Devolving Responsibilities for Human Resources to Line Management? An Empirical Study About Convergence in Europe

Zusammenfassung

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The lively debate about converging or diverging management practices is not yet decided. Human resource management (HRM) is no exception. Using the widely discussed issue of HR specialists handing over HR tasks to line management as an example, the article analyses whether European companies in the last decade have adopted similar HR practices and whether successful European companies are similar to each other in this respect. The results show that there is no trend towards convergence in Europe. Furthermore, various configurations of HR practices characterise successful organisations. Both results have important consequences for HR academics and practitioners, especially in the Central and Eastern European countries.

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Auszug

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Devolving Responsibilities for Human Resources to Line Management? An Empirical Study About Convergence in Europe

1. Introduction**

The lively debate about converging or diverging management practices is not yet decided. Advocates of convergence argue that due to factors like globalisation, technological developments or economic rationality on can see an increasing similarity between organisational forms and management practices (Kerr et al. 1960; Engwall 2000). Counter arguments claim that different institutional frameworks, e.g., legal systems, systems of corporate governance, or educational systems, lead to diverse local forms of management (Whitley 1994). In Europe, this debate has an internal as well as an external point of reference. The internal perspective covers the development in different European countries. Through the European Union (EU), its affiliates and the prospective members, the issue of common standards has been raised in various areas and become important. The external perspective puts its emphasis on the comparison between Europe and other important economic and political actors, especially the United States and Japan. Some researchers even see a distinct European model evolving (e.g., Brewster 1994a) question the tendency towards an increasing identity of North-American and European management practices (Sparrow/Hiltrop 1997; Miller 1999).

The convergence-divergence debate as a part of the more general phenomenon of diffusion of concepts, tools, ideas etc. is fuelled not only by theoretical controversy, but also by a number of practical `real life' factors. Among the most important are the globalisation of business over the past decades, the creation of large institutions like the EU, or North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and an increasing competitive pressure companies face.

The globalisation of business is closely linked with the rise of internationally or globally operating companies. Not only the obvious examples of well known global players like ABB, IBM, Volkswagen or Coca Cola, but to an increasing extent also smaller firms make their business in markets that by far transcend national and reg...

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