Human Resources Management in Spanish Subsidiaries of North American Multinationals

Team: Javier Quintanilla and Marta Portilla

The objective of this research project is to analyze the consequences of specific aspects of multi-national company (MNC) behavior and the environment in which they operate on Human Resource management. Some of these aspects are strategy and structure, as well as the business sector and its degree of globalization. Special emphasis is placed on the influence of the MNC’s country of origin and its country of operation (the place where international activity is carried out).

This study analyzes the behavior of North American MNCs in Spain within the framework of a wider European study in which teams from Germany, Ireland and the UK are participating. The results will be of great interest for both academia and the business world because they will establish why MNCs are still so strongly entrenched in their own, different national systems of doing business, or why internationalization is causing them to converge towards a global and homogenous model of multinational action. It will moreover extend knowledge on the means used by MNCs to disseminate innovations in the HR field among their different subsidiaries.