by the development of networks of personal relationships and horizontal
communication channels (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1990; Forsgren, 1989,
1990), and it has been argued that HR plays a more significant role in
network organizations (Marschan et al., 1997).
7 Finally, there is growing evidence that HR strategy plays a more signifi-
cant role in implementation and control in the international firm
(Scullion and Starkey, 2000). It has been suggested that in a rapidly glob-
alizing environment, many MNCs have less difficulty determining
which strategies to pursue than how to implement them and it has been
argued that the success of any global or transnational strategy has less
to do with structural innovations than with developing often radically
different organizational cultures (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1998).
This chapter aims to critically assess some important theoretical and empirical
developments in the area of international HRM research which have emerged
over the last decade. In contrast to Part 3 of the book, which deals with the
more operational dimensions of expatriate management, this chapter will
focus on the more strategic aspects of international HRM. There are six sections
in the chapter. Following this introduction which outlines the reasons for the
growing importance of IHRM, Section 2 examines the links between strategy
and international HRM and reviews some important models of strategic
international HRM. Section 3 examines the role of the corporate HR function
in the international firm. The fourth section examines issues in global manage-
ment development and Section 5 examines the roles and responsibilities of
transnational managers in relation to Bartlett and Ghoshal’s transnational
organization. Section 6 concludes and summarizes the chapter.
2 STRATEGY AND INTERNATIONAL HRM
While the majority of international HRM research continues to focus on aspects
of expatriation (Kochan et al., 1992), there is a growing literature which seeks to
contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between international
strategy and HRM (Welch, 1994; De Cieri and Dowling, 1999; Schuler et al.,
1993; Dowling et al., 1999; Kobrin, 1994; Hendry, 1994). It has been argued that
the fundamental strategic problem for top managers in international firms is
balancing the economic need for integration with the pressures for local respon-
siveness (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989, 1998; Doz and Prahalad, 1986), while
recent research suggests that at the international level the firm’s strategic choices
impose constraints or limits on the range of international HRM options (De Cieri
and Dowling, 1999). The argument is that there should be distinct differences in
International HRM 67