The international transfer of an idea suggestion system: against radical relativism in international human resource management

A central issue facing multinational firms is whether their human resource practices should be customized to meed the need of local people or whether they must be standarized across different national units. This article assesses what can be called the "radical relativist view" which asserts that the effectiveness of a particular HR practice depends on, or is "relative to," how well it matches a national value system. Moreover, it argues that companies should follow different HR strategies in each of the different cultural environments in which they operate.