Dual organizational identification among Japanese expatriates: the role of communication in cultivating subsidiary identification and outcomes

Dual organizational identification is significant for the success of multinational corporation (MNC) employees. This study has extended this research area by examining expatriates of Japan-based MNCs. In addition, this study has extended the existing identity-matching principle by incorporating a communication perspective. It investigated the antecedents and outcomes of subsidiary identification. Self-report survey data from 159 Japanese expatriates in the USA were analyzed. The results indicated the significance of local language proficiency in the development of identification with the subsidiary. In addition, local identification was the predictor of expatriates' adaptation to the subsidiary. Furthermore, the results showed that local organizational identification is related to their stress level in international assignments. These results also supported the growing view of situation-oriented identification. The follow-up interviews reinforced these results.     

Organizational commitment in the context of multinational corporations: a critical review and directions for future research

Abstract

The antecedents and outcomes of organizational commitment (OC) have been studied extensively over the last three decades. While the majority of research has focused on the OC of employees working in organizations based in a single country or region, studies have also emerged examining the OC of employees working in multinational corporations (MNCs). However, there has been no attempt to comprehensively review and synthesize the literature in this area, limiting our understanding on how to effectively manage OC in MNCs. The present study conducts a systematic review of empirical literature on OC in the MNC context. We review literature on the theoretical foundations, antecedents and outcomes of OC in MNCs, and evaluate empirical papers that expand our understanding of the nomological network of constructs to which OC is related in the MNC context. Building on the review, we then present a future research agenda, which targets opportunities for empirical and theoretical advancement of research on OC in the MNC setting.     

Human resource control in MNCs: a study of the factors influencing the use of formal and informal control mechanisms

This study tests the effects of different internal and external factors on Multinational Corporations' (MNCs) use of formal versus informal mechanisms to control their human resources. Responses to a survey of 74 General Managers (GMs) of US subsidiaries in Mexico were used to test the hypotheses. The use of formal and informal mechanisms of control was associated with the extent to which the MNC had a global strategy as well as with the strength of localization forces such as local dependence and local regulations. Level of employee education, a subsidiary characteristic, also predicted the extent to which MNCs used informal control mechanisms. Most importantly, the results suggest that, even though they share some antecedents, each type of control mechanism, namely formal and informal, has a different set of internal and external antecedents. Indeed, our data hint that informal and formal control mechanisms are not mutually exclusive and that, on the contrary, they can fruitfully co-exist because they satisfy different internal and external demands.     

Introduction: service work and its implications for HRM

This article draws on our four case studies to examine the nature of the relationships between ABB and its Canadian subsidiaries. Starting from a critical review of the literature, it develops a framework that is sensitive to three levels of analysis: the factors that shape the parent corporation's strategies, the characteristics of the host countries in which the MNC operates and the characteristics of the local subsidiaries themselves. The empirical material illustrates how innovation is generated by a two-way process, in which the initiative of corporate leaders challenges the ‘interpretation’ of local actors. In doing so, we point to a number of key omissions in the influential attempt by Bartlett and Ghoshal to use ABB to develop a managerial theory of the firm. This research also leads to broader considerations regarding the interface between markets and organizations. As distinct from the orthodox view, a transnational corporation may be conceived as a mediator between the market and a local subsidiary. In many ways, the global corporation channels and mediates the impact of external market forces on internal organizational actors, through a process involving the exercise of politics and power. The article has significant implications for decision making on human resource management. In particular it stresses that local managers, local unions, and employees can think and act strategically only in as far as they properly assess the limits of their respective sphere of organizational autonomy within the corporation.     

Global,national and local practices in multinational corporations: towards a sociopolitical framework

This paper intends to shed some light on strategies and power resources of subsidiary managers and employee representatives involved in ‘charter changes’ and the implementation of ‘best practices’ developed elsewhere. Research shows that local managers face a dilemma in that they need both internal legitimacy (within the MNC itself) and external legitimacy (within the local context). It is argued that the power resources key actors draw on in the (internal) decision-making processes of ‘charter changes’ are intertwined with certain (external) national business system (NBS) characteristics, an aspect often neglected in North American research about MNCs. The authors identify three key influences, which restrain or empower local management and employees in their ability to make strategic choices and gain power within the MNC. They are (1) the overall strategic approach of the multinational group, (2) the strategic position and the economic performance of the subsidiary itself and (3) the degree of institutional embeddedness of the subsidiary in the host country. Comparative mini-case studies are used to illustrate the effect of local management and employee representatives' empowerment on their ability to retain skills and work practices supportive of a diversified quality production process in the face of MNC pressure to adopt global ‘best practices’ based on more standardized production processes.     

External organizational commitment

Building on the organizational commitment literature and recent management practices like relationship marketing and total quality management, a new focus of work commitment is proposed: external organizational commitment (EOC). It is envisioned as a global construct and defined as an employee's identification and involvement with another organization. A model of EOC specifying its antecedents, consequences, and moderating factors is offered and 28 propositions emanating from the model are articulated. Implications for human resource practitioners are discussed.     

To Come of Age: The Antecedents of Organizational Learning

The twin ideas of organizational learning and the learning organization have recently fired the imagination of many academics, consultants and practising managers. There is, however, a pressing need for empirical research to examine the origins and development of these closely related concepts. The qualitative research underpinning this paper was conducted over a three-year period (1994–97) and involved detailed examination of organizational learning aspirations and practices within the UK operations of five major manufacturing companies. Sixty-six interviewees were classified into three groups – strategy, human resources, and research and development – and the data gathered were analysed using the conceptually clustered matrix technique. This led to the identification of a set of six antecedents which together explain the rise to prominence of organizational learning. These six antecedents are: the shift in the relative importance of factors of production away from capital towards labour, particularly intellectual labour; the ever more rapid pace of change in the business environment; widespread acceptance of knowledge as a prime source of competitive advantage; the greater demands being placed on all businesses by customers; increasing dissatisfaction, among managers and employees, with the traditional, command-and-control, management paradigm; and the intensely competitive nature of global business. A model is unfolded which explains the ready acceptance and rise to prominence of the organizational learning phenomenon. A valuable feature of the model is that it demonstrates the interplay of thoughts and feelings between management practitioners and theorists.     

The impact of organizational and leader–member support on expatriate commitment

Using data from expatriates at MNC subsidiaries in China, this paper investigates the relationships between parent company and local subsidiary perceived organizational support (POS), leader–member exchange (LMX) and affective commitment of expatriates. The study examines the moderating effect of LMX in the relationships between both parent company and local subsidiary POS and affective commitment. Results support the relationships between both parent company and local subsidiary POS, LMX and the expatriate affective commitment, and the moderating effect of LMX in the relationships between parent company POS and affective commitment.     

组织支持感、组织认同感与OCB的关系研究

回收了金域集团上海子公司和贵阳子公司共161份有效问卷。数据分析结果表明:①组织支持感与组织认同感呈显著正相关关系;②组织支持感与组织公民行为呈显著正相关关系;③组织认同感与OCB呈显著正相关关系;④组织认同感组织支持感与OCB之间起完全中介作用。研究结果为国内医学监测行业管理员工,提高组织公民行为提供了实证依据。     

Inter- and Intra-Organizational Knowledge Transfer: A Meta-Analytic Review and Assessment of its Antecedents and Consequences

abstract    Research on organizational knowledge transfer is burgeoning, and yet our understanding of its antecedents and consequences remains rather unclear. Although conceptual and qualitative reviews of the organizational knowledge transfer literature have emerged, no study has attempted to summarize previous quantitative empirical findings. As a first step towards that goal, we use meta-analytic techniques to examine how knowledge, organization and network level antecedents differentially impact organizational knowledge transfer. Additionally, we consolidate research on the relationship between knowledge transfer and its consequences. We also demonstrate how the intra- and inter-organizational context, the directionality of knowledge transfers, and measurement characteristics moderate the relationships studied. By aggregating and consolidating existing research, our study not only reveals new insights into the levers and outcomes of organizational knowledge transfer, but also provides meaningful directions for future research.     

The Driving Forces of Subsidiary Absorptive Capacity

The study investigates how a multinational corporation (MNC) can promote the absorptive capacity of its subsidiaries. The focus is on what drives the MNC subsidiary's ability to absorb marketing strategies that are initiated by the MNC parent, as well as how the subsidiary enacts on this absorptive capacity in order to compete in its focal market. The dual embeddedness of MNC subsidiaries plays a key role in this investigation, as subsidiaries belong to the MNC network and are simultaneously embedded in their host country environment. We argue that subsidiary absorptive capacity is formed as a purposeful response to this dual embeddedness. An analysis of marketing strategy absorptions undertaken by 213 subsidiaries reveals that MNCs can assist their subsidiaries to compete in competitive and dynamic focal markets by forming specific organizational mechanisms that are conducive to the development of subsidiary absorptive capacity. The findings hold important theoretical and practical implications.     

The psychological antecedents of employee referrals

This study investigates how different psychological antecedents lead to different components of organizational commitment and employee referrals or employment recommendations in a people-based financial services context. Specifically, we consider the impact of position involvement, volitional choice, and informational complexity on affective, calculative, and normative commitment, which ultimately influences employee referrals in the context of a Flemish bank. Our conceptual model is supported through SEM, and the empirical results show differential impacts of the three psychological antecedents on the various components of organizational commitment and employee referrals. Position involvement and affective commitment represent the key determinants of employee referrals. We also address the theoretical and managerial implications of our research.     

Organizational commitment and service delivery: evidence from an industrial setting in the UK

In this paper the links between organizational commitment and the delivery of service quality are explored. Using data from a survey of contact-level employees within an industrial service organization, the hypotheses that the antecedents to service quality do indeed drive the service delivery gap, that there is a relationship between organizational commitment and service delivery and that the antecedents of the service delivery gap are related to organizational commitment are tested. All three hypotheses are accepted, although the link between organizational commitment and service delivery is not very strong. However, it is found that organizational commitment is strongly tied to role ambiguity and teamwork as antecedents of the service delivery gap.     

Work and non-work-related antecedents of expatriates' well-being: A meta-analysis

Studies show a reduction in expatriates' well-being while abroad which entails a risk of low performance or even termination of the assignment abroad. To extend the knowledge of antecedents of expatriates' well-being, this meta-analytic review combines the empirical results from 24 studies. Concerning the conservation of resources theory, we distinguish between work-related and non-work-related antecedents (resources) and expose their relationship with expatriates' work well-being and general well-being. The meta-analysis shows that work well-being is positively anteceded by organizational support, work adjustment, and spousal support, whereas job factors and work-family interference are associated with decreased work well-being. General well-being negatively relates to work-family interference factors. The antecedents with the highest relative effect size are job factors on the negative side (resource loss) and organizational support on the positive side (resource gain). Work-family interference has the broadest impact on both work well-being and general well-being.     

Standardize or Customize: The Interactive Effects of HRM and Environment Uncertainty on MNC Subsidiary Performance

This study examines the impact of customizing (as opposed to standardizing) human resource management (HRM) practices on subsidiary performance in multinational corporations (MNCs). We examine how this relationship is influenced by environmental uncertainty. Hypotheses were tested using data from 92 subsidiaries of a large MNC operating in 27 countries. The results showed an interactive relationship between the customization of HRM practices and subsidiary environmental uncertainty on both financial (net profit) and nonfinancial (customer satisfaction) objective measures of subsidiary performance. The results of this study provide important empirical insights for researchers and practitioners into how HRM can be best configured to drive multiple performance outcomes for MNC subsidiaries. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Determinants of central control and subsidiary autonomy in HRM: the case of foreign‐owned multinational companies in Spain

This article examines the factors affecting HRM subsidiary autonomy within multinational companies (MNCs). Drawing on institutional theory arguments, along with an analysis of the impact of international HRM structures, it attempts to identify the multiplicity of factors influencing subsidiary autonomy with regard to HRM. Using data gathered from a highly representative survey of foreign MNC subsidiaries located in Spain, the results identify a number of factors that hold explanatory power. First, the distance between the home and the host country in terms of variety of capitalism is crucial in explaining variations in subsidiary autonomy. In addition, international HR structures, such as the existence of an international policy‐making body and the use of HR shared service centres or HR data reporting mechanisms, are also important in accounting for the degree of autonomy over HR issues experienced by the MNC subsidiaries in our study.     

HRM structures and subsidiary discretion in foreign multinationals in the UK

This article uses a large-scale representative survey to examine a key aspect of control in multinational companies (MNCs): the extent of central influence over human resource (HR) policy formation in subsidiaries. This is a crucial aspect of behaviour, relevant for example for the cross-border diffusion of policies and practices and for the institutional distinctiveness of practice within a given host environment. The article assesses how far policy is determined by corporate headquarters or some other higher-level organizational structure. Its novelty lies primarily in its exploration of the influence of the structure of the HR management (HRM) function on subsidiary discretion. It finds, first, that the degree of central control is influenced for different HR issues by nationality of ownership and by international product/service standardization. Second, there is some variability in the antecedents associated with discretion on different HR issues. Finally, aspects of the structure of the HRM function significantly affect discretion, notably the networking of HR managers across borders and the direct reporting relationships within the function between the UK and higher organizational levels.     

Internal and External Antecedents of Process Innovation: A review and extension

Abstract

Innovation in public organizations is widely documented and has increasingly been the subject of empirical scrutiny. This article integrates the empirical evidence of the internal and external antecedents of process innovations in local governments and proposes directions for future research. The importance of the internal antecedents of organizational size, administrative capacity and organizational learning is uncovered using the meta-analytic support score method, but not in relation to external antecedents. Directions for further research are presented on the independent, joint and non-linear effects of antecedents on the adoption of innovation, and the implications of these arguments on the future study of innovation in local governments are considered from a structural contingency perspective.     

Extending beyond borders: Multinational companies and the international management of labour

The paper investigates the potential consequences of MNCs' globalizing strategies for the management of labour, drawing on findings from a survey of employee management among MNCs operating in the UK. It finds clear evidence of transnational forms of management organization, including in the personnel sphere. But it also underlines that moves to globalism are uneven. Structures and policies to develop international management teams were found primarily among certain types of MNC. Most striking was the extent to which MNCs are actively engaged in the management of non-managerial employees at international level. Seven out of every ten companies monitored labour performance across sites in different countries. The broader significance of this finding lies in the business decisions which flow from the use of such information. As MNCs develop continental production strategies, pressures on local workforces, keen to attract future investment, for performance improvements are likely to intensify. These developments pose considerable challenges for labour which remains primarily local and national in its organizational focus.     

Organisationales Commitment und seine Einflussfaktoren: Eine qualitative Metaanalyse

It is a result from increasing individualism and the ongoing deregulation of formal and psychological work contracts that organizational commitment has become one of the key concepts in management research and practice. There is growing empirical research not only on the effects of commitment on organizational performance, but also on its personal, organizational and contextual antecedents. In this literature review the state of the art in commitment-related research is presented and discussed. We refer to the grounding work of Meyer and Allen (1991) and their distinction between affective, normative, and continuance commitment. The paper is based on three meta-analyses and an additional systematic review of 61 empirical studies. They provide evidence for the fact that there is a shift from demographic to differential personality factors in research. Affective commitment and normative commitment can be explained by individual differences (e.g., self-efficacy and trustfulness), work environment (e.g., transformational leadership and controllability), and organisational characteristics (e.g., supporting human resources policy and interpersonal, distributive, and procedural justice). Continuance commitment has been found negatively correlated with affective and normative commitment. Significant antecedents are the same work-related factors as for the two other forms of commitment, but the coefficients are inverse. Contrary to former results, national culture has no effect neither on the link between other antecedents and commitment, nor on commitment itself.