International Human Resource Management
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SAGE Journal Articles
The following SAGE journal articles appropriate to each chapters are free to access.
Chapter 1: Culture and Cross-Cultural Management
This paper provides an overview of the GLOBE project, a comprehensive study of leadership and culture in 62 societies and discusses the practical implications of the study for managers and leaders. This paper, while emphasising aspects of the study from the Asia Pacific region, highlights six major managerial implications of the GLOBE project ranging from more static information on the cultural attributes and leadership dimensions of specific countries or groups of countries (clusters) to more dynamic implications such as relationships between culture and leadership, and relationships between culture and societal phenomena. The paper concludes by emphasising the significance of the GLOBE study’s practical implications for global managers (including HR practitioners) in today’s global business world.
This article describes, analyses, and critiques the cultural metaphoric method. A cultural metaphor is any activity, phenomenon, or institution which all or most members of an ethnic or national culture consider important and with which they identify closely both intellectually and emotionally. Each cultural metaphor is derived inductively using grounded theory. The article begins with a description of grounded theory, followed by a description of the cultural metaphoric method, an analysis of it, and a critique addressing some major issues.
Chapter 2: Comparative Human Resource Management
The article examines the importance of country-of-origin effects and of universal contingencies such as industrial recipes in organisational practices at the international level of multinational enterprises. Although multinationals are highly internationalised by definition, our study shows their organisational control practices at the international level to be more than anything else explained by their country of origin. Universal contingencies such as size and industry, on the other hand, are more related to internationalisation strategy. Internationalisation strategy and organisational control are associated with different sets of variables; to this extent they appear more decoupled with regard to each other than the literature suggests. Multinationals appear to follow tracks of coordination and control in which they have become embedded in their country of origin.
Current cross-national organisational theory remains tied to stark polarisation between convergence and divergence, universal and relative, frames of analysis. Our approach examines three sources of external influence on work organisation practices: (i) the economic mode of production; (ii) national legacies and institutional patterns; and (iii) `best practice’ or universal modernisation strategies generated and diffused by the `society-in-dominance’ within the global economy at a particular period of time. In other words, the influences upon work within a particular country are the result of a three-way interaction of what we call system effects, societal effects and dominance effects.
In this paper, the diffusion process and organisational consequences of management concepts that spread globally through an industry are analysed. Taking the example of the working group concept, the organisation of the final assembly of a sample of French and German car manufacturers is studied. It can be shown that, in both countries, working groups similar to the ones used in Japanese car companies are widely diffused in the car industry. It also becomes clear from the analysis that plants have been experimenting with working groups and have adjusted them to their proper needs; a process which we call `local adaptation’. Our results indicate that the local adaptation of working groups is brought about to a large extent by the institutional differences between countries.
The role of cultural practices on the level of organisational investment in training was explored. Secondary analysis was conducted on the data of project GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness) and of CRANET (Cross-Country Human Resource Management Research), covering 5,991 organisations and 21 countries. Controlled for organisation size and technology level, as well as economic strength (GNI), cultural practices such as low power distance, high future orientation, and high uncertainty avoidance explained increased investment in training, supporting the study hypotheses. Organisational characteristics were also related to investment in training: Larger size and high (vs. low) technology predicted increased investment. Implications are particularly relevant for diverse organisations, which encourage the employment of a diverse workforce, and for international organisations, which tend to emphasise a global organisational culture and standard organisational practices while underestimating local cultural values.
Chapter 3: The Transfer of Employment Practices across Borders in Multinational Companies
Current cross-national organisational theory remains tied to stark polarisation between convergence and divergence, universal and relative, frames of analysis. Our approach examines three sources of external influence on work organisation practices: (i) the economic mode of production; (ii) national legacies and institutional patterns; and (iii) ‘best practice’ or universal modernisation strategies generated and diffused by the `society-in-dominance’ within the global economy at a particular period of time. In other words, the influences upon work within a particular country are the result of a three-way interaction of what we call system effects, societal effects and dominance effects.
Does the use of HRM practices by multinational companies (MNCs) reflect their national origins or are practices similar regardless of context? To the extent that practices are similar, is there any evidence of global best standards? The authors use the system, societal, and dominance framework to address these questions through analysis of 1,100 MNC subsidiaries in Canada, Ireland, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The study moves beyond previous research by differentiating between system effects at the global level and dominance effects arising from the diffusion of practices from a dominant economy. It shows that both effects are present, as are some differences at the societal level. Results suggest that MNCs configure their HRM practices in response to all three forces rather than to some uniform global best practices or to their national institutional contexts.
Chapter 4: Approaches to International Human Resource Management
Using a unique international data set from a 1989–90 survey of 62 automotive assembly plants, two hypotheses are tested: that innovative HR practices affect performance not individually but as interrelated elements in an internally consistent HR ‘bundle’ or system; and that these HR bundles contribute most to assembly plant productivity and quality when they are integrated with manufacturing policies under the ‘organisational logic’ of a flexible production system. Analysis of the survey data, which tests three indices representing distinct bundles of human resource and manufacturing practices, supports both hypotheses. Flexible production plants with team-based work systems, ‘high-commitment’ HR practices (such as contingent compensation and extensive training), and low inventory and repair buffers consistently outperformed mass production plants. Variables capturing two-way and three-way interactions among the bundles of practices are even better predictors of performance, supporting the integration hypothesis.
Chapter 5: International Assignments
Over the past 20 years, there has been increased interest in global forms of employment. Researchers have identified and investigated a number of global work experiences, including corporate and self-initiated expatriates as well as more novel forms of corporate global employees (flexpatriates, short-term assignees, and international business travellers). In this article, the authors review the empirical research that has investigated individual choices, challenges, and career consequences associated with the various types of global work. They summarise and synthesise this growing body of literature and then develop a taxonomy of global work experiences.
The article adopts and develop an institutional perspective to advance our understanding of how host country environments influence subsidiary staffing strategies. We propose and find that firms rely more on expatriates in institutionally distant environments for reasons related to the efficient transfer of management practices and firm-specific capabilities. Further, we find that the positive influence of expatriate staffing levels on subsidiary performance is dependent on the institutional distance between the host and home country, and subsidiary experience.
Subsidiary staffing composition is defined as the distribution of parent country nationals (PCNs), host country nationals (HCNs), and third country nationals (TCNs) in subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). Subsidiary staffing composition varies along the dimension of nationality heterogeneity. The MNE staffing literature has mainly focused on expatriate PCNs and individual-level outcomes. This article develops a dynamic process model in which heterogeneity of staffing composition influences affective, behavioural, cognitive, and strategic outcomes, which in turn affect subsidiary financial performance.
This paper focuses on the use of expatriate managers for transferring experience-based knowledge within the MNC and its impact on the survival of acquired subsidiaries. Using a sample of cross-border acquisitions by Japanese MNCs, we analysed the impact of expatriate managers on the relationship between the acquirer’s industry, host country and acquisition experience and the survival of the acquired subsidiary. Results show that the contribution of expatriation to the acquired firm’s survival varies considerably depending on the type of experience considered. In fact, connectivity through expatriation is costly and only when appropriately sent abroad do expatriate managers build an effective bridge over the troubled water that characterises the challenging post-acquisition integration.
Very little is known about the linkages between expatriation and objective measures of career success. In this field study we address the expatriation–compensation attainment relationship, after controlling for different kinds of international experience, among 440 graduates of elite MBA programs from around the world. The results suggest that a positive compensation return only accrues to repatriates who have experienced more than one expatriate assignment, perceived acquired knowledge and skills to be utilised during post-repatriation periods, and who are working at higher organisational levels. These findings, along with a supplementary analysis, support an explanation of the results based on human capital theory. That is, expatriation relates to compensation attainment because it is an intense developmental experience, and not merely a selection or signaling mechanism.
Chapter 6: Multinational Companies and the Host Country Environment
Research on the multinational corporation (MNC) is increasingly concerned with the alleged evolution of companies towards a more standardised and rationalised global organisation. Only recently, this field has been informed by alternative approaches which generate a more differentiated picture and consider the influence of divergent national institutional contexts on the multinational organisation. This paper takes a comparative institutionalist perspective and argues that organisation structures and processes in MNCs are sector specific and influenced by national institutional features of the home and host countries. Drawing on data from a specific industrial sector, it identifies the crucial role of home country and host country embeddedness in the (re)organisation of manufacturing tasks and work systems. The key question is how actors shape the interaction of these institutional pressures and, hence, manufacturing approaches, location choices and work system designs. Research in British and German subsidiaries of three MNCs suggests that, particularly at subsidiary level, MNCs apply a ‘cherrypicking’ strategy of selected use of work system elements, shaped by the host country business system. It is shown that manufacturing strategies of MNCs originating from highly coordinated business systems are highly context specific and difficult (if not impossible) to transfer elsewhere.
Based on quantitative indicators for fifteen advanced countries between 1974 and 2005, and case studies of 6 specific countries, this article analyses the trajectory of institutional change in the industrial relations systems of advanced capitalist societies, with a focus on Western Europe. In contrast to current comparative political economy scholarship, which emphasises the resilience of national institutions to common challenges and trends, it argues that despite a surface resilience of distinct national sets, all countries have been transformed in a neoliberal direction. Neoliberal transformation manifests itself not just as institutional deregulation but also as institutional conversion, as the functions associated with existing institutional forms change in a convergent direction.
Research on global cooperative ventures has tended to focus on governance forms and task structures. This study highlights the importance of knowledge structures and work systems in influencing the success of collaborative ventures. Based on an empirical analysis of a close collaboration in the knowledge-intensive area between a Japanese and a British high-technology firm, it illustrates how the socially embedded nature of knowledge can impede cross-border collaborative work and knowledge transfer. It develops a conceptual framework for analysing the main differences and ‘points of friction’ between the Japanese ‘organisational’ and the British ‘professional’ models of the organisation of knowledge in high-level technical work. It shows how the dominant form of knowledge held in organisations, its degree of tacitness, and the way in which it is structured, utilised and transmitted can vary considerably between firms in different societal settings.
In this paper, the diffusion process and organisational consequences of management concepts that spread globally through an industry are analysed. Taking the example of the working group concept, the organisation of the final assembly of a sample of French and German car manufacturers is studied. It can be shown that, in both countries, working groups similar to the ones used in Japanese car companies are widely diffused in the car industry. It also becomes clear from the analysis that plants have been experimenting with working groups and have adjusted them to their proper needs; a process which we call ‘local adaptation’. Our results indicate that the local adaptation of working groups is brought about to a large extent by the institutional differences between countries.
Chapter 7: MNCs, Regulation and the Changing Context of International Human Resource Management
The article argues that any discussion of regulatory change should be sensitive to the manner in which regulation was originally constructed and developed. Any change can only be understood by a mapping of the complex interrelation of spaces, spheres and actors of regulation. The act of regulatory change requires shifts and re-alignments across a wide range of fronts. This is because regulation involves alliances and linkages across a range of spaces and actors, contingent upon the peculiarities and limits of different states and their respective civil societies. The manner in which regulatory change may be prosecuted also belies any notion of unproblematic transfer of responsibilities between actors.
This article makes two key arguments. First, European social models are being asked to extend social support to meet new needs associated with the ageing society, changes in citizens’ aspirations and behaviour and the reduced reliability of support from employers and the family. How nations respond to these new needs varies according to current gaps in provision and to political will, but most states up to the crisis were expanding their range of social interventions, sometimes leading to hybridisation of their traditional social models. Second, deconstruction of social models to implement neoliberalism and reconstruction to meet new needs are often two sides of the same process. Reforms to meet new needs may take a neoliberal form, and neoliberal reforms may generate new needs. European social models may have to respond to these pressures for, unlike those of the USA, European citizens still look to the state to ensure their social citizenship rights.
Sociologists of labour have explored the relationship of trade unions to other social movements and the conditions that allow ‘coalitions across the class divide’ to be formed. This article examines this question by presenting evidence on the interaction between trade unions and other civil society organisations in the UK; that is, advocacy, identity and single-issue, campaigning organisations. It finds that there is no single, dominant relationship but rather a complex pattern of cooperation, conflict and indifference.
Chapter 8: Human Resource Management in Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions
M&As are complex events in organisational life for which we have incomplete understanding, in part because researchers have tended to consider only partial explanations of them. The authors addressed that problem by developing a conceptual framework that integrates theoretical perspectives from economics, finance, and especially strategy, organisation theory, and human resource management to offer a broader process-oriented integrative model. The integrative model explicitly describes how synergy realisation is a function of the similarity and complementarity of the two merging businesses (combination potential), the extent of interaction and coordination during the organisational integration process, and the lack of employee resistance to the combined entity. Data are derived from a case survey method that combines the richness of in-depth case studies with the breadth and generalisability of large-sample empirical investigations.
Although one of the central questions in the global strategy field is how multinational firms successfully navigate multiple and often conflicting institutional environments, we know relatively little about the effect of conflicting labour market institutions on multinational firms’ strategic choice and operating performance. With its decision to invest in manufacturing operations in nearly every one of the world’s largest welding markets, Lincoln Electric offers us a quasi-experiment. We leverage a unique data set covering 1996–2006 that combines data on each host country’s labour market institutions with data on each subsidiary’s strategic choices and historical operating performance. We find that Lincoln Electric performed significantly better in countries with labour laws and regulations supporting manufacturers’ interests and in countries that allowed the free use of both piecework and a discretionary bonus.
A substantive body of theory and research on the role of culture in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) suggests that cultural differences can create major obstacles to achieving integration benefits. However, the opposite view – that differences in culture between merging firms can be a source of value creation and learning – has also been advanced and empirically supported. In an attempt to reconcile these conflicting perspectives and findings, we present a model that synthesises our current understanding of the role of culture in M&A, and we develop a set of hypotheses regarding mechanisms through which cultural differences affect M&A performance. The results of a meta-analysis of 46 studies, with a combined sample size of 10,710 M&A, suggest that cultural differences affect sociocultural integration, synergy realisation, and shareholder value in different, and sometimes opposing, ways. Moderator analyses reveal that the effects of cultural differences vary depending on the degree of relatedness and the dimensions of cultural differences separating the merging firms.
Based on a qualitative, large-scale, interview-based inductive study of eight acquisitions conducted by Finnish multinationals, this article develops a grounded model of the dynamics of acquired firm employee reactions preceding related, industrial cross-border acquisitions. In contrast to most merger and acquisition (M&A) research portraying employee reactions in times of M&A in a negative, stressful light, the present findings shed a contradictory light on this discourse. In six of the studied acquisitions, pre-acquisition employee reactions tended toward motivation rather than uncertainty. The underlying reason was that these acquisitions were perceived as opportunities instead of threats in the target firms. As a result, target firm management became proactively involved in promoting the acquisition’s success. The author terms this target behavioral responsiveness and found it to result from (a) ‘static’ factors (partner organisational attractiveness and target cognitive responsiveness) as well as (b) ‘dynamic’ factors (partner behavioral attractiveness and target strategic responsiveness). Intriguingly, the dynamic factors were found to have a stronger predictive impact on target behavioral responsiveness.
Chapter 9: Managing Knowledge in Multinational Firms
This paper combines the concept of weak ties from social network research and the notion of complex knowledge to explain the role of weak ties in sharing knowledge across organisation subunits in a multiunit organisation. I use a network study of 120 new-product development projects undertaken by 41 divisions in a large electronics company to examine the task of developing new products in the least amount of time. Findings show that weak interunit ties help a project team search for useful knowledge in other subunits but impede the transfer of complex knowledge, which tends to require a strong tie between the two parties to a transfer. Having weak interunit ties speeds up projects when knowledge is not complex but slows them down when the knowledge to be transferred is highly complex.
This article argues that firms exist because they are better than markets at sharing and transfer of knowledge. Information is the knowledge to know what something means, while know-how is the knowledge to know how to do something. A further characteristic of knowledge that must be considered is the persisting difference in capabilities, i.e. the difficulty in their transfer and imitation. New learning within a firm results from the combinative capabilities of that firm. Combinative capabilities are a firm’s ability to exploit its knowledge and the unknown potential of its technology through both internal and external learning. Firms must consider the trade-offs between short-term survival and long-term development of capabilities. To illustrate the proposed theory, the make-buy question faced by many firms is analysed.
This paper considers the relation between the exploration of new possibilities and the exploitation of old certainties in organisational learning. It examines some complications in allocating resources between the two, particularly those introduced by the distribution of costs and benefits across time and space, and the effects of ecological interaction. Two general situations involving the development and use of knowledge in organisations are modelled. The first is the case of mutual learning between members of an organisation and an organisational code. The second is the case of learning and competitive advantage in competition for primacy. The paper develops an argument that adaptive processes, by refining exploitation more rapidly than exploration, are likely to become effective in the short run but self-destructive in the long run.
Applying a new theoretical and empirical approach to intrafirm knowledge transfers, this paper provides some initial insight to the little-researched phenomenon of why some subsidiaries are isolated from knowledge-transfer activities within the multinational corporation (MNC). Knowledge transfer is framed as a problemistic search process initiated by the recipient unit. We show that knowledge flows from units that are perceived to be highly capable to units that perceive themselves to be highly capable. Knowledge flows are also associated with existing levels of communication and reciprocity. Taken together, these findings suggest that knowledge transfers in MNCs typically occur between highly capable members of an ‘in crowd’, and the isolated minority rarely, if ever, engages in knowledge-sharing activities.
This paper proposes a paradigm for managing the dynamic aspects of organisational knowledge creating processes. Its central theme is that organisational knowledge is created through a continuous dialogue between tacit and explicit knowledge. The nature of this dialogue is examined and four patterns of interaction involving tacit and explicit knowledge are identified. It is argued that while new knowledge is developed by individuals, organisations play a critical role in articulating and amplifying that knowledge. A theoretical framework is developed which provides an analytical perspective on the constituent dimensions of knowledge creation. This framework is then applied in two operational models for facilitating the dynamic creation of appropriate organisational knowledge.
Chapter 10: Training and Development: Developing Global Leaders and Expatriates
Over the past 20 years, there has been increased interest in global forms of employment. Researchers have identified and investigated a number of global work experiences, including corporate and self-initiated expatriates as well as more novel forms of corporate global employees (flexpatriates, short-term assignees, and international business travellers). In this article, the authors review the empirical research that has investigated individual choices, challenges, and career consequences associated with the various types of global work. They summarise and synthesise this growing body of literature and then develop a taxonomy of global work experiences.
In light of the massive tsunami relief efforts that were still being carried out by humanitarian organisations around the world when this article went to press, this article points out a lack of human resources development research in international nongovernmental organisations (INGOs) and proposes a conceptual model for future empirical research. This article reviews the three related research areas of NGO history, volunteer training, and expatriate development; discusses the possibility of integrating the theory from these three areas; and finally builds a model for further empirical studies for expatriate training in INGOs
Chapter 11: Global and Local Resourcing: The Cases of Japan, Taiwan, China and Vietnam
This article presents findings from a survey conducted in the Australian resources sector in 2009 exploring human resource (HR) managers’ perceptions of how their organisational practices and external contextual changes in industrial relations legislation present challenges for the sector and influence attraction and retention of highly skilled employees. The research makes an important contribution to the literature on good employment/high involvement work practices by investigating organisational practices within the politico-legislative context of this economically significant sector. Our findings indicate that organisations have implemented a range of ‘good’ employment practices, while dealing with concerns about skills shortages, employee turnover, an aging workforce and changes in legislation. We identify a need for employers to give greater attention to diversity and work – life balance issues. Further, there is a need for strategies to increase the attractiveness of work in remote locations.
Human capital professionals faced the most competitive recruiting market of their careers in the latter half of the 1990s. Subsequently, the U.S. economy started its decline, and they plummeted into the new decade with a rush of layoffs. This article presents strategic initiatives designed to address the recruiting market conditions that have been unfolding over recent decades. The escalating labor shortage that will occur over the next 10 years will be more challenging than the one faced last decade. Strategically minded human capital professionals can prepare for this challenge by equipping managers with the capabilities they need to attract, retain and productively employ human capital. In the tight labor market conditions of the 1990s, the human capital function had the primary responsibility for wielding the talent acquisition toolkit. To maximise the impact their contributions will have going forward, human capital professionals should consider moving strategic human capital initiatives from the back office to frontline management, where the battle for talent is being fought.
The literature on call centers often highlights the centrality of HR in stemming employee attrition but is mainly grounded in the realities of in-house call centers in the western economies. In this empirical study of four large Indian call centers we examine specific aspects of HR practice for their effect on retention in the very different context of Indian labor markets. The relationship between HR practices and the realities of the call-centre labor processes operating within a buoyant labor market that offers plentiful job alternatives are explored. The findings suggest that the contribution of HR to employee retention is a necessary but not sufficient condition for retention in the context of Indian call centers.
The employment environment, nowadays, is becoming increasingly competitive. In such competitive environment, employer branding is fast emerging as a long-term human resource (HR) strategy to attract and retain talented workforce. The purpose of this article is to determine the antecedents of employer branding from the perspective of current employees. Most studies are dedicated to the examination of employer branding as a talent attraction technique among potential employees. However, the present research examines the impact of employer branding on retention of existing workforce. The research develops a conceptual framework of antecedents and outcomes of employer branding. Using qualitative data from a pilot study of an IT giant, it provides insights as to how the predicted outcomes of employer branding can lead to increased retention among employees. The research also analyses the role of employer branding in building brand advocates who spread positive word of mouth about the organisation. Results of the qualitative interviews show positive relationship between outcomes of employer branding (job satisfaction and psychological contract) and employee retention.
Chapter 12: Global Performance Management
This paper presents the results of an empirical study exploring the expatriate performance management systems of 16 Australian multinational firms operating in China. The results show that highly internationalised firms tend to be better at deploying the ‘hard’ components of performance management (goal-setting and performance appraisals), and yet most firms, and in particular highly internationalised ones, are poor at managing ‘soft’ control mechanisms like training and mentoring. The results give some support for the notion that expatriate performance management takes on increased importance as a firm’s international operations become more dispersed; however, it also suggests a lack of appreciation of the value of soft control mechanisms in achieving this. The study contributes to international human resource management literature by identifying the relationship between the degree of internationalisation of firms and the nature of expatriate performance management.
Performance Management System (PMS) has always been a key concern in HR process and has attracted significant attention from both academicians and practitioners. The study was conducted in IT organisations in India as the growth in the service sector in India has been led by the IT–ITES sector, contributing substantially to increase in GDP, employment and exports. The study aims at comparing the perceived satisfaction of employees across IT organisations and exploring the mechanism of PMS in the selected organisations under study. Findings of the study present interesting and significant insights into the mechanism of PMS in IT organisations and in understanding the differences in perceived satisfaction of employees across organisations.
International performance appraisal (IPA) is a strategic HRM process that enables the multinational corporation (MNC) to evaluate and improve continuously individual, subsidiary unit, and corporate performance against clearly defined, preset objectives. Effective IPA creates an incentive system that can ensure international employees and overseas subsidiaries are acting in accordance with the home company’s interests. IPA is complex mainly due to ‘information asymmetry’ and ‘goal incongruence’ between the parent company and its subsidiaries. There are many approaches to IPAs for MNCs to choose from, and these approaches are affected by many host-contextual and firm-specific factors. Although there is wide recognition of the importance of IPAs, most MNCs have not effectively managed IPAs. This article overviews various issues of IPA, including methods, criteria, and difficulties in the IPA process and the implementation of IPA in some MNCs. The implications for practitioners in MNCs are also discussed.
Chapter 13: Total Rewards in the International Context
This article discusses a model of expatriate compensation that incorporates and combines an expatriate selection process with a detailed foreign assignment evaluation and then links that situational analysis with a specific compensation package. The situational analysis classifies expatriate assignments into four categories: an ideal or desirable assignment, a question mark assignment, a challenge assignment and an undesirable assignment. The article describes the recommended compensation approaches for each situational analysis. Ultimately, the model offers organisational decision makers a strategic-planning tool that balances the need to control expatriate costs while increasing the probability of a successful expatriate assignment and improving the bottom line.
This article details the process used by MediaOne International (formerly called U S WEST International) to convert its traditional expatriate pay policy to a flexible pay program. By bundling relocation costs into a lump-sum relocation allowance, and traditional expatriate balance sheet compensation items into a ‘flexpat’ payment, the company met its objective of reducing its administrative workload associated with payroll and expense processing for international assignees. The project also resulted in reduction of costs associated with international assignments. In addition to explaining the composition of the relocation and flexpat payments, this article discusses the project planning, execution, employee communications and implementation activities associated with the conversion.
The difficulties inherent in international assignments – whether short term or long term – are exacerbated by home and host tax regulations, as well as company policy. In an effort to better understand how employers treat expatriate income tax, Organisation Resources Counselors, Inc. recently conducted a series of surveys polling multinational employers based in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Mindful of the similarities and differences among individual tax policies, tax equalisation still leads the list of employer approaches to taxation of company-source income. With the ongoing popularity of the balance sheet approach to international pay, the predominance of tax equalisation is no surprise. Many employers continue to believe that in most typical assignee situations, protecting the expatriate’s purchasing power and lifestyle – and tax liability – while abroad is still the approach that works best for all.
Multinational companies need an effective and efficient solution to manage, track and calculate complex split-pay compensation arrangements.
Chapter 14: Equal Opportunity and Diversity Management in the Global Context
Diversity management is a process intended to create and maintain a positive work environment where the similarities and differences of individuals are valued. The literature on diversity management has mostly emphasised on organisation culture; its impact on diversity openness; human resource management practices; institutional environments and organisational contexts to diversity-related pressures, expectations, requirements, and incentives; perceived practices and organisational outcomes related to managing employee diversity; and several other issues. The current study examines the potential barriers to workplace diversity and suggests strategies to enhance workplace diversity and inclusiveness. The study concludes that successfully managing diversity can lead to more committed, better satisfied, better performing employees and potentially better financial performance for an organisation.
This article studies the relevance of different types of support for satisfaction with work life balance. More specifically, it investigates the relevance of state, instrumental and emotional workplace and family support, based on a survey of 7867 service-sector workers in eight European countries. The article starts by mapping available state, workplace and family support in order to determine which source dominates in which country and whether these sources match Esping-Andersen’s welfare regime typology. The impact of the different support sources is then examined. Findings indicate that support for employee work-life balance satisfaction has a direct and moderating effect. Finally, results show that emotional support and instrumental support in the workplace have a complementary relationship. Whereas emotional family support has a positive impact on work-life balance satisfaction, instrumental family support does not.
Drawing on 66 interviews with key actors in the equality and diversity field in the UK, we operationalise Bourdieu’s conception of the field, across the axes of individualism versus collectivism and regulation versus voluntarism, and map out the location of the key actors in this field. The contribution of this article is three-fold. First, we advance the understanding of the equality and diversity field at national level by analysing the accounts of the influential actors, whose interests and actions shape the field. Second, the article illustrates how the multi-actor and contested nature of the equality and diversity field manifests in these accounts, and presents evidence in support of policy and strategic thinking that goes beyond a single-actor focus. Finally, we contribute to the theoretical maturity and expansion of the equality and diversity scholarship through the use of Bourdieuan sociology.
Chapter 15: Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability through Ethical HRM Practices
Modern human resource management (HRM) has been found to be unsatisfactory as a model and as a praxis concerning human beings in organisations. This article proposes a conceptual change from resource to human being, which we define as ‘persons management’. After addressing what a person is (a subject navigating between individualism and collectivism; a creative, ethical, and complex being), this text examines how persons can be managed, remembering that persons manage persons. In a dialogical sense, they can help each other and work together, even if they are adversaries. In that sense, persons management must strive to be sustainable at the human, organisational, and environmental levels. We examine certain theoretical and conceptual aspects implied by this restructuring of the field.
On September 25, 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the blueprint for a global partnership for peace, development, and human rights for the period 2016 to 2030. The 2030 agenda follows on the heels of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), adopted in 2001, which set the international development agenda for the period 2001 to 2015. This article uses a human rights lens to demonstrate that the MDGs and the SDGs have not addressed full employment and decent work in a manner that is consistent with the Decent Work Agenda of the International Labour Organization and international human rights legal obligations of the UN member countries. It concludes that the new 2030 development agenda sadly aligns with market-based economic growth strategies rather than the realisation of the human rights to full employment and decent work for all.
The European Union internal market seeks to ensure the free movement of goods, services, capital and citizens. The primacy given to these economic freedoms has culminated in a socio-economic reasoning dominated by competition, bringing about side effects that may pose a threat to working conditions and labour standards. This article examines the problematic relationship between economic freedoms and labour standards in the context of cross-border labour recruitment.
The current reform objective of developing more competitive workplaces has been incorrectly identified with an alleged ‘need’ to ‘deregulate’ the labour market. An examination of current reform proposals reveals that there is an attempt to increase the importance of internal modes of regulation controlled by managers at the expense of external regulation such as awards. Such a development is likely to increase inefficiency and inequality in the labour market, as formal, external modes of regulation can promote both international competitiveness and fairness. Greater attention should be devoted to identifying better ways of linking external and internal modes of regulation to improve both efficiency and equity at work.
Taking the breakdown of the standard employment relationship (SER), which has been the lynchpin of labour market regulation in Canada since the Second World War, and the feminisation of employment as its starting points, this article examines policy options for reregulating the Canadian labour market. It is divided into three parts. The first identifies the core challenge as developing a new norm of employment (based on a new gender contract) and new forms of labour regulation that reduce, rather than heighten, polarisation and contribute to, instead of undermining, social solidarity and productivity. The second part proposes principles for reregulating the employment relationship that are attentive to this objective and addresses three key policy issues: the legal norm of employment, the basis for distributing entitlements and collective representation. The third part emphasises the significance of the gender contract for understanding the role and limitations of labour law, legislation and policy and argues that gender equity must be a fundamental principle in policy design.
The growth of precarious work since the 1970s has emerged as a core contemporary concern within politics, in the media, and among researchers. Uncertain and unpredictable work contrasts with the relative security that characterised the three decades following World War II. Precarious work constitutes a global challenge that has a wide range of consequences cutting across many areas of concern to sociologists. Hence, it is increasingly important to understand the new workplace arrangements that generate precarious work and worker insecurity. A focus on employment relations forms the foundation of theories of the institutions and structures that generate precarious work and the cultural and individual factors that influence people’s responses to uncertainty. Sociologists are well-positioned to explain, offer insight, and provide input into public policy about such changes and the state of contemporary employment relations.