Transfer of human resource practices from German multinational enterprises to Asian subsidiaries

Abstract

The three research issues deal with firstly with human resource practice transfer, secondly with relational context affecting implementation and internalization and finally with roles of key staff that influence European human resource practices across three Southeast Asian countries. Human Resource directors and line managers were interviewed in German companies with subsidiaries in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. Findings indicate that firstly German MNEs because of underlying value differences, tend to transfer policies and leave the translation into practices to the local Asia Pacific HR director, whereas the subsidiaries have contrasting expectations. Secondly findings confirm the importance of the relational context and trust between HQ and subsidiaries. Finally headquarters and subsidiary managers have different perspectives and this highlights how cultural attributions affect organizational practice. The implications are that various approaches to the control of HR policies exist and the MNEs should carefully analyse the relational context and subsidiary expectations to plan their international HR transfer strategy.