This book is intended to combine insights from the latest theoretical thinking in the
area of internal human resource management (IHRM) and strategic human resource
management (SHRM) – two fields that are rapidly converging in their focus – with our
own research data. The concept for the book can be traced back to a research call from
the UK/Irish CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development). They appreciated
that a growing number of HR practitioners were now operating in an international context
and wanted to understand what the impact of globalization was on the role of these
professionals. Was the activity of HR practitioners at the international level any more
strategic than the corporate activity that they carried out at the domestic level? What
models and frameworks should be used to guide their activity in this area? There were a
number of competing bids of which two came to the fore. One of these bids concentrated
on the insights that should be gleaned by looking at the activities of the international HR
function and the conduct of quantitative comparative surveys. The other concentrated on
the conduct of longitudinal case-study analysis to track the evolving role of HR
practitioners as they worked on the global stage within their organizations. In their
wisdom, the CIPD saw the merits of both proposals and asked if we could not combine
our resources and methods and design a study that would help inform the HR community
about this important aspect of their work. Thereby began a collaboration that has taught
us all much about the field of IHRM. We set about this task in the knowledge that
we needed to marshal both a wide range of theory, academic and practitioner writing
whilst also building up a picture of the emerging role of HR practitioners that would
be accessible and useful to them in their everyday work. The final structure of this book
says much about the way that practitioners now see and explain their role.