The Handbook of Research on Comparative Human-Resource Management

Citation

(2013), "The Handbook of Research on Comparative Human-Resource Management", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 21 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2013.04421baa.010

The Handbook of Research on Comparative Human-Resource Management

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 21, Issue 2

Chris Brewster and Wolfgang Mayrhofer (Eds),Edward Elgar, 2012, ISBN: 9781847207265

The Handbook of Research on Comparative Human-Resource Management discusses comparative HRM as an approach that challenges the “one best way” view of the subject and examines the extent to which there is divergence or convergence in HR policies.

Underlying most work in this field is a concern for context and its impact either at the level of the nation state, or in some other broader cultural or economic group. The title of the book should perhaps be International Comparative HRM Research, as there is no attempt to compare industry sectors or to make comparisons within countries.

Part 1 explores the theories used to underpin human-resource management, including institutional theory, the varieties of capitalism literature and concepts of national or regional culture. There are also chapters on the need for a more “critical theory” approach, and on the challenges of empirical research in international research. The chapter on empirical research is a largely practical account of how to use quantitative methods, specifically hierarchical-linear modeling (HLM), when using different levels of analysis to solve problems with a number of variables.

Part 2 deals with HR policy areas such as recruitment, rewards, management development and diversity. It also treats such research topics as line-management roles and organizing the HR department. All are dealt with in descriptive comparisons between countries. Explanations of the causes of the differences are found in the different cultures and institutions of the countries being compared.

The final section contains regional analysis of north America, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, western Europe, central and eastern Europe, the Indian sub-continent, the transition economies of China, Vietnam and North Korea, and Japan, South Korea and Taiwan also as one region. The last region considered is Australia and New Zealand.

This is a substantial piece of work, produced by two editors and 66 contributors. The book’s structure allows for a number of entry points. The intention, one assumes, is to facilitate research, whether to examine differences between countries or societies, to hunt for divergence or convergence. Throughout the book, there is a tendency to use institutional and cultural explanations for differences in practice. The regional section implicitly takes the linkage between cultural and institutional explanations by, for example, posing the question of whether there are particular ways of managing human resources in whole regions of the world.

The book is more of a compendium than a volume to be read from cover to cover. Some of the chapters repeat debates on cultures and definitions of HRM. The book is relatively easy to use, but would benefit from an overall bibliography. Some quoted authors are listed in the index, some are not.

There is no attempt at an overall theoretical framework to guide the authors. This leads to repetition and a lack of connections between the chapters.

Moreover, Part 2 fails to pick up the major changes taking place in organizations and economies as a consequence of changes in technology and the balance of economic power following the financial crash and recession.

For example, the chapter on recruitment fails to look at the effects of social media or to acknowledge how labor markets are affected by the recession. There is no chapter on talent management. Top-executive pay and bankers’ bonuses are not discussed in the chapter on pay, nor are pay freezes. The policies adopted to deal with labor during the downturn, and the employee-relations issues of high youth unemployment in Europe, the USA and other parts of the world, do not feature. In the regional section, China is only given a part of a chapter, and although there is a chapter on Latin America, Brazil is hardly mentioned.

This lack of an appreciation of current trends and priorities gives the impression of a somewhat out-of-date book. This view could be reinforced by the tendency by some authors to use references from 30 or 40 years ago in explaining what they believe to be current trends.

Despite these reservations, there are a number of good contributions. The first five chapters, including the introduction, offer a concise overview of the theoretical and methodological difficulties in researching HRM to make comparisons across countries. In the regional section, the chapter on north America is outstanding, as are the chapters on western Europe and on the transition states of central and eastern Europe. Generally, the chapters give a good oversight of a topic and some of the theoretical areas to investigate further.

Reviewed by Shaun Tyson, Cranfield University School of Management, Cranfield University, Bedford, UK.

A longer version of this review was originally published in Personnel Review, Vol. 42 No. 1, 2013.