Sign of ‘Cross-Vergence’ in Global HRM-CSR? The UK and Japan Compared

Abstract

This chapter is designed to explore and understand corporate social responsibility (CSR)- human resource management (HRM) practices in the UK and Japan (countries that have very different societal and cultural characteristics) from a national business system (NBS) perspective, in order to answer the following two questions: (a) the extent of convergence/ divergence of CSR-HRM of two very different NBSs and (b) the institutional relations behind the convergence/divergence. The chapter argues that, as a result of increasing international competition and pressure from globalization, both institutional settings and societal-cultural norms have been affected, which have transformed their traditional HRM into a new ‘hybrid’ form of HRM, showing signs of ‘cross-vergence’. This chapter adopts a qualitative approach with comparative multiple case analysis. Three companies from each country are selected as representative cases of each business system.