The Evolution of Strategic Human Resource Systems and their Application in a Foreign Subsidiary Context

Abstract

Firms internationalizing their operations have always been challenged to select, develop, and implement a sufficient amount of foreign subsidiary manager talent. This challenge is exacerbated in today's global environment involving an increasing emphasis on transnational internationalization strategies and growing business opportunities in emerging markets. Successfully identifying and developing these managers is essential for a firm implementing a internationalization strategy, and necessitates the creation of effective high performance work systems practices that can lead to the development of a strategic international human resource system. This article integrates agency and organizational capabilities theory to better understand how human resource systems can be created to develop highly effective foreign subsidiary managers who can implement selected internationalization strategies. More specifically, foreign subsidiary manager capabilities are identified contingent upon the internationalization strategy resulting in an examination of different human resource practices that could be bundled together to develop foreign subsidiary manager talent.

Global talent management and inpatriate social capital building: a status inconsistency perspective

“…Extended exposure to liabilities derived from being foreign have been found to be associated with inpatriates' reduced ability to cope and poor problem solving skills resulting in extenuated stress levels and intention to quit (Moeller & Harvey, 2011b). In order to overcome liability of foreignness, it is projected that global managers of the future must develop a multicultural mindset and to steer away from an ethnocentric mindset (Aguirre & Messineo, 1997;Harvey et al, 1999c;Harvey, Kiessling, & Moeller, 2011;Harvey, Speier, & Novicevic, 2002).…”

Globalization and the inward flow of immigrants: Issues associated with the inpatriation of global managers

“…This goal will be accomplished through predeparture training and postarrival training/integration. There are a number of factors that organizations must keep in mind when developing a strong inpatriation program (Esses, Wagner, Wolf, Preiser, & Wilbur, 2006;Harvey, Novicevic, & Speier, 2002;Reiche, 2007).…”

“…For more additional assessment of the process of inpatriation and inpatriate training programs, see Harvey (1997) ;Harvey, Novicevic, & Speier (2002);and Reiche (2007).…”

“…There will, however, be numerous other benefits that the global organization will experience due to the increased utilization of inpatriate managers. These benefits include: (1) a decrease in employee turnover, which directly corresponds to a decrease in recruitment costs; (2) the establishment of a "pipeline" to countries from which to recruit inpatriate managers; (3) increased productivity among all managers in the organization due to the strategic input of inpatriate managers; (4) the attraction of additional key inpatriate managers due to the past experience with recruiting select foreign managers; (5) the creation of a global competitive advantage; and (6) the reduction of the liability of foreignness perceived by key stakeholders in the global marketplace (Harvey, 1997;Harvey, Novicevic, & Speier, 2002). This paper addresses the issue of increasing the diversity of the management team of global organizations through inward immigration of inpatriate managers.…”

Global Organizational Control: A New Role by Inpatriates

“…1) providing a diversity of perspectives to corporate management when developing policies, strategies and plans for competing in developing countries effectively, 2) facilitating innovation, 3) providing multicultural u n d e r s t a n d i n g a n d s o c i a l knowledge, 4) facilitating boundary spanner two-way communication by being a critical strategic communication point for host country managers to help insure the clarity of mission, 5) amassing collective global management skills, 6) creating a multicultural m a n a g e m e n t t e a m a s t h e heterogeneous nucleus of a core (SGHRM) competence, 7) initiating and maintaining continual contacts with government offi cials and channel-of-distribution members, 8) developing a contextual understanding of how to globalize yet act locally, 9) creating an alternative to high cost/failure expatriates who do not provide a cultural "window" into T h e M u l t i n a t i o n a l B u s i n e s s R e v i e w doing business in the host country, 10) creating the diversity necessary to move from multi-domestic to multinational, and ultimately to a global organization, and 11) providing the control necessary to further the organization's goals and objectives internally as well as externally (Harvey, 1993(Harvey, , 1997Harvey, Speier & Novicevic, 2002;Peterson, 2003).…”