Session Summary

Session Number:256
Session ID:S160
Session Title:Towards or Away from the US Model? Evidence from Europe on the Debate about Convergence in Human Resource Management
Short Title:Global Convergence in HRM
Session Type:Division Joint Symposium
Hotel:Hyatt West
Floor:LL1
Room:Comiskey
Time:Wednesday, August 11, 1999 8:30 AM - 10:20 AM

Sponsors

HR  (Lynn Shore)mgtlms@langate.gsu.edu (404) 651-3038 
IM  (Farok Contractor)farok@andromeda.rutgers.edu (973) 353-5348 

General People

Chair Brewster, Chris  Cranfield U. c.brewster@cranfield.ac.uk +44-1234-751122 

Submissions

Convergence, Stasis or Divergence? The Case of Personnel Management in Europe 
Presenter Gooderham, Paul  Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration paul.gooderham@nhh.no +44-1234-751122 
Presenter Brewster, Chris  Cranfield U. c.brewster@cranfield.ac.uk +44-1234-751122 
The Boundaries of Converging Management Practice: Cross National Comparisons of Contingent Employment 
Presenter Tregaskis, Olga  Cranfield U. o.tregaskis@cranfield.ac.uk +44-1234-751122 
Clash of Logics. The Eurpoean Convergence-Divergence Debate in Management and Its Significance for NAFTA - A Conceptual Framework and Empirical Evidence 
Presenter Mayrhofer, Wolfgang  Vienna U. of Economics Wolfgang.Mayrhofer@wu-wien.ac.at (43-1)-31336-4553 
The Traditional Conception of Career 
Presenter Larsen, Henrik H. Copenhagen Business School hhl.ioa@cbs.dk 011 45 4542 3050 

Abstract

Human resource management (HRM) within organizations has traditionally been one of the areas where organizations have maintained a “national flavor” (cf. Adler, 1997) and is widely acknowledged as the point at which business and national cultures have the sharpest interface. The European continent is a key test-bed for nationally based HRM strategies. Europe has a larger number of long-established countries in a relatively small geographical area than anywhere else on earth. Different languages, histories, institutions and cultures exist, crammed in side by side. And this is reflected in different HRM policies and practices. At the same time, however, the European Union of 15 countries is applying similar policies and legal directives to all organizations within it; and the MNEs are increasingly, in many areas of business, treating the European Union as one territory. Does this mean that HRM practices are converging? And if so, towards what? And what are the implications for theory and for the practice of, for example US firms operating in different European countries?