Phil Almond

Dynamics of Central Control and Subsidiary Autonomy in the Management of Human Resources: Case-Study Evidence from US MNCs in the UK

This article revisits a central question in the debates on the management of multinationals: the balance between centralized policy-making and subsidiary autonomy. It does so through data from a series of case studies on the management of human resources in American multinationals in the UK. Two strands of debate are confronted. The first is the literature on differences between multinationals of different national origins which has shown that US companies tend to be more centralized, standardized, and formalized in their management of human resources. It is argued that the literature has provided unconvincing explanations of this pattern, failing to link it to distinctive features of the American business system in which US multinationals are embedded. The second strand is the wider debate on the balance between centralization and decentralization in multinationals. It is argued that the literature neglects important features of this balance: the contingent oscillation between centralized and decentralized modes of operation and (relatedly) the way in which the balance is negotiated by organizational actors through micro-political processes whereby the external structural constraints on the company are defined and interpreted. In such negotiation, actors’ leverage often derives from exploiting differences between the national business systems in which the multinational operates.

Between home and host country: multinationals and employment relations in Europe

Foreign-owned firms employ a significant proportion of the European workforce. This varies considerably between countries but in manufacturing, where the figures are highest, it generally represents more than 10 per cent of employment (see Table 1). Furthermore, it increased strongly between 1985 and 1995. Foreign-owned transplants are likely to provide a challenge for national systems of employment relations (ER) in Europe. They represent the most visible manifestation of the influence of global pressures on national economies and societies. However there is only limited empirical evidence to support such an assessment. Existing research has largely concentrated on the behaviour of US and Japanese multinational companies (MNCs). This suggests that US firms in Europe have transferred practices from their home country and thereby challenged national systems of collective representation and bargaining and acted as HR innovators in areas such as pay and work organisation (Almond, Edwards and Muller, 2001; Ferner, forthcoming). Innovations by Japanese firms have mainly been in the area of work organisation (Elger and Smith, 1998; Morris, Wilkinson and Munday 2000). The more limited research about ER practices of firms from other countries suggests that they also transfer home country practices, but in a way that is less challenging to their

The sub-national embeddedness of international HRM

This article argues that international human resource management has failed to examine adequately the relations between multinational corporations (MNCs) and the geographies they operate in at sub-national levels. In particular, it needs to go much further in integrating insights from literatures on changing levels of governance, the role of sub-national sites of regulation in the creation and transmission of knowledge, and the geographical and organizational fragmentation of production. In reviewing these literatures alongside relevant contributions within international human resource management, it develops a research agenda by which the degree and nature of sub-national embeddedness of MNCs, and their effects on sub-national business and employment systems, can be analysed.

Performance and reward practices in foreign multinationals in the UK

This article examines variability in pay and performance management systems (PPMS) across foreign multinational companies (MNCs) in the UK, using a representative survey. It examines factors shaping PPMS for two groups, managers and the largest occupational group (LOG). It finds that US MNCs tend to have more PPMS practices in combination than do non-US firms, but that for individual items nationality has relatively low influence, particularly for LOG. Other key factors in PPMS vary by employee group: for managers, international HR structural mechanisms for networking, organisational learning and the transmission of a global HR philosophy are important. For LOG, collective bargaining coverage is crucial. The article discusses the implications of the findings for ‘contingency’ approaches to HR ‘architecture’.

The changing context of regional governance of FDI in England

This paper analyses relations between sub-national institutional actors responsible for the attraction and retention of foreign direct investment, other ‘governance’ actors in regional business systems – local and sub-regional government, cluster/sectoral bodies, RDA and LEP executives, and those involved in the coordination of skills provision – and subsidiaries of foreign-owned multinational corporations. It is based on qualitative research in two regions of England conducted between 2008 and 2011. Within a context of international competition for investment within global production networks, it explores recent politically driven changes in sub-national governance, including the abolition of Regional Development Agencies, alongside the more long-standing instability of economic development and skills coordination in England. The analysis is centred on an argument that a more adequate understanding of sub-national economic governance requires the active integration of perspectives on political systems of governance, and embedded patterns of economic coordination, as analysed in the varieties of capitalism literature.

Cross-national comparative human resource management and the ideational sphere: a critical review

This paper analyses how research in cross-national comparative human resource management deals with ideas, values and norms. On the basis of an analysis of the articles with that focus that were published in selected leading journals between 2001 and 2010, it first identifies the main approaches to comparative work, which are labelled as materialism, hard institutionalism, soft institutionalism, interlocking institutionalism and culturalism. How each of these broad approaches deals with ideational values is critically assessed. The paper then reviews attempts to deal with two specific problems: the shaping of national and actor identities, and the production of new ideas and cross-national learning. We conclude that the ideational sphere is under-operationalised and under-theorised in most cross-national research on human resource and industrial relations management, and suggest how this problem might be addressed.

Multinationals in Europe 2001-2: Home Country, Host Country and Sector Effects in the Context of Crisis

In their review of multinational companies (MNCs) in this journal last year, our colleagues (Muller-Camen et al., 2001) explored the interaction of home and host country effects on subsidiary operations. They concluded that the location of MNCs in different national business systems provides variable attitudes towards employee relations. A large body of literature on US MNCs in Europe suggests that they seek to transfer practices from their home base and act as innovators in areas such as pay and work organization. These home country practices may challenge national systems of collective representation and bargaining (Almond, Edwards and Muller, 2001). Muller-Camen et al. (2001) temper this general conclusion by suggesting that national business systems, particularly components of the industrial relations system, exhibit extensive variation across the EU and remain a strong influence on the behaviour of MNCs. In reviewing this past year, we are obliged to continue this line of analysis but also to extend it. Key consequences for multinational behaviour have been generated by two related events; developing economic recession, particularly in so far as it affected American markets, and the amplifying effect on this of the events of September 11 2001. Shock effects were felt first and most in two key internationalised

Embedding multinational firms in regional business systems: neoliberal and social-democratic models in Spain

The paper analyses how regional actors have mobilised to attract and retain foreign direct investment in two Spanish regions with different political approaches to the management of economic issues, including industrial relations. These regions are Madrid, the main pole of attraction of foreign direct investment in Spain, and Asturias, with a large tradition of heavy industry and a greater dependence on a small number of large employers. It finds the regions have adapted to international competition in substantially different manners and considers the alternative reasons why this might be the case, highlighting the role of organised labour both in the inward investment regimes themselves, and in shaping the nature of the different compromises they involve.

Book Review: Violaine Delteil and Vassil Kirov (eds), Labour and Social Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe: Europeanization and BeyondDelteilViolaineKirovVassil (eds) Labour and Social Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe: Europeanization and BeyondLondon: Routledge, 2017, £110, (ISBN: 9781138927995), 252 pp.

How has labour been transformed in the former “Workers’ States” in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) over the past quarter of a century? This volume edited by Violaine Delteil and Vasil Kirov provides dense empirical evidence and proposes multiple theoretical frameworks to explain a complex phenomenon. One of the main achievements of the contribution is that the authors capture both the plurality and the specificity of labour and capitalist transformations in the region. This raises more philosophical questions about the limits and frontiers (Schengen) of the long-expected “return to Europe” of a region which, for centuries, has been entwined in various economic and political, external and domestic dependencies.

State accumulation projects and inward investment regimes strategies

ABSTRACT State accumulation projects and inward investment regimes strategies. Regional Studies. Based on Kitchener–Waterloo, Ontario, and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, case studies, we link inward investment regimes (IIR) to the strategic relational approach to the state. The state continues to be significant in (1) selecting multinational enterprise (MNE) value-chain segments; (2) policies maximizing foreign direct investment (FDI) spillovers; (3) empowering IIR participants; and (4) managing the institutionalized compromises underlying these policies. Quebec’s developmental state (QDS) reflects labour’s greater power and has stronger levers to maximize FDI spillovers than Ontario’s competition state (OCS); however, both confront significant FDI challenges.