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A key issue in international management is the extent to which management practices are converging in response to the pressures of globalisation, and the ready availability to managers in all parts of the world of the same concepts of what constitutes best practice in the different management disciplines. In some instances convergence may be encouraged by Government action. This is the case with the introduction into The Netherlands of the Investors in People (IiP) scheme that originated in the UK. IiP is a benchmark award, given to organisations that can demonstrate that they meet a set of criteria that relate to employee management and the commitment of resources to training. This article is a review of the introduction of IiP in The Netherlands, with the aim of seeing what insights are provided in relation to the cross‐cultural transfer of employment relations practice. Two case studies are used to explore the issues from the perspective of organisations working towards the standard in the two countries. It is concluded that the IiP standard can be transferred to another country, but that modifications have to be made to aspects of its organisation to take account of national differences. The implications of the transfer are discussed in relation to the convergence debate.

The purpose of this paper is to document similarities and differences between management practices of different types of organizations in India’s IT sector through an empirical survey. The authors expected these differences to be significant enough for us to be able to group a priori this set of companies meaningfully through cluster analysis on the basis of the similarity of their management practices alone.

Using a mixed-methods approach, 73 senior-level executives of companies working in India’s IT sector were approached with a pretested questionnaire to find out differences on eighteen management practices in the areas of operations management, monitoring management, targets management and talent management. The different types of organizations surveyed were small and amp; medium global multinationals, large global multinationals, small and medium Indian multinationals, large Indian multinationals and small and medium local Indian companies. The differences and similarities found through statistical testing were further validated a priori through cluster analysis and qualitative interviews with senior-level executives.

The management practices of multinationals in India are moving toward Western management practices, indicating that management practices converge as the organizations grow in size. Though the practices of large Indian multinationals were not significantly different from those of global multinationals, the surprising finding was that large Indian multinationals scored better than global multinationals on a few practices. The practices of small and medium Indian companies differed significantly from those of other types of organizations and hence they formed a cluster.

The finding that large Indian IT multinationals have an edge over global multinationals in certain people management practices is a confirmation of the role of human resource practices in their current success and their continuing competitive advantage.

This is perhaps the first study of its kind to document state of specific management practices across different types of organizations in India’s IT sector and then use measures on these practices to group a priori these organizations for validation.

International human resource management (IHRM) research is becoming an increasingly important topic in light of the relentless pace of globalisation. Three strands of research contribute to our understanding of IHRM, the most dominant being research on human resource management in multinational companies. This paper categorises the literature in the field, highlighting disciplinary introspection within and between each strand. Argues that, by neglecting to embrace the contributions of research from cross‐cultural management and comparative human resource management, the field lacks the necessary conceptual and methodological tools to advance. Concludes by suggesting areas where collaboration and cross‐fertilisation between disciplines can occur before embarking on the integrative process of theory building.

Due to their multifarious backgrounds, multinational enterprises from emerging economies offer unique research opportunities to push the boundaries of our understanding knowledge of diversity management in transitional contexts. In that regard, Central and Eastern European multinationals present a blind spot in diversity management research.

This article examines the extent to which context shapes the discourse on diversity management in the Oil and Gas industry across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) through a qualitative approach based on content analyses of corporate communication data matched with data on national institutional contexts.

The data suggests a lack of effective pro-diversity pressures across CEE except for cultural pressure in European Union member countries. However, CEE Oil and Gas companies report a broader scope of diversity management than studies of Western counterparts suggest. Companies with subsidiaries in Western countries show convergence towards etic diversity approaches, while local and regional companies are more divergent.

This article defines the boundary conditions of diversity management in the Oil and Gas industry across nine CEE countries and how they impact the diversity discourse in the industry. This article also showcases the impact of foreign market presence in the West as a driver for diversity management reporting.

The purpose of this paper is to describe research which aimed to discover whether there were differences in leadership practices and perceptions of good leadership practice between German and UK organisations.

A survey based on analysis of self‐assessment documents submitted for the European Quality Award or its equivalents in Germany and the UK was distributed to 300 organisations in Germany and the UK. A response rate of 20 per cent was achieved. The survey was also distributed to 20 assessors.

There were more differences in perceptions of good practice between German organisations recognised for excellence and German organisations not using the Excellence Model than between German and UK organisations. In the UK, there were more differences between what was described as good practice and what was described as usual practice among organisations not using the Excellence Model than among organisations recognised for excellence. German assessors differed in their view of good practices from UK assessors and German organisations.

The number of respondents was small, the organisations which chose to respond may not be typical and responses may not be accurate. A larger survey would help establish the generalisability of the findings. Focus groups would be particularly helpful in understanding the difference in perspective of the assessors.

An awareness of Anglo‐German differences is helpful for managers with cross‐border teams. The difference in assessor perceptions suggests that the training offered by the EFQM has not resulted in a common understanding.

The paper is valuable both to academics who are interested in cross‐cultural leadership and to practitioners wrestling with the issues posed by cross‐cultural teams.

The purpose of this study is to explore a range of training practices adopted by multinational companies (MNCs) operating in Asia. It investigated the level of training expenditure, the nature of training programs offered and the concerns about training in MNCs.

Data were obtained through a survey of 529 MNCs operating in six Asian countries to examine the average cost spent on training and the type of training programs offered to different groups of employees. The respondents were also asked to indicate their perceptions on the training provided and how effective the training has on firm performance.

It appears that MNCs invested significantly in training. Training was found to be more widespread in service organisations than manufacturing organisations operating in Asia. The majority of training emphasised managerial and professional staff development; and was generally conducted externally. Respondents were concerned mainly with the quality and relevance of training programs offered externally.

The results provide MNCs, especially those headquartered in European and other Western countries with insights into designing and offering more relevant and better quality training programs to their employees located in Asian subsidiaries.

This article seeks to highlight the realities, myths and polarisation of western and Chinese management styles. The article establishes the need to develop an understanding of the underpinning culture and traditions which differentiate management styles. The article provides personal examples of the authors’ experience in straddling the cultural boundary of West and East. The article further advocates a model for establishing the training needs of western and Chinese managers in preparing them to deal with China’s entry into the World Trade Organisation. Internal disparity in China and Europe is briefly highlighted and the article suggests the need to focus on the potential for comparison in cross‐cultural negotiations and management. The article proposes a guiding principals model, which has been developed using three dimensions: “sense of belonging”, “culture and religion” and “management analysis and language”.

To develop a strategic model for effective management that incorporates aspects of strategic decision‐making from both industrialized and emerging markets.

To interview senior managers (many at CEO level) of successful companies operating in emerging markets. We assume the senior managers best understand strategy formulation and implementation.

A strategic model for both information rich and information void business environments.

We did not use a random sample, but rather a convenience sample of CEOs and senior managers of companies operating in emerging markets. This sample limits the study’s generalizability.

Successful managers argued that best practices developed for information‐rich Western markets were not effective in information‐void emerging markets.

The paper has value for managers moving from industrialized economies to emerging economies and vice‐versa, and to academics researching strategic decision‐making in emerging markets.

The aim of this research was to determine whether leadership practices vary between German and UK organisations.

The author used self‐assessment documents submitted by German and UK organisations to the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), to identify leadership practices in both countries. A survey was used to determine whether these practices were commonly used and whether they were regarded as good practice.

The research found similarities but also differences, e.g. feedback, recognition and communication. Many of the approaches described as good practice by UK organisations, were not described as usual practice. Where modern leadership practices had been adopted in Germany, they appeared to be more consistently deployed.

The research findings indicate changes are happening in Germany, for instance with strategic management more common than found by previous researchers. A longitudinal study could track the adoption of new approaches in both countries. The study does not evaluate the effectiveness of the approaches identified.

Recommendations are made for how the findings may be used in training.

The paper is original in its use of self‐assessment documents to identify leadership practices in two European countries. The findings reflect current differences and may be helpful to people working with German and UK colleagues, either in mergers and acquisitions, collaborative research, supply chain or other forms of cooperation, by making them aware of some of the different perceptions they may encounter.

This paper explores the impact of national culture on the performance of the foreign affiliates in Greece, a country which belongs to the economic periphery of the European Union. Greece is characterised by low internationalisation and competitiveness, and has been clustered by Hofstede in the Mediterranean culture managing directorial model. This paper, using a sample of 478 firms, examines the extent to which the national culture factor has affected the performance of foreign affiliates in Greece. It verifies the first hypothesis that the higher the national culture distance between the country of origin of the foreign firm from Greece the better the performance of the Greek affiliate. The findings also support the second hypothesis that the higher the score on the individualism dimension of the foreign firm the higher the performance of its affiliate in a collectivistic society.