Human resource management in emerging markets

This chapter evaluates the extent and nature of diffusion of human resource management (HRM) practices in emerging market economies, including Asia and Africa, considering diversity of practices both cross-culturally and within countries. Whilst there is much recent research on HRM in MNCs in Asian countries like China (Warner, 2008), Japan and Korea, the focus is predominantly on foreign MNCs with their home country origins and head office located in developed Western markets. ‘The role of the multinational corporation (MNC) as a vehicle by which dominant HR policies and practices may be transported across national boundaries and institutionalized within local contexts is presently one of the most significant lines of enquiry in comparative research’ (Morley et al., 2007: 17).