HRM and knowledge migration across cultures : Issues, limitations, and Mauritian specificities

Most discussions of knowledge, knowledge management and knowledge transfer, especially of human resource management (HRM) knowledge and its transfer, have failed to consider them in a cross‐cultural context. After a discussion of this issue, the paper analyses the migration or transfer of what is often claimed to be best practice in HRM from Western countries to developing, culturally different countries. It does this with specific reference to the case of HRM in Mauritius, especially in the Mauritian Civil Service, and uses this case not only to identify some of the limits to cross‐cultural knowledge management, but also to develop a more appropriate model of “knowledge migration” of HRM knowledge across cultures based on viable systems theory, including a future research agenda.