Understanding New Forms of International Mobility: Taking Stocks of an MNCs Human Resources Architecture

Much research in international human resource management has focussed almost exclusively on the concept of expatriation and the international transfer. This paper develops and tests a model of a multinational corporation's human resources architecture. The model suggests four groups of employees within MNCs: aspatial careerists, core employees, transient employees and free agent employees; defined along two dimensions: strategic focus and organizational commitment. Using a case study approach with analysis of variance and discriminant function analysis, this study found support for the existence of an HR architecture for MNCs. The four types of employees were found to be distinct as demonstrated through an analysis of variance. Further investigation using discriminant function analysis demonstrated that several categories of variables were significant in differentiating the four groups:notably previous mobility experiences, organizational factors, HR factors and social identity and contact.