Migrant employees in Germany: personnel structures and practices

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the representation of migrant employees in German organizations and to demonstrate that their employment opportunities are outcomes of diversity strategies – i.e. patterns of personnel practices and the reasons that cause them or are alleged to do so.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on a typology of diversity strategies where elements of strategy and diversity research are combined with resource dependence theory. Propositions on the strategies’ relation to personnel structures and practices are examined through empirical data stemming from telephone interviews conducted with HR managers of 500 German companies.

Findings

Empirical analyses revealed that diversity strategies are tightly related to personnel structures and practices. The best employment opportunities and career prospects for skilled migrants are offered by companies pursuing a diversity strategy labelled learning. In addition, the findings demonstrate the robustness of this typology.

Research limitations/implications

The empirical data suffer from common method bias: information was gathered on the pursued strategy, the personnel structure and practices of each company by interviewing one single person. Moreover, to dig more deeply into the relation with career prospects, a supplementary qualitative approach would be fruitful.

Practical implications

The results highlight conditions which are beneficial for advocating the integration of migrant employees. Equally, they may incentivise organizational decision makers with the “good reasons” to employ migrants.

Originality/value

By this paper's typology of diversity strategies, an innovative approach is contributed to the theoretical foundation of diversity research as their relation to personnel structures and practices is empirically analysed for the first time.

Citation

Ortlieb, R. and Sieben, B. (2010), "Migrant employees in Germany: personnel structures and practices", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 364-379. https://doi.org/10.1108/02610151011042411