To what extent is there a regional logic in the management of labour in multinational companies? Evidence from Europe and North America (original) (raw)
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In this paper we address a key issue that dominates internal ional HRM research, namely the global-local question. The question concerns how multinationals can or should balance the pressures to develop globally standardized policies with the pressures to be responsive lo the peculiarities of the local context In our view, three important conceptual weaknesses have restricted research progress in this held; the inadequate conceptualization of national effects, which results in culture being used as an unsatisfactory 'catch all' for national differences; the lack of attention to the influence of internal organizational polities; and the absence of focus on the internal division of labour within MNCs. We discuss the ways in which these weaknesses can be addressed and the implications of these alternative concepts.
Multinational Companies in Cross-National Context
This paper outlines the key features of an international research project consisting of parallel surveys of MNCs and employment practice in four countries: Ireland, Canada, Spain and the UK. The surveys are the most comprehensive investigations of the employment practices in MNCs in their respective countries. In setting up the comparative analysis of these data, the paper has three objectives. First, we explore the processes of integration and differentiation in MNCs, and the impact for employment practice. Second, the importance of foreign direct investment (FDI), and the similarities and differences between the systems of industrial relations, in the four countries in question are charted. Third, we outline the key elements of the research design, chart the process of collecting data and discuss the extent to which the surveys were comparable.
Employment practices of MNCs in organisational context: A large-scale survey
2007
Largest Occupational Group MNC Multinational company RD Reverse diffusion UCC Ultimate Controlling Company UK operations All the operations (subsidiary companies, business divisions, etc.) of an MNC within the UK v Executive Summary Objectives and Nature of Survey (Introduction) • This is the first survey of HR practice of MNCs in the UK based on a representative sample. It covers both UK-owned and overseas-owned firms. The sampled population embraces MNCs with at least 500 employees in total. For UK-owned MNCs, there is also a minimum of 100 employees in the UK; for overseas-owned firms, there had to be at least 100 employees in at least one other country. • The analysis is based on 302 face-to-face interviews with senior HR managers responsible for the UK operations of MNCs. • The survey examines three key aspects of MNCs in Britain: o the strategy, structure and control mechanisms of companies; o the structure and role of the HR function; o and four substantive areas of employment practice: performance management and reward systems; learning, development and international diffusion; employee involvement, including teamworking, and communication; and employee representation and consultation. • In asking about practice, the survey distinguishes three groups among the UK workforce. These are managers, the largest occupational group (LOG) among non-managerial employees and-an innovation in the survey-a key group (KG) of employees that are critical to the firm's core competence. Profile of Multinational Britain: Company Characteristics (Chapter 1) • MNCs in Britain are a heterogeneous group. They are spread across manufacturing and services in roughly equal proportions. They originate from North America, Europe and to a lesser extent Asia-though the dominance of US firms, which comprise 40% of the sample, is underlined. And they vary greatly in their worldwide and UK employment size. • In terms of their structures, relatively few MNCs are characterised by a straightforward hierarchical relationship between HQ and operating units. Instead, in most MNCs there are intermediate levels within complex, multi-layered corporate structures. • In relation to their strategies, the diversified conglomerate type of multinational in which there are few linkages between sites seems to be quite rare (only 5% of the total); rather, there is a high degree of commonality in MNCs' products and services across sites and in the extent of trading relationships between sites. • In a significant proportion of firms the UK operations appear to play a significant 'strategic' role in that they have international responsibility for products and services and that they are responsible for significant expertise in R&D. In just over half (52%) of overseasowned firms, UK operations have an international product or service responsibility. • Eight out of ten firms identify a key group of employees that is critical to the company's core competence. vi a defining feature of MNCs-is not used by one-third of firms. Though MNCs are shaped by their business structures, HR practice is not determined by these influences. Firms can still exert important elements of choice. The lesson is to use this evidence to reflect on current practice, and not that certain practices are inherently desirable. • National origins shape practice, but such influences may be open to change. The distinctive style of Japanese firms, for example, is a lasting characteristic but it can also be set alongside practice in MNCs based elsewhere: is the limited use of organisational learning appropriate, or can lessons be derived from this set of practices? Or does limited local autonomy among US firms constrain organisational learning? • Given the central role of HR structures, firms may reflect on such issues as who is on HR committees, the role of these committees, and key feedback mechanisms linking these structures with international practices such as succession planning, organisational learning, and reverse diffusion.
British Journal of Management, 2008
There is considerable debate as to the determinants of the human resource policies of human resource management: do they reflect national institutional or cultural realities, emerging common global practices, parent country effects or the dual effects of transnational and national realities? We use an extensive international database to explore these differences, assessing variations in a range of human resource practices. We find new evidence of national differences in the manner in which indigenous firms manage their people, but also evidence of a similarity in practice amongst multinational corporations. In other words, multinational corporations tend to manage their human resources in ways that are distinct from those of their host country; at the same time, country of origin effects seem relatively weak. Whilst there is some evidence of common global practices, sufficient diversity in practice persists to suggest that duality theories may provide the most appropriate explanation.
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.