Restoring the missing context in HRM: Habitus, capital and field in the reproduction of Japanese repatriate careers

• Author: Gareth Monteath,Leo McCann
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12279
• Date: 01 November 2020
• Published date: 01 November 2020

SPECIAL ISSUE

Restoring the missing context in HRM: Habitus,

capital and field in the reproduction of Japanese

repatriate careers

Leo McCann

1

| Gareth Monteath

2

1

The York Management School, University

of York

2

Link Global Solution, Inc

Correspondence

Leo McCann, The York Management School,

University of York, Freboys Lane, YO10 5GD,

York, UK.

Email: leo.mccann@york.ac.uk

Abstract

HRM literature often fails to adequately consider the

political-economic context that can strongly influence HR

practices and outcomes. This problem is particularly visible

as regards international careers. Notions such as “boundary-

less careers”privilege HR and employee agency and neglect

the complexity, variety, and importance of social structure

in influencing careers and constraining agency. Informed by

Bourdieu's theory of practice, this paper explores Japanese

HRM through the careers of repatriate managers. Through

in-depth and prolonged narrative inquiry, it documents the

powerful “forms of capital”that structure the “salaryman”

career field. Although tensions and conflicts existed—

notably in relation to gender—traditional “lifetime employ-

ment”careers remain powerful, highlighting the continued

centrality of capital and habitus in reproducing the Japanese

white-collar career field. We conclude by suggesting alter-

native ways of conceptualizing, researching, and portraying

white-collar careers within varied employment environ-

ments that are always shaped by specific and situated

contexts.

KEYWORDS

Bourdieu, careers, habitus, HRM in MNCs, Japanese

management, job security

Received: 27 May 2018 Revised: 8 November 2019 Accepted: 16 December 2019

DOI: 10.1111/1748-8583.12279

478 © 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Hum Resour Manag J. 2020;30:478–493.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrmj

Practitioner notes

What is currently known

•Much HRM research tends to ignore or downplay the importance of context and social structure

•This is often particularly true in literature on “wars for talent,”“boundaryless careers,”and internation-

ally mobile expert labour

•A decontextualized approach can exaggerate the agency of employees and HR managers/employing

organizations

What this paper adds

•This paper, based on the conceptual work of Pierre Bourdieu, takes a narrative inquiry approach to

studying the careers of Japanese corporate managers who have worked overseas and returned to Japan

•It reveals the depth and resilience of social structures that shape the behaviour, dispositions, and actions

of all persons employed in the Japanese white-collar corporate career field

•It demonstrates that Japanese repatriate managers are not as mobile or globally orientedas the “war for

talent”and “boundaryless careers”approach assumes

The implications for practitioners

•It is important to appreciate that all forms of employment relationship are embedded into wider social

structures that provide a context for both the employer and employee

•As an example of this, the article shows that highly traditional employment norms around loyalty, long

service, conformity, and gender difference remain the enduring features of Japanese white-collar

employment

•Proactive HR approaches to “managing”expatriation and repatriation might not be appropriate to all

employment contexts and career structures

1|INTRODUCTION

The employment landscape for white-collar expert work is routinely described in the following terms. We live in an

age of global labour markets and a “war for talent”(Michaels, Handfield-Jones, & Axelrod, 2001; Scullion, Collings, &

Caligiuri, 2010). Employers attempt to attract and retain “talent”that is in short supply as mobile high-value workers

leverage their powerful market positions in pursuing “boundaryless careers”(Arthur and Rousseau, 1996; Dickmann &

Doherty, 2010; Florida, 2012). Global labour markets operate within a broader context of unrelenting international

competition, driven by the short-term demands of financialization or “investor capitalism”(Dore, 2000; Dundon &

Rafferty, 2018). The war for talent perspective assumes a permissive environment where governmental, professional,

or union regulation of the employment relationship are increasingly feeble. Job security cannot exist in such a turbu-

lent environment, nor should any working person expect or even desire it. Expert workers in boundaryless careers

are in any case unconcerned with job insecurity. They possess a “global mindset”and are thereby accustomed to fric-

tionless movement and adaptation to new positions in any geographic environment. Although such fluidity and dis-

ruption can be a challenge for employers, the most informed, “strategic”and professional HR departments can

handle the complexities of boundaryless careers by recruiting and retaining high-value talent through “better man-

agement”of expatriation and repatriation processes that, ultimately, are always amenable to management control.

MCCANN AND MONTEATH 479