Just How Important is National Culture in Explaining the Effectiveness and Transfer of HR Practices in Multinationals?

The second of these two quick posts reflects on some excellent work in the Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Research Management edited by Chris Brewster and Wolfgang Mayerhofer and to be published by Edward Elgar in April 2011.  Those HR readers who are involved in managing in multinationals should read this book if you are concerned about the global-local problems. and developing employer brands. 

The chapter by Barry Gerhart looks like being a standout in this respect.  We've been trained as scholars and practitioners to emphasise national cultural differences as a constraint on transferring practices across cultures, in part because of the influence of work by Hosftede, Trompenaars and others on dimensions of national culture.  These ideas have been at the core of teaching on international management courses, as most MBA students would know.  Barry has spent a number of years re-examining the evidence produced by Hofstede in particular and reflecting on the messages this work has sent out.  He does not deny that national cultural differences exist, but argues (1) that you cannot equate culture with nation states and (2) that it is not national dimensions of culture that are the major constraints in transferring practices but organizational cultures, or industry cultures.  According to Gerhart, Hofstede used poor standards of proof and over-interpreted the importance of national cultural variables to the point that they seem to play less and less importance in constraining the ability of corporate HR departments to develop corporate identities and employer brands.  Instead he proposed that those firms which buck the shibboleths associated with transferring invidualist HR practices such as performance related pay, performance appraisal, etc, will actually gain a competitive advantage over those firms which follow the received wisdom in this field.

Healthcare HR at the AOM

One of two quick posts on excellent workshops at the AOM, both of which have important lessons for readers of this blog.

The first is about the influence of context and the disconnections between managers and employees over the effectiveness of HR practices.  Jaap Paauwe introduced a session that featured Louise Fitzgerald from Manchester Business School, Corine Boon from Amsterdam University and David Guest from Kings College.  Louise's work raised the importance of receptive contexts for change in that most complex of industries.  Her research over the past number of years has shown that transferring 'best practice' from the commercial sector to healthcare and even within the the healthcare sector itself is fraught with problems, e.g. lean service delivery and HR best practices.  Context matters a great deal, and if ever we needed lessons on this two of the most important dimensions of receptive contexts were (1) the relationships between managers and clinicians and the relationships among clinicians themselves, and (2) the extent of distributed leadership and willingness of clinicians to engage in leadership.  However, she also pointed out the impact of senior leadership actions on shaping such contexts, which is a lesson that most recent research has shown.  You need both transformational and distributed leadership to make things work.

The second point on the impact of HR practices on change was made by Corine Boon and re-inforced by David Guest's research in healthcare.  It is not the fact that HR practices exist but the signals they send and how they are perceived by employees that is important in predicting performance.  The correlation between managers reporting that they had such practices in place and the views of employees on their effectiveness was very low (0.25).  David Guest argued that there was a general lack of a strategic perspective on HR among his healthcare organizational sample, and a 'huge gap between what was intended and what actually happened' in HR.  He further proposed that the adoption of so called best HR practice was linked to low performance, a finding that is not without parallel in the private sector.  If everyone is doing the same thing, where is the advantage in that?

So beware of poorly researched case studies reporting only managers' views on the existence of best practices and beware of the airport books promulgating these views.  You have to understand the context in which these practices are adopted, how these practices are implemented, they signals they send and how effective they are perceived to be by staff.  Simple but powerful lessons.

Engaging Encounters at the AOM on Talent Management and Engagement

I'm posting from the annual conference of the Academy of Management in Montreal, where I took part in a workshop organized by a close colleagues of mine, Kerry Grigg from Australia, who has recently crossed the academic-practitioner divide.  Kerry's intention in this workshop was facilitate a discussion on the problems that many academics have in engaging with practitioners by bringing together four practically-oriented academics and forty plus practitioners, practitioner/academics and academics new to the profession.  My thanks go to her for the excellent facilitation and thought that went into this engaging encounter, which provoked some excellent interaction with the audience and allowed me to work (again) with Paul Sparrow from Lancaster and Elaine Farndale from Penn State  and Tilberg, and to work with for the first time with  John Boudreau from the University of Southern California, whose books have also featured on this blog.

Although this divide has been explored a number of times in the past, we don't seem to be much closer to a resolution.  The increasingly dominant publish or perish culture that dominates the lives of academics working in business schools in the USA and UK has had the paradoxical effect of creating disincentives for academics to get too close to practice.  For example, it is difficult to get published in top journals using (a) the research methods most valued by practitioners, i.e., single case studies, qualitative research, action research etc., on (b) the topics of the day of most interest to practitioners, talent management and engagement being such two examples.   Practitioners, on their part are usually looking for results that are 'roughly right but fast' and wish to use these results to secure some kind of competitive advantage, either for their organizations or in career terms.  At minimum they do not want to be disadvantaged as a result of their links with academics, which can be the case when results are unearthed that show these practitioners, or more likely their senior managers, to be part of the problem rather than the solution.

What came through strongly in terms of advice was the need for younger academics to do a major risk assessment before tying their careers to research that can go dangerously wrong, so preventing them from publishing.   They need to recognise that they are entering into an exchange relationship, in which both parties have to gain for the relationship to flourish.  This means that the 'terms of trade' have to be made explicit at the beginning of the relationship, and the lines in the sand clearly delineated.  What happens if the results of the research show that organization or key individuals in a bad light - which is often the case in engagement research?  Typically this exchange is best approached in a gradual manner, perhaps through pilot studies that allow both parties to learn about each other and about the benefits of working together.  

What has also to be made clear is the distinction between a consulting and a research relationship.  At their best, academics can produce consulting advice to organizations on par or better than anything produced by the major consultants  - for example, providing insights into the nature and factors influencing employee engagement, or the alignment between HR and strategic advantage.  Consulting (and executive educations) can also lead to follow up projects with major academic spin-offs. Consulting, however, is based on a different kind of relationship, which places academics in a role of service providers and that needs to be recognised by unwary scholarly entrepreneurs.  The advice from the panel for less experienced academics was to ensure they and the service commissioners understood the distinction and for both parties to be ready to walk away if the terms of engagement didn't feel or look right.

Resume Angst: Should I Include Short-Term, Unrelated Positions?

Dear Evil HR Lady,

I lost my job over a year ago. It paid very well and since then I have jumped around to about 4 different jobs trying to find a good fit and reasonable pay. Most of the jobs were beneath my skill level but I needed to earn more than unemployment so I took them. I finally landed an interview with a job that is comparable to my lost job in qualifications and pay, as well as skill level. Should I disclose all my past employers on the new application? Will any be found on a background check if they were less then a few months? In my past I had a very stable job history- worked at a company for over 10 years then the one that laid me off was 2 years. It was only the last year that I did not have stability. Can you offer me any advice as to how to handle this?

Resume Angst: Should I Include Short-Term, Unrelated Positions?

How to Answer Interview Questions About Your Weird Employer

What do you say about your current company when that company is practicing weird science? How about the truth?

How to Answer Interview Questions About Your Weird Employer

My Manager is a Failure

Dear Evil HR Lady,

I have a manager, who for 6 quarters, did not deliver on his sales targets. He gets away with it by shifting blame on team members and wrong customer account selection. After missing his first 3 quarters, he blamed it on team and almost got an entirely new team on board. Now with new team he on board, he is still not delivering on his sales targets. Now he blames it on wrong account selection. How can one expose this behavior to senior execs in the business, as this individual has wrecked havoc in other good sales people by managing them out of the company. Any suggestions on how to approach such a situation would be welcomed.

My Manager is a Failure

Am I Too Fat to Get Hired?

If you're overweight, does it affect your chances of getting a new job? Of course it shouldn't, but does it?

Am I Too Fat to Get Hired?