The Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management

Citation

Tyson, S. (2013), "The Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management", Personnel Review, Vol. 42 No. 1, pp. 127-129. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481311285264

The reality of our interconnected world is apparent to anyone who reads a newspaper, travels or is aware of our multicultural society, our sporting events and entertainments, the origins of goods in the supermarket, or who uses the internet or watches television, or indeed who deals with overseas customers, clients or suppliers.

For those in human resource management, or researching and studying the field, this is an ideal time to read about the state of knowledge so far gained on international comparisons of human resource management (HRM). Comparative HRM is discussed by the editors of this new handbook as an approach which challenges the “one best way” view of HRM, and examines the extent to which there is divergence or convergence in HR policies. Underlying most of the work in this field is a concern for context and its impact either at the level of the nation state, or in some other broader cultural or economic grouping. The title of the book should perhaps be international comparative HRM research, as there is no attempt in the book to compare industry sectors, or to make comparisons within countries.

The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 covers theoretical and conceptual issues and explores the various theories used to underpin the area, including institutional theory, the varieties of capitalism literature, and conceptions of national or regional culture. There are also chapters on the need for a more “critical theory” approach, and on the challenges of empirical research in international research. The chapter on empirical research is a largely practical account of how to use quantitative methods, specifically hierarchical linear modelling (HLM), when using different levels of analysis, to solve problems with a number of variables.

Part 2 is labelled “Tasks and Themes”. It is not clear why this title has been used. The tasks seem to be HR policy areas, such as recruitment, rewards, management development, diversity etc., and the themes are research topics, such as line management roles, organising the HR department, and so on. All of these are dealt with in descriptive comparisons between countries, and explanations of the causes of the differences are found in the different cultures and institutions of the countries being compared.

The final section moves the level of analysis to what are called regions. The editors' introduction shows these have been designated following an institutional and cultural analysis. The Regions are: North America, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Indian sub continent, the Transition Economies of China, Vietnam, and North Korea (all three in one chapter), Japan, South Korea and Taiwan also as one region. The last region considered is Australia and New Zealand.

Clearly, this is a substantial piece of work, both in its size and weight (at around 700 pages with two editors and 66 contributors), and in its scope and ambition. Creating the book's structure presents dilemmas to the editors, who have had to decide on what would be the best way for readers to access the data in the handbook where readers interest ranges from particular countries, or regions, or research topics, or HR policy areas, or the issues raised by this kind of research, or some combination of all of these. As such, the structure does allow for a number of different entry points. The intention, one assumes, is to facilitate research, whether to examine differences between countries or societies, to hunt for divergence or convergence. Throughout the book, there is a tendency to use institutional and cultural explanations for differences in practice. The regional section implicitly takes the linkage between cultural and institutional explanations by, for example, posing the question are there particular ways of managing human resources in whole regions of the world?

The book is more of a compendium than a volume to be read from cover to cover. Some of the chapters repeat debates on cultures, and definitions of HRM, and the format for each chapter is more or less the same, in Part 2. First there is a brief description of the topic (recruitment, reward etc.), then an outline of the significance of context, with a short conclusion section and references. The book is relatively easy to use, but would benefit from an overall bibliography. Some quoted authors are listed in the index, and some are not.

However, there is a nagging unanswered question which hangs over the text: what is the purpose in comparing HRM policies and practices in different countries and regions in the world? The question is not posed, but judging by the purposes often mentioned here, there are many reasons, such as to understand the role of national institutions in forming HRM policies, or the significance of national cultures for the management of people. Some of the research objectives are more sociological, some more economic and there are also potential social anthropological purposes. The conclusion I draw therefore, is that comparative HRM is a methodology, not a research topic.

Seen as a methodology, international comparative research might look to other theoretical supports than just those quoted here, drawing on sociology and social anthropology, for example. This might feed into different agendas, for example looking into the societal functions of HRM, and how these produce and sustain social structure. Chapter 3 on culture promises a much more rigorous and in‐depth approach to cultural research than is found in the two main parts of the book, where there is a reliance on Hofstede's research. Similarly, chapter 4, which provides an overview of critical approaches to comparative HRM, sets out some of the main limitations in Comparative HRM Research, where the absence of a priori models and the reliance on vast amounts of empirical data, in an inductive approach are common. As the authors in the chapter say:

However, comparative HRM has not made explicit its standing vis‐à‐vis the various theoretical issues that preoccupy organisation and management studies as a branch of social science (Peltonen and Vaara, p. 71).

It is disappointing that in the chapters that follow in the book, reliance on what C. Wright‐Mills called “abstracted empiricism” is too often found, with only passing references to theory.

Nor is there any attempt at an overall theoretical framework to guide the authors in the book. This leads to repetition in successive chapters and a lack of interconnectivity between the chapters. It is also notable, that in the chapters on policies and themes, comparisons produce no new insights but rather tamely, calls for more research. International comparative HRM research is a method, and will only produce descriptions of differences and similarities, which are inherently meaningless without a theoretical framework and a research objective which is compatible with the theory.

There is one further problem with the book. The Part 2 chapters – “Themes and Tasks”, fail to pick up the major changes taking place in organisations, and economies, as a consequence of changes to technology, to the balance of economic power, the financial crash and the recession. For example, the chapter on recruitment fails to look at the effects of social media and to acknowledge how labour markets are affected by the recession. There is no chapter on talent management. Top executive pay and bankers bonuses' are not discussed in the chapter on pay, nor are pay freezes. The policies adopted to deal with labour during the downturn, and the employee relations issues of high youth unemployment in Europe, USA, and other countries, do not feature. In the Regional section, China is only given a part of a chapter, in spite of its effect as part of the world economy, and although there is a chapter on Latin America, Brazil is hardly mentioned.

This lack of an appreciation of current trends and priorities, gives readers the impression of a somewhat out‐of‐date book. This view could be reinforced by the tendency by some authors to use references from 30 or 40 years ago in explaining what they believe to be current trends.

In spite of these reservations, I think there are a number of exceptionally good contributions which are of value to researchers of HRM. The first five chapters, including the introduction, offer a concise overview of the theoretical and methodological difficulties in researching HRM to make comparisons across countries. In the regional section, the chapter on North America is outstanding, as are the chapters on Western Europe, and on the Transition States of Central and Eastern Europe. Generally, the chapters give students a good oversight of a topic and some of the theoretical areas to investigate further.

For the reasons outlined above, the book would be a useful addition to any business school or university library, and would be of value to research students in fields such as industrial and employee relations, HRM and on some sociology topics.