Implementing ‘Global HRM Standards’ across Multi-layered Subsidiary Contexts in an MNE

This study examines the extent to which, and how, ‘best-practice’ global HRM policies are transferred by an emerging multinational enterprise (EMNE) across its subsidiaries. We focus on how socio-political dynamics unfold, identifying the role of national and subsidiary function-specific institutional contexts, and managerial agency. We discuss substantial resistance to the importation of purported ‘global best practices’ by the subsidiaries and show that an EMNE’s ability to disseminate ‘global best practices’ across advanced as well as emerging economies is influenced by power dynamics between HQ and the subsidiaries, conditioned by the EMNE’s industry position, the home institutional context, national and subsidiary function-specific local institutional contexts, and local actors’ abilities to construct compelling localization logics that relate the distinct local contexts to significant business risk.

Keywords

emerging multinational enterprise, global best practice, international HRM

JEL Classification

M12