The extent to which organisational performance is related to the Human Resource policies and practices adopted has been a question debated by both academics and practitioners for the past two decades. This book takes the debate into the international field, by drawing upon the well respected Cranet data set, which provides longitudinal and comparative data drawn from 40 countries across the world. This book#xE2;#xAC;"s main contribution is to highlight the dominant institutional factors embedded in the societal contexts of different cultures which impact on corporate HR policies and practices, and to illustrate how these variables influence Human Resource Management and performance. It examines the way the HR function can impact upon HR policies and the measures of organisational performance, in its structure relating to line management and the strategic role it plays, and the gender of the HR director. In this way, the book shows the complexity of the relationship between HRM and organisational performance, and modifies the current prevailing models of this relationship, where scant attention has been paid to institutional forces and the cultural, economic and social contexts in which organisations are located. This book was originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of Human Resource Management.