International Human Resource Management-MJ Version

FIGURE 7.1

the Netherlands). As Europe has a larger and more influential public sector

than the USA, so the Nordic countries have more of their economy in the

public sector than the rest of Europe. Compared to Germanic management,

Nordic management is less concerned with performance, less concerned

with status differences between people and more concerned with quality of

working life (Hofstede, 1980). As a consequence, Swedish HR managers, for

example, are likely to manage with fewer organisational charts and are

likely to make less use of formal grading systems (see earlier discussion and

Communal, 1999).

Calori and de Woot (1994) argue that the smaller countries (Belgium,

Luxembourg and the Netherlands) may provide a privileged ground from

which to observe European HR. Indeed, these countries opened early to outside

influences (Lawrence, 1991b) and have assimilated a blend of practices, as much

from the British model, as from the Germanic model, and encompassing the

Latin and Scandinavian influence. Calori and de Woot (1994: 21) quote a

senior manager on this subject:

These small countries are melting pots. They have been more

sensitive to outside influences and have integrated these influ-

ences: because of the pressure against them, because of the

small base they have for recruiting and because they were forced

182 International Human Resource Management

The rest of Europe United Kingdom

South North East

Other Latin countries France Other Northern Scandinavian countries Slavonic countries

Greece Other Latin Small countries Germanic Poland Czech Republic

Portugal Spain Italy Belgium Netherlands Luxembourg

Switzerland Austria Germany

Typology of management orientations in Europe (adapted from Calori and De Woot, 1994)