Multinationals and skills policy networks: HRM as a player in economic and social concerns
This paper uses an embeddedness framework to reconceptualise HRM agency over the external labour market, and in so doing bring into focus the societal implications of HRM. Drawing on qualitative data from 53 key informants in two English regions, we identify the ways in which the subsidiaries of for...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Default Article |
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2017
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/2134/27594 |
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| Summary: | This paper uses an embeddedness framework to reconceptualise HRM agency over the external labour market, and in so doing bring into focus the societal implications of HRM. Drawing on qualitative data from 53 key informants in two English regions, we identify the ways in which the subsidiaries of foreign multinationals (MNCs) engage with labour market skills actors. Our findings reveal how power structures are mobilised by local economic actors to align labour market skills with MNCs’ demand priorities. We show that multinationals may seek to partially endogenize the resources of local labour markets when their competitive value is redefined in social as well as economic terms, and demonstrate that the social structure of subnational institutional governance arrangements and firm strategic action on skills creates the conduit through which resource endogenization may occur. Such structures potentially provide a space for social as well as economic concerns to be addressed, although the social structure of institutional arrangements may not prevent social concerns being overridden by economic priorities impacting the quality and value of skills. |
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