Human resource management of US Multinationals in Germany and the UK (original) (raw)
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Human Resources Management in Multinational Companies
2022
Human resource management (HRM) has a significant impact on companies' performance, as evidenced by research conducted in multinational companies (MNCs) based in Central Europe. This book provides a unique perspective of activities conducted in the HRM field in local subsidiaries of such enterprises. It also presents results verifying many hypotheses for each of the six models for single HRM subfunctions and their four relationships with the results of company performance. Particular chapters are devoted to activities including staffing the organization, shaping employee work engagement and job satisfaction, conducting employee performance appraisal, employee development, managerial staff development, and employer branding. The author used the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling to verify the research hypotheses. Readers will acquire knowledge about HRM practices in organizations in which the overwhelming ownership capital belongs to MNCs headquartered in Central Europe. The research findings presented confirm the positive impact that HRM activities have on the results of this type of enterprise in such areas as finance, quality, innovation, and HRM itself. The research also sheds light on the new, interesting regularities identified in this regard, e.g. the perception of human factor as a competitive factor. This book will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced or postgraduate students who are interested in the latest research on HRM in MNCs in the region of Central Europe.
Journal of World Business, 2001
A key current academic debate is the interaction between multinationals companies and national business systems, both the parent-country system in which they are embedded, and the host systems in which they operate. This article presents evidence from recent case-study research on German multinationals operating in Britain and Spain. It argues, first, that there are pressures on these companies to adopt many standard 'Anglo-Saxon' business practices in human resources and industrial relations (HR/IR), such as standardized international policies on appraisal, performance, management development, and an explicit, formalized corporate 'culture'. Second, however, significant manifestations of the influence of the German business system persist, including a long-termist orientation, and a management approach based on co-operation. 'Anglo-Saxon' practices are absorbed into this prevailing German managerial culture, and as a result operate in a distinctively 'German' way. Third, the country-of-origin effect is mediated by the institutional constraints of different national host environments. But even in highly regulated contexts, such as Spain, companies were able to create sufficient flexibility to preserve elements of a German style.
2004
The transfer of human resource policies and practices from headquarters to subsidiary locations becomes increasingly important in multinational enterprises as they develop from being exporting organisations to having stand-alone country subsidiaries, as a step towards the globalisation of their operations. The ability to transfer knowledge effectively across borders is a key characteristic of successful multinational enterprises. International human resource managers need to keep informed about the pressures of globalisation on their businesses and study local human resource issues relevant to their firms' operations. This study attempts to bridge the fields of international human resource management and strategic management, by investigating how German multinational enterprises transfer human resource policies and practices to their subsidiaries in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. While western multinational enterprises operating in Asian countries face different human resource issues from those in their home countries, existing research has a strong focus on Anglo-Saxon experiences, which results in a lack of studies of European and specifically, German multinationals. This study focuses on a sample of German multinational enterprises and the internationalisation of their human resource function. Against this background, the research question is 'How do German multinational companies transfer human resource policies and practices to and from their subsidiaries in South East Asia?' The themes to be investigated emerge from the fields of international human resource management; national, cultural and legal differences in human resource management in selected enterprises between Germany, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, and the impact of the headquarters policies and practices of these multinational enterprises on human resource issues in their subsidiaries. The study investigates a number of research issues. The first is the international human resource management approach of German multinational enterprises' headquarters towards their subsidiaries. A second research issue deals with the key cultural, legal and societal differences that influence the transfer of human resource policies and practices. A third research issue analyses whether there is a general climate of innovation and trust between headquarters and subsidiaries that facilitates organisational change. A fourth research issue investigates how specific policies and practices could change when applied in different countries. Finally, the roles of headquarters people and subsidiary staff in the transfer process are studied. This exploratory study uses qualitative methodology and is based on the analysis of case studies. The three main cases are German Fortune Global 500 industrial companies from different industries, namely electrical, mechanical and chemical, and with subsidiaries in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. Prior theory in the literature review and exploratory expert and pilot interviews led to the development of a detailed interview protocol. A total of 24 in-depth interviews with human resource directors and line managers form the backbone of data collection. New contributions to the body of knowledge concern the incongruence between the internationalisation of the business versus the human resource function, the link CERTIFICATION OF DISSERTATION I certify that the ideas, field work, results, analyses and conclusions reported in this dissertation are entirely my own effort, except where otherwise acknowledged. Furthermore, I certify that the work is original and has not been previously submitted for any other award.
Human Resources Management in Multinational Companies: A Central European Perspective
Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2023
Human resource management (HRM) has a significant impact on companies' performance, as evidenced by research conducted in multinational companies (MNCs) based in Central Europe. This book provides a unique perspective of activities conducted in the HRM field in local subsidiaries of such enterprises. It also presents results verifying many hypotheses for each of the six models for single HRM subfunctions and their four relationships with the results of company performance. Particular chapters are devoted to activities including staffing the organization, shaping employee work engagement and job satisfaction, conducting employee performance appraisal, employee development, managerial staff development, and employer branding. The author used the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling to verify the research hypotheses. Readers will acquire knowledge about HRM practices in organizations in which the overwhelming ownership capital belongs to MNCs headquartered in Central Europe. The research findings presented confirm the positive impact that HRM activities have on the results of this type of enterprise in such areas as finance, quality, innovation and HRM itself. The research also sheds light on the new, interesting regularities identified in this regard, e.g. the perception of human factor as a competitive factor. This book will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced or postgraduate students who are interested in the latest research on HRM in MNCs in the region of Central Europe.
German Human Resource Management
European Management Journal, 2006
This paper demonstrates that American and Japanese HR managers hardly perceive German human resource management (HRM) as a role model from which they might wish to learn. As will be shown, the reason for this attitude is that American and Japanese HR managers have barely any knowledge about German HRM. It is argued here that this lack of knowledge results from the rather 'balanced', 'moderate' and 'equilibrated' character of German HRM, making it very difficult to define and grasp the essence of German HRM. Paradoxically, however, the data suggest that it is exactly this 'balanced' approach for which HR managers from the USA, Japan and Germany are striving.
2003
The issue of employment relations in the foreign operations of US-owned multinational corporations (MNCs) has attracted the attention of researchers for many years. The extensive literature has pointed to MNCs of American origin being more standardised, formalised and centralised in international policy making when compared with those of other nationalities (cf. Harzing 1999; Negandhi 1986; Young et al 1985; Yuen and Kee 1994). It has also indicated that US MNCs are particularly hostile to collective worker representation, and more likely to deploy HRM practices such as direct forms of employee involvement (cf. Dunning 1998; Enderwick 1985; for a review, see Edwards and Ferner 2002).
Transfer of Human Resource Practices from German Multinational Enterprises to Asian Subsidiaries
There are three Human Resource Management related issues that have attracted considerable interest in the international management literature. These three research issues deal with 1) human resource practice transfers, with 2) relational context affecting implementation and internalisation, and with 3) roles of key staff that influence European human resource practices across Southeast Asian countries. These issues were addressed in a study when human resource (HR) directors and line managers were interviewed in German companies with subsidiaries in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. The study findings indicate firstly, that German MNEs because of underlying value differences, tend to transfer policies and leave the translation into practices to the local Asia Pacific HR director, whereas the subsidiaries have contrasting expectations. Secondly, the findings confirm the importance of the relational context and trust between headquarters (HQ) and subsidiaries. Finally, the study evid...
This review paper critically examines multinational company; discuss its merits and demerits for host countries and debates on its various types of structures and strategies. The main part of this critical review relates about the various types of structures and strategies which multinational companies adopt while conducting business across boarders. It starts by defining Multinational Company discussing its merits and demerits, analysing the various components of its strategies and structures and comparing the merits and demerits of these different types of structures and strategies. A thematic approach rather than chronological approach has been used mainly due to the purpose and approach necessary for such type of review. The thematic approach enables an analysis of a specific topic or theme without considering the chronological order of which the research has been conducted. In latter part this review discusses the relationship of these strategies with international human resource management and also highlights the implications of different companies' strategies and structures for the international human resource management (IHRM). And at end we concluded that the role of IHRM varies in different types of organizational structures and therefore the implications of these structures are also vary for international HRM.