These differences had also struck the British counterpart who commented
(Communal, 1999: 194): ‘In Sweden the internal organisational structure is less
visible than in the UK. This is because of the tighter social structure in Sweden.
They did away with grades.’
‘European HRM’, if it is to exist, will begin with such conversations, which,
in time, lead on to the creation of equivalent, consistent, coherent policies.
One may suggest that a dynamic view of HRM in Europe has to take into
account firms at their various stages of international development, so as to pro-
vide a full picture of the environment within which many European organisa-
tions operate (Adler and Ghadar, 1990, see also Chapter 3). The fact is that,
although there are clearly aspects of European HRM that can be identified in
contrast to HRM in other regions of the world, this also remains the geograph-
ical area with perhaps the largest diversity of HRM approaches (Brewster, 2001).
In that sense, it is more correct to speak of ‘HRM in Europe’, rather than
‘European HRM’ (Sparrow and Hiltrop, 1994). Moreover, it is essential to bear
in mind that the EU does not (yet) encompass the whole of Europe.
21st century EuropeThere is another Europe, which throughout the history of the EU has posed the
question of enlargement. In 2002, the EU accepted applications to join from
ten states. They include two Southern European states (Cyprus and Malta) and
eight Central European states (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia). These eight states have a combined
population of 73 million, with, in 2002, up to one in six workers unemployed
(Browne and Kite, 2002). Despite the socio-economic challenges of enlarge-
ment, these ten countries are set to join in 2004, bringing about EU-25, and the
total number of EU citizens to 455 million. Other countries that have filed
applications for EU membership are: Romania, Bulgaria (both set to join in
2007), Turkey and Switzerland. In the latter case, the Swiss voted ‘no’ to join-
ing in a 1992 referendum and the Swiss government did not pursue its appli-
cation, but neither did it withdraw it. Norway also held a referendum on
joining the EU but its citizens voted against and it remains outside. Turkey, on
the other hand, continues to press its case for membership. To some, Turkey’s
application poses the questions of what is the European cultural identity and
where the ‘true’ borders of Europe lie.
What is more, certain parts of Europe, where conflict has been endemic,
still require stabilising; for example Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia,
Albania and Macedonia. Some borders (between Northern and Southern
Ireland; Gibraltar and Spain; Spain and the islands off the North African con-
tinent) are perhaps still to be clarified. Nevertheless, commentators from else-
where should not discount the influence of the notion of ‘Europe’. Indeed,
those countries that are not currently part of the EU are taking steps to co-ordinate
HRM in Europe 171