The degree of decentralization and individual decision making in central government human resource management: a European comparative perspective

Citation

(2011), "The degree of decentralization and individual decision making in central government human resource management: a European comparative perspective", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 19 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2011.04419aad.006

The degree of decentralization and individual decision making in central government human resource management: a European comparative perspective

Article Type: Abstracts From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 19, Issue 1

Meyer R.E. and , Hammerschmid G. Public Administration (UK), 2010, Vol. 88 No. 2, Start page: 455, No. of pages: 24

AbstractThis article reports a comparative study of human resource management (HRM) practices in Europe. The authors focus on the extent to which decision-making authority is decentralized, that is, passed down to management, and individualized in the sense of being in the discretion of a single decision maker. Using these two dimensions, this paper gives a picture of the distinct way HR decision-making practices are organized in Europe: although decentralization has been a common goal of modernization initiatives, the authors still find a rather high degree of centralization. Moreover, the authors find that decentralized decision making frequently goes hand-in-hand with a higher degree of shared decision making. In addition, the authors examine the influence of several cultural and institutional factors to address the question of embeddedness in more detail. The results show that national culture, administrative traditions and institutional arrangements play an important role as explanatory factors for the organization of HR decision-making in Europe. ISSN: 0033-3298 Reference: 39AX867

Keywords: Europe, Organizational structure, Human resource policy, Decentralization, Decision making, Human resource management