HRMization in Turkey: expanding the rhetoric-reality debate in space and time

Abstract

Building on the debate in HRM literature which asserts that rhetorics and realities about HRM diverge, the concept of HRMization is developed to make sense of complex processes that tend to happen when the HRM label travels in space and time. Subsequently, some of the interesting dynamics of the HRMization process, as it has taken place in the Turkish context, are explored by means of a large sample of extensive textual analyses and in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that HRMization has not just taken place at the rhetorical level, but has also meant changes at the activity level for professionals and other organizational members. Local rhetorics of HRM are found to be affected by the debates on the nature of HRM in the European context and tend to decouple, in some aspects, from activities that are conducted under the HRM label. Moreover, being a ‘receptive country’, Turkish experience also reveals differential adoption patterns for diverse organizational structures as these structures have varying degrees of access to inflowing state-of-the-art HRM ideas.

Keywords:

• Diffusion
• Turkey
• HRM discourse
• HRM rhetoric
• HRM practices

Acknowledgement

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Thirteenth Annual World Business Congress, Maastricht, The Netherlands. I am extremely grateful for the comments provided by anonymous reviewers on earlier drafts of this paper.

Notes

1 Despite the widespread use of the SHRM label in literature it is still unclear whether this transition represents a radical rupture similar to the transition from PM to HRM. After all the HRM label still prevails in most academic and popular circles and at this point employment of the SHRM label, as distinguished from HRM, throughout the research was not preferred. As it is also revealed in the findings section, both textual analysis and field work also supported this preference. Thus, meanings often associated with SHRM, such as integration of HR functions and integrating HR functions with the business strategy are attributed to the HRM label for establishment of a more consistent research design.

2 A complete list of these texts is available on request from the author since not all of these texts are cited within this study. There were a total of 46 texts which were written on the topic of general personnel and/or human resource management and these texts accounted for 38 per cent of all texts appeared in the PB discourse. Remaining texts were written on general management topics (18 per cent) and specialist topics of personnel/human resources management (44 per cent) such as labour relations, compensation and benefits, recruitment/selection, training and development, health-safety issues, career management, employee communication and legal issues. There were only 3 texts out of 23 within the EJ discourse that did not attempt to discuss general personnel/human resources management issues during the 1990s. These texts focused on wage management and training topics.

3 PMA became a member of EAPM in 1979. The relations with EAPM intensified in the beginning of 1990s by the organization of bi-annual 15th EAPM congress in Istanbul, Turkey, and election of Aydin Akbiyik, the president of PMA, as the president of EAPM for a two-year period.