International joint ventures (IJVs) are an increasingly popular form of voluntary co-operation between organizations of different sizes, sectors and geographical locations to satisfy strategic purpose and manage incresongly complex business environments. However, international joint ventures mat fail, and HRM plays an important role in their success or failure. From a system perspective IJVs offer several kinds of complexity which may contribute to the generation of conflict and failure. The paper prosese that we explore the role of HRM in IJVs through viable systems theory, especially in relation to knowlegde migration and organizational learning. The theory presented distinguishes between the cognitive, organizing and behavioural domains of the IJV as a system in the analysis of the relationship between types of worldview and behaviour in IJVs. It proposes a model of viable knowledge development in IJVs and its reltionship to HRM, involving knowledge migration, appreciation and action, leading to organizational learning, and identifies directions for future research.