ABSTRACT
The topic of international human resource management (IHRM) has gained an important niche in the field of human resource management (HRM) and become a key issue for practitioners in multinational corporations (MNCs). Our point of departure is that managing human resources within organizations that straddle national boundaries is more than a matter of scale, and presents the field with unique and complex challenges that need to be considered carefully and critically. In this chapter we begin by introducing the topic in the context of the traditional ethnocentric view of international management and by highlighting the historical under-representation of research on the human resource function in the international management literature. Following this general introduction we illuminate a number of key themes in the field of IHRM which form the basis for structuring the remainder of the chapter. First, we consider the key issue of global staffing, we then explore the issue of standardization versus localization in the transfer of IHRM policy and practice. Third, we propose the adoption of an industrial relations perspective on the management of people in the international firm. Finally, we conclude by summarizing the main issues explored in the chapter and draw out the implications of the material for the management of people in the international arena.1
