Learning from Abroad? "Reverse Diffusion " and the Domestic Employment Practices of American Multinationals

sequences of this has been on the issue of job loss in the States, with much recent attention focusing on the displacement of workers due to "offshoring" of services.2 A quite different impact, which has re ceived much less attention, is the po tential that outward investment creates for U.S.-based multinational companies (MNCs) to observe novel employment practices in other countries and transfer these back to their domestic sites. The vast majority of research con cerned with the diffusion of employment practices examines practices that flow from the home country to plants in other countries. This has been termed "for ward" diffusion in the sense that prac tices are transferred from