Devolving responsibilities for human resources to line management? : an empirical study about convergence in Europe

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.