Country-of-Origin culture and Work-Life Balance in MNE subsidiaries: Using Grounded Theory to investigate employee experiences

It is widely argued that organisational work-life policies do not exist in a vacuum, but need to be adapted to different cultural, political, economic, and social conditions. Multinational enterprises (MNEs) face the unique organisational challenge of defining a global work-life strategy that establishes shared principles and guidelines and also allows for local initiatives and differences. However, although work-life strategies are considered in some areas being investigated by HRM researchers, there is a disproportionate volume of research on the development of international human resource management policy, and a paucity of research involving qualitative case studies of work-life reconciliation in MNE subsidiaries. Work-life researchers continue to call for research that incorporates concepts such as cultural context and work-family policy development in international businesses; and intensive qualitative case studies to counterbalance much of the extant research that relies heavily on quantitative, cross sectional research designs. This paper presents the research design of a study investigating the work-life balance experiences of subsidiary employees in two MNEs with contrasting cultural origins, Japan and Sweden. The paper outlines how grounded theory can be used to contribute an employee perspective to the international HRM and work-life discourse.