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Personalmanagement pp 57–76Cite as

The Changing Role of External Providers of HRM: Empirical Evidence from Consecutive Cranet Surveys

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Part of the book series: Forschung und Praxis an der FHWien der WKW ((FPGHW))

Abstract

This is a study based on comparative transnational survey evidence from across Europe. It examines recent trends in the use of external providers to manage human resources and how this use has changed since the global economic crisis that began in 2008. The study shows that the use of external HRM providers significantly decreased following the onset of the crisis; this would indicate that firms primarily perceived it as a luxury or something that could support discretionary managerial initiatives rather than a means for making firms more efficient or contributing to more added value. In addition, after 2008 a large number of firms abandoned their HRM function entirely, probably because of the increase in cheap, easily disposable labor in many national contexts. The study reveals that these trends were most pronounced in the emerging market economies of Central and Eastern Europe. The consequences of the crisis appear to have contributed to enhancing national differences instead of bringing the national contexts closer together.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Allen D. Engle Sr. (Eastern Kentucky University, KY-US) for his encouraging comments and suggestions on this version of our manuscript. We also thank all our colleagues from the Cranet network (www.cranet.org) for allowing us to use their collected data in the course of our research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Szent István University & Mehrere, Budapest, Ungarn

    József Poór, Geoffrey Wood, Zsuzsa Karoliny, Ildikó Éva Kovács, Andrew Gross, Ágnes Szlávicz, Nemanja Berber & Katalin Szabó

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  1. József Poór
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  2. Geoffrey Wood
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  3. Zsuzsa Karoliny
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  4. Ildikó Éva Kovács
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  5. Andrew Gross
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  6. Ágnes Szlávicz
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  7. Nemanja Berber
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  8. Katalin Szabó
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Correspondence to József Poór .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Personal und Organisation, FHWien der WKW, Wien, Austria

    Barbara Covarrubias Venegas

  2. Institut für Personal und Organisation, FHWien der WKW, Wien, Austria

    Katharina Thill

  3. Institut für Personal und Organisation, FHWien der WKW, Wien, Austria

    Julia Domnanovich

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Poór, J. et al. (2018). The Changing Role of External Providers of HRM: Empirical Evidence from Consecutive Cranet Surveys. In: Covarrubias Venegas, B., Thill, K., Domnanovich, J. (eds) Personalmanagement. Forschung und Praxis an der FHWien der WKW. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-15170-6_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-15170-6_4

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-658-15169-0

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