Thesis Defense
Cross-national Transfer and Implementation of Human Resource Management Practices in Multinational Companies:
A Multilevel Analysis

Alissa Hankache - PhD candidate in the PhD programme ESCP

Alissa Hankache, PhD candidate in the PhD programme ESCP, publicly defended her PhD thesis in Management Sciences.

2 October 2020
ESCP Business School Campus République

Abstract

The cross-national transfer and implementation of HRM practices in MNCs is a strategic phenomenon since it has a direct influence on MNCs’ competitiveness and their performance while providing them with sustainable competitive advantages. Despite the business importance of this phenomenon and after three decades of research, the literature is still fragmented and incomplete especially when it comes to studying the transfer and implementation on several levels.

This doctoral thesis aims at proposing a multilevel perspective while covering different levels of analysis on the transfer and implementation of HRM practices in MNCs in order to understand how and to what extent HRM practices are cross-nationally transferred and implemented in MNCs. Data are collected through qualitative methods (interviews and retrospective introspection of my real-life work experience).

Individual level is examined by using the micro-political approach to detect how power used by HQ’s and subsidiaries’ key players can impact the transfer.

Macro level is analysed by adopting the neo-institutional perspective to explore the impact of institutional isomorphic mechanisms on the embeddedness of personnel selection in the local country context in Lebanon.

Organizational level is examined by using the institutional logics to investigate the reasons behind and the way subsidiaries of Western MNCs, in Lebanon, respond to competing market and community logics when it comes to personnel selection practices.

The results confirm that a multilevel perspective enables to unveil the complexity of transfer and implementation of HRM practices and contribute to building a holistic and multilevel framework on a complex phenomenon of high importance.

Jury

Supervisor:

  • Ms Maral Muratbekova Touron
    Professor, ESCP Business School

Referees:

  • Ms Dana Minbaeva,
    Professor, Copenhagen Business School
  • Mr Pawan Budhwar,
    Professor, Aston University

Suffragant:

  • Mr François Grima,
    Professeur des Universités, Université Paris-Est Créteil

Campuses

Paris