The inpatriate experience in multinational corporations: an exploratory case study in Germany

Despite inpatriates' growing importance for the scope of international business, research on this specific group of international assignees transferred to the corporate headquarters (HQ) of multinational corporations (MNCs) still remains in its infancy. Due to this research gap, a qualitative approach to the analysis of inpatriates' experiences was selected to uncover directions for subsequent research and derive factors that are relevant in the context of these cross-cultural assignments. This paper reports the results of exploratory interviews with 13 inpatriates assigned to the HQ of three German MNCs. The interviews explored the purpose of inpatriate assignments in MNCs and focused on identifying critical dimensions to assess their success. In addition, the relevance of individuals' cultural background and other factors that may impact on assignment outcomes were examined. The empirical results are instrumental in deriving two major research questions that may guide future research in the field of inpatriate assignments.     

Knowledge transfer in multinationals: The role of inpatriates' boundary spanning

Viewing knowledge as rooted in individuals, this study investigates knowledge transfer in multinational corporations (MNCs) from an individual‐level perspective. Specifically, the author focuses on inpatriates as a particular group of knowledge actors in MNCs and examines the role of inpatriates' boundary spanning between their home unit and the headquarters for transferring their knowledge to headquarters staff. Based on a sample of 269 inpatriates in 10 German MNCs, the author found that inpatriates' boundary spanning is positively related to inpatriates' individual efforts to transfer knowledge and inpatriates' perceptions of HQ staff efforts to acquire subsidiary‐specific knowledge. Both perceived HQ absorptive capacity and mentoring by HQ staff moderate these relationships. This study's findings contribute to our understanding of the theoretical mechanisms through which MNC knowledge flows occur and highlight key requirements for the design of international staffing practices. ©2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The development of political skill and political capital by global leaders through global assignments

The purpose of this paper is to explain how developing global leaders through global assignments (i.e. in the form of expatriation and inpatriation) may lead to their acquisition of valuable political skill and political capital. First, using the theoretical frame of political influence theory, the benefit of political skill is explained relative to the development and augmentation of global leaders' capital portfolio during global assignments. Second, a distinction between social capital and political capital, as the integral components of global leader's capital portfolio, is made. In conclusion, the value of acquiring political skill and building human, cultural, social and political capital by global leaders is discussed separately for expatriate and inpatriate assignments.     

Strategic Global Human Resource Management: The Role of Inpatriate Managers

The need for highly qualified multicultural managers will increase as more organizations globalize their operations. These global managers may be perceived as organizational resources and, therefore, a resource-based view of human resource management is utilized. At the same time, relational view of human capital provides insight into the value of managers who have unique local market knowledge (i.e., social knowledge). By integrating the two aspects of the resource-based view, one can develop a dynamic capabilities approach to staffing global assignments. Within this integrative theoretical perspective, inpatriate managers (i.e., host or third country managers who are transferred into the home country organization on a semi-permanent to permanent basis) can be explored as a potential pool of uniquely qualified global managers to be utilized in global organizations. It is envisioned that through this unique building of managerial talents, organizations can develop/maintain a distinct competitive advantage in the markets they enter. This article explores inpatriation as an innovative means to develop managers as strategic resources to be used in formulating and implementing a global strategic plan.     

Knowledge Benefits of Social Capital upon Repatriation: A Longitudinal Study of International Assignees

This study integrates social resources theory and social exchange theory arguments to examine the knowledge benefits that international assignees' host‐unit social capital entails upon repatriation. Specifically, I hypothesize that assignees' host‐unit social capital, operationalized as their number of work group contacts and their proportion of trusted ties at the host unit, positively relates to two specific knowledge benefits upon repatriation: continued access to host‐unit knowledge; and continued transfer of host‐unit knowledge to colleagues in assignees' new positions. Assignees' perceptions of career and repatriation support are expected to moderate these relationships. The hypotheses are tested with a longitudinal sample of 85 inpatriate assignees in 10 German multinationals. I contribute to the literatures on international assignments, social capital, and MNC knowledge flows by explaining how and under what conditions assignees' host‐unit social capital entails knowledge benefits upon repatriation.     

Inpatriate managers: how to increase the probability of success

Developing multicultural management teams has gained increasing importance in many global organizations. One global staffing option — inpatriate managers — has the potential to provide a more multicultural management frame-of-reference when developing global strategies. Inpatriates have social knowledge of global operations and countries facilitating the modification of organizational strategies to local competitive/market conditions while ensuring their consistency and coordination with the existing global strategic thrust. This paper addresses the need to provide an effective mechanism for increasing the success rate of inpatriate managers thus improving the global performance of the organization. To achieve enhanced organizational performance the need for a proactive inpatriate program is critical to engender long-term commitment and loyalty of inpatriate managers.     

HR's strategic role within MNCs: helping build social capital in Latin America

In this article, we adopt a holistic perspective in considering the impact of the country's environment as well as the multinational corporations (MNCs) strategy on human resource (HR) practices. More importantly, we argue that within MNCs human resource management (HRM) is playing a central role in the process of balancing local and global forces. HR can be critical in helping MNCs' deal with local differences while also helping the company implement practices that are critical for its global strategy. Specifically, we argue that HR plays a key role in developing social capital, which may provide the necessary ‘substitutes’ for formal control that would otherwise be neglected. Our contribution lies primarily in outlining how this new role of creating human capital confers on HR the task of filtering mission-critical practices through a ‘localization mesh’ that ensures success. In addition, given the importance of social capital as an informal mechanism that allows MNCs to coordinate and integrate activities, we suggest ways in which an MNC can build social capital within the context of the Latin American pan-regional cultural values.     

Global careers: a social capital paradox

Global careers, typically defined as involving multiple international relocations including various positions and assignments in several countries, have recently received increasing research attention. This interest is driven by a growing corporate need for managers who are able to deal with global integration and co-ordination in large multinational corporations. An important aspect of the competency of a global manager is his or her social capital, i.e. the network relationships he or she possesses. However, while the concept of social capital has been widely used in a number of research fields recently, it has received relatively little attention thus far in the IHRM context. This paper contributes to this research gap, and seeks to answer the empirical research question of how multiple international relocations affect the social capital of a manager. Our qualitative interviews of 20 Finnish MNC managers with global careers identified that such careers represent a ‘social capital paradox’. Global careers are characterized by a broad and diverse network of both internal and external ties. This breadth and diversity relate to (1) the managers' internal contact networks of weak ties (2) their internal support networks of strong ties and (3) their external networks of both strong and weak ties. These typical characteristics represent three major social capital paradoxes in the sense that they carry both significant social–capital-related benefits as well as potential risks.     

Transferring management practices to China: a Bourdieusian critique of ethnocentricity

This paper provides a critique of the emergent theories of human resource management in China with a view to generating new theoretical insights with particular reference to Pierre Bourdieu's social theory. It reassesses the relevance of the orthodox critique of ethnocentricity and the coherence of approaches embedded in Chinese culture. With reference to six case studies of the largest retail firms, we identify two key challenges: the reliance on headquarter human resource practices that reflect an ethnocentric ethos, i.e. country-of-origin bias, and the failure to empower local managers and the problems this creates for managers expected to implement ethnocentric practices. We examine how Bourdieu's social theory sheds light on the processes by which these firms realise their strategic objectives through the complicity of local managers whose scope for resistance is constrained by the use of normative control and in part through attractive remuneration and career prospects that generate Bourdieusian capital for these managers. We conclude with some suggestions for further research.     

MNE regional head offices and their affiliates: talent management practices and challenges in the Asia Pacific

The paper explores the processes and challenges involved in multinational enterprise (MNE) establishing and operating regional headquaters (RHQs) as bridges between the parent HQ and their subsidiaries within a region. The role of regional structures has been neglected in research on international management, and, until recently, especially in research on HRM and talent management (TM). We know little about how MNEs develop, introduce and adapt TM (global TM (GTM) in this context) to accommodate local/country/regional contexts and challenges. The paper addresses these lacunae by reviewing the literature on GTM, MNE regional structures and GTM in the Asia Pacific region, and by presenting our findings from a study of the recent establishment by a multinational vehicle manufacturer of a regional headquarters in the Asia Pacific region. Four main challenges were identified: setting up the regional headquarters, legitimacy and contribution issues relating to the role of the RHQ, specific regional TM matters and centralisation versus decentralisation within the region.     

Social capital and human resource management in international joint ventures in Vietnam: a perspective from a transitional economy

This study highlights the importance of social capital in international joint ventures (IJVs), and examines human resource practices as a factor shaping such social capital. Comprehensive measures of social capital are developed and tested, which extend prior work on ‘bonding’ and ‘bridging’ social capital. We also link social capital with its anticipated antecedents and consequences. The study's findings are based on data collected from 164 IJVs located in Vietnam. IJV performance was predicted by training and by the level of trust and cooperation between foreign and local personnel. Training (including acquisition of management skills, technology, and cross-cultural understanding) also was predictive of the measures of social capital. A key practical implication arising from this study is that the return on investment from training of joint venture personnel can stem not only from the transfer of technical and management skills needed for developing competitive advantage, but also from the positive impact on social capital, which further contributes to venture success. The establishment of written objectives and plans for the venture, as well as the IJV's level of control regarding its own HR functions also was found to be related to some components of social capital. The findings of this study reinforce the call to build on the contributions of local personnel in joint ventures, and in Vietnam in particular.     

‘No Condition IS Permanent': Informal Transport Workers and Labour Precarity in Africa's Largest City

This article pieces together an understanding of everyday life grounded in the social imagination and everyday experiences of informal transport workers (ITWs) in Lagos, Nigeria's commercial capital and Africa's largest city. The article has two core objectives: to elevate the everyday practices of ITWs to the status of a critical concept in order to advance a sociology of everyday life, and to ground these practices on the precarious rhythm of everyday life as lived by people with the experience of radical uncertainty. By using crisis as a context of action and meaning, the article shows how uncertainty serves as a social resource that ITWs leverage to negotiate the precarious nature of everyday life and to make the most of their time. This foregrounding of uncertainty enhances our hitherto tenuous grasp of labour precarity, informal agency and the everyday struggle for survival in Africa's informal transport sector.     

Human Capital Factors Affecting Human Resource (HR) Managers' Commitment to HR and the Mediating Role of Perceived Organizational Value on HR

Human resource (HR) managers’ commitment to their occupation (HR) leads to the proper delivery and implementation of HR practices and, therefore, is deemed as a critical factor for the success of HR practices. Based on sociocognitive, human capital, and signaling theories, this study examines: (a) HR managers’ own and their chief HR officer's (CHRO) HR‐specific human capital as antecedents of their commitment to HR, and (b) the mediating mechanism through which the CHRO’s HR‐specific human capital positively influences HR managers’ commitment to HR. Based on 146 HR managers from 146 organizations in South Korea, the findings of the current study suggest that HR managers with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital and those working with CHROs with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital tend to have higher levels of commitment to HR. In addition, CHROs with higher levels of HR‐specific human capital positively influence HR managers’ commitment to HR by signaling to them that HR and its function are valued and cared about by their organizations. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed along with study limitations and further research directions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Will We Ever Meet Again? The Relationship between Inter-Firm Managerial Migration and the Circulation of Client Ties

A large body of research shows that the migration of managers from one professional service firm to another weakens the old employer’s relationship with its clients, because migrating managers remove their relationship-specific knowledge and expertise – i.e., human and social capital – from their old employers, redeploying it to their new employers. This study extends this research by introducing a bi-directional perspective of social capital in which both firms and managers may exploit these relationship-specific resources. We use theory on social capital to build arguments about how one form of manager mobility, manager migration between two service providers in a single market, can both lead and lag the movement of client ties between those providers, and signaling theory to hypothesize the conditions under which this is likely to occur. Analyses using longitudinal data on New York City advertising agencies generally support our arguments. Our findings contribute to theory and research on manager migration, social capital, and signaling, and raise new questions for how the portability of relationship-specific social capital shapes markets.     

Politique du logement et lutte de classes au Chili (1970-75)*

To analyse the historical evolution of the building sector in Chile, and the way in which it reflects and affects the social structure as a whole, it is necessary to consider two aspects:

• 1 the building sector, considered as a specific part of the production sphere, a specific system of economic and social interests;
• 2 the building front, where the social practices of the conflicting forces express the needs of the reproduction of the labour force, and the class struggle in the building sector, opposed to speculation and capital accumulation processes.

Before 1970, the capital interests were dominant, strongly organized through the Chilean Building Chamber and its influence on government policy-making, and linked with US imperialism, particularly at the finance level. With the Popular Unity Government, a series of measures expressed the shift to the dominant interests of the working class: nationalization of the main private banks; control of the housing market; organization, control and partial socialization of the building industry; breaking of urban segregation patterns; national agreement on wages policy. The construction front was affected by new forms of class struggle: construction brigades, unemployed brigades, popular planning and, at the same time, new forms of economic and political retaliation by capital. This led first to the employers' strike and then, through the constitution of a capitalist class bloc supported by imperialism, to the coup d'etat, which restored the fullest opportunity for exploitation, speculation, segregation, and the power of the Chilean Building Chamber.     

Intellectual Capital–Enhancing HR,Absorptive Capacity,and Innovation

This study investigates the role of intellectual capital (i.e., human, social, and organization capital)–enhancing human resource (HR) practices in the development of a firm's absorptive capacity, as well as the mediating role of absorptive capacity in its relationship to the firm's innovation performance. Results show that while human capital–enhancing HR (acquisition and developmental HR) is positively related to absorptive capacity, social capital–enhancing HR affects absorptive capacity through egalitarian HR practices. Organization capital–enhancing HR practices contribute to absorptive capacity through effective information systems. Finally, our findings confirm that the various intellectual capital–enhancing HR practices affect innovation performance through their impact on the firm's absorptive capacity. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

社会资本理论在企业文化建设中的应用

随着社会资本理论的日益拓展,探讨了运用社会资本的理论来更好的引导企业文化建设。在管理日益凸现出网络化趋势的今天,企业应充分利用企业的社会资本,解决当前企业文化建设中的一些误区,帮助企业更好的建设的深层次的企业文化。     

Sharing my way to success: A case study on developing entrepreneurial ventures using social capital in an OSS community

While Open Source Software (OSS) communities provide opportunities for knowledge creation, we have a limited understanding of how entrepreneurs leverage OSS communities for their entrepreneurial ventures. Using social capital theory in a mixed methods case study, we compare entrepreneur and non-entrepreneur behaviors to investigate how entrepreneurs build social capital within an OSS community. This study shows that entrepreneurs differentiate themselves from non-entrepreneurs by focusing on cognitive and relational capital building activities, which in return makes it possible for them to leverage their social capital to influence and shape the environment in which they are operating. Our findings suggest that entrepreneurs strategically select which activities within the community to expend their limited resources on (e.g., developing code over participating in email conversations) and build their social capital more through their actions than through their words (e.g., showing their commitment to the community through code commits, bug fixes, and documentation). Given the liabilities of newness and smallness as well as other challenges faced by entrepreneurs, applying an open innovation strategy in OSS communities could be one approach where entrepreneurs, by developing and freely revealing their intellectual property to the community, share their way to success via OSS-infused entrepreneurial business ventures.     

When collaborative HR practices may not work well: the moderating role of social capital in the Chinese life insurance industry

In this study, we examine the main and interaction effects of insurance agent-focused collaborative HR practices and insurance agents' social capital on their sales performance. Data from 984 participants were collected in five subsidiaries of a large Chinese life insurance company. The results show a strong relationship between social capital and objective sales performance. More importantly, we found a negative interaction effect of collaborative HR practices and network size on individual performance and a positive interaction effect of collaborative HR practices and network range on objective sales performance. The study is unique in that it looks at the interaction between HR and social capital, investigates how HR practices affect individual performance and not firm performance as has been more commonly done, and focuses on one industry to be able to capture the unique aspects of HR practices in that industry. Theoretical contributions, managerial implications, and limitations are also discussed.     

HRM implementation by multiple HRM actors: a social exchange perspective

Abstract

In this study, we understand HRM implementation as a social process that depends on the social exchange relationships between line managers and both HRM professionals and employees. As such, we offer a fresh approach to understanding HRM implementation by concentrating on the social exchange among HRM actors. We do so by investigating to what extent these exchange relationships influence HRM implementation, as reflected in employees’ perceptions of the presence of HRM practices and their affective commitment. We collected multilevel data from two sources (line managers and employees) and in two phases in a Dutch engineering firm, and obtained fully matched manager – employee information from 75 employees and 20 line managers. Our results show that employees perceive a larger number of HRM practices when they have a good relationship with their line managers and when their line managers are motivated to implement HRM practices. Line managers, in turn, reciprocate perceived support from the HRM department with greater motivation to implement these practices. We conclude that because HRM actors engage in social interactions, HRM practices will be implemented at the organizational level because employees perceive the presence of HRM practices and then reciprocate this with affective commitment.