Strategic Human Resource Management in European Transition Economies:

Strategic Human Resource Management in European Transition Economies:

Building a Conceptual Model on the Case of Slovenia

Nada Zupan and Robert Kaše[1]

Abstract: The general SHRM models explain the link between HR and company performance, however, due to several specific internal and external factors they have to be modified in order to be applied to companies in European transition economies (ETEs). By analysing the current state of HRM and the HR context in Slovenia, we develop a conceptual SHRM model for ETEs. The model introduces a new specification of the HR context, emphasizing HR Facilitators, and an additional moderating construct the HR Power, to have more explanatory power for studying the HR-company performance link in ETEs. The paper also addresses the importance and issues relating to the empirical validation of the model in ETEs and suggests ways to further develop SHRM in these countries.

Keywords: human resource management, conceptual model, transition economies, HR strategy, performance, Slovenia, Central and Eastern Europe.

Introduction

Searching for ways to increase competitiveness is a dominant theme in the modern business world. With the acknowledgement that human resources can be one of the key contributors in this quest, the field of strategic human resources management (SHRM) has gained legitimacy and attention. The early writings on SHRM go back to the early 1980s and were dominated by US authors, such as Dyer (1984), Beer et al. (1984) and Fombrum et al. (1984). Their efforts primarily aimed to explain the role of human resources in improving company performance and to design models of various contextual and HRM elements in establishing the HR-company performance link. In the 1990s the focus of US research shifted to which particular HRM processes and practices, and how they are actually integrated, add value and contribute to company performance (e.g. Wright and McMahan, 1992; Wright et al., 1994; Huselid, 1995;

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