Abstract: | The global economy is a reality. The challenge facing international human resource management (IHRM) is not whether to use widely recognized HR concepts and techniques but rather how to effectively adapt and fit them across cultures. The purpose of this article is to suggest and demonstrate a contingency matrix approach to IHRM. After first explaining what is meant by the contingency matrix approach, the remainder of the article uses a sampling of the HR research literature from Japan, Germany, Mexico, and China to show how a contingency matrix could be used for effective IHRM. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |