2 What would you consider the competitive advantages of HRM in Europe to be?
3 How might HRM in Southern Europe generally differ from HRM in Northern
Europe? How might an international company operating in both regions han-
dle these differences?
4 In what ways is the greater trade union presence in Europe an advantage for man-
agers; and in what ways a disadvantage? How, generally, does the relationship of
unions to management differ between the US and Europe?
7 FURTHER READING
- • Brewster, C., Communal, C., Farndale, E., van Ommeren, J., Hegewisch, A. and
Johnson, G. (2001) The HR Healthcheck: Benchmarking HRM Practices across UK
and Europe, (Management Research in Practice series), London: Financial Times,
Prentice-Hall.
This research report reviews in what ways HR practice in the UK is similar to or different from
HR practice in other European countries. The report presents data gathered between 1990
and 1999 as part of CRANET (the Cranfield Network) and examines longitudinal trends. - • Brewster, C., Mayrhofer, W. and Morley, M. (eds) (forthcoming) Human Resource
Management in Europe: Convergence, Divergence or Statis? London: Butterworth-
Heinemann.
A student textbook in which local authors use the latest Cranet data to compare HRM in 23
European countries and which considers and attempts to answer questions about convergence
and divergence. - • Brunstein, I. (ed.) (1995) Human Resource Management in Western Europe, Berlin: de
Gruyter.
This book contains chapters on 12 different European countries, each written by a local author
or authors as a summary of extant work. - • Sparrow, P. and Hiltrop, J.-M. (1994) European Human Resource Management in
Transition,London: Prentice-Hall.
An ambitious attempt to put together a theoretical and issue based comparison of a series of
HR issues across Europe and to examine the trends.
REFERENCES
Adler, N.J. and Ghadar, F. (1990) ‘Strategic human resource management: a global perspec-
tive’, in R. Pieper (ed.), Human Resource Management: An International Comparison.
Berlin/New York: De Gruyter.
HRM in Europe 189