Managing Employee Relations in Multinational Firms

Abstract

Employee relations management has become an important intangible asset for the firm in today's employee-centered business environment. The multinational firm (MNCs) operating in various countries or institutional contexts face a unique form of employee relationship management challenges. This chapter focuses on the various employee relation issue in MNCs and provides a conceptual understanding. The chapter identifies language differences in various cultural contexts, staffing mix in various foreign subsidiaries, employee turnover in the global labor market, work-life balance, power conflict between parent firm and subsidiary, and virtual teams management as major employee-relation challenges for MNCs. The chapter explores strategic management of these challenges to have competitive advantages and practical recommendations for the MNCs managers based on the existing literature. Finally, the chapter also provides various gaps in the literature to be explored by future researchers.