The emergence of the pluralism construct and the inpatriation process

The concept of centric (i.e. ethnocentric, polycentric, regiocentric and geocentric) orientations, applied to strategic international human resource management (SIHRM), has been argued to reflect the corporate top management dominant logic of managing and staffing multinational subsidiaries in hierarchical multinational corporations (MNCs). In this paper, we introduce a new, complementary concept of pluralistic strategic global human resource management (SGHRM) orientation for network-oriented global organizations. Moreover, we develop an integrative framework for SIHRM/SGHRM orientations, which accommodates both centric and pluralistic perspectives. The dimensions used in the framework development include: 1) nature of the headquarters-subsidiary exchange (transactional/relational); and 2) the differentiation of dominant relational norms governing co-operation in the multinational network (obligatory/consensual). By focusing on the interaction between formal and informal contractual and normative dimensions, we derive four distinct SIHRM/SGHRM orientations (exportive, adaptive, integrative and pluralistic). This conceptual framework offers insights into how the innovative global staffing practice of inpatriation may foster the emergence of the unique outcomes of social capital, trust, commitment and legitimacy in global networks.     

Emerging issues and challenges in global staffing: a North American perspective

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) recognize that human resources play an important role in gaining a competitive advantage in today's highly competitive global business environment. While all aspects of managing human resources are important, staffing, continues to be an essential IHRM activity that helps MNEs in their need for coordination and control across widely dispersed units. As such, researchers and practitioners alike are interested in addressing the key issues and challenges in staffing the several types of employees that comprise the global or multinational workforce. We focus on three issues that have emerged in recent years regarding how MNEs staff their multinational workforce including: 1) managing different types of employee groups; 2) selection and management of employees posted to international assignments; and, 3) receptivity to international careers among early career individuals. We review these and then describe an empirical study conducted on the third issue.     

Auditing Human Resource Management in the Global Environment

The globalization of business is making it increasingly important to understand how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can operate more effectively. Human resource management can be a critical determinant of corporate effectiveness, particularly as it plays out in the global arena. This article discusses how MNEs enhance their ability to utilize human resources and internal labour markets for competitive advantage through audits of the international human resource management (IHRM) function. A multidimensional auditing framework is developed and applied to the strategic aspects of IHRM in MNEs and international joint ventures.     

Extending strategic international human resource management research and pedagogy to the non-profit multinational

This article calls for the inclusion of multinational non-profit organizations in the research and pedagogy of strategic international human resource management. Multinational non-profit enterprise is increasingly influential, both economically and philosophically, as economic and socio-cultural boundaries become more interdependent. Yet the multinational non-profit sector has been ignored by international human resource management scholars. When research and pedagogy overlook practice, a concern exists with regard to their relevance. By outlining the international development of multinational non-profit enterprise, the article contextualizes strategic international human resource management in multinational intermediate private aid and development agencies. Analysis of a particular example, World Vision Australia, illustrates the discussion.     

An innovative global management staffing system: A competency‐based perspective

Significant demands are imposed on corporate management of multinational corporations (MNCs) to develop a strategic orientation of their global human resource management systems (SGHRM). This strategic orientation, which should balance the need for both global stability and local flexibility, necessitates a more pronounced multicultural management membership. The competency‐ based SGHRM system proposed in this paper combines an innovative global management staffing practice of inpatriating foreign managers with the extant practice of expatriating domestic managers. The competency‐based criteria are used to identify global manager candidate pools capable of executing an integrated global management system © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Designing and supporting transnational teams: The human resource agenda

As the challenges of managing across borders become increasingly complex, companies are exploring innovative ways to organize and manage people. Many are turning to the use of transnational teams composed of individuals from multiple nationalities working on tasks that span multiple countries. This article reports the findings from a study of human resource practices used in 34 transnational teams from 23 multinational firms. The article provides specific examples of how staffing, training, and rewards systems are adapted to support the strategic orientations of these teams.¹ © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Staffing marketing positions during global hyper-competitiveness: a market-based perspective

As organizations globalize their operations, there appears to be an imperceptible shift in focus from internal tangible resources to those of external intangible relational resources; in other words, economies of scale appear to being replaced by economies of global scope. The strategic implications of this swing in the importance of resource bases can also have a significant impact on the international human resource management area. Identifying managers with local market knowledge and contacts becomes a critical consideration in the selection process. Maintaining on-going personal relations in foreign markets also helps to cement inter-organizational relationships such as strategic alliances. In the ‘think global, act local’ relational networks of global business, inpatriate managers appear to have the necessary characteristics of both organizational trust and local tacit knowledge to be effective global managers.     

Strategic management of human resources in the multinational enterprise

The efficient operation of a multinational enterprise is contingent upon the availability and effective utilization of numerous strategic resources—technology, capital, know-how, and people. It is my contention that human power is a key ingredient to the successful operation of a multinational, without which all the other aforementioned resources could not be effectively and efficiently utilized or transferred from corporate headquarters to the various subsidiaries in the world; hence the need for multinationals to devote greater attention to the strategic management of human resources as part of the overall planning and control process in a firm. This article identifies the most common pitfalls to human resource planning in U.S. multinationals and offers guidelines for the development of a paradigm for the strategic management of human resources in the multinational enterprise.     

战略性国际人力资源管理初论——以A公司为例分析

全球化的趋势促使跨国企业内部的人力资源跨国移转，为能有快速有效的当地反应以达成企业跨国经营的目标，国际人力资源管理必须提升到战略的层次来探讨，并将它与环境因素、国际经营战略结合，才能赢得持久性的胜利。国际人力资源管理是跨国企业海外经营成功的重要保证，它是跨国企业非常值得研究的议题。本文以宝钢为例进行分析，抛砖引玉，以求有所裨益。     

International human resource policies and practices in japanese,european, and united states multinationals

This article presents the results of a survey comparing international human resource policies and practices in Japanese, European, and United States multinational companies. The survey focused on the use of expatriates over local nationals in overseas management positions, adoption of nonethnocentric policies, and incidence of international human resource management problems. Regression analysis using the entire sample indicated that ethnocentric staffing and policies are associated with higher incidence of international human resource management problems. Also, Japanese companies as a group are shown to have more ethnocentric staffing practices and policies, and they experience more international human resource management problems than do American and European firms.     

The experience of work in India's domestic call centre industry

The strategic importance of human resources and their contribution to the effectiveness of business firms are receiving increasing recognition worldwide. In this study, I examine different approaches to human resource management (HRM) practices for business firms in different performance categories. Findings obtained from a study of 315 firms in Taiwan demonstrate that organizational performance is significantly related to the management of such human resource functions as planning, staffing, appraisal, compensation, and training and development. The results also indicate that successful firms are often those that adopt a highly effective approach to the management of their human resources.     

MNC's competitive strategies,experiences, and staffing policies for foreign affiliates

This study investigates the relationship between the strategic role of a multinational corporation's (MNC) foreign affiliates and its international staffing policy. Specifically, this study examines how an MNC's decision on expatriation is affected by strategic roles assigned to foreign affiliates: global integration of activities versus local market seeking. An empirical study is conducted using a sample of 808 foreign affiliates of Japanese firms. The research findings suggest that strategic roles of foreign affiliates alone may not adequately explain the international staffing policies of Japanese MNCs. Rather, we found a significant moderating effect of international as well as host country experience on staffing practices for foreign affiliates. While the staffing policies of MNCs striving for improving global efficiency of their operation are moderated by both international and host country experience, those seeking a specific local market position are influenced only by host country experience.     

标准化战略与经济全球化研究

随着经济全球化的发展,国与国之间的经济交往、技术交流逐渐打破原有的界线,形成全球范围的大生产和大流通。标准不仅是企业之间的竞争,更是国与国之间的竞争。标准,已成为世界各地通用的一种技术语言,尤其是国际标准已成为国际贸易有效规则的一部分和产品质量仲裁的准则。国际上的标准化组织和一些工业发达国家为了在国际标准化活动中争取主动权、发言权,反映本国的要求,体现本国的利益,开始制定并实施标准化战略,全球形成了一股标准化战略热。文章详细分析了经济全球化的特征和表现,提出了标准化战略是经济全球化强有力的技术支撑和管理工具,成为企业跨国经营、产品跨国生产、商品和资源跨国流动及世界范围技术交流的规则和准则。     

A strategic contingency approach to expatriate assignment management

This exploratory study examines how expatriate management practices differ with respect to three international management strategies (local, centralised or global) in 27 mature multinational corporations. In particular, this study examines the categories of expatriate assignments, the strategic integration of expatriate assignments into leadership development and the types of human resource practices that firms utilise to manage expatriates. Results indicate that organisations differentially assign expatriates based on the firm's respective international management strategy. Firms with a global management strategy made greater use of developmental expatriates, had a greater number of senior managers with expatriate experience and had a stronger focus on leadership development through expatriation. Firms did not differ with respect to their use of expatriate management practices based on their international management strategy.     

Multinational corporation management strategies and international human resources practices: bringing IHRM to the bottom line

This paper examined the relationship between multinational corporations' global management strategies and the resulting international human resource practices. Four global strategies, which vary in their extent of global integration and local responsiveness, were examined (ethnocentric, regiocentric, polycentric and geocentric). Data from international human resource professionals in forty-six companies generally supported the hypothesis that HR practices (recruitment, selection, socialization) varied by global strategy. In particular, strategies varied especially between the ethnocentric and geocentric companies. These strategies were further found to be related to a composite Multinational Corporation Success Index of economic variables (return on capital, sales growth, return on equity, profit margin). Companies which had ethnocentric strategies were found to be less successful than companies operating under any of the other three strategies. Findings suggested that local responsiveness should be incorporated into the global strategy of multinational companies. Recommendations for international human resource practices based on these results have been given.     

An integrative framework of strategic international human resource management

The globalization of business is making it more important than ever to understand how multinational enterprises (MNEs) can operate more effectively. A major component of this understanding appears to be the field of human resource management and, in particular, the field of international human resource management (Brewster, 1991; Hendry, 1992; Desatnick and Bennett, 1978; Dowling, 1986; Dowling and Schuler, 1990; Evans, 1986; Evans, 1989; Laurent, 1986; Tung, 1984). The trend over the past few years has been to identify the linkage of human resource management with strategy and offer an understanding of how single country or domestic human resource management can facilitate organizational understanding and effectiveness (Wright and McMahan, 1992). In this article we attempt to extend this line of work into the international arena. We do this by offering a framework of strategic international human resource management (SIHRM). Anchoring SIHRM in the strategic components of MNEs, namely their interunit linkages and internal operations, strategic aspects of international human resource management are described. Using several theoretical bases, numerous propositions are offered. These propositions reflect the single and multiple influence of the strategic components of MNEs and several exogenous and endogenous factors on SIHRM. The intention is to offer a framework that can serve both academics and practitioners in furthering our understanding of strategic international human resource management.     

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.     

金融危机对HR的影响及应对措施

本轮国际金融危机已经严重影响到全球经济的健康发展。企业要抓住机遇做好人力资源（HR）管理现代化工作，调整人力资源战略规划，加大人才的招聘和储备，进一步做好人才结构优化等工作。     

Chinese multinationals’ approach to international human resource management: a longitudinal study

Abstract

This study explores how emerging market service firms, operating in developed markets, approach human resource management (HRM). Data analyzed in this article were drawn from a longitudinal case study of the Australian subsidiary of a Chinese multinational bank. We find that subsidiary HRM follows host country and global best practices. However, the way that this hybrid HRM system was implemented shows traces of Chinese origin. A key finding from this study is that although our case bank officially adopted a polycentric approach to subsidiary staffing, employing host country nationals, the subsidiary predominantly employed locals with a Chinese ethnic background. We also find the case bank’s strategy in international HRM has evolved from a focus on localization to global standardization. This global standardization, however, is shaped in line with global best practices rather than home country management model. These findings highlight the need for future studies to adopt a more nuanced approach to examining international HRM strategies, especially when analyzing host country effect or localization strategy.     

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.