Workforce Diversity Policies

Anthony Ferner, Michael Morley, Michael Muller-Camen, Lourdes Susaeta

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Workforce diversity is a defining issue of international HR policy transfer in US multinationals. Demographic characteristics, socio-political developments, and the evolution of the legal framework have created a distinctive constellation of diversity agendas in the US. This chapter explores the way in which these agendas were transferred by US companies to their subsidiaries, in host business systems with varying demographic patterns and legal traditions that were not necessarily consonant with American diversity practice. The case studies reveal that there was a frequent lack of fit between the diversity agendas of US multinationals and host-country institutional frameworks, provoking considerable resistance from subsidiaries. However, there was considerable variation in subsidiary responses to diversity, partly explained by structural factors, such as the degree of international integration of operations, and partly by the more contingent strategic and political choices of actors at different levels of the multinational.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAmerican Multinationals in Europe
Subtitle of host publicationManaging Employment Relations Across National Borders
PublisherOxford University Press
ISBN (Electronic)9780191706530
ISBN (Print)0199274630, 9780199274635
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sep 2007

Keywords

  • Demographic patterns
  • HR transfer
  • Institutional framework
  • Legal traditions
  • US multinationals

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