Human resource management as a concept was developed and popularized in the USA and has been extensively criticized in Europe. A key question is whether the concept in its US guise is applicable in Europe. Evidence suggests that the essentially unlimited managerial autonomy assumed in most US theories of this subject is not found in Europe. Consequently, there is a need to develop a new perspective, a 'European' model of human resource management. This model must take into account the internal and external limitations on management in Europe, and provide a vision which can link human resource management to economic success.

Important to this new analysis is the recognition of differences in managerial culture between the USA and Europe, and accordingly that variations in human resource management practice are possible. Part of the problem lies in the fact that there is a relative lack of hard data on relative practices in the USA; there is a danger in comparing empirical evidence from European studies with normative statements of what should be emanating from the USA. Much of US literature on this subject can be read as a prescriptive indictment of what is not happening, rather than a description of what exists. A final point is that the core elements abstracted from the US texts are precisely that: abstractions. No conception of human resource management in the USA or among its adherents in Europe mirrors this version exactly, and many have other perspectives. As noted above, the concept of managerial autonomy underpins nearly all the leading texts, and this has consequences for management in Europe.

Chris Brewster