Human Resource Management Practices in Multinational Corporations

Human resource management (HRM) in multinational corporations (MNCs) navigates a shifting terrain of global integration and local responsiveness. Organisations seek to harmonise corporate policies—such as performance appraisal, talent development and remuneration schemes—with diverse institutional, cultural and regulatory environments across host countries. This dynamic gives rise to patterns of convergence, divergence and crossvergence, whereby some practices become standardised globally, others adapt to local norms and still others blend global templates with host-country customisation. Key challenges include balancing head-office control with subsidiary autonomy, managing expatriate assignments and repatriation, and addressing emerging priorities such as digitalisation, diversity and corporate social responsibility. Recent work highlights the micro-politics of practice transfer, the interplay of power capabilities among subsidiary actors and the role of sub-national institutions in shaping investment in human capital activities. Together, these studies underscore the strategic centrality of HRM to MNC competitiveness, resilience and social impact in an era of intensifying global complexity.

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Human Resource Management Practices in Multinational Corporations publication trend

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Technical terms

Institutional plurality: The coexistence of multiple and potentially conflicting regulatory, cultural or normative frameworks that actors within an organisation must navigate.

Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis: A methodological approach that assesses how combinations of causal conditions lead to an outcome, treating variables as degrees of membership rather than binary states.

Liability of mimicry: A form of transfer challenge in which local stakeholders contest the adoption of global practices on the grounds that they replicate foreign standards without regard for local expertise or relevance.

References

1. Responding to institutional plurality: Micro-politics in the rollout of a global corporate social responsibility norm in a multi-national enterprise. Human Relations (2023).
2. Multinational enterprises' R&D commitments in Chinese provinces: A configurational approach. Journal of International Management (2024).
3. The liability of mimicry: Implementing “global human resource management standards” in United States and Indian subsidiaries of a South Korean multinational enterprise. Human Resource Management (2020).