International Human Resource Management
The majority of international HRM research has focused on issues associated
with the cross-national transfer of people such as how to select and manage
expatriate managers in international job assignments. A decade ago, it was
suggested that much of this work tended to be descriptive and lacked
analytical rigour but research and scholarship have made considerable
progress over the past 10 years. Recent studies have recognized the
importance of linking international HRM with the strategic evolution of the firm,
and theoretical models of international HRM have been developed.
International HRM has been defined as 'HRM issues, functions and policies
and practices that result from the strategic activities of multinational
enterprises and that impact the international concerns and goals of those
enterprises' (Scullion, 1995, p. 356)^56. International HRM tends to emphasize
the subordination of national culture and national employment practices to
corporate culture and HRM practices (Boxall, 1995).
The issue of transplanting Western HR practices and values into culturally
diverse environments needs to be critically researched. Early 21st century
capitalism, when developing international business strategy, faces the
perennial difficulty of organizing the employment relationship to reduce the
indeterminacy resulting from the unspecified nature of the employment
contract (Townley, 1994). If we adopt Townley's approach to international
HRM, the role of knowledge to render people in the workplace 'governable' is
further complicated in culturally diverse environments. For example, it
behoves researchers to examine whether managers and workers in Mexico,
Chile, India, Pakistan, South Africa and elsewhere will accept the underlying
ideology and embrace the HRM paradigm. In addition, although there is an
awareness of the importance of international HRM, further research is needed
into the barriers facing women seeking international assignment - the 'glass
border'