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Human resource management in Chinese multinationals in the United Kingdom: The interplay of institutions, culture, and strategic choice

Zaheer Khan¹; Geoffrey Wood²; Shlomo Y. Tarba³; Rekha Rao‐Nicholson⁴; Shaowei He⁵

¹ Kent Business School University of Kent Canterbury UK · ² Professor of International Business and Dean of Essex Business School University of Essex Colchester UK · ³ Strategy & International Business, Department of Strategy & IB Birmingham Business School, The University of Birmingham Birmingham UK · ⁴ International Business Newcastle University London London UK · ⁵ International Business, Northampton Business School The University of Northampton Northampton UK

This is a study of the challenges faced by Chinese expatriate managers and their strategic responses in securing a workable degree of alignment in UK subsidiaries, against a backdrop of competing home‐country and host‐country pressures. Although much of the literature on home‐country and host‐country effects tends to either adopt a culture or an institutional approach, this study highlights the intermeshed nature of the two. In locating cultural dynamics within an institutional firmament, this study juxtaposes the effects of each and draws conclusions as to their intersection. It is founded on in‐depth interviews with home‐country and host‐country managers. The findings suggest, on the one hand, Chinese expatriate managers tended to see local regulations as an obstacle to efficiency, rather than as a means to access context‐specific complementarities. On the other hand, these managers recognized the need to fit in with established locally specific ways of doing things and in securing sufficient staff buy in to sustain operations, and played a key intermediary role between headquarters and subsidiary.

DOI

10.1002/hrm.21935

Volume

58 (5)

Pages

473-487

Language

en

Export

BibTeX

Sources

crossref