Published papers

We examine the role played by subsidiaries' human resource (HR) practices in the development of subsidiaries' knowledge stocks (defined as human and social capital) and the association of such knowledge stocks with knowledge transfer from subsidiaries to headquarters in multinational corporations (MNCs). Drawing on a survey of 151 Australian subsidiary senior executives of U.S., German, and Japanese MNCs, our findings suggest that the role of subsidiaries' HR practices lies in nurturing ties between a subsidiary and its external stakeholders and in accumulating knowledge of strategic importance not only for the subsidiary but also for its headquarters. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

In this paper, we apply uncertainty management theory (UMT) to hypothesize that host country national (HCN) employees in foreign subsidiaries use the information of expatriates' procedural and distributive justice in their performance evaluations to reduce uncertainty about whether they trust these expatriates, which subsequently influence HCNs' job satisfaction and turnover intention. We also integrate UMT with research on language in MNCs to hypothesize that the level of HCN's English proficiency creates the context in which the aforementioned relationships are stronger when HCNs' English proficiency is high. Data collected from 501 HCNs in foreign subsidiaries in Japan provided support for these hypotheses. This study contributes to research on international management by focusing on HCNs' fairness perceptions, uncertainty, and English language proficiency in performance evaluations conducted by expatriates in foreign subsidiaries.

Purpose This study examines how dispositional resistance to change (DRTC) – a change-specific personality trait – affects the expatriation willingness of Japanese employees in multinational corporations (MNCs) headquartered in Japan. We theorize that DRTC affects expatriation willingness through two situationally relevant mediators (motivational cultural intelligence (CQ) and foreign language anxiety) to discover ways in which organizations can change their employees’ attitudes for them to be willing to expatriate. Design/methodology/approach We tested mediation hypotheses using a two-wave survey of 693 Japanese MNC employees in various industries. Data were analyzed with structural equation modeling using Mplus 8. Findings The results indicate that motivational CQ and foreign language anxiety fully mediate the negative relationship between DRTC and willingness to expatriate. Originality/value The current study offers insights into expatriation willingness by revealing that DRTC is a personality trait relevant to be studied in the expatriation context. Second, and more importantly, the study finds that motivational CQ and foreign language anxiety are crucial mechanisms through which DRTC influences expatriation willingness. This is important because the study reveals that MNCs can influence their employees’ career choices even if they cannot directly change their personality traits (i.e. DRTC).

This article contributes to our understanding of how self-efficacy as a key dimension of psychological capital (PsyCap) has a critical influence in the development of emerging female leaders. To develop this critical dimension of PsyCap, organizations can consider running programs that help to accelerate the emergence of female leaders. In this article, we first introduce the key role of self-efficacy as a predictor of leadership emergence and development. We then discuss some of the identity challenges often encountered by emerging female leaders. Following this, we outline the key practical elements of a development program (intervention) that was run with emerging female leaders across two geographic regions. The positive outcomes of the program in terms of developing self-efficacy, motivation to lead and leadership identity are presented. We then distil the specific areas that practitioners need to focus on in implementing a leadership development program within their own context and how this helps towards building PsyCap.

Grounded in knowledge-based theories of the multinational corporation (MNC) and building on organizational learning literature, this paper develops and tests a model of MNC subsidiaries' knowledge creation capability as a joint function of knowledge inflows to subsidiaries and their knowledge stocks (i.e., subsidiaries' internal human, social, and organizational capital). Survey-based data from 106 subsidiaries located in the U.S. suggests that local (i.e., host country) knowledge inflows to a subsidiary are more effective in enhancing a subsidiary's knowledge creation capability compared to global knowledge inflows from other units of the same MNC. Furthermore, results point to a not-invented-here syndrome in the exploitation of knowledge sourced from the parent company; such that when a subsidiary's internal social capital is high, the relationship between global knowledge inflows and knowledge creation capability is negative and when it is low, the relationship becomes positive. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

We investigate factors affecting the commitment of non-native English-speaking employees to the globalization of their firms, focusing on the role of self-perceived English language proficiency and human resource (HR) practices. By surveying 693 non-native English speakers in Japan, we found that their self-perceived English language proficiency and HR practices that promote learning a foreign language have direct and interactive effects on the affective and normative commitment to their firms' globalization. It is important for firms based in non-Anglophone countries to promote English language proficiency of their employees through HR practices when they consider globalizing their operations to other countries. (C) 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2019, © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Given the sensitive nature of communicating talent status in an ‘exclusive’ talent management system and the complexity involved in simultaneously sending signals of exclusivity and inclusivity, some organisations avoid open communication and instead opt for ‘strategic ambiguity’–intentionally maintaining an element of secrecy and information asymmetry. However, we know relatively little about the effects of this communication approach as a feature of the organisational context on the reactions of employees. Drawing on signalling theory, we examine the reactions of both talents and ‘B’ players on finding out about their talent status in the context of a company that adopts strategic ambiguity in its communication about talent. The data consists of 24 in-depth, qualitative interviews with individuals with experience of TM in a Finnish subsidiary of a large, US-based multinational corporation. The findings reveal that the contextual effects of strategic ambiguity in talent communication affected the reactions of talents and ‘B’ players in distinctly different ways, but had few long-term positive effects on the attitudes and behaviours of either group. These findings present important theoretical and practical implications for the role of communication and organisational context in employee reactions to talent pool inclusion and for talent management more generally.

In this study, we examine the roles of the host country nationals (HCNs)' identification with the MNE and perceptions of subsidiary's career development support as key factors in explaining the HCNs' decisions to provide help to expatriates. Using data collected in four countries (Australia, China, India, and Singapore), we show that HCNs' identification with the MNE and subsidiary's career development support are positively related to their extra-role helping behavior toward the expatriates. Further, the positive relationship between MNE identification and extra-role helping behavior becomes stronger when HCNs perceive that their career development is well supported by the subsidiary. We also provide post-hoc analyses to explore the potential differences of the four host countries in these relations.

In this paper, we developed and tested a moderated mediation model of interunit relational characteristics in reverse knowledge transfer. Specifically, by integrating international business research with social identity theory, we hypothesized that shared vision mediates the positive effect between host country national employees' corporate language proficiency and reverse knowledge transfer. Furthermore, we hypothesized that headquarters-subsidiary communication frequency enhances the relationships between language proficiency and shared vision as well as shared vision and reverse knowledge transfer. We tested these effects on data collected from 574 middle managers leading functional departments of foreign subsidiaries in Japan. Our findings supported these hypotheses. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.