The transferability question: comparing HRM practices in the Philippines with the US and Canada1

A survey of Philippine corporations was conducted to find out the prevalence and impact of practices in hiring, training and development, performance appraisal, pay and occupational health and safety. Overall, many of the practices that are prescribed in Western management can be found in most of the responding firms. Organizational characteristics were also found to be associated with some of the practices. Many practices were related to perceived organizational performance but only a few practices to voluntary turnover rate. Comparisons with US and Canadian data show that there were differences in most practices, but with the Philippines showing a higher extent of the HRM practice, and more correlations with organizational characteristics than the US and Canadian samples, suggesting that many of the practices developed in the West are easily transferred. Possible explanations examined include differences in country context, differences in sample characteristics and methodological artefacts from cross-cultural non-equivalence.