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Global Organizations and Supply Chain : New Research Avenues in the International Human Resource Management

The article aims at proposing a research agenda in the intersection of the functions of logistics, distribution and supply chain (LD&SC) of global organizations from the perspective of international human resource management (IHRM). Top management teams are crucial to manage LD&SC successfully in today’s global organization. Hence research on this intersection should draw attention to find out antecedents, consequents and the process showing how those talented people grouped in dispersed teams, the human capital of global organizations, can be a source of competitive advantage when speaking about managing LD&SC. To disclose the intellectual structure of research to date on both fields, the content of up to 280 articles dealing with IHRM and 174 papers addressing challenges in LD&SC in global organizations from an HRM viewpoint were analyzed. A stepwise hierarchical cluster analysis and discriminant analysis were conducted to map a joint research agenda. Approaches from Upper Echelons theory and coevolutionary theory of global organizations were adopted in the conclusions section to suggest a research agenda. Six different areas of research are proposed to advance in this field. After discussing these areas, it is proposed that the mainstream should be focused on the human capital (HC), those key individuals of an organization that make things happen. In the near future, the global organization’s competitiveness will be shaped by how the organization manages its HC in the LD&SC functions. From a resource-based approach, a combination of HC and managing a differentiated and excellent LD&SC will become a source of competitive advantage. Methodologies such as meta- analysis are suggested to summarize the extant literature on IHRM when applied to LD&SC in global organizations.

International HRM; global organization; strategy; logistics and distribution; supply chain; human capital; upper echelons theory; co-evolutionary theory

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