Comparative Human Resource Management

Contextual Insights from an International Research Collaboration

Michael J. Morley, Noreen Heraty, Michael J. Morley, Noreen Heraty

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000404029
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Context is increasingly recognised as a critical explanatory variable in accounting for commonalities and differences in human resource management. Giving expression to it in research models holds the prospect of enhancing theory development, deepening our appreciation of embedded practices in diverse territories, and opening up new lines of enquiry. However, contextualisation presents a significant research challenge and increasingly, international academic research networks that bring together scholars from different countries in the co-production of knowledge represent a key approach to rising to this challenge.

This volume documents aspects of the development of one such network, namely the Cranet Network on International Human Resource Management, and presents a series of recent contributions from the network. The chapters highlight, inter alia, the limits to convergence in human resource management as a result of contextual determinism, the role of institutional actors, markets, and work regulation in accounting for variations in practices, the contextual specificities and dynamics at play in transition economies, along with key methodological challenges that arise when seeking to build cumulative comparative knowledge via network collaborations of this nature.

The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of International Studies of Management & Organization.

Introduction

The Anatomy of an International Research Collaboration: Building Cumulative Comparative Knowledge in Human Resource Management

Michael J. Morley and Noreen Heraty

Abstract: Comparative human resource management (HRM) has an established pedigree in the management and organization literature. However, the generation of novel contextual understanding to enhance theory building, deepen our appreciation of embedded management practices in more diverse territories, and open up new lines of enquiry was, and remains, challenging social science research. Increasingly, international academic research networks that bring together scholars from different countries in the co-production of knowledge represent a key approach to rising to this challenge. In this issue, we document aspects of the development of one such network, namely the Cranet Network on International Human Resource Management, and we provide an exposition of a series of recent articles from the network. The contributions highlight, inter alia, the limits to convergence in HRM as a result of contextual determinism, the role of institutional actors, markets and work regulation in accounting for variations in people management practices, the contextual specificities and dynamics at play in transition economies, along with key methodological challenges that arise when seeking to build cumulative comparative knowledge via network collaborations of this nature.

INTRODUCTION

The problem for researchers from one culture or context wishing to conduct research on another culture is that the outsiders’ past experiences will not have equipped them to make sense of events in the same way that insiders would. (Easterby-Smith and Malina 1999, 84)

Collaboration via international cooperative research networks and the co-production of knowledge are on the rise, as are accounts of their functioning, of their impact on those who participate in them, and of the features and contributions of their scholarly output (Bournois and Chevalier 1998; House et al. 2002; Jonsen et al. 2013; Lowrie and McKnight 2004; Parry, Stavrou-Costea, and Morley 2011; Rigby and Edler 2005; Von Glinow, Drost, and Teagarden 2002). While there are a myriad of reasons underlying this development and significant variations in how it has taken hold across different disciplines, within management and business research it can be read in at least two different ways. Firstly, from a philosophical perspective, it can be viewed as a fundamental effort towards enhancing theory building and deepening our understanding of practices in an era in which the domain of management research has become more international (Geringer, Frayne, and Milliman 2002; Rousseau and Fried 2001). Secondly, from an historical perspective, it may be read as a form of redress in the face of an increasing realization that many contextual features of management practice in numerous territories have not been fully landscaped. The correction of this deficit requires comparative enquiry focused on under-researched regions in order to augment and rebalance the body of knowledge, plug research gaps, and unearth and give expression to indigenous features of management (Leung 2012; Jackson 2013; Tung and Aycan 2008).

Consequently, there is a growing line of thought which broadly supports the argument that valuable insights into organizational systems and preferred approaches will come from studying them in a comparative way. However, comparative enquiry of this nature remains “a challenging undertaking for HRM researchers” (Cooke, Veen, and Wood 2017, 220), often requiring poly-contextually sensitive research approaches designed to unearth “multiple and qualitatively different contexts embedded within one another” (Shapiro, Von Glinow, and Xiao 2007, 129). Despite some of the obvious challenges that are inherent in contextualization, it has been argued that “significant progress has been made in research in the variations in HRM across national boundaries, in both the quantity of studies and theoretical advancements since the mid-1980s” (Cooke et al. 2017, 196). In this effort, academic collaboration and the building of communities of scholars has emerged as a fundamental piece of the architecture necessary for assembling and curating comparative contextual HRM insights (Lazarova, Morley, and Tyson 2008).

This rise in the quantity and the quality of international comparative research on variations in HRM across cultures and territories, the emergence of collaborations in the co-production of new empirical and theoretical insights and the value of cooperative research networks as conduits to delivering such contextual insights, in combination, represent a pertinent point of departure for our purpose in this issue. We bring to readers aspects of the establishment and functioning of the Cranfield Network on International Human Resource Management (Cranet) and selected examples of the debates and analyses that form the corpus of research that has emanated from this network of collaborators to date.

BACKGROUND TO THE RESEARCH NETWORK AND DATA COLLECTION

Established in 1989 with five founding member countries (France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the UK), Cranet is now comprised of national member universities and business schools from over 46 countries and territories worldwide (Australia; Austria; Belgium; Brazil; Bulgaria; Canada; China; Croatia; Cyprus; Czech Republic; Denmark; Estonia; Finland; France; Germany; Greece; Hungary; Iceland; Indonesia; Ireland; Israel; Italy; Japan; Latvia; Lithuan...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Citation Information
• Notes on Contributors
• 1 Introduction: The Anatomy of an International Research Collaboration: Building Cumulative Comparative Knowledge in Human Resource Management
• 2 Context and HRM: Theory, Evidence, and Proposals
• 3 A Comparative Study of Trade Union Influence over HRM Practices in Spanish and Brazilian Firms: The Role of Industrial Relations Systems and Their Historical Evolution
• 4 The Antecedents of Comparative Differences in Union Presence and Engagement: Evidence from Coordinated and Liberal Market Contexts
• 5 Understanding Financial Participation across Market Economies
• 6 Contemporary Human Resource Management Practices in Russia: Flexibility under Uncertainty
• 7 The Cranet Survey: Improving on a Challenged Research-Practice?
• Index