The lively debate about converging or diverging management practices is not yet decided. Human resource management (HRM) is no exception. Using the widely discussed issue of HR specialists handing over HR tasks to line management as an example, the article analyses whether European companies in...

Social systems theory as developed by Niklas Luhmann is an option for the theoretical foundation of Human Resource Management (HRM). After clarifying the advantages of using a grand (social) theory as the basic theoretical perspective, the roots of this social systems theory – the...

This papers reviews recent books supporting the development of using qualitative methods in interpretative research. Revolving around three major issues, i.e. increasing the level of rigour, using software packages and new methodological developments, the paper outlines the specific...