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Human resource management in multinational and domestic enterprises: A comparative institutional analysis in Southeast Asia
Author(s) -
Singh Satwinder,
Wood Geoffrey,
Darwish Tamer K.,
Fleming Jocelyne,
Mohamed Abdul Fattaah
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
thunderbird international business review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.553
H-Index - 37
eISSN - 1520-6874
pISSN - 1096-4762
DOI - 10.1002/tie.21997
Subject(s) - delegate , multinational corporation , business , context (archaeology) , human resource management , emerging markets , human resources , marketing , industrial organization , economics , management , finance , paleontology , computer science , biology , programming language
This article looks at the relative impact of context on the role of senior managers. It compares HR directors of domestic enterprises (DEs) with those of multinational enterprises (MNEs), within an emerging market setting, based on a survey of HR directors in Brunei. We found that, with the exception of some aspects of selection and recruitment, HR directors of MNEs accorded a higher priority to strategic tasks but were more reluctant to delegate. This study confirms the importance of MNEs in pioneering more modern and integrated approaches to people management but also demonstrates the limitations to the extent where they might act as evangelists of new practices that are adopted by their local peers. In contrast, local firms were more likely to concentrate their attention on administrative, rather than strategic, issues. We draw out the implications of our findings for theory and practice.