Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the human resource management (HRM) literature that builds up to our current concern with dualities, paradoxes, ambiguities, and balance issues; and to introduce the six papers in this special issue on managing the dualities in...

Purpose – Research in strategic human resource management (HRM) has focused mainly on the effects of HRM practices or systems on organizational effectiveness. However, institutional theory argues that besides being financially successful, organizations also need legitimacy to survive. Owing to...

Purpose – To provide an overview of recent empirical survey research on human resource competencies in Europe. Design/methodology/approach – The survey data were collected in 2002 in the global human resource competence study (HRCS), an initiative of the University of Michigan. The study was...