15 The Transfer of Employment Practices
Across Borders in Multinational Companies
Tony Edwards1 Introduction 389
2 Why transfer practices? 391
3 The four influences framework 394
4 Conclusion 406
5 Discussion questions 407
6 Further reading 407
Acknowledgements 408
References 408
1 INTRODUCTION
This first chapter of Part 4 links our discussion in the other parts of the book
to the collective aspect of the employment relation: industrial relations.
Research in the area of industrial relations has typically developed in relative
isolation from research into comparative and international HRM and inter-
national management and business. However, the authors in this part of the
book make a conscious attempt to ensure the relevance of their analysis to
management of MNCs.
It is commonly argued that one of the reasons why multinational compa-
nies (MNCs) are significant is that they have the capacity to implement exper-
tise in their operations in one country that was developed in operations in