Human resource management in Chinese-western joint ventures

Abstract

The international human resource management models developed in the last decade pursue a contextual analysis of the standardisation (global integration) of multinational parent companies’ human resource management policies and practices and localisation (local differentiation) of host countries' practices. However, as a popular but unique international alliance, the process by which international joint ventures determined HRM policies and practices remained unclear. This research utilizes a resource dependency perspective to explore the company-specific determinants of Chinese-western joint ventures' HRM formation, by investigating JV parent companies HRM decision drivers in terms of contractual and non-contractual resources, expertise, consistency requirements, and internationalization experience. Through five in-depth case studies, this research demonstrated that HRM standardisation or localisation is a function of the IJV parents’ HR decision drivers. Additional variables, contextual factors and future research directions are discussed. Contributions of this research include a balanced consideration of both partners in the international joint venture to counter the ethnocentric lens of MNC-subsidiary relationships. The research recasts standardisation and localisation as a continuum that should express the interests of multiple partners, rather than the interests of one in a host country context.