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

Gender differences in organizational commitment and rewards within Japanese manufacturing companies in China

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate gender differences in organizational commitment (OC) and the relationship between OC and rewards among employees who work for Japanese manufacturing companies within China.

Design/methodology/approach

This study utilized hierarchical regression analysis to examine survey data obtained from 27,854 employees who worked for 64 Japanese manufacturing companies within China.

Findings

The results reveal that autonomy and role clarity had a stronger influence, and co-worker support had a weaker influence, on OC for male employees than for female employees. These differences may be because more male employees than female employees prefer working with higher autonomy and well-defined roles than with co-worker support. After all, male employees, who place a great emphasis on independence, competition, decision-making and challenges, rely on intrinsic rewards more than social rewards.

Research limitations/implications

This study used data collected from Japanese manufacturing companies to understand the differences between OC and rewards in local male and female Chinese employees. We recommend that future research uses other national affiliates to clarify the characteristics of male and female Chinese workers more objectively and to test the validity of this research.

Practical implications

The results of this study support revising human resource management practices within multinational enterprises to enable female and male host-country workers to contribute to their companies on a long-term basis by taking into account the differences between the cultures of the home and host countries.

Originality/value

Although previous research has elucidated the OC–rewards relationship in particular countries, it has not met the requirements of foreign managers from different corporate cultures who face differences in the OC–rewards relationship between their male and female employees. In this sense, this research is the first attempt to tackle this theme and contribute to the literature.

Transferring family logic within a multinational corporation

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the understandingof how family logic is transferred through mundane practices across the subsidiaries of a Japanese multinational corporation (MNC) in different national contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

In order to fulfil this purpose, a comparative qualitative case study was adopted with emphasis on actors’ interpretations.

Findings

Through qualitative data analysis, three findings and their theoretical significances can be summarised. First, it was found that the constellations of family, market and religion logics were transferred differently. This is significant for Japanese management scholars since it illuminates the importance of actors who perceive the (non-) necessity of logics in a Japanese MNC facing institutional dualities. Second, it was found that the family logic is enacted at different levels and with different boundaries. This is significant for both institutionalists and international business scholars since it highlights the strong influence of language and religion in the transfer of logics from one country to another. Third, it was found that the enactment of the family logic greatly affects the acceptability of Japanese management practices. This is significant for business managers since it further proposes an intimate relationship between Japanese management practices and the meanings attached to the family logic.

Originality/value

The originality of this work stems from an updated comparative qualitative study of the management of a Japanese MNCs’ subsidiaries across different countries, providing in-depth insights for international business, Japanese subsidiary management and institutional logics perspectives.

Dynamics of Central Control and Subsidiary Autonomy in the Management of Human Resources: Case-Study Evidence from US MNCs in the UK

This article revisits a central question in the debates on the management of multinationals: the balance between centralized policy-making and subsidiary autonomy. It does so through data from a series of case studies on the management of human resources in American multinationals in the UK. Two strands of debate are confronted. The first is the literature on differences between multinationals of different national origins which has shown that US companies tend to be more centralized, standardized, and formalized in their management of human resources. It is argued that the literature has provided unconvincing explanations of this pattern, failing to link it to distinctive features of the American business system in which US multinationals are embedded. The second strand is the wider debate on the balance between centralization and decentralization in multinationals. It is argued that the literature neglects important features of this balance: the contingent oscillation between centralized and decentralized modes of operation and (relatedly) the way in which the balance is negotiated by organizational actors through micro-political processes whereby the external structural constraints on the company are defined and interpreted. In such negotiation, actors’ leverage often derives from exploiting differences between the national business systems in which the multinational operates.

Organizational Learning via Expatriate Managers: Collective Myopia as Blocking Mechanism

Qualitative case studies of two Japanese multinational department stores in Hong Kong are used to illustrate possible blocking mechanisms and collective myopia that hinder Japanese expatriate managers in acquiring double-loop organizational learning in their international assignments. Four major blocking mechanisms were identified — parent company community spirit, dozoku inhabitants, parent company’s translators and desire for normality. These blocking mechanisms were related to the Japanese head office’s culture, ideology and desire to control. They inhibited the expatriates from challenging established practices, procedures and norms, prevented them from becoming knowledgeable human agents, and hindered them from forming reflexivity. The expatriates, as a result, failed to learn from their international assignments. A conceptual model for expatriate learning and blocking mechanisms is drawn from the case examples, and implications for improving expatriate management to strengthen organizational learning are discussed.

Do We Need to Distance Ourselves from the Distance Concept? Why Home and Host Country Context Might Matter More Than (Cultural) Distance

We scrutinize the explanatory power of one of the key concepts in International Business: the concept of (cultural) distance. Here we focus on its effect on entry mode choice, one of the most researched fields in international business strategy. Our findings might, however, be equally be relevant for the field of International Business as a whole. Our analysis is based on a review of 92 prior studies on entry mode choice, as well as an empirical investigation in over 800 subsidiaries of MNCs, covering nine host and fifteen home countries across the world. We conclude that the explanatory power of distance is highly limited once home and host country context are accounted for, and that any significant effects of cultural distance on entry mode choice might simply be caused by inadequate sampling. Entry mode studies in particular, and International Business research in general, would do well to reconsider its fascination with distance measures, and instead, focus first and foremost on differences in home and host country context. We argue that serious engagement with deep contextualization is necessary in International Business research to pose new and relevant questions and develop new and innovative theories that explain empirical phenomena.

Determinants of foreign subsidiary staffing by service firms

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how service firms determine foreign subsidiary staffing, emphasizing the joint effect of an attribute specific to the service sector and the institutional environment of the host countries.

Design/methodology/approach

This study develops hypotheses regarding the joint effect of human capital intensity and institutional distance on the ratio of parent country nationals to foreign subsidiary employees. A Tobit regression is conducted to test the hypotheses, using a sample that consists of 1,067 foreign subsidiaries of Japanese service firms.

Findings

This study finds that the human capital intensity of a service firm has a positive impact on the ratio of parent country nationals to foreign subsidiary employees. The study also finds that the institutional distance between the host country and the home country is negatively associated with the ratio of parent country nationals. In addition, this study finds that the positive impact of human capital intensity on the ratio of parent country nationals becomes weaker as the institutional distance becomes greater.

Originality/value

This study explores the factors that affect the decisions regarding foreign subsidiary staffing in the service sector. It advances the understanding of the foreign subsidiary staffing of service firms by examining the joint effect of an attribute specific to the service sector and the institutional environment of the host countries. This study shows evidence that the effect of an attribute specific to the service sector is more complex than a linear relationship.

BUILDING EXTERNAL NETWORKS AND ITS EFFECT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF OVERSEAS R&D BASE

This paper examines the relationship between R&D collaborations with local organizations in the host countries and the performance of overseas R&D bases, considering the types of collaborations. The result of an empirical analysis shows that, while collaborations with local companies in the same industry of the host country just enhance the efficiency of R&D activities, those with local universities, public research institutions, and companies in the different industries increase the overall R&D performance including the efficiency of R&D activities and the quality of technological outputs. Also, as a factor that enables companies to build external networks, the effect of the nationality of top manager and researchers of R&D bases is investigated. The result demonstrates that R&D bases with top managers from the home countries are less active in developing R&D collaborations with local universities and that, as the percentage of the researchers from the home countries increases, the R&D bases tend to develop R&D collaborations with local companies in the same industry, but they do not develop those with local universities and other research institutions.