Convergence of Management Practices in Strategy, Finance and HRM between the USA, Japan and Germany

The issue of convergence of management practices as between national business systems and cultures is contentious but important given increasing cross-continental cooperation and competition. This article investigates comparative practices in strategy, finance and human resource management in the USA, Japan and Germany. For strategy and finance we used field research in over 70 companies to gain access to top-level decisions; for HRM we surveyed top 500 companies, again in all three countries, yielding responses from 232 HRM managers. Two hypotheses, derived from rich research literatures, are explored. The first hypothesis suggests diffusion of ‘best practices’ for all three management areas - strategy, finance and HRM - to the point of convergence, in spite of national institutional and cultural factors. More specifically, the second hypothesis suggests even greater convergence at the strategic and financial level, given pressures from increasingly common customer and capital markets, as compared with HRM where cultural factors might remain more influential. We found German practices in strategy, finance and HRM lie midway between those in the USA and Japan, and some convergence across all three management areas, particularly between Germany and the USA. Surprisingly, most convergence was found at the HRM level, where imitation of worldwide ‘best practices’ proved more common.