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and Purcell, 2000; Boselie et al., 2001; Camelo et al., 2004; Cabral-Cardoso,
2004).
Nevertheless, there is still an important part of Europe about which we know very
little in terms of human resource management. These are the so-called European
transition economies (ETEs), meaning the Central and Eastern European countries that
started their transition from centrally planned (Soviet bloc) or labour-managed
economies (ex-Yugoslavia) to market economies at the start of the 1990s. We believe
that knowledge about HRM in these transition countries is important for several reasons.
ETE companies and their HRM operate in specific external and internal conditions due to
the transition process; thus general SHRM models may not have sufficient explanatory
power. Eight of ETE countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania,
Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) joined the European Union (EU) in May 2004 and will
bring their diversity into common EU market and institutions, while many others aspire
to join in the next phase. Further, ETEs cover a large geographical area and comprise a
significant market, so they are important not only as trading and business partners but,
due to their market potential, relatively low labour costs and skilled workforce, they are
also attractive to foreign direct investment (Carstensen and Toubal, 2004). Knowing
more about HRM in ETEs would thus also facilitate the development of more effective
business ventures.
Recently, some ETEs (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia
and Russia) were included in the CRANET research comparative studies of European
HRM, while four of them (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia and Slovenia) have already
received attention in the latest CRANET publication (Brewster et al., 2004). Thus, some
systematic information on the development of the HRM function in these countries has
become available. However, studies exploring the area of strategic HRM in ETEs are still
very rare. Although at first glance there seems to be a lot of literature describing HRM in
different ETEs (Jankowicz, 1998), a closer look reveals that most articles deal with case
studies, focus on foreign MNC subsidiaries or draw conclusions from small and
unrepresentative samples. There are either general descriptions of HRM in specific ETEs
such as the Czech Republic (Koubek and Brewster, 1995; Tung and Havlovic, 1996;
Mills, 1998), Slovenia (Zupan, 1998), Hungary (Pearce, 1991; Bangert and Poor, 1993),
Poland (Tung and Havlovic, 1996; Crow, 1998), Russia (Fey et al., 1999; May et al.,
1998; Shekshnia, 1998), or a discussion of specific HR practices like selection, training
and development, performance management, motivation, and compensation (e.g. C ˇ akrt,
1993; Puffer, 1993; Vikhanski and Puffer, 1993; Kiriazov et al., 2000; Szalkowski and
Jankowicz, 2004). On the other hand, only a few texts refer to strategic HRM issues
(Garavan et al., 1998; Jankowicz, 1998; Letiche, 1998; Fey et al., 2000; Fey and
Bjorkman, 2001; Weinstein and Obloj, 2002; Zupan and Ograjensˇek, 2004). We see this
lack of a strategic perspective for HRM in ETEs as an opportunity for our contribution to
improve understanding of HRM and its effects in ETEs, as well as to bring new or
adapted concepts to the forefront of SHRM discussions in general. We do not claim that
ETEs are a completely homogeneou本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。