The ‘country-of-origin effect’ in employee turnover intention: evidence from China

The increasing presence of foreign direct investment in China has boosted the competition for talent among different multinational corporations (MNCs) from diverse national backgrounds. This article investigates the differences in the human resource management (HRM) approaches adopted by the US, European, and Japanese MNC subsidiaries operating in China and explores the relationships between employees' perceptions toward the HRM approaches and turnover intention. Significant differences in the HRM approaches and employees' level of turnover intention were found, indicating a ‘country-of-origin effect’ in HRM approaches that subsequently influences employees' attitudes. In addition, this article produces evidence suggesting that the perception of HRM characteristics predicts employees' intentions to quit. Implications for HRM convergence or divergence debate are discussed.     

A typology of international human resource management in Japanese multinational corporations: Organizational implications

This article outlines a typology of approaches to the design of international human resource management (HRM) systems in multinational corporations based on a ten-year study of Japanese affiliates in the United States, Europe, and Asia. After outlining four different approaches based on the dimensions of parent company imprint, problem attribution, and diffusion of HRM innovations, the article discusses the implications for organizations in the areas of flexibility, organizational learning, integration and coordination, and cost. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Future HRM challenges for multinational firms in Eastern and Central Europe

This article identifies and evaluates human resource challenges for multinational companies in transitional economies in Central and Eastern European countries. The nature of transitional economies and HRM in post‐socialist societies presents a range of issues. These pertain to the lingering effects of the previous institutional environment and state‐directed political economies that retain influence on the type of HRM practices adopted. Challenges of talent attraction and retention, remuneration systems, diversity and cross‐cultural management are considered.     

Towards an Asian model of human resource management? A comparative analysis of China,Japan and South Korea

There has been much discussion regarding the possible decline and weakening of national systems of human resource management (HRM). Yet, culture and institutions are often cited as the major stumbling blocks to this outcome. Such constraints may dissipate in the analysis, particularly if ‘regional clusters’ are considered where geographic and cultural closeness and ‘openness’ to similar economic pressures exist. In such cases, it might be postulated that convergence in HRM will occur. We argue that China, Japan and South Korea represent such a cluster. This article examines these countries, to see if a degree of convergence is taking place and if it is towards an identifiable ‘Asian’ model of HRM. A model of change is presented that distinguishes between levels of occurrence and acceptance. Details of the development and practice of HRM in each country are then set out. The article ends with a discussion and implications section and a brief conclusion.     

Positive psychology and human resource management: Building an HR architecture to support human flourishing

The purpose of this special issue is to review the current state of positive psychology in human resource management (HRM) and encourage future research. This lead article provides a framework to guide and stimulate scholarship that builds on the existing literature by identifying gaps in our knowledge as well as opportunities for advancement of the field. The model developed herein offers an expanded view of positive human resource management through the exploration of the links between the individual, the group, and the organization. The articles that follow offer unique insights into applications of positive psychology within the study and practice of HRM, providing specific examples of how scholarship in this area may continue to develop.     

HRM practice in emerging economies: a long way to go in the Slovak hotel industry?

Using empirical data from interviews among leading hotels in Slovakia, this paper sets out to explore recent developments in human resource management (HRM) policies and practices and labour relations in an emerging Central European economy. The main areas explored are the HRM function, employee resourcing, employee development, employee relations and emerging HRM issues. The paper establishes that there has been a move away from the traditional rigid socialist type of personnel management, but it has not been fully replaced by HRM practices. The emergent 'model' is a hybrid of the traditional Western personnel management and basic HRM activities, alongside which some legacies of the socialist personnel function still exist.     

Demands or Resources? The Relationship Between HR Practices,Employee Engagement,and Emotional Exhaustion Within a Hybrid Model of Employment Relations

This article explores the ways in which employees may experience and respond to tensions inherent in the mix of potentially conflicting human resource (HR) practices that compose hybrid models of employment relations. By drawing on the job demands–resources (JD‐R) literature and viewing HR practices as “demands” and “resources,” we explore the impact of performance management and employee voice practices on employee well‐being, as exemplified by engagement and emotional exhaustion, in a large public‐sector organization in Ireland. Our findings suggest that employee voice mechanisms may act as a resource in both enhancing engagement and in counterbalancing the demands presented by a performance management system, thus reducing the deleterious effects of emotional exhaustion. Our study extends understanding of hybrid models of human resource management (HRM) and of the ways in which employees manage the contradictory signals that such models may send in terms of performance expectations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Developing a ‘European’ model of human resource management

The concept of human resource management (HRM) has been much debated in the literature. Space limitations preclude an examination of that debate here, but it is clear that the concept developed initially from work in the United States of America in the 1960s and 1970s and since then has been adopted increasingly in the academic literature, by consultancy services and in organizational terminology. The terminology spread from the USA firstly into the developed English speaking world and recently - and more partially - into Europe. Is the concept, as opposed to the terminology, applicable in Europe? This paper argues that the organizational autonomy on which the subject is propounded in the United States is not espoused in Europe. A range of subject areas in which organizations in Europe are supported/constrained by external factors are analysed, thus challenging the validity of the American model. This raises the need to consider different conceptual approaches to HRM: a new model of the concept which would encompass EuroHRM is proposed.     

Strategic international human resource management approaches in the maquiladora industry: a comparison of Japanese,Korean and US firms

The maquiladora option has made Mexico an increasingly attractive off-shore manufacturing site for multinational enterprises (MNEs) seeking global competitiveness. However, MNEs often encounter human resource management (HRM) challenges as they attempt to leverage these maquiladora benefits. MNEs use three approaches to international human resource management (IHRM) design in addressing these challenges – a mechanistic, ‘control’ approach; a paternalistic, ‘human relations’ approach; and a developmental, ‘human resource’ approach. This paper compares and contrasts these IHRM design approaches in Japanese, Korean and US maquiladora manufacturing operations in Mexico, identifies implications for the management of diversity based on these findings, and discusses the related competitiveness implications.     

Global post-merger agility,transactive memory systems and human resource management practices

In this article, a conceptual model is developed in the context of global mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The model integrates ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO)-enhancing human resource management (HRM) practices framework and transactive memory system (TMS). To date, AMO-enhancing HRM practices and TMS have not been brought together in a global context; in particular, their influence on post-merger agility (PMA) is neither well-known nor theorized in the extant literature on M&As. In this article, we theorize TMS as key mediator between AMO-enhancing HRM practices and PMA in the context of global M&As. In doing so, we bring AMO-enhancing HRM practices and TMS together and explicate their impact on PMA in the global M&As context.     

Dynamizing human resources: An integrative review of SHRM and dynamic capabilities research

Human resource management (HRM) systems have been extensively analyzed in academic research yet limited attention has been paid to the role of HRM dynamic capabilities (DC) and their impact on resources and practices, employee well-being and firm performance. Our study bridges this gap by defining a new categorization of HRM DC based on their ultimate aims: building knowledge, advancing social integration and developing reconfiguration-enhancing mechanisms. In parallel, we offer an integrative framework to shed light on how strategic human resource management (SHRM) can accelerate HRM DC development. Through this conceptual process model and typology of capabilities, we deepen the discussion around the core components of HRM systems, HRM DC, and their effects on resources and practices, employee well-being and performance. In practical terms, HRM DC represent a promising driver of sustainable long-term organizational growth by enabling firms to boost their strategic agility and capacity to navigate in the presence of environmental dynamism.     

An integrative framework for understanding cross-national human resource management practices

Currently, debate in the area of cross-national human resource management (HRM) suggests that both “culture-bound” and “culture-free” factors and variables are important determinants of HRM policies and practices. HRM is presented as being context-specific and it is argued that with the growth of new markets world-wide, and increased levels of competition and globalization of business, there is a strong need for more cross-national HRM studies. However, the literature shows the absence of an integrated framework, which can help to highlight the different role that context-specific facets of HRM practices play. The nature of different determinants in different national and regional settings is rarely analyzed. This paper develops an integrated framework. It delineates the main distinctive facets associated with national factors, contingent variables, and organizational and human resource (HR) strategies and policies, that may be used to evaluate cross-national comparative HRM policies and practices.     

Exploring the reality of educated middle managers' capability and involvement in human resource management in China

Since the recent global financial crisis, human resource management (HRM) policies may be seen more than ever as one of the cornerstones for building an appropriate organizational culture to better promote effort and cooperation between human resource (HR) managers and other middle line-managers. This article is designed to explore the reality of educated middle managers' capability and involvement in HRM in China, given that the concepts of HR roles in general and middle managers in particular are relatively new there. By analysing the results from more than 300 middle managers who had been educated at MBA programmes in different parts of China, our findings, we argue, have important implications for both the HRM literature and management practice in emerging economies.     

A hybridism model of differentiated human resource management effectiveness in Chinese context

This paper brings the differentiation perspective of human resource management (HRM) to China's context of economic transition, and constructs a hybridism rationale to explain the distinctive characteristics of Chinese HRM. We respectively discuss the effect mechanisms of commitment-based, control-based, collaboration-based, and contract-based HRM archetypes in China. Then, by comparing the paths of HRM evolution taken by China and the West, we explore the dynamic logics of fit between macroeconomic institutions (economic centralization or laissez-faire) and the organizational tradeoff of hybrid HRM approaches. Ideas for future research and practical implications are discussed.     

Advancing the field of employee assistance programs research and practice: A systematic review of quantitative studies and future research agenda

The COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated the critical role of organizational support for the workforce. An employee assistance program (EAP) represents an inclusive strategy which organizations adopt to provide supportive and empathic care to help employees overcome undesirable situations. To date, we have limited knowledge of what EAP issues have been researched from the human resource management (HRM) perspective and what theoretical underpinning these studies have used. This article systematically reviews quantitative empirical studies on EAPs. Drawing upon 115 articles from 72 journals across 40 years (1981–2020), we trace the evolutionary trend of the construct of EAP and shed light on the internal link of EAP with HRM. After summarizing research themes, methods, theories, and approaches to the evaluation of EAPs, we identify pitfalls in the current research and contribute to extending the field by proposing several research agendas for future investigation.     

Theoretic insights on the nature of performance synergies in human resource systems: Toward greater precision

Synergy is a central tenet of the organizational level approach to human resource management (HRM). However, current theoretic treatments of synergy in the HRM literature are too inspecific to offer much insight about its essential characteristics in HRM systems. To move the treatment of synergy toward greater precision, this paper describes three different theoretic approaches to synergy in HRM systems: virtuous overlaps, independent effects, and efficient complementarities. Each of these approaches to synergy is better fitted to some contingencies than to others and is operationalized by different methodologies. Recognizing these different varieties of HRM system synergy allows researchers to better understand and estimate the impact of HRM systems on organizational performance. Moreover, the theoretic perspectives on synergy described here apply to many types of systems beyond HRM.     

The Trade Union Response to Hrm In the Uk: the Case of the Tgwu

John Fisher has for many years worked closely with the Transport and General Workers’ Union (TGWU) as a specialist tutor. In this article he tracks and explains the significant movement in this union's response to human resource management. At national and workplace level he observes a shift from an ‘oppositional’ stance to a more complex position. This combines a lingering suspicion of HRM with a new recognition of the need for involvement in the HRM process. the article represents the first report of this significant set of moves from a union long-noted for its implacable opposition to human resource management initiatives.     

Employee commitment in MNCs: Impacts of organizational culture,HRM and top management orientations

This article tests a model of organizational commitment in multinational corporations (MNCs). According to the model, organizational culture and human resource management (HRM) affect employee commitment directly as well as indirectly through top management team orientations. Szpecifically, we examined the effect of top management team global orientation and geocentric orientation, which are seen as contributing uniquely to employee commitment in MNCs. The model was tested on a sample of 1664 core employees working in 39 affiliates of 10 MNCs. We found strong overall support for the model. In particular, organizational culture characterized by high adaptability and a HRM system characterized by high performance work practices were found to have a significant and direct effect on employee commitment. In addition, we found that the effect of these traditional elements of the human organization is partially mediated through top management orientations, specific to international firms. The validity and generalizability of these results are reinforced by the control of a set of demographic variables as well as nationality of parent company.     

Testing alternative models of human resource policy effects on trade union recognition in the Republic of Ireland

This paper tests two alternative models of human resource policy effects on the incidence of union non-recognition in a sample of over 150 organizations in the Republic of Ireland. A series of scales of human resource policy sophistication is developed, guided by the broad body of theory in the area of HRM. A conceptual model linking HRM policies to union recognition/non-recognition is also elaborated. Two alternative theoretical models of HRM policy effects are developed and estimated using logistic regression. The first of these models, the 'simple additive model', tests for the discrete effects of various areas of human resource policy on the incidence of union non-recognition. Only the management of reward systems along HRM lines is significantly associated with the incidence of non-recognition. A second model, called the 'threshold-fit model' tests for a decisive overall HRM effect on union non-recognition in organizations which implement relatively sophisticated and internally consistent sets of HRM policies. A series of policy cross-dependencies or interaction effects is also allowed for in this model. Contrary to the predictions of the theoretical literature, no empirical support is found that such HRM policy combinations prove particularly impenetrable to trade unions. Line management dominance of HRM policy is found to be a significant factor in predicting non-recognition. The possibility that this factor is indicative of sophisticated human resource management is however discounted. The apparent failure of most areas of human resource policy to depress the likelihood of union recognition in Ireland is accounted for in terms of the wider framework and traditions of industrial relations practice in that country.