Human resource strategies for managing back-office employees in subsidiary operations: The case of two investment multinational banks in Tanzania

This paper examines the organizational and human resource management (HRM) strategies in an American and a South African multinational corporation (MNC) in Tanzania. Both claim to possess an international convergence of HRM and highly institutionalized banking systems. Application of technology, inter-organizational coordination, standardization of HRM tasks, and consolidation of international finance centers all provide compelling evidence of similarities between them. However, distinctive HRM practices on social relations emerged. This claim of international similarities is complicated by the MNCs’ cultural embeddedness and by Tanzania's institutional context in determining the extent of each bank's influence on the operations of its international subsidiaries.