Purpose – The aim of this article is to gain insight into some of the human capital development (HCD) policies that enhance employee satisfaction. A salient focus of the study is to assess whether employees in globalised foreign-owned MNCs are likely to be more satisfied with the HCD policies than with the practices employed by locally owned MNCs.

Design/methodology/approach – Specifically, four MNCs in the chemical industry, which were selected based on equity ownership, were analysed to ascertain whether employees in these MNCs in Malaysia are satisfied with the HCD policies by providing an account of the satisfaction level of the employees with the HCD policies in these four Malaysian MNCs.

Findings – A main conclusion from the findings of this research is that respondents in European MNCs are generally more satisfied than respondents in Asian-owned MNCs with the HCD policies of the company. On the whole, European MNCs place more importance in HCD but it cannot be concluded that foreign-owned MNCs have better HCD policies and hence higher employee satisfaction with the HCD policies compared with locally owned MNCs.

Research limitations/implications – Similar research could be conducted on a larger sample, incorporating MNCs of different equity ownership, to determine how HCD policies of globalised MNCs affect employee satisfaction. Further research could be extended to different regions and sectors.

Practical implications – It provides an insight of desirable HCD practices that human capital practitioners could develop to create competitive advantage through their human capital assets.

Originality/value – In addition to identifying the relevant HCD practices, commentary is provided of current knowledge in terms of best HCD practices that could be emulated by local organisations as well as other institutions in the Asia Pacific region.