Summary

International Human Resource Management tackles the issues raised by cross-national differences in HRM styles. Specifically, it identifies a number of themes: the meaning of globalisation and the extent to which it is a novel phenomenon; the challenges to national traditions; the embeddedness of actors in distinct national styles; the way in which many key issues within international HRM are contested; and the extent to which change in national systems is evident. These themes underlie the treatment of the contents of this book, which is split into two parts. The first part of this book examines the context of international HRM through an examination of the process of globalisation and the origins of the distinctiveness of national business systems. The second part is concerned with particular issues relating to multinational companies, such as how and why they transfer practices across operations in different countries.