American Multinationals in Europe Managing Employment Relations Across National Borders

Some of the key questions in employment relations, comparative business, and globalization revolve around the extent to which businesses embody a national business system, and what happens when these employment models are exported to other national settings. By exploring the variety of ways in which US multinationals deal with these issues, and their reception, when operating in Europe, Phil Almond, Anthony Ferner, and their contributors examine the interaction between globalization and national 'Varieties of Capitalism'. Using the findings of a four-year international exploration of the management of employment relations in US multinationals in the UK, Germany, Ireland, and Spain, this book examines what is distinctively 'American' about these companies, and how this notion is exported. The process is shown to be one that is not a technical managerial one, but one that is highly political, and 'negotiated', in which groups and individuals at different levels within the company try to influence the terms of transfer. These questions are not only of theoretical importance, but also of practical significance in terms of the transfer of management knowledge and 'best practice'. The book will be of interest to academics, researchers, and advanced students of HRM, International Business, and Organization Studies, as well as HR practitioners concerned with US multinationals operating in Europe.

PART I INTRODUCTION. 1. Introduction: American Multinationals and the Cross-national Management of Employment Relations. 2. Multinationals and National Business Systems: a 'Power and Institutions' Perspective. PART II THE CONTEXT. 3. Overview of the US Business System. 4. Overview of the Host Business Systems. 5. The Case Study Companies in their Organizational Context. PART III THE FINDINGS: EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS POLICIES AND PRACTICES. 6. Collective Representation and Participation. 7. Pay and Performance. 8. Workforce Diversity Policies. 9. The Management of Managerial Careers. PART IV THE FINDINGS: STRUCTURE, PROCESS, AND DYNAMICS. 10. Centralization. 11. Innovation and the Transfer of Organizational Learning. 12. The Role of the International Personnel Function. 13. Conclusions.

Phil Almond is a Reader in Human Resource Management at Leicester Business School, De Montfort University. His published research interests include labour management in MNCs, comparative industrial and employment relations, wage determination systems, gender pay inequality, comparative methodology and the effects of corporate governance regimes on the management of labour. Anthony Ferner is Professor of International Human Resource Management at Leicester Business School, De Montfort University, Leicester. His research is concerned with employment relations in multinational companies, focusing in particular on the interaction between multinational behaviour and national employment relations systems.

This book is an important contribution to a fast growing literature on industrial relations in foreign-owned companies...a benchmark for future comparative studies of multinational companies as employers.