ABSTRACT
A distinction often made in the literature is between comparative and international human resource management (HRM). While the former examines differences in HRM across countries and geographical regions the focus of the latter is on HRM in multinational corporations (MNCs) (e.g., Brewster, Sparrow and Vernon 2007). The aim here is to make a contribution at the intersection between these two strands of the literature: what characterizes HRM in Western MNC subsidiaries in China and India respectively and how can the observed features be explained? Two separate issues will be examined: first, to what extent do subsidiary practices resemble those found (i) in the foreign parent organizations (‘MNC standardization’) and (ii) in local firms (‘localization’); and second, what role is played by the HR function in the MNC subsidiaries? Although a considerable amount of research has been carried out on HRM in foreign corporations in China and India and is gaining increasing scholarly attention, to the best of our knowledge this is the first comparative study of HRM in MNC units located in these two major emerging markets.
