Jos Gamble

Transferring Organizational Practices and the Dynamics of Hybridization: Japanese Retail Multinationals in China

Detailed case study research conducted at Japanese multinational retail firms in both their home country and their subsidiaries in China is undertaken to assess a range of prominent theoretical perspectives that have been used to account for the transfer of organizational practices. Approaches based upon culturalist, national business systems, industry sector, international division of labour, and agency perspectives are shown to be inadequate, individually, to account for the complex patterns of transfer, local adoption, and adaptation in these multinational companies. These findings highlight the value of conceptual bricolage and multi-level analysis for developing explanations that can encompass and explicate complex patterns of hybridization. The paper also identifies important factors in the dynamics of hybridization that have been neglected or downplayed in much of the existing literature. These include the significance of context specific, firm level perceptions of sources of competitive advantage as a key motive encouraging transfer of parent company practices. Crucial factors constraining transfer are the practices and norms prevalent in local labour markets. Additionally, transfer by multinational companies to transitional economies with high levels of deinstitutionalization illustrates problematic dimensions for various theoretical perspectives, including influential neo-institutionalist models.

The New International Division of Labour in Asian Electronics: Work Organization and Human Resources in Japan and Malaysia

This article documents and analyses the organization of work and human resources management in ten manufacturing plants in Malaysia and three plants in Japan. Each of the plants carries out specific tasks within an emergent international division of labour surrounding two Japanese multinational producers of consumer electronics goods. Plant roles reflect their positions in commodity chains driven by the multinationals, varying in relation to product-to-product and component-to-component divisions of labour, and in relation to the location of product and process innovations. How work is organized and how workers are managed are explained by the location of each plant within this division of labour, and by the characteristics and situation of labour, the one commodity which talks back, within the local environment.

Mass production is alive and well: the future of work and organization in east Asia

This paper reviews the extent to which multinational corporations from developed economies and newly industrialized economies1 in east Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong) are hollowing out their mass production of standardized goods and transferring such production to the emergent economies of China and Malaysia. Jos Gamble, School of Management, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK (E-mail: J.Gamble@RHBNC.ac.uk). Jonathan Morris, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Wales, UK (E-mail: MorrisJL@Cardiff.ac.uk). Barry Wilkinson, School of Management, Bath University, UK (E-mail: mnsbw@management.bath.ac.uk). Based on data from sixty-one mini-case studies in two industries, garments and electronics, it argues that the HRM practices and policies being utilized in those overseas affiliates are functions of a number of factors, including corporate business strategies, corporate control mechanisms and host-country institutional HRM capacity. The research finds remarkable similarities in HRM policies and practices between the two countries, the two industries and between different corporate ownerships. The use of Taylorist forms of work organization and low-trust/low-investment HRM policies are part of corporate strategies of hollowing out, of poor host-country HRM capability and of tight control over affiliates.

Strategic international human resource management or the ‘bottom line’? The cases of electronics and garments commodity chains in China

This paper draws on frameworks developed by the strategic international human resource management (HRM) literature to analyse human resource practices in foreign-invested enterprises in China and their affiliates. It argues that such strategies can be best understood in the context of global commodity chains. Drawing on data from a study of 27 China-based enterprises in two industries, garments and consumer electronics, it contests that strategy is a good determinant of HRM policies. Moreover, most of the enterprises are following cost reduction strategies but with certain quality levels, based on standardized mature products and production processes. Industry sector is also important, as is the institutional milieu of China.

The transfer of organizational practices: a diachronic perspective from China

Extensive research has been undertaken on the transfer of organizational practices by multinational firms (e.g. Morgan, Kristensen and Whitley 2001; Ferner, Quintanilla, and Sánchez-Runde 2006). However, little investigation has assessed the role that time plays in this process. The commonplace theoretical assumption is that as their overseas subsidiaries become more embedded in the local environment they increasingly take on the practices that prevail locally (Rosenzweig and Nohria 1994; Farley, Hoenig and Yang 2004). There have, though, been few longitudinal studies that would allow the veracity of this assumption or its implications to be assessed; most studies provide one-off, synchronic ‘snapshots’ of organizations. Drawing upon research conducted at a UK-owned retail firm in China between 1999 and 2005, this paper provides a diachronic perspective that can trace emergent trends. Data are derived from mixed methods: 140 interviews with expatriate managers and local staff from all levels of the hierarchy, a three month period of ethnographic research and a total of 305 survey questionnaires. Comparison between findings from the more recent research and those based upon the earlier research suggests that time does play a role in affecting transplanted organizational practices. We report that in some respects the organizational practices of the firm in question increasingly took on more of the ‘colour’ of those that prevailed in the host environment. However, convergence with local practices was far from total, some practices bear increasing resemblance to the firms parent country operation. We also caution that it is difficult to disentangle the isomorphic influence of the passage of time from factors such as the rapid withdrawal of expatriate managers from the operational level and the impact of the firms rapid expansion across China. Moreover, we suggest that the local–global dichotomy, upon which much of the convergence–divergence debate rests, is perhaps increasingly problematic.

Informal institutional constraints and their impact on HRM and employee satisfaction: evidence from China's retail sector

This paper seeks to assess whether informal institutions can affect human resource management practices. Specifically, we examine whether the social norm of respect for authority, an important informal social institution in countries like China, constrains employee participation, and whether this affects employee satisfaction in foreign-invested and state-owned retailers in China, respectively. Data are derived from questionnaires completed by almost 1900 employees at 22 foreign-invested and state-owned retail stores in nine Chinese cities. We indicate that a norm such as respect for authority can operate as a constraint on human resource management practices such as employee participation with related impacts upon satisfaction levels in foreign-invested and state-owned retailers, but that these play out in unexpected ways.

Social expectations, gender and job satisfaction: Front-line employees in China's retail sector

This study aims to enhance our understanding of gender and employment in China. Analysing data collected from over 1,800 employees at 22 foreign-invested and locally owned retail stores in eight Chinese cities, it firstly explores whether, like their counterparts in Western countries, female employees have higher levels of job satisfaction than their male colleagues. Secondly, it distinguishes the key differential predictors of female and male employees’ job satisfaction levels. This article extends gender role theory on job satisfaction by showing how traditional values, the structure of work and a nation’s dominant gender ideology combine to shape women and men’s job satisfaction and work experiences in a transitional context.

Intra-national variation in organizational commitment: evidence from the Chinese context

This study demonstrates how organizational commitment can differ at the sub-national level. We develop and test hypotheses based on levels of economic development and related shifts from collectivism to individualism. The data comprise 1017 retail employees drawn from two economically distinctly different parts of China. We find that organizational commitment is higher in ‘less economically developed’ regions. Affective and normative commitment (NC) negatively predicted turnover intentions, whereas continuance commitment related positively to turnover intentions. Unlike earlier findings using Western samples, this study finds the effect of NC on turnover intentions considerably stronger, suggesting that NC is more predictive of turnover intentions. As expected, our results indicate that continuance commitment is more predictive of turnover intentions in the ‘more economically developed’ regions.

Staying and performing: How human resource management practices increase job embeddedness and performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the effect of human resource management (HRM) practices on employees’ organisational job embeddedness and job performance. Following the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) model of HRM, the authors predicted that ability-, motivation- and opportunity-enhancing HRM practices would relate to fit, links and sacrifice components of job embeddedness, with these components mediating the relationship between HRM and employee job performance. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from a matched sample of 197 Chinese state-own firm employees and their supervisors. Multiple mediation test was used to test direct and mediating effects. Findings – Results indicated that HRM practices contribute to the creation and development of embeddedness, and the improvement of job performance. The job embeddedness components of fit, links and sacrifice were found to mediate the HRM-job performance relationship. The results suggest that organisations can ...

Job demands–resources: a gender perspective on employee well-being and resilience in retail stores in China

Abstract Organisational resilience can be promoted through human resource management (HRM) practices that enhance individual employees’ well-being and ability to cope with adversity. However, the extant literature tends to neglect the influence of gender on employee well-being and resilience. Shop floor employees in retail stores often undertake demanding roles, characterised by considerable pressure and low pay, and attendant high levels of employee turnover. Drawing on the job demands–resources model, by analysing data collected from 697 employees at foreign-invested retail stores in China, this paper found that workload and employee participation in decision-making had a similar impact on the well-being of both male and female employees. However, the impact of job security and emotional demands on employees differed by gender. This paper extends the job demands–resources model by articulating the influence of gender on employee well-being. Additionally, its empirical insights, drawn from an emerging economy context, enable a contribution to the literature on employee well-being and resilience. Relevant implications for HRM and resilience are discussed.