Does national culture constrain organization culture and human resource strategy? The role of individual level mechanisms and implications for employee selection

• Published in: Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management Vol. 28; pp. 1 - 48
• Main Author: Gerhart, Barry
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: United Kingdom Emerald Group Publishing Limited 01.01.2009; Emerald Publishing Limited
• Subjects: Business & management; Personnel & human resources management
• ISBN: 1848550561; 9781848550568
• ISSN: 0742-7301
• DOI: 10.1108/S0742-7301(2009)0000028004

It is generally recognized that multinational enterprises must take into account country differences in deciding the degree to which it makes sense to localize their human resource management (HRM) strategies and organization cultures to fit with the host country or rather standardize HRM strategies and organization cultures across countries. However, an important vein of academic work assumes that country differences, especially in national culture, are so important that management is “culturally dependent” (Hofstede, 1983) and that “national culture constrains variation in organization cultures” (Johns, 2006). I critically evaluate the logical and empirical evidence (including methodological issues regarding effect size) used to support such constraint arguments and conclude that the evidence is much weaker than widely believed. One implication then is that organizations may be less constrained by national culture differences in managing workforces in different countries than is often claimed. A second implication is that researchers may wish to re-think how they study such issues. I provide suggestions for future research.