The influence of environmental, organizational, and HRM factors on employee behaviors in subsidiaries: a Mexican case study of organizational learning Carolina Go ´mez * Department of Management and International Business, College of Business Administration, Florida International University, University Park, Miami, FL 33199, USA Abstract This article presents a case study of a Mexican subsidiary of a U.S. multinational corporation (MNC) that has successfully adopted characteristics of a learning organization. The case is of particular interest because much of the cross-cultural evidence would indicate that employee involvement, work teams, and other management practices associated with a learning strategy, might be incompatible with the Mexican culture. Therefore, the case is used to unravel diverse factors—within the environment and organization—that affect the implementation of different management strategies in foreign subsidiaries. In addition, the case points to the importance of the human resource management practices as a mechanism that facilitates the implementation of management strategies in subsidiaries. Interestingly, while some of the HR practices adopted were standard practices that would be implemented regardless of the country, others were culture-specific and yet other practices were translations of U.S. HR practices to be sensitive to the values of the country. A model is presented and the role of HR within a global context is discussed. # 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. In an effort to remain competitive, many organiza- tions are increasingly moving towards management approaches that promote organizational learning. Studies show that an organizational learning approach has resulted in improved customer satisfaction and increased performance (Hult, 1998). Moreover, research on multinational corporations (MNCs) increasingly points to the importance of a global learn- ing focus that offers more competitiveness and flex- ibility in organizational capabilities to deal with the increasing complexity of the international environment (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1989). As MNCs implement learning strategies in specific subsidiaries, it will become critical for managers to understand the factors that affect the implementation of different management practices that facilitate learning. One factor that affects the implementation of man- agement practices that has received significant atten- tion is culture. Culture can be defined at different levels that range from the group to the organization to the national level (Erez & Earley, 1994). Culture comprises values and norms that guide individuals’ behavior. Many view organizational practices and theories as culturally bound (Adler, 1997; Hofstede, 1980) which would mean that the values of a country should be compatible with a management practice for it to result in employee motivation. For example, in assessing the compatibility between the Polish culture and the under- lying values of total quality management (TQM), Journal of World Business 39 (2004) 1–11 * Tel.: þ1-305-348-3269; fax: þ1-305-348-6146. E-mail address: gomezc@fiu.edu (C. Go ´mez). 1090-9516/$ – see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jwb.2003.08.006