Running on the spot? A review of twenty years of research on the management of human resources in comparative and international perspective

• Main Authors: CLARK, Timothy Adrian Robert, GOSPEL, Howard, MONTGOMERY, John
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 1999
• Subjects: Literature Review; Comparative; International; Human Resource Management; Human Resources Management; Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6258; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/7257/viewcontent/RunningontheSpotIJHRM1999.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Research using a comparative and international perspective on the management of human resources is examined, drawing on articles published in leading human resource management, management/ organizational behaviour and related social science journals between 1977 and 1997. In total a little under 2 per cent of the articles under review focused on the management of human resources in a comparative and international perspective. The largest group of these articles was comparative in nature (44 per cent), followed by those with an international perspective (35 per cent). A smaller number adopted a combined approach (17 per cent) and a few were separately classified as foreign national studies (4 per cent). Over time, there has been some progress made in terms of the number of articles published and the scope of topics covered. However, many of the articles displayed similar shortcomings to those noted in earlier reviews of cross-national management/organization studies: in particular, an over-reliance on a small number of primarily Anglo-Saxon countries, a lack of a longitudinal perspective, a loose specification of culture, an ethnocentric bias and a frequent failure to explain observed differences and similarities.