IHRM in Developing Countries: Does the Functionalist vs. Critical Debate Make Sense South of the Equator?
Journal Title: BAR: Brazilian Administration Review - Year 2011, Vol 8, Issue 4
Abstract
A recent debate has taken place in International Human Resource Management (IHRM) theory and practice between the so-called functionalists and the critical approaches. This paper reviews the literature on mainstream, functionalist IHRM and the critical approaches, and theoretically discusses their fit to emerging countries' realities and multilatinas experience. The essay's main objectives and contributions are: (a) to argue that this debate, overly typical of the American-European context, may not be fully applicable to ambiguous and contradictory contexts, such as most developing countries and, particularly, Latin America; (b) to argue that the disputes between both functionalist and critical IHRM theorists, in equally richer countries, is inadequate for other (non-rich-involving) contexts; and (c) to propose redirection possibilities for this debate, particularly, in Latin America.
Authors and Affiliations
Caldas, Miguel Pinto; Tonelli, Maria José; Lacombe, Beatriz Maria Braga
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP40503
- DOI -
- Views 215
- Downloads 0
Scholarly Management Knowledge in the Periphery: Argentina and Brazil in Comparative Perspective (1970-2005)
This paper examines academic management knowledge in two developing countries, Argentina and Brazil. It shows that the level of scholarliness of this type of knowledge varies greatly within countries with a similar deg...
Theory of Imagery in Studies of the Change Process
This article aims to demonstrate the analytical power of the imagery concept for an organizational analysis. The gaps in organizational studies justify building new reference pictures in the organizational culture, with...
Polishing Knowledge: A Study of Marble and Granite Processing
The aim of this article is to understand the work situations and highlight aspects of the knowledge invested by workers when performing marble and granite processing activities. The survey is qualitative and was based o...
Organizational Change and the Meaning of Time
This paper probes into the social process of sense making in changing organizations, trying to observe how participant individuals interpret contextual events and configure their notion of time. This notion of time then...
Trust and Supplier-buyer Relationships: An Empirical Analysis
This paper investigates if regional differences are able to influence trust-based relationship with suppliers. It presents the results of a survey of 338 processing plants located in Western and Asian countries using st...