Not necessarily that they want to act different, or even think different, just that they are constrained in the way they act by the law in the countries they operate.
In either the Netherlands or Japan (the two countries I have experience with), it either costs a lot of money, or is nearly impossible, respectively, to fire any permanent employee. So HR’s job would be much more focused on either getting the employee to leave of their own volition, or make sure their problem is resolved.
Well, Google legally can’t do a lot of things it does to workers in other countries that it does in the US...so yes? Labor protections in the US are absolutely atrocious compared to most of the European countries where they operate.
Hmm, in that case, it's not really Google's fault. They are following the law (maybe not in every single case, but if the protections in the US are more loose, then they can/will do things here they wouldn't do somewhere with stronger employee protection).
In a country with actual labor protections the way to protect the companies’ interest is often dramatically different.