Vive les différences? Voice in French MNCs' overseas workplaces: a comparative study of voice in French, German and US subsidiaries in the UK

Foreign-owned firms help to disseminate management practices across UK companies; this includes the ability of indigenous firms to learn improved human resource management (HRM) practices from leading foreign companies. Analysing the transfer of HRM policies forms an important strand of the internat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of human resource management 2015-04, Vol.26 (8), p.1152-1168
Main Authors: Tüselmann, Heinz-Josef, Allen, Matthew M.C., McDonald, Frank
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Best practice
Comparative analysis
Comparative studies
direct voice
employee voice
Foreign subsidiaries
France
Germany
HR practices
Human resource management
International comparisons
multinational companies
Multinational enterprises
Personnel management
Personnel policies
Practice
Studies
Subsidiary
U.S.A
United Kingdom
Varieties of Capitalism
Work place
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Summary:Foreign-owned firms help to disseminate management practices across UK companies; this includes the ability of indigenous firms to learn improved human resource management (HRM) practices from leading foreign companies. Analysing the transfer of HRM policies forms an important strand of the international HRM and comparative capitalisms literatures; however, large-scale, comparative studies of voice patterns in German, US and, in particular, French subsidiaries in the UK are limited. This paper draws on a major survey that includes the, to date, largest sample of French MNC subsidiaries. It does not simply identify the existence of different kinds of voice mechanisms, but examines how these different practices come together in the implementation of subsidiaries' voice policies. This enables the detection of subtle, but important, differences in the subsidiaries' voice practices. French subsidiaries are significantly less likely to pursue a partnership approach to voice than their German and US counterparts. French and US establishments are significantly more likely to adopt a 'bleak house' approach than German ones. Importantly, these key differences only emerge at a fine-grained level of analysis that examines how subsidiaries implement voice practices.
ISSN:0958-5192
1466-4399
DOI:10.1080/09585192.2014.925949