Human resource management and organizational strategies in German- and US-owned companies

The development of the international economy over the past twenty years has bred considerable diversity in the form and substance of employment relations (labour-management relations, human resource management practices) throughout the world. Cases of ‘social partnership’ are today found in the ‘free market’ United States economy; some companies operating in Germany's ‘social’ market economy are rejecting traditional forms of social partnership in the name of more unilateral strategies.

This paper examines (a) the extent to which ‘strategic diversity’ – variation in human resource strategies and policies – is possible within the heavily institutionalized, co-operative and codeterminative German economy, and (b) how managers perceive the effects of different kinds of HR approaches on organizational change and industrial adjustment. It is based on empirical evidence drawn from seven large chemicals companies operating in Germany – three of them US-owned firms and four German-owned.

The main conclusions are that considerable strategic diversity is possible within the German context, and that managers perceive distinct costs and benefits to specific aspects of the typically American ‘unilateral’ style and the more German ‘negotiated’ approach to structuring the relationship with human resources. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of these trade-offs for the transferability of HR strategies across international borders, giving special attention to policies to avoid some of these potential costs.     

Localizing women's experiences in academia: multilevel factors at play in the Arab Middle East and North Africa

This article explores the localized experiences of women at work in higher education in the under-researched context of the Arab Middle East and North Africa. Our main research questions are: What is the current status of academic women between and across the countries of this region? How can human resources play a developmental role for women at work in academic institutions, as well as for the region in general? We adopt a two-part research method in this study. First, through a critical review of the literature, we develop a regionally relevant macrolevel hypothetical model to localize a gender perspective on women at work. Second, we engage in a focused empirical examination of publicly available university data to document the: (1) representation of women across ranks; and (2) specific content of pertinent human resource policies. On the basis of these data, we propose a more complete multilevel hypothetical model upon which we put forward a critical discussion and directions for future research on gender, human resource management and regional development more broadly.     

Economic Freedom and Women's Emancipation in the MENA Region

The position of women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is a complex topic, difficult to comprehend without allowing for socio‐cultural norms, legal frameworks and the global gender context. In thinking about a practical framework for action, the free market perspective is relevant and necessary. However, this alone does not seem to provide a complete answer to the problem of promoting women's economic status. This article makes the case for the importance of market‐friendly, but also gender‐sensitive, policies to promote women's economic freedom and hence women's emancipation in the MENA region.     

Human Resource Management in Africa: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Africa is not a dream but in many ways, human resource management (HRM) in Africa could be a dreamlike experience. This appearance of managing in Africa as being surreal is particularly evident with many Western human resource managers. The sheer complexity and diversity found there can make the HRM process one of the more vexing decisions that management may have to undertake when doing business in Africa. In an effort to dramatize the complex nature of HRM decisions in African context, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland will be used as a metaphor throughout the paper. Just as Wonderland held many surprises for Alice during her adventure, Africa holds many surprises for Western HRM, not only in the form of the alien nature of the 'rules, regulations and laws' of many African nations but also in the extent to which many African organizations/employees ignore or bend the rules It is the intent of this paper to demonstrate a means to develop a classification scheme from which categories of African countries can evolve into more or less homogeneous groupings. These categories can then be used to develop customized HRM policies, strategies and tactics. The classification schema is based upon the European colonization of Africa, the history of leadership in African nations since decolonization, the economic/infrastructure development differences among African economies and the cultural differences among these same countries. It is envisioned that the African HRM decision matrix could provide the basis for making 'informed' HRM decisions by Western managers in an African context, although these Western managers must always be ever mindful of the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland nature of the HRM in Africa.     

Organizational Performance Consequences of Age Diversity: Inspecting the Role of Diversity‐Friendly HR Policies and Top Managers’ Negative Age Stereotypes

This paper seeks to advance the diversity literature by investigating organizational performance consequences of age diversity. Drawing from social‐identity and social‐categorization theory, we theoretically argue that, in age‐diverse companies, age‐based subgrouping processes occur, favouring a shared perception of a negative age‐discrimination climate. This perceived negative age‐discrimination climate in turn negatively relates to organizational performance. As the main contribution, top managers’ negative age‐related stereotypes and diversity‐friendly HR policies are introduced as organizational‐level moderators that increase and attenuate, respectively, the social categorization processes affecting performance in age‐diverse companies. We utilized structural equation modelling (SEM) to test the proposed hypotheses using a multisource dataset comprising 147 companies. The results supported all hypotheses, indicating that low negative top managers’ age stereotypes as well as high diversity‐friendly HR policies are potential organizational factors that can prevent the negative relation of age diversity with organizational performance transmitted through the negative age‐discrimination climate. These results are discussed in light of their contribution to the diversity literature and social‐categorization theory as well as their implication for practitioners.     

Job analysis: a strategic human resource management practice

This study examined the impact of job analysis on organizational performance among 148 companies based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Gulf-region country. Survey results indicated that a practice of proactive job analysis was strongly related to organizational performance. This relationship was strongest to the extent that companies maintained HR information systems, accorded HR greater involvement in strategic planning and emphasized competency-based characteristics of employees in the job analysis approaches they used. The findings suggest that a company-wide policy of job analysis is an important source of competitive advantage in its own right, and merits due attention of HR professionals, line managers and top management. The study extends the findings of the HR–performance research pursued in Western countries to a non-Western context.     

Country risk and stock market volatility,predictability, and diversification in the Middle East and Africa

With globalization, an understanding of country risk (political risk (PR), financial risk (FR), and economic risk (ER)) and its impact on stock market return volatility and predictability is important for evaluating direct investment and country selection decisions in globally and regionally diversified portfolios. This paper examines these issues in the context of the Middle East and Africa (MEAF) and analyzes 10 stock markets in the region over the period 1984–1999. After examining volatility and predictability, this paper explains how portfolios of stocks can be formed from these countries in order to achieve mean–variance efficient portfolios. This paper generally finds that country political, financial and economic risks significantly determine stock volatility and predictability. The diversification exercise shows that an international investor can still benefit by diversifying into the stock markets of Middle East and African countries.     

Foreign firms in China: modelling HRM in a toy manufacturing corporation

This article reports the study of a large, wholly foreign‐owned toy factory in China. It explores whether foreign direct investment (FDI) manufacturing firms in China inevitably operate in a Taylorist fashion, in contrast to the much praised HR model of blue chip multinational corporations (MNCs) in the country, or whether there is a ‘third way’ in which good HR practices may be adopted on the ground. The article concludes that a more nuanced approach is needed in our study of FDI companies in order to gain a fuller understanding of the institutional and cultural factors at play and of the consequent diversity in the HR and employment practices of FDI firms, instead of being trapped in a simplistic and polarising typological framework of analysis. This study is necessary in light of the growing diversity in the patterns of FDI companies operating in China in terms of their ownership structure, product market, management style and HR strategy, both for managers and for workers.     

Private Equity as Canary in a Coal Mine: Building the Ecosystem for Effective Global Financial Integration

A burgeoning private equity (PE) industry provides investment capital to build the capacity of an economy for innovation and entrepreneurial growth. We argue that for PE to contribute to this, capacity building requires effective systems for allocation of financial capital to the private sector and an ecosystem of supportive organizations. To illustrate these claims, we review the recent history of PE in the Middle East–North Africa region to contrast the PE industry in Middle East–North Africa, which stagnated after the financial crisis, with the industry in Turkey, which recovered quickly from a brief pause after the crisis and has thrived since 2008. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards Sustainable Development in the Arab Middle East and North Africa Region: A Longitudinal Analysis of Environmental Disclosure in Corporate Annual Reports

This paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of corporate environmental disclosure in the Arab Middle East and North Africa region. Using a detailed research instrument containing 55 items, content analysis of the annual reports of 180 non‐financial companies listed on nine major stock markets was conducted over a 5‐year period. The calculation of an unweighted disclosure index indicates that, although the level of disclosure might be considered relatively low by international standards, it varies by country. Perhaps of greater significance for the future of sustainable development in the region, disclosure is shown to have increased significantly over the period 2010–2014. Further analysis shows that although there are some differences relating to categories of disclosure, this is a region‐wide phenomenon not driven by a subset of countries or types of company. This benchmark study provides a systematic picture for policy‐makers in the region and, for future researchers, both substantive findings and methodological insight. © 2017 The Authors. Business Strategy and the Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

The phenomenon of young talent management in Russia—A context‐embedded analysis

This article describes the particularities of young talent management (TM) in Russia and explains them through a context‐specific analysis. It adopts a multilevel perspective that acknowledges the relevance of context at three levels: the macro environment, the organizational, and the individual. Data were gathered through 46 interviews with HR managers and young talents from six Russian companies and six Russian subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies (MNCs) active in a variety of industries. Following the contextualization approach, this study offers important insights into the interplay between macro, organizational, and individual factors as well as their isolated or interrelated effects on TM. While multilevel contextualization provides the rationale behind certain TM practices and the particular focus on young talents in Russia, it also explains why Russian companies are inspired by global best TM practices. Thus, contextualization allows for explaining the coexistence of a specific environment and nonspecific (global best) TM practices. Important particularities are revealed also when compared to the results of TM studies in other emerging countries. The article contributes not only to the TM discussion, but also to the wider field of international human resource management and the international management literature regarding contextualization.     

Adapting supply chain management strategies to security – an analysis of existing gaps and recommendations for improvement

The purpose of this paper is to determine the main security threats in supply chains, to understand gaps in today’s supply chain management strategies and to make recommendations to enhance security in the context of supply chain management. Previous research lacks comprehensive studies and recommendations about how supply chain managers deal with security issues in line with the business visions and strategies of their companies. The study methodology is based on an exploratory approach. Data were collected from 20 managers from international companies by means of self-administered surveys, one-to-one interviews and group interviews. Study findings point out risk management as an important tool at the disposal of managers for trading off performance and vulnerability. However, some important challenges also need to be considered, such as lack of data, insiders, IT vulnerabilities, regulatory frameworks, criminal behaviour, etc. Hence, recommendations are made for managers to improve their understanding of supply chain security.     

Commonality in liquidity among Middle East and North Africa emerging stock markets: Does it really matter?

This study investigates commonality in daily liquidity among 11 emerging stock markets from the Middle East and North Africa from January 2005 to June 2017. First, we test long memory in liquidity in these markets. Second, we select a number of factors eligible to affect liquidity commonality among local, regional and global factors. We find that regional and US factors do not explain liquidity variations in all the markets that exhibit low sensitivity to external factors. Our results are robust to the use of alternative proxies. The analysis in sub-periods confirms our results showing that most markets are not very sensitive to fluctuations and external shocks of liquidity. For international investors, stock markets in the Middle East and North Africa present an opportunity for further diversification, as these markets exhibit weak correlations between them and with the global market with regard to liquidity.     

Using theory on authentic leadership to build a strong human resource management system

Prior work has questioned whether human resource management (HRM) lives up to the organizational benefits it espouses. The intentions underlying human resource (HR) practices often differ from how they are implemented by line managers or how they are ultimately perceived by followers, thus undermining the strength of the HR system in influencing organizational outcomes and with them the overall reputation of HRM. We argue that line managers, specifically those who display authentic leadership behaviors, can strengthen an HR system (i.e., aligning intended, actual, and perceived HR policies and practices) by implementing HR practices in a way that they are perceived as distinct, consistent, and reflecting consensus. Authentic leadership theory departs from more traditional, top-down fit perspectives in strategic HRM to consider the dynamic way in which individuals within an organizational context co-create felt and perceived authenticity in interaction with others. In other words, by providing a more dynamic approach to creating alignment in HRM, authentic leadership helps HRM attain more authenticity and credibility in the organization.     

经济全球化与中东大都市的崛起

二战后随着经济全球化与城市化进程的深入,中东大都市得到了迅猛发展并成为世界城市等级体系中的重要节点。目前中东大都市已经初步具备了"世界城市"的特质,呈现出地区经济控制力增强,媒介信息中心、文化中心地位提升,以及国际国内劳动力聚集等特征。然而在经济全球化视域下,新国际劳动分工、全球性资本与技术的自由流动以及地方政府积极应对经济全球化的相关政策等,给中东大都市发展带来了巨大提升空间的同时,信息化程度低、城市经济应对经济全球化能力脆弱以及城市治理缺乏等也成为了约束当前中东大都市崛起的主要因素。     

Competitive behavior in Middle East and North Africa banking systems

This paper investigates the degree of market power in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) banking systems where research on competitive conditions is scant. The banking sectors of MENA countries are highly concentrated and they present unique characteristics in terms of ownership, structure and growth potential. The degree of competitiveness is assessed based on the revenue elasticity to input prices approach, and is related to a set of market and contestability indicators. The results show that, except for countries in North Africa where monopolistic conditions are found, the prevailing market structure in MENA banking is mostly monopolistically competitive. In line with the finding on other emerging and developed countries, assuring greater market contestability by allowing more foreign bank participation and reducing activity restrictions on banks is most important to guaranteeing competitiveness in the highly concentrated banking systems of the MENA region.     

The role of Vartan Bhanji in implementing HRM practices in Pakistan

The local adaptation of Western HR concepts in more traditional societies is an important topic for international HRM research and practice. We analyze the role of Vartan Bhanji, a traditional notion constituting and governing local social networks, when implementing such concepts in the Pakistani context. Based on a detailed case study of a privatized hospital, our analysis shows that Vartan Bhanji is both supporting and limiting Western HRM practices, in particular recruitment and selection, appraisal, compensation and promotion. The study reduces the knowledge gap for Pakistan, a country underrepresented in the international HRM discourse; illustrates the role of traditional social networks in companies using Western HRM concepts and supports calls for contextualizing HRM practices and research.     

Introducing the impact of technology: a ‘neo-contingency’ HRM Anglo-French comparison

The paper analyses the impact of technological and national-culture factors on certain HRM policies and practices in Britain and France. This perspective supports the neo-contingency approach, which does not claim primacy for either the technological or the national-cultural factors shaping HRM policies and practices. HR managers in each country in high-, mid- and low-tech firms were surveyed. The relevance in the diffusion of certain patterns of HRM policies and practices advocates that employees working in intensive technology firms need a creative and adaptive HR management approach. The differences found in the application of the HRM practices studied between the two countries are illustrated through the educational system, which is different in France and Britain.     

Differences in work goals among regions of the Netherlands and Germany: functional,institutional and critical event influences

We use World Values Survey data from the Netherlands and Germany to compare the importance of within-nation region differences with nation differences in work goals. These two nations have historical relationships and internal differences that are especially useful for testing hypotheses about nation compared to within-nation region differences. We develop hypotheses about the implications of religious heritage and urbanization for work goals based on functional, institutional and critical event explanations for regional culture differences. A number of work goals (notably extrinsic goals like pay) show too little difference between either nations or within-nation regions to consider them. For those work goals that do show region differences, the largest differences, those for job security goals and goals for working with pleasant people, are associated with region differences between rather than within the two nations. Regional differences in some work goals are also related to religious heritage. Regional differences in work goals have implications for the kinds of HR programs that managers may wish to promote in different locations. For example, the results suggest that HR managers have reason to anticipate that policies promoting job security may receive especially positive responses in Germany, whereas programs promoting social relationships may be best received in the Netherlands. Similarly, organizations that operate in both the north and south of each country should be alert to a number of possible within-nation differences in local optimal HR policies, but the within-nation differences found here are small enough that they should be carefully checked in specific organizations.     

Exploring equality,diversity, and inclusion in multiethnic settings: A context-sensitive approach

Organisations, worldwide, have introduced human resource management (HRM) and equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) policies to address the inherent disadvantages experienced by employees with diverse social identities in different national contexts. In this study, we draw on McCall's comparative intersectional framework and Chadwick's narrative methodologies on materiality and voice, to investigate employees' experiences of EDI policies in a multiethnic setting. Vignette and interview data were obtained from employees in two banks, in the ethnically extremely diverse country of Nigeria, and analysed. Our findings suggest that EDI policies require a universal, widely acknowledged, core alongside specificities reflecting the context in which the EDI is to be enacted. Furthermore, we integrate and build on intersectionality, materiality, and voice to nuance and challenge EDI approaches and mutually supportive HRM policies in the Global South that may, in turn, have implications for the Global North and, particularly, multinational companies.