International Human Resource Management Research Articles

Tracing Power and Influence in Institutional Diversity:Competing HR Models in Japanese and Indonesia

This paper examines the diffusion of a specific form of ‘dominant’ employment relations–Japanese HRM ‘best practice’–adopted in an emerging economy by Japanese multinational corporations (JMNCs) with strong corporate and state-backed power. A multi-site case study of ten Japanese-Indonesian automotive joint ventures in Indonesia reveals that alongside apparently consensual micro-level relations between home- and host-country managements, there are important political power games at the meso level: games aimed at defining ‘best practice’. In these games, host-country actors are more powerful than deterministic models might predict. They seek to defend Indonesian HRM practices, while Japanese actors develop strategies to bypass host-country workplace regulations. This study contributes to international HRM by expanding understanding of Japanisation in emerging economies and revealing the hidden importance of the meso level in managing institutional diversity and defining power relations between actors, especially as a source of ideological power.

Definitions Matter! When Big Data Takes on Biased Theory Building in International HRM Research

Definitions Matter! When Big Data Takes on Biased Theory Building in International HRM Research

Determinants of transnational social capital: opportunity–investment–ability perspective

This study suggests that it is critical for executives to develop transnational social capital (TSC), or professional relationships and ties that span national borders. We first provide a conceptual framework and careful operationalization of TSC that differentiates between bonding and bridging forms of social capital. We then examine the effect of three key determinants—opportunity, investment and ability—on the TSC of executives. Using detailed survey data on 227 executives, our analysis suggests that international experience, investment in communicating with cross-border ties and cosmopolitan ability have direct effects on overall TSC. We further demonstrate that international experience and cosmopolitan ability affect both bridging and bonding, but that investment in cross-border communication only affects bridging social capital. The study proposes that social capital is becoming more and more transnational as connections, interactions and transactions increasingly span national borders, which has implications for international business and human resource management. Given our findings, it would make sense for global organizations to pay more attention to these, if they would like their members to develop this resource. We point out benefits to organizations and individuals.

Moving on up? Exploring the career journeys of skilled migrants in the professions

Drawing on the discursive practice turn in social theory, we examine the career journeys of skilled West African migrants based in Britain. While many, especially those from developing countries, may end up in elementary occupations, accounts of their progression into professional occupations remain elusive. Here, we unpack specific transient moments of their career journeys through the lens of ‘microstoria’: the creation and sharing of contemporaneous storylines. These reveal that the ‘way-finding’ practices of skilled migrants into the professions are characterized by four distinct but durationally indivisible transitional phases – which we call ‘Johnny just come’, toe-holding, enrichment-in-practice, and the puissance-lap. Our study provides insights into the career experiences of skilled migrants, elucidating how they make sense of their careers in narrative terms in accessing professional occupations and progressing within these. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and their implications for the theory and practice of international human resource management.

Evaluating an International Human Resource Management Strategy for New Telecommunication Group in Developing Countries, Concentrating on Pakistan (A Case Study of Vodafone)

The main objective of this paper is to evaluate an international human resource management strategy and their effectiveness for new telecommunication companies in developing countries especially Vodafone Group entry into Pakistan. This report defines the Vodafone Company and its global working, cultural issues of the parent and the host country. Pakistan has a different culture as compared to the United Kingdom. PESTLE analysis covers social, economical, political, technological environment and legal aspects of Pakistan. PESTLE analysis is showing the external environment that can effect on the sales after entering into Pakistan. Some special training is discussed that is necessary for global firms to adopt for the sake of proper working. The performance management system is also discussed in the report with all of its effects on employees and business growth, Recruitment and selection process is also part of the report that is showing how global firms should recruit the employees by using Rodger’s seven-point plan. Performance management system and its effectiveness are discussed with an evaluation strategy.

Resilience, wellbeing and HRM: a multidisciplinary perspective

Research on resilience has accumulated a vast body of knowledge which has assisted in comprehending complex HRM issues in diverse organizational settings. Yet, the existing studies have hitherto not paid sufficient attention to the multifaceted aspects of resilience and occupational contexts. We join the conversation with resilience, wellbeing and HRM by suggesting that investigating resilience from a multidisciplinary perspective situated in varying occupational contexts can advance our collective understandings of the phenomena in important ways. This paper has three general objectives. First, we show that resilience has been a long-standing issue in organizational behavior and organization studies and provide an overview of the puzzles that underpin and trigger this special issue. Second, we highlight the key insights and contributions of the papers included in this special issue by reviewing their theoretical underpinnings, methodological approaches and findings. Finally, we outline a future research agenda on resilience in organizations that can help advance international HRM research.

A Review of Empirical Research on Global Talent Management

Global talent management as an academic field is regarded as a multi-disciplinary bridge field, which has recently emerged from the strategic international human resource management (HRM) and talent management fields as a critical strategic issue for multinational firms. While some literature reviews have been conducted on the topic, there is no systematic review of drivers, outcomes and challenges in empirical global talent management research. This study therefore provides a rigorous systematic review of empirical global talent management research from 2008 to 2017. The evidence reveals that global talent management can enhance multinational companies’ global mobility outcomes, employer attractiveness, competitiveness and performance. However, challenges, such as huge financial costs, high rate of turnover among global talents, localization difficulties, corporate culture, and adjustment problems, of expatriate spouses can undermine the effectiveness of global talent management practices and programmes. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the qualitative approach and cross-sectional design have dominated empirical research on the topic while only few studies have performed multi-level analysis. The findings urge stakeholders to adopt a more holistic and well-informed view while designing and implementing global talent management initiatives either as researchers or practitioners. It also implies that despite the substantial interest in global talent management, the field is still under-explored or under-researched. The study makes contribution by providing the first systematic review of empirical global talent management research.

Quantifying factors affecting MNE's Human Resource Management: Evidence from an emerging economy and implications for HR managers

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) conduct international business operations around the globe. For the MNEs, operating in today’s global business environment demands human resource departments to be engaged in a variety of activities, including attracting talents, training and development, relocation, repatriation, among others. To contend with the increasing number of issues and challenges in international business environment, MNEs’ must strive to improve their international HRM strategies. As organizations manage subsidiaries across different countries, the approach to human resource management functions must consider the dictate of the local environment where the subsidiary has to operate in order to survive and prosper. The researchers applied a multi-criteria decision making algorithm known as the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to model the challenges and issues that MNCs’ face as well as the factors impacting the HRM practices. The study explore the challenges by way of literature review and interview of some of the MNEs’ C-level executives.

Global configurations in multinational enterprises, duality, and the challenge of LGBT inclusivity in unsympathetic host countries within Africa

MNEs’ HRM practices need to be mindful of the institutional differences between the local context of host countries and that of their home countries. Balancing the localization of HRM practices with the desire for global standardization and integration is a dilemma for MNEs. We examine this tension utilizing a unique perspective, namely by analyzing the HRM challenges that MNEs face with regard to LGBT employees in Africa. We find that MNEs experience difficulty in reconciling their global corporate values and HR policies with local institutions and legislative requirements. Several contributions result. First, by bringing issues of duality to the fore both at the organizational and individual level. Second, we contribute towards the global configuration literature in international HRM as regards global standardization and national differentiation, by focusing on developing countries, where the scale of the cultural or institutional distance between home and host countries are likely to be larger, which allows us to examine the difficulties of the transfer of HR practices to these sites. Third, we embed our analysis of localization within institutional theory, and finally, we integrate these contributions into an analysis of HRM challenges of LGBT employees in hostile contexts and make recommendations.

Building value-driven HRM practices in Western Multinational Enterprise in Ghana using the AMO model

Despite the increasing presence of Western MNEs’ subsidiaries in Ghana, the country continues to remain underrepresented in international human resource management literature (IHRM). The purpose of this research is to address this lacuna by examining recruitment and selection; training and development; performance management; rewards management and employee communication and participation using the ability, motivation and opportunities (AMO) model to build value-driven human resource management (HRM) practices in Western MNEs in Ghana. The paper employs a qualitative multiple case study approach using semi-structured interviews with employees and managers in purposefully selected Western subsidiaries in Ghana. This research employs 37 in-depth interviews with managers and employees in eight British, European and US MNEs in Ghana. The study essentially provides fine-grained analysis of how subsidiaries develop strategies in each HRM practice to promote employee ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO) and possibly organisational performance. Keywords : HRM practices, Multinational Enterprise in Ghana, AMO model DOI : 10.7176/JRDM/53-07 Publication date :March 31 st 2019

How ethnographic research can help conceptualize expatriate acculturation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how the theory of researcher positionality can help international business researchers and human resource managers clarify the ideal position of the expatriate in relation to host country nationals (HCNs), so that selection and cross-cultural training (CCT) can be more targeted and assignment specific.Design/methodology/approachThis is a conceptual paper linking positionality theory and the methodological practice of reflexivity from ethnographic research and other social sciences to the research of expatriate acculturation.FindingsThis conceptual paper outlines theory from ethnographic research that, when applied to expatriate selection and acculturation, increases the field’s understanding of the expatriate’s position in relation to HCNs. This theory practically informs selection criteria, CCT programs and support plans as they pertain to specific international assignments. A novel theoretical model is then proposed.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper is conceptual in nature. Empirical research is needed to test the value of this paper and its proposed positionality gap model (PGM) model.Practical implicationsThe research and conceptual model proposed in this paper has the potential to improve how multinational enterprise (MNE) managers conceptualize expatriate assignments, expatriate selections and expatriate CCT leading to more effective work and value added to stakeholders.Social implicationsThe PGM model proposed in this paper highlights the value of HCN’s culture and preferences as input for selection and CCT of an expatriate worker and contributes to the body of literature that views expatriation with multiple stakeholder perspectives.Originality/valueThis paper’s originality stems from the application of a well-understood phenomenon in ethnographic research and other social sciences to expatriate acculturation. The common practice of reflexology and theory of positionality can clarify the ideal position for an expatriate in relation to the MNE and HCNs for both researchers and practitioners.

Facing complexity, crisis, and risk: Opportunities and challenges in international human resource management

International human resource management (IHRM) as a field of practice involves heightened levels of complexity compared to domestic HRM based on the multitude of contexts in which multinational firms operate. As complexity increases, so do levels of risk and the chance the firm must deal with crisis situations. Based on articles presented at the 3rd Global Conference on IHRM, this special issue focuses on how IHRM can contribute to organization success when faced with extreme operating conditions. This editorial provides a backdrop to the articles by describing the challenging economic, political, and social environments impacting organizations, exploring conditions from the recent past and current day such as the global financial crisis, trends toward political nationalism, aging populations, and growing immigrant workforces. The focus lies on exploring how HRM can respond to such challenging external contexts to continue to contribute added value to the firm.

Socialização Organizacional de Expatriados

A gestão internacional de pessoas engloba a expatriação que consiste na transferência de empregados entre as unidades da organização em diferentes países por período determinado. Para que os resultados da expatriação sejam atingidos, um processo importante é o ajustamento, que compreende a adaptação ao novo contexto. Um dos fatores de influência do ajustamento no país é a socialização organizacional, compreendida como a integração dos empregados com a organização. O objetivo dessa pesquisa foi de analisar a relação entre as táticas organizacionais e o processo de socialização organizacional de expatriados. Por meio de abordagem quantitativa e cunho descritivo, a coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de questionário online. A amostra constituiu-se por expatriados que trabalham em empresas internacionais. Os resultados foram analisados através de estatística descritiva e regressão linear. Demonstrou-se que as empresas utilizam táticas institucionalizadas para ajustar os expatriados. Identificou-se que 14% do processo de socialização organizacional é explicado pelas táticas, sendo que o impacto maior dessas táticas é percebido na dimensão da tarefa, ou seja, no papel que o expatriado irá desempenhar. A quantidade de vezes que o expatriado realizou missões internacionais pode alterar a percepção das táticas utilizadas para seu ajustamento, sendo este um achado importante desta pesquisa.

Expatriates and International career management: Corporate and sporting context

Globalization makes expatriation an increasingly present reality, whether in the lives of employees of multinational companies or athletes. Therefore, the objective of this essay was to conceptuate the International Human Resources Management (IHRM) and to point out the relationship of such phenomenon with the career management conducted by the person participating in this process of expatriation, both in corporate and sports contexts. For this, it was based on the methodological design of a qualitative research on the perspective of documental analysis. As the main reflections of this essay, we emphasize that, although it is considered fundamental, the IHRM is better developed in companies, while in sports clubs this is a secondary concern. It is also noteworthy the importance of athletes and expatriate employees to undergo a process of preparation, both from the psychological and social, economic and cultural point of view, so that the changes are faced in the best possible way.

Advancing international human resource management scholarship on paternalistic leadership and gender: the contribution of postcolonial feminism

This article aims to inspire international human resource management (IHRM) scholarship that incorporates postcolonial feminist theory, using the under-researched topic of paternalistic leadership and gender to illustrate the opportunities and challenges such an endeavour can present. Paternalistic leadership is an important and widely used indigenous framework for examining leadership in Chinese contexts, while postcolonial feminism holds the capacity to problematise the representation of non-western women in feminist theory as a universal, transhistorical category. As this article demonstrates, postcolonial feminist theory centralises cultural difference in theorising gender, strives toward shattering binaries reproduced by colonialism and imperialism (West/East, Western/Third World Woman) and generates indigenous, localised knowledge on non-western women. Three sites of enquiry are discussed: 1) Chinese feminisms and genders; 2) Chinese cultures and gender norms; 3) Voice, agency and the subaltern woman. This article provides research propositions for IHRM scholars to translate postcolonial femininst theory into research on paternalistic leadership and gender. Concluding, the article outlines implications for practice and sifts the discussion for the future avenues of research it signals.

Chinese multinationals’ approach to international human resource management: a longitudinal study

This study explores how emerging market service firms, operating in developed markets, approach human resource management (HRM). Data analyzed in this article were drawn from a longitudinal case study of the Australian subsidiary of a Chinese multinational bank. We find that subsidiary HRM follows host country and global best practices. However, the way that this hybrid HRM system was implemented shows traces of Chinese origin. A key finding from this study is that although our case bank officially adopted a polycentric approach to subsidiary staffing, employing host country nationals, the subsidiary predominantly employed locals with a Chinese ethnic background. We also find the case bank’s strategy in international HRM has evolved from a focus on localization to global standardization. This global standardization, however, is shaped in line with global best practices rather than home country management model. These findings highlight the need for future studies to adopt a more nuanced approach to examining international HRM strategies, especially when analyzing host country effect or localization strategy.

Actors, Structure, and Processes: A Review and Conceptualization of Global Work Integrating IB and HRM Research

As organizations increasingly fulfill their customer needs by getting their work done globally, there is a pressing need for the scientific community to further advance knowledge on global work, especially in terms of how to better conceptualize and integrate it. A particular opportunity for such development involves the cross-fertilization between the international business (IB) and human resource management (HRM) literatures, which serve as the focal domains to study global work phenomena but have treated global work largely as separate research streams. We therefore edited a special issue to contribute to a more integrative understanding of various aspects of global work across both domains. In this opening article, we review existing research on global work in the multinational enterprise from both IB and HRM perspectives. Subsequently, we present a shared conceptualization of global work that helps integrate theoretical and empirical research in both fields. We then introduce the articles in this special issue, before developing an integrative agenda for future research on global work.

The Difference Between Greece and Other Countries Regarding HRM Practice

One of the primary reasons behind this difference is the small business structure and entrepreneurial ventures prevalent in Greece. Further, due to a strong patriarchal society with paternalist traditions, there are bound to be differences in how the people run businesses. To improve HR practices in Greece, industrial relations should be improved, base salary increased, and issues of leave resolved. It is important for HR managers in Greece to have better training in international HRM standards.

Critical Cross-Cultural Management: Outline and Emerging Contributions

: Critical perspectives on cross-cultural management (CCM) are increasingly present in our research community; however, they are spread over multiple research fields (e.g., international business, International Human Resource Management (IHRM), diversity, and gender and/or race studies). Critical researchers tend to have agendas and foci that address topics others consider beyond CCM’s scope, such as gender in intercultural training, religion in the multi-cultural workplace, or the relationship between CCM knowledge and the military. We intend to sketch here the contours of this stream of research we call critical CCM and to clarify the broadly shared research studies’ agenda. By using Burrell and Morgan (1979) matrix and stressing critical studies’ inspirations in two paradigms, radical structuralism and radical humanism, we propose a paradigmatic positioning of the studies. Subsequently, we articulate Critical CCM research agenda around denaturalization, reflexivity, and emancipation. We conclude by asserting a critical performative agenda in a dialog with practitioners. In brief, our ambition is to specifically outline Critical CCM research and show its emergent contribution to CCM research.

HR localization impacts on HCNs’ work attitudes

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of localized human resource management (LHRM) on host country nationals’ (HCNs) intention to remain (ITR) and extra-role performance (ERP) through the mediating role of person-organization fit (POF).Design/methodology/approachData were gathered from 494 employees in two Chinese subsidiaries in Iran via two-stage self-administered survey and analyzed with AMOS 21.FindingsThe results show that LHRM positively affected employees’ ITR and ERP. However, there was no significant relationship between LHRM and POF and between POF and ERP.Originality/valuePrevious studies in the international human resource management literature have focused more on Western and South Asian countries. The present study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first inquiry of its kind in an Iranian context. Hence, this paper contributes to the existing knowledge by testing LHRM in two large Chinese multinational companies in Iran. Additionally, the results of this study will increase our understanding of LHRM and provide practitioners with superior insights into some practices that could elevate HCNs’ ERP and ITR.