Proposing processes of global performance management: an analysis of the literature

Purpose – Global performance management (GPM) systems are a central element of measuring the efficacy of an increasingly complex array of global mobility activities – an element that has developed rapidly in the last ten years or so. This conceptual review of GPM consists of four major sections. First, three approaches to international human resource management are presented. Second, the paper discusses three models of performance management, one some 24 years old and grounded in a long tradition of formalized, explicit universalistic US-based performance management theory and two more recent conceptual reviews particular to global issues of performance management. Third, the paper presents a four-stage process model of GPM. Each of the four stages will be discussed in turn, and the various perspectives of recent empirical and conceptual publications on GPM will be mapped onto the four stage model. The purpose of this paper is to conclude with a discussion of recommendations for how this process model can speed the development of research in this new topic domain. The paper also suggests that practitioners may use a modified version of this four step process model to initiate a more systematic global audit of the nature and effectiveness of their array of global assignments. Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual review paper consists of a proposed framework for understanding how issues of global standardization and local customization may be understood while examples of issues applied to the framework are presented from a review of articles from 2002 until 2013. The concentrated review going back some ten years was an effort to find a sample large and relevant enough to capture a rapidly developing field, while being small enough to allow a meaningful analysis of results. Findings – Whereas there are a number of articles in the recent literature reviewing local applications of extant GPM systems, there is very little empirical research on how these systems are designed or how they are evaluated and the results applied on a micro (individual expatriate or local employee) level or on a macro (firm) level. Originality/value – The paper concludes with a series of observations on the results of the analysis and suggestions for future research, so that the academic and professional communities may move forward in this topic domain in a more efficient, complete and coordinated fashion.