Research

The 5^th Global Conference on International Human Resource Management was held on May 19-21 to celebrate a decade of developments in IHRM, focused on the theme: Looking back over a decade of international HRM: Who knew the world could change so much! Organized by the CIHRS and hosted at the Manhattan Campus of St John’s University, the conference included over 80 scholar attendees from 18 countries who congregated for presentations, discussions, and networking opportunities. The conference also included a practitioner / academia seminar where experts reflected on changes in their HR careers and what this means for the future of IHRM. The panelists included: Norbert Brömme (Head of Strategic Workforce Planning at the United Nations), Cesar Salas (Head of HRIS Implementation Americas at A.P. Moller-Maersk), and Melissa Swift (US Transformation Leader at Mercer).  

In addition, at the same conference, the CIHRS also hosted a paper development workshop aimed towards junior academic faculty or doctoral students looking to improve their publishing skills. The workshop included paper development roundtables intended to be developmental conversations among a small group of scholars led by an expert mentor, including CIHRS professors Elaine Farndale, Miguel Olivas-Luján (Penn West), and Maja Vidović (RIT Croatia), along with professors Marion Festing (ESCP Business School), Maral Muratbekova (ESCP Business School), Mila Lazarova (Simon Fraser University), and Vlad Vaiman (California Lutheran University). 

The Fifth Global Conference on IHRM featured keynote speakers:

Nancy Alder, Samuel Bronfman Professor Emerita in Management at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada who spoke on: Not What We Thought We Would Learn: Global Leadership Lessons in a World of Grand Challenges.

The COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic meltdown and social unrest severely challenged the world. What leadership lessons have we learned? What should we have learned? What questions do global companies, governments, and civil-sector organizations need to ask themselves? As international HRM thought leaders, have we undervalued the role of humility? Have we overemphasized leaders’ impact while markedly underestimating the often-decisive influence of context? Have we embraced the illusion that integrated global economies promote and preserve peace, prosperity, and a stable world order? As a global community, do we truly understand what it means to live in a world in which either everyone wins, or no one wins?

We have proven that we are excellent at learning. But are we equally good at unlearning – at dropping prior approaches and assumptions that no longer work or have proven false? Do we know how to transcend the limiting vocabulary of economic efficiency and least-cost solutions in order to embrace more fundamental values to guide our strategies? How skilled are we at learning from each other, when “the other” differs markedly from us in what they look like, in the language they speak, and in their most cherished beliefs? What role do historic parochialism, ethnocentrism, and exceptionalism continue to play in the 21st century? Perhaps most important, how do we maintain a robust and resilient hope that is not merely wishful thinking?

There is no single heroic expert to lead us toward the future we yearn for. We need all our best thinking, reflection, and creativity. Our conversation together will open with observations I’ve made in working with 20 cross-cultural experts from around the world who analyzed and interpreted why some approaches to the pandemic succeeded, while others failed.  Then together, we will ask what leaders, scholars, and organizations need to learn from dealing with the critical, life-threatening, society-encompassing crises and grand challenges that currently confront us? How do leaders build and maintain trust? What kinds of communication are most effective at various stages of a crisis? How does cultural resilience emerge within rapidly changing environments of fear, shifting cultural norms, and profound challenges to core identity and meaning? This keynote is designed to enable all of us—participants and speakers alike–to learn from each other and to begin to discover novel and more successful approaches to tackling grand challenges.

Sheila Puffer, Distinguished Professor, International Business, D'Amore-McKim School of Business who spoke on Doing Research with Impact in a Chaotic World.

The conference theme, “Who knew the world could change so much,” resounds far more dramatically than anyone could have imagined just a few short months ago. Talented individuals and sound institutions are desperately needed to provide leadership in a world that has suddenly become even more unimaginably chaotic. This keynote will explore two broad topics relating to people being displaced in massive numbers and global institutions in flux: global talent in the context of immigration and global leadership at the institutional level. First, the contexts of immigrants’ home and host countries and factors facilitating adjustment are key to immigrants making contributions to the economy. This process will be illustrated by research on highly skilled immigrants from the former Soviet Union in the United States as well as the role of informal networks in facilitating that transition. Second, the existential crises of climate change and realignment of the geopolitical order, among others, require global leadership in which business, government, and NGOs find common ground and collaborate. A framework of how businesses can approach collaboration and factors influencing that decision will be provided, with examples from the global supply chain and CSR and sustainability in the international construction industry. Research on factors facilitating the development of global talent and greater institutional collaboration in global governance could well be designed for practical impact to address these enormously challenging issues.

The Leading Beautify Award was presented by Keynote Speaker: Nancy J Adler to Chris Brewster at the Conference:

A conference encouraging broadening the knowledge of international human resource management, the 4th Global Conference on International Human Resource Management, was held May 9-11 in the Chambers Building at University Park. This continues the now biennial tradition of running this conference since 2013.

Organized by the Center for International Human Resource Studies (CIHRS), an initiative from the School of Labor and Employment Relations, conference attendees included more than sixty scholars from eighteen countries whose research focuses on the field of international human resource management (IHRM). 

More than forty papers were presented covering various human resource management (HRM) topics including HRM in Asia, regional HRM, leadership and coaching across cultures, gender diversity across nations, HRM in Multinational Enterprises (MNE), talent management in MNEs, global talent management, global corporate social responsibility and employee voice, expatriation success, and global diversity management and age.

Keynote: “Expatriation Experiences: Where do we go from here (Past, Present, and Future)?” 

Speaker Riki Takeuchi, the Jindal School of Management Advisory Council Distinguished Professor in Naveen Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas, focuses his research on various social exchange relationships including employee-supervisor, employee-employer, and employee-coworker that exist among organizational stakeholders. As part of his research stream, he is interested in cross-cultural adjustment, strategic human resources management, and organizational citizenship behaviors. Takeuchi presented an insightful keynote, encouraging IHRM scholars to consider complex methodological challenges in quantitative studies and how these challenges shape the particular type of research questions that can be addressed.

Keynote: “Deviating from 'normal science' in qualitative research on global mobility: Challenges, objections, and counterarguments”

Speaker Jaime Bonache, Professor of Management at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and visiting professor at ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain, research interests include global mobility, international compensation, and epistemology. Bonache’s academic publications include more than thirty articles in international journals, four books on HRM, and is widely consulted on HRM by numerous European multinational organizations. His keynote was truly inspiring, focusing on the future of qualitative research methodologies in the IHRM field

Conference delegates were also invited to engage with a panel of expert practitioners in the IHRM field by attending a seminar dedicated to addressing multinational’s challenges of talent management in the face of increasing pressures on our global model of talent as well as enjoy a publishing workshop for IHRM academics.

In addition to support from the School of Labor and Employment Relations at Penn State, the conference was sponsored by the Human Resource Management Journal, a leading HRM academic journal; Penn State College of the Liberal Arts; and the Center for Global Studies at Penn State. The organizing committee included Elaine Farndale, associate professor of human resource management and director of the Center for International Human Resource Studies at Penn State, and Bora Kwon, a postdoctoral teaching and research scholar in the Center for International Human Resource Studies at Penn State.

There is now free access to Human Resource Management Journal, Volume 33, Issue 1 (January 2023) special issue on: “Positioning Context Front and Center in International Human Resource Management Research”. The special issue was born of the 4th Global conference on International HRM and the subsequent open call for papers.

The 3rd Global Conference on International Human Resource Management was held on May 18-20, 2015 hosted by St John’s University in Manhattan, New York. This followed the success of the 1st and 2nd Global Conference held in May 2013 and 2015 respectively at Penn State (University Park, PA). Our 2017 conference attracted over 85 scholars from 25 countries carrying out research in the field of international human resource management (IHRM). Some 65 papers were presented covering a broad range of IHRM topics, including: cross-cultural values; global careers; HRM in multinational corporations; knowledge management; global diversity challenges; HRM in emerging economies; millennials across cultures; global talent management; global leadership; expatriate management; cross-national perspectives on IHRM; and high performance work systems in different country contexts.

Delegates were delighted to be able to hear keynote speeches from two leading scholars in the field. Professor Mary Yoko Brannen (Jarislowsky East Asia (Japan) Chair at The Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives and Professor of International Business at the University of Victoria, Canada) gave a highly engaging presentation on “Learning from the Other: IHRM and the New Demographic”, drawing from her research on biculturals. David Collings (Professor of Human Resource Management and co-director of the Leadership & Talent Institute at Dublin City University, Ireland) was equally inspiring, helping us to move our thinking forward in the field of global talent management, with his presentation entitled “Global Talent Management: Progress and Prospects”. In addition, delegates were able to engage with practitioners in the field in a seminar focused on “Addressing Multinational Challenges of Talent Management in Emerging Economies”, as well as enjoying a lively publishing workshop for IHRM academics.

The conference was supported by the School of Labor and Employment Relations at Penn State, as well as receiving sponsorship from a leading HRM academic journal, the International Journal of Human Resource Management, a prominent publisher Taylor & Francis, as well as Rutgers University. The Organizing Committee included Elaine Farndale and Maria Beamond in the School of Labor and Employment Relations, as well as Sven Horak, Assistant Professor at St John’s University.

Following the success of the 1st Paper Development Workshop held at the University of Queensland in March 2014, we held a second event on 26 February 2016. UQ Business School hosted the event, which attracted particularly junior scholars, doing research in the field of human resource management who were seeking guidance on publishing their papers in top-level academic journals. Professor Kate Hutchings (Griffith University) presented a keynote address, focusing on publishing tips around her research on expatriation and emerging economies. Dr Yiqiong Li (UQ Business School) also joined to share her early career expertise with the group. Participants were invited to attend a related practitioner workshop the day before, which focused on bridging academia and practice on the topic of HRM in emerging markets.

The event was organized by Dr Elaine Farndale from CIHRS, along with Professor Charmine Härtel (UQ Business School) and Dr Maria Beamond (UQ Business School).

CIHRS was a proud sponsor of the 2nd HRIC, which was held from February 20th – 22nd, 2016 in Sydney, Australia, attracting scholars from diverse locations around the world to share ideas on all aspects of Human Resource Management. Building on the success of the 1st HRIC in Beijing, China (June 2014), this second HRIC focused on current directions in contexts and concepts in HRM, and featured three eminent keynote speakers: Prof. David Guest (Kings’ College, London, UK), Prof. Fang Lee Cooke (Monash University) and Prof. Cheri Ostroff (Centre for Human Resource Management, University of South Australia).

The 2nd Global Conference on International Human Resource Management was held on May 14-15, 2015 at Penn State (University Park, PA) following the success of the 1st Global Conference held in May 2013. The conference attracted over seventy scholars from seventeen countries carrying out research in the field of international human resource management (IHRM). Some forty papers were presented covering a broad range of IHRM topics, including: global talent management; global leadership development; expatriate management and global careers; corporate social responsibility and the globalization of work; diversity and aging in different national settings; HRM in emerging markets; cross-national perspectives on IHRM; and high performance work systems in different country contexts.

Delegates were delighted to be able to hear keynote speeches from two leading scholars in the IHRM field. Xiao-Ping Chen (Philip M. Condit Endowed Chair Professor and Chair of Department of Management and Organization at the Foster School of Business, University of Washington) gave a highly engaging presentation on “Beyond Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivation: Empowerment, Passion, Creativity, and Innovation”, drawing from her research with the well-known Alibaba corporation in China. Michael Morley (Professor of Management at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland) was equally inspiring, helping us to move our thinking forward across the IHRM discipline with his very thought-provoking presentation on “Root Trajectories in International Human Resource Management Research and the Consequences for our Lines of Inquiry”. This conversation was continued in the concluding panel session of the conference, during which delegates shared thoughts on the future of IHRM research.

The conference was supported by the School of Labor and Employment Relations at Penn State, as well as a leading HRM academic journal, the International Journal of Human Resource Management. Additional sponsorship was also provided by the Center for Global Studies at Penn State. The Organizing Committee included Elaine Farndale, Maja Vidović, Sumita Raghuram, and Helen Liu, all in the School of Labor and Employment Relations.

In March 2014, the IHRM Project held the first of what is hoped to be many future Paper Development Workshops as part of one of its goals to encourage IHRM scholarly research. The PDW was hosted by the University of Queensland Business School in Brisbane, Australia. Dr Charmine Härtel (Professor of Human Resource Management and Organizational Development at UQ Business School) and Maria Beamond (PhD Candidate at UQ Business School) were the co-organizers of the event, along with Elaine Farndale from the IHRM Project. Mohan Thite (Griffith University) and Karin Sanders (Australian School of Business, University of New South Wales) were invited guest speakers at the event. 

The PDW was designed primarily for junior academics and PhD students looking to improve their publishing skills in the HRM field, and included plenary panel presentations and in-depth roundtable discussions. Eighteen PhD candidates participated in the lively event, all sharing their research ideas and receiving detailed feedback on the papers they presented. 

Sandra Hartl from Macquarie University was the recipient of the travel scholarship award present by the IHRM Project for her paper entitled “How does the influence of culture shape conflict management and dispute resolution strategies in transnational business relationships? – A conceptual framework”.

More than eighty scholars and graduate students from twenty-three countries gathered at the Global Conference on International Human Resource Management (IHRM), held May 9-10, 2013 at University Park, to explore issues from the comparative HRM field and how multinational companies adopt HR practices to address region-specific opportunities and challenges.

The conference featured over sixty papers that covered the HRM field across the globe, including developed and emerging economies. Presentations and workshops covered topics from cross-cultural HRM, to expatriate management and global careers, and from ethics and corporate social responsibility to the globalization of work.  Along with these sessions, the conference’s headline events were keynote presentations by Chris Brewster, Professor of IHRM at the University of Reading (UK), and Paula Caligiuri, Professor of Human Resource Management at Rutgers University (USA). Being a highly productive academic as well as a long-term practitioner, Prof. Brewster gave a stimulating discussion on the best fit versus the best practice approaches to IHRM.  Prof. Caligiuri’s presentation convincingly illustrated that employer-sponsored international volunteerism can facilitate the development of global leaders’ cross-cultural competences, which in turn leads to sustained stakeholder value.

The conference was supported by the School of Labor and Employment Relations at Penn State, as well as three major HRM academic journals: Evidence-Based HRM, Human Resource Management Journal, and the Journal of Global Mobility. The Organizing Committee included Elaine Farndale, Sumita Raghuram, and Helen Liu, all in the School of Labor and Employment Relations.