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Global HR Roles and Factors Influencing Their Development: Evidence From Emerging Indian IT Services Multinationals
Author(s) -
Thite Mohan,
Budhwar Pawan,
Wilkinson Adrian
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
human resource management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.888
H-Index - 94
eISSN - 1099-050X
pISSN - 0090-4848
DOI - 10.1002/hrm.21621
Subject(s) - emerging markets , multinational corporation , business , leverage (statistics) , workforce , competitive advantage , industrial organization , internationalization , human resource management , human resources , marketing , knowledge management , management , economics , economic growth , international trade , finance , machine learning , computer science
The rapid growth of emerging markets’ multinational companies ( MNCs ) is a recent phenomenon and, as such, their nature and structure of key management processes, functions, and roles need further examination. While an abundance of low‐cost labor is often the starting point of competitive advantage for many of the emerging markets’ MNCs , it is the optimum configuration of people, processes, and technology that defines how they leverage their intangible resources. Based on case studies of four Indian IT services MNCs , involving 51 in‐depth interviews of business and human resource ( HR ) leaders at the corporate and subsidiary levels, we identify five key HR roles—namely, strategic business partner, guardian of culture, builder of global workforce and capabilities, champion of processes, and facilitator of employee development. The analysis also highlights that the HR function in Indian IT service MNCs faces several challenges in consolidating the early gains of internationalization, such as lack of decentralized decision making, developing a global mind‐set, localization of the workforce, and developing a global leadership pipeline. Based on our exploratory findings, we propose a framework outlining the global HR roles pursued by emerging IT services MNCs , the factors influencing them, and the challenges facing their HR function for future research. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.