Abstract
The main role of the headquarters international human resources
departments/business units of seven Japanese firms we researched is to manage the
Japanese expatriates at their subsidiaries in Asia; they have little involvement
with the management of local employees. The headquarters international human
resources departments/business units at five researched American firms tend to
maintain strong company value/mission that drives use of their performance
appraisal/promotion systems for employees worldwide. In addition, the
headquarters human resources departments/business units of the American firms
tend to supervise senior-level managers regardless of their nationalities.
Although two researched European firms manage senior-level managers worldwide,
their international human resources management systems are not as rigid as those
of American firms.