sity of Essen (Germany), Odd Nordhaug, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration (Norway), Michael Poole, University of Wales (UK), Karl-Klaus Pullig, University of Paderborn (Germany), Max Ringlstetter, Catho- lic University of Eichstatt (Germany), Ewald Scherm, University of Hagen (Ger- many), Stefan Schmid, Catholic University of Eichstaett (Germany), Karl-Heinz Schmidt, University of Paderborn (Germany), Ursula Schneider, University of Graz (Austria), Wolfgang Weber, University of Paderborn (Germany) and Joachim Wolf, University of Hohenheim (Germany). For support in the organiza- tion of the review process the editor thanks Christopher Gramley. The outcome of the review process was that 13 papers were selected for pub- lication in two special issues which both address the field of international human resource management. There were many other very well-written and high quality papers but due to space limitations, the editors could not include more contribu- tions. For those interested in the other papers of the IHRM-conference we recom- mend the conference proceedings which are available from the University of Pa- derborn (Email: [email protected] ). The selected papers can be related to three broad IHRM-approaches which are described below: * Cross-cultural management approach: early work in this field (especially in Anglo-Saxon countries) emphasized a cross-cultural management approach which examines human behavior within organizations from an international perspective. * Comparative HRM: A second approach developed from the comparative indus- trial relations and HRM literature seeks to describe, compare and analyse HRM systems in various countries.