that a critical, power-sensitive institutional work approach to EDI is a useful lens through which to examine extra-organizational country contexts in international HRM research and, in particular, context-sensitive studies of EDI. As a practical implication, EDI and HR managers will be sensitized to the relevance of building coalitions with external stakeholders if they are to advance EDI within their organizations.

Expatriate family adjustment: How organisational support on international assignments matters

This research examines how organisational support mechanisms extended to expatriate families influence the adjustment of the expatriate, the spouse, and accompanying children. We present data from 173 accompanying expatriate spouses in China and 135 expatriates employed in foreign and local multinationals in China. We report on expatriates' perceptions about the impact of organisational support on the adjustment of their spouse and children. We also report on their perception of how organisational support influences their own adjustment. Our study reveals that organisational support positively influences the adjustment of expatriates, their spouses and children, although the dynamics among family members differ. Noteworthy results include that children's adjustment impacts the expatriate spouse directly and the expatriate's adjustment indirectly, emphasizing the importance of direct organisational support for the family unit beyond the expatriate. The paper offers implications for international human resource management researchers and practitioners.

Becoming culturally agile: Effectively varying contextual responses through international experience and cross-cultural competencies

Global professionals need to understand the demands of the cultural context in which they are working and respond effectively within it. Building on existing literature highlighting the importance of cross-cultural competencies and international experience for global work, this study expands knowledge by examining whether employees with cross-cultural competencies and international experience are better able to vary their cross-cultural responses to effectively match the cultural demands of the work environment. Tested with nearly 500 professionals globally, this study found that cultural humility, tolerance of ambiguity, and international experience predict professionals’ abilities to accurately judge the best cultural response for a given work-related situation. The findings have implications for international human resource management in two ways. First, organizations should assess for cross-cultural competencies to select for roles requiring an understanding of the cultural context. Second, organizations should provide international experiences as part of a global leadership or global talent development program.

Cross border HRM challenges of Chinese companies: An exploratory study

With the growing footmark of Chinese MNCs around the globe, the management of the host country employees has been a new challenge on the horizon. The study aims to understand the human resource management and cross-cultural practices and challenges faced by Chinese companies across the border. This cross-sectional and exploratory study used semi-structured interviews and focus groups for the data collection. The respondents were Chinese managers from Chinese companies and Chinese cultural centres working in Pakistan. This study used thematic analysis with triangulation of sources and methods. This study found culture as a key theme affecting all the emerging human resource management themes. Chinese companies working in Pakistan use informal social networks in addition to traditional applicant recruitment methods. Cultural training is common along with technical training in particularly state-owned Chinese enterprises. Although in many Chinese companies, the parent country nationals fill top positions, local employees could be seen working in the top tier management of some Chinese companies. The Chinese companies’ management practices have not been paid much attention to in this region. This study enables us to develop deep insights into Chinese companies’ human resource management practices and challenges. This research also contributes to the literature on international human resource management and cross-cultural management.

Employer and internal branding research: a bibliometric analysis of 25 years

PurposeIn the past 25 years, employer and internal branding have grown significantly. Prior reviews tended to focus on either one of these domains. This study aims to map the intellectual structure of research on both employer branding and internal branding, thereby identifying impactful authors and journals, current and evolving themes and avenues for future research.Design/methodology/approachUsing VOSviewer and Biblioshiny software packages, a bibliometric analysis of 739 articles was conducted using various methods such as citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, cluster analysis, keyword analysis and three-field plot. The Scopus results were further validated using 297 articles produced by the Web of Science data set. It ensured the robustness of the results and generalizability of the findings across bibliometric data sets.FindingsThe findings first report the impactful articles, authors and institutions of employer and internal branding research, along with popular keywords used in this area. Next, the analysis reveals four major clusters and seven subthemes (i.e. employer brand and job seekers, employer brand and employees, employer brand and international human resource management (HRM), third-party employer branding, internal branding – conceptualization/review, internal branding – antecedents and consequences, internal brand management). Early research focused more on “corporate brandings,” whereas current research deals more with “employer branding: antecedents and consequences,” “employer branding conceptualization/review,” and “internal branding” and its subthemes. The employer and internal branding clusters have evolved largely independent from each other. This study offers future research directions and practical implications per cluster.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis of both employer and internal branding research.

Neurodiversity, Equity, and Inclusion in MNCs

Neurodiversity is likely present as an ‘invisible’ inequality in most, if not all, multinational corporations (MNCs). The unique characteristics and cultural sensitivities of global operating environments challenge MNCs’ efforts to promote awareness and embed neurodiversity into their cross-border diversity, equity, and inclusion agendas. Drawing from both practitioner and academic sources, we speak to MNCs and their international human resource management leaders by providing concrete guidance for navigating the fostering and advancing of their neurodiversity initiatives, notwithstanding the operating environment. Through our proposed initiatives the strengths and perspectives of neurodivergent employees can be successfully harnessed, leading to improved effectiveness and performance for MNCs.

Research trends in human resource management. A text-mining-based literature review

PurposeThe purpose of the study was to detect trends in human resource management (HRM) research presented in journals during the 2000–2020 timeframe. The research question is: How are the interests of researchers changing in the field of HRM and which topics have gained popularity in recent years?Design/methodology/approachThe approach adopted in this study was designed to overcome all the limitations specific to the systematic literature reviews and bibliometric studies presented in the Introduction. The full texts of papers were analyzed. The text-mining tools detected first clusters and then trends, moreover, which limited the impact of a researcher's bias. The approach applied is consistent with the general rules of systematic literature reviews.FindingsThe article makes a threefold contribution to academic knowledge. First, it uses modern methodology to gather and synthesize HRM research topics. The proposed approach was designed to allow early detection of nascent, non-obvious trends in research, which will help researchers address topics of high value for both theory and practice. Second, the results of our study highlight shifts in focus in HRM over the past 19 years. Third, the article suggests further directions of research.Research limitations/implicationsIn this study, the approach designed to overcome the limitations of using systematic literature review was presented. The analysis was done on the basis of the full text of the articles and the categories were discovered directly from the articles rather than predetermined. The study's findings may, however, potentially be limited by the following issues. First, the eligibility criteria included only papers indexed in the Scopus and WoS database and excluded conference proceedings, book chapters, and non-English papers. Second, only full-text articles were included in the study, which could narrow down the research area. As a consequence, important information regarding the research presented in the excluded documents is potentially lost. Third, most of the papers in our database were published in the International Journal of Human Resource Management, and therefore such trends as “challenges for international HRM” can be considered significant (long-lasting). Another – the fourth – limitation of the study is the lack of estimation of the proportion between searches in HRM journals and articles published in other journals. Future research may overcome the above-presented limitations. Although the authors used valuable techniques such as TF-IDF and HDBSCAN, the fifth limitation is that, after trends were discovered, it was necessary to evaluate and interpret them. That could have induced researchers' bias even if – as in this study – researchers from different areas of experience were involved. Finally, this study covers the 2000–2020 timeframe. Since HRM is a rapidly developing field, in a few years from now academics will probably begin to move into exciting new research areas. As a consequence, it might be worthwhile conducting similar analyses to those presented in this study and compare their results.Originality/valueThe present study provides an analysis of HRM journals with the aim of establishing trends in HRM research. It makes contributions to the field by providing a more comprehensive and objective review than analyses resulting from systematic literature reviews. It fills the gap in literature studies on HRM with a novel research approach – a methodology based on full-text mining and a big data toolset. As a consequence, this study can be considered as providing an adequate reflection of all the articles published in journals strictly devoted to HRM issues and which may serve as an important source of reference for both researchers and practitioners. This study can help them identify the core journals focused on HRM research as well as topics which are of particular interest and importance.

Pandemic stress and the role of resources in expatriate–local interaction adjustment: an extension of Berry’s model

PurposeThe literature on expatriation rarely considers environmental stressors beyond cultural differences or interaction adjustment from the standpoint of host country nationals (HCNs). The authors develop a typology of expatriate–HCN interaction adjustment in response to a call to investigate the conditions under which pandemic stress facilitates cohesion or division among culturally diverse colleagues.Design/methodology/approachThe typology is based on Berry’s acculturation model, developed with conservation of resources theory and extended with the dual-concerns problem-solving framework from the conflict management literature.FindingsThe authors propose that expatriate and HCN perceptions of resource adequacy to cope with pandemic stress shape their choice of adjustment mode, and that contextual resources, including those provided by the organization, are critical. An Integration adjustment mode characterized by perceptions of adequate contextual resources and collaborative problem-solving is proposed to be most beneficial in the context of a pandemic to foster cohesion among culturally diverse colleagues, while a Separation mode characterized by perceptions of inadequate contextual resources and competitive problem-solving is proposed to foster division. Theoretical and practical contributions are provided.Originality/valueThe study takes a novel interdisciplinary approach to develop a contextualized typology of interaction adjustment between expatriates and HCNs. It contributes to the literature on managing multinational enterprise stakeholders in high-risk environments and offers insights into the formulation of international HRM policies and practices during a pandemic that are applicable to other high-risk contexts.

Embedding transparency in artificial intelligence machine learning models: managerial implications on predicting and explaining employee turnover

Employee turnover (ET) is a major issue faced by firms in all business sectors. Artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning (ML) prediction models can help to classify the likelihood of employees voluntarily departing from employment using historical employee datasets. However, output responses generated by these AI-based ML models lack transparency and interpretability, making it difficult for HR managers to understand the rationale behind the AI predictions. If managers do not understand how and why responses are generated by AI models based on the input datasets, it is unlikely to augment data-driven decision-making and bring value to the organisations. The main purpose of this article is to demonstrate the capability of Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME) technique to intuitively explain the ET predictions generated by AI-based ML models for a given employee dataset to HR managers. From a theoretical perspective, we contribute to the International Human Resource Management literature by presenting a conceptual review of AI algorithmic transparency and then discussing its significance to sustain competitive advantage by using the principles of resource-based view theory. We also offer a transparent AI implementation framework using LIME which will provide a useful guide for HR managers to increase the explainability of the AI-based ML models, and therefore mitigate trust issues in data-driven decision-making.