Academic and Professional Communities of Discourse: Generating Knowledge on Transnational Human Resource Management

TLDR: A review of over 28,000 articles in seventy-three academic and professional journals identified three important trends in international organizational behavior and human resource management (OB/HRM): the focus has shifted from single country and comparative research to studies on international interaction; culture's impact on managerial behaviour has become well recognized; and, the community of discourse uniting academics and professionals leads in generating knowledge relevant to transnational firms as discussed by the authors.

Abstract: Increasing global competition is changing the nature of knowledge needed for international human resource management. This article assesses the publishing trends in international organizational behaviour and human resource management (OB/HRM) and interprets their implications for conducting transnational business. A review of over 28,000 articles in seventy-three academic and professional journals identified three important trends in international OB/HRM: first, the focus has shifted from single country and comparative research to studies on international interaction; second, culture's impact on managerial behaviour has become well recognized; and, third, the community of discourse uniting academics and professionals leads in generating knowledge relevant to transnational firms. The first two trends bode well for the relevance of international management research to practising managers. The third trend delineates the domain in which the majority of rigorous and relevant research is published and therefore the domain in which knowledge is advancing most rapidly.