A comparison of the performance appraisal practices of US multinational subsidiaries with parent company and local Taiwanese practices

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance appraisal practices of US subsidiaries in Taiwan to those of their parent firms and to those of large Taiwanese companies in an effort to understand how foreign subsidiaries adjust to the competing demands for global integration and l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Management research news 2009-03, Vol.32 (3), p.286-296
Main Authors: Sauers, Daniel A., Lin, Steven C.H., Kennedy, Jeff, Schrenkler, Jana
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adaptation
Comparative analysis
Corporate culture
Data collection
Foreign subsidiaries
Human resource management
Hypotheses
Manufacturers
Manufacturing
Multinational companies
Multinational corporations
Performance appraisal
Performance management
Polls & surveys
Questionnaires
Statistical analysis
Studies
Subsidiaries
Taiwan
United States of America
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Summary:Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to compare the performance appraisal practices of US subsidiaries in Taiwan to those of their parent firms and to those of large Taiwanese companies in an effort to understand how foreign subsidiaries adjust to the competing demands for global integration and local responsiveness.Design methodology approach - A stratified random sampling scheme was employed to ensure that performance appraisal practices of manufacturing firms in similar industry sectors were compared. A mail survey was chosen over other ways of gathering data because of the wide geographical dispersion of companies, the required speed of data collection, and the length of the questionnaire.Findings - The results indicate that performance appraisal is not a uniform function, but consists of practices that differ in their relative resemblance to local practices and to parent practices. This finding suggests that the competing demands for global integration and local adaptation should not be viewed as opposite ends of a continuum, but as two independent dimensions.Research limitations implications - Selection bias, the difficulty in numerically quantifying HR practices, and survey bias by respondents are discussed.Originality value - This paper introduces the concept of categorizing performance appraisal practices via the use of the Integration and Adaption Matrix.
ISSN:0140-9174
2040-8269
1758-6135
2040-8277
DOI:10.1108/01409170910943138