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

Online Publication Date: 01 April 2006

To cite this Article Ercek, Mehmet(2006)'HRMization in Turkey: expanding the rhetoric-reality debate in space and time',TheInternational Journal of Human Resource Management,17:4,648 — 672

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HRMization in Turkey: expanding therhetoric-reality debate in space and time

Mehmet Ercek

Abstract Building on the debate in HRM literature which asserts that rhetorics andrealities about HRM diverge, the concept of HRMization is developed to make sense ofcomplex 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 takenplace in the Turkish context, are explored by means of a large sample of extensive textualanalyses and in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that HRMization has not just takenplace at the rhetorical level, but has also meant changes at the activity level forprofessionals and other organizational members. Local rhetorics of HRM are found to beaffected by the debates on the nature of HRM in the European context and tend todecouple, in some aspects, from activities that are conducted under the HRM label.Moreover, being a ‘receptive country’, Turkish experience also reveals differentialadoption patterns for diverse organizational structures as these structures have varyingdegrees of access to inflowing state-of-the-art HRM ideas.

Keywords Diffusion; Turkey; HRM discourse; HRM rhetoric; HRM practices.

From HRMism to HRMization

The Human Resources Management (HRM) label has received tremendous attention andwidespread acceptance across the globe following its introduction more than two decadesago. Yet, as many have convincingly indicated, it seems difficult to speak of a singledefinition of HRM, once many discourses and sets of techniques that have beenassociated with the label come under close scrutiny (Legge, 1995a; Storey, 1989, 1992,1995). Accordingly, the term ‘HRMism’ was offered to capture all of the variousmeanings and discourses associated with the HRM label in an effort to minimizeambiguity evoked by such multiplicity (Keenoy, 1997, 1999). HRMism, in this respect,is employed not only to emphasize a hard/soft duality existing within the rhetoric ofHRM, but it also draws attention to a decoupling between such rhetorical formulationsand ‘real’ operations associated with the label. What adds more on the elusiveness andobscurity of HRM is that publics – i.e. consultants, academics and practitioners –upholding one or more versions of HRM tend to differ in their approaches across nationalsettings (Brewster, 1995; Legge, 1995a). Moreover, the complex networking of andintensifying communication between such publics tend to introduce further complexityconcerning the convergence/divergence of discourses and techniques (Keenoy, 1999).Under such conditions, this paper affirms that even the term HRMism, which indicates arather static formulation, becomes obsolete and should be replaced by ‘HRMization’,

The International Journal of Human Resource Management

ISSN 0958-5192 print/ISSN 1466-4399 online q 2006 Taylor & Francis

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DOI: 10.1080/09585190600581402

Mehmet Ercek, Engineering Management, Istanbul Technical University, I.T.U. Isletme Fakultesi

Isletme Muhendisligi Bolumu, 34367 Macka, Istanbul, TURKEY(tel: þ90 212 2931300 / 2006;

fax: þ90 212 2407260; e-mail: ercekme@itu.edu.tr).

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which refers to a set of interlinked processes about how various discourses and multitudeof techniques come to be associated with the HRM label in time and what type of publicsand broader social factors influence such associations in different contexts.

Considering these arguments about the ontological status of the HRM label and theprocesses of HRMization taking place at different space/times, this paper aims to presentempirical evidence about a differentiated context in an attempt to contribute to the debateon the nature(s) of HRM (cf. Keenoy, 1999; Legge, 1995a; Mamman and Rees, 2004).Building on extensive textual analyses and a large sample of in-depth interviews, some ofthe interesting dynamics of the HRMization process, as it has taken place in the Turkishcontext, are explored. The findings indicate that HRMization has not just consisted ofmere talk or taken place at the rhetorical level, but it also meant changes at the activitylevel for professionals and other organizational members. Yet, being a ‘receptivecountry’ (Usdiken and Wasti, 2002; Usdiken et al., 1998), the Turkish experience alsoreveals differential adoption patterns for diverse organizational structures as thesestructures have varying degrees of access to inflowing state-of-the-art HRM ideas. Thus,it is posited that exploring the process of HRMisation in Turkey offers importantcontributions to our understanding about the adoption and further entrenchment of HRMideas in developing country contexts.

In line with this aim, the paper is organized in six parts. It begins with a brief sketch oftheoretical ideas that situate the debates about the nature(s) of HRM in developed countrycontexts. After a brief review of the complicated debates, especially those consideringthe European context about the nature(s) of HRM, another theoretical part conciselyelucidates further complexities associated with the process of HRMization in developingcountries, with special emphasis on Turkey. Description of the methodologies and datathat are used in two complementary studies follows the theoretical part. The papercontinues by presentation of its findings about the discursive dynamics of theHRMization process in Turkey and the effects of, and certain factors associated with, thisprocess. As a conclusion, an interpretation of these findings is provided to elaborateassociated theoretical arguments.

Nature(s) of HRM: rhetorics and realities

The nature(s) of HRM is discussed across a wide variety of publics and places (Armstrong,1987; Brewster andHegewisch, 1994; Cabral-Cardoso, 2004; Guest, 1987; 1990; Kaufman,1993; Kochan andDyer, 1995; Sisson, 1993; Yildirim, 1997). Accordingly, it can be arguedthat the historical evolution of the Personnel/Human Resources Management (P/HRM)discipline has inherently been involved in struggles between the employer and employeeabout the governance of employment relationships (Jacoby, 1985; Kaufman, 1993;Mahoney andDeckop, 1986). Having entered this dangerous zone, P/HRMhas always beenaffected by a variety of disciplines – such as industrial relations and labour law – (Dulebohnet al., 1995; Ercek, 2003; Guest, 1987) and actors – such as unions and state – (Dobbin andSutton, 1998; Kochan and Cappelli, 1984). At this point, attempts to explain the nature(s) ofPM and HRM diverge according to their prioritization of social/contextual factors or theinfluence of actors and discourses in shaping the fundamentals of the discipline. Severalhistorical analyses precisely highlighted the influence of social effects such as the politicalatmosphere, economic cycles and cultural norms on the evolutionary path of P/HRMdiscipline (Barley and Kunda, 1992; Dulebohn et al., 1995; Jacoby, 1985; Kaufman, 1993;Torrington andHall, 1987). Thus, according to the social deterministic approach, normativeclaims as to how employment relationship should be governed have continually beendetermined by higher-order institutional forces from out and above rather than the interplay

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of actors and discourses from within. External factors are particularly important sincehigher-order institutions provide templates for organizational actors to follow and once suchtemplates are altered there is no way for organizational actors but to abide by their newmandates (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983; Greenwood and Hinings, 1996). So, it becomesirrelevant to track variations within the discourse and/or practices of P/HRM alone unlesssuch variations are simultaneously considered with and connected to political climate,economic cycles, status of labor rights and activity, and other relevant institutionalarrangements concerning the conduct of employment relationships (Dulebohn et al., 1995;Jacoby, 1985; Keenoy and Noon, 1992).While the social deterministic approach provides auseful perspective about understanding variations of meanings attached to and practicesassociated with the PM or HRM labels in space and time, rival opinions challenge thisdeterministic view and instead, focus on internal dynamics of P/HRM discourse(s) andactivities of actors that are linked to such discourses (Keenoy, 1999; Legge, 1995a).

Concentrating on the constitutive powers of actors and discourses, basic elements of theinternalist approach are the discourses of PM and HRMism, actors that are linked to suchdiscourses – including the nature of their links – and activities of actors. Yet, comparedwiththe social deterministic approach, the internalist perspective embodies significantfragmentation concerning the paradigmatic assumptions of its key arguments. On the onehand, there are realist attempts to distinguish HRM and PM discourses by focusing onvariations observed in discursivemeaning patterns and activities of actors in real life settings(Guest, 1999; Harley and Hardy, 2004). For realists, actors achieve full control over theirdiscourses and discourse basically denotes an apparatus to mirror reality (Hardy, 2001).Thus, claims about an observed decoupling between rhetoric and reality are attributableeither to miscommunication or flawed applications (Armstrong, 1987; Guest, 1989; 1990).A critical version of the internalist perspective, on the other hand, focuses on how dominantactors use discursive rhetorics of HRM to forge a certain version of reality. Inconsistenciesobserved between dominant rhetorics and actual practices, therefore, indicate that there is asystematic attempt to alter reality so as to contribute to the power position of dominant actors(Fairclough, 1989). So, the critical version suggests that dominant actors, such asmanagement elites, gurus or consultants, benefit frompromoting illusory claims aboutHRMto provide advantages for themselves, whereas practices associated with, and actualconditions related to, HRM do not indeed coincide with these claims (Keenoy, 1997;Watson, 1986; Willmott, 1993). Within the critical perspective, dominant actors controldiscourses to subdue other actors and discourse fails to mirror reality for the latter since it issystematically distorted by the former (Harley and Hardy, 2004). Consequently, a socialconstructionist version of the internalist perspective is also available, which suggests thatvariations of meanings occur because of the dynamic interplay of various discourses andactors (Hardy, 2001). There is no systematic control over discourses and actors since the twocontinually co-construct each other in ongoing social relations through language use andinterpretive mechanisms (Keenoy, 1999). The metaphor of mirror is discardedand discourses are seen as constituting reality by bringing into being situations, objects ofknowledge, and the social identities of and relations between people and groups of people(Hardy, 2001; Harley and Hardy, 2004). Thus, according to constructionists, the spread ofthe HRM label across a variety of discourses and its fast-paced appropriation byprofessionals in ‘real’ life settings suggest that there is a constitutive power of HRMdiscourse, which can only be uncovered by referring to the multiplicity of its discursiverhetorics (Keenoy, 1999).

A considerable portion of the recent debates about the nature(s) of HRM is, thus,based on this fragmented picture of the internalist approach. Yet, a keen focus on thediscursive nature of HRM brings different perspectives together since analyses of

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discursive rhetorics associated with the HRM label constitute a significant pursuit foreach perspective. In search for such rhetorics, which serve to distinguish the HRM label,one finds proponents of HRM arguing about HRM’s superiority to PM in offering a betterway to govern employment relationships (Beer and Spector, 1985; Pfeffer, 1994).Against the static views of PM, which focus on daily and routine aspects of employmentrelationship, HRM embeds itself with the strategic core of the company and proactivelyshapes business processes (Storey, 1992). This interest with the strategic issues in HRMhas been so intense that even a more contemporary research track, titled strategic humanresources management (SHRM), has emerged (Ferris et al., 1999). Although one canargue that integrating human resource activities to strategic decision-making cycleswithin the company has a long history (cf. Beer and Spector, 1985; Legge, 1978), anenthusiastic interest in strategic issues, which surged especially in the last decade, has ledSHRM to strive as a distinguished model within the discourse of HRM.1 Connected to theprevalence of the SHRMmodel within the discourse of HRM, rhetorics have emphasizeda more integrated function, which highlighted the importance of linking selection,evaluation and retention activities both within themselves – horizontal integration – andwith the business objectives of the firm – vertical integration – (Chadwick and Cappelli,1999; Delery and Doty, 1996; Gratton et al., 1999; Guest, 1987). Rhetorics of HRM alsounderscored commitment, trust-building and participation over the compliance-seeking,short-termed and formal approach that was endorsed by the PM discourse, makingintrinsic rewards at least equally favorable vis-a-vis extrinsic rewards within thelanguage of HRM (Beer and Spector, 1985; Guest, 1987; Legge, 1995a; Mamman andRees, 2004). Moreover, a unitarist approach to employment relationships (Guest, 1987;Storey, 1992), devolvement of HR responsibilities to line management (Cabral-Cardoso, 2004) and embracement of the basic values of the Total QualityManagement (TQM) framework (Legge, 1995a) embody other major lines of theHRM rhetoric. Still, some authors drew attention to a tension underlying ‘hard’,calculable, or resource-management oriented aspects of HRM rhetoric and the ‘soft’,collaborative, or human-management oriented aspects (Gratton et al., 1999;Legge, 1995a; 1995b; Storey, 1992). Soft/hard duality is particularly important becauseit points out a critical argument, which asserts that some actors confound the meaning ofthe HRM label by systematically incorporating soft elements to disguise an excessivelyhard ideology (Legge, 1995a). While hard/soft duality has not been a prominent issue forPM discourse, the overt critical attitude that has been aimed at HRM rhetorics, especiallyby British scholars, introduces further complexity in terms of understanding andappropriation of HRM ideas.

As has been discussed, arguments regarding whether PM and HRM differ in theirrhetorical claims represent only one side of the internalist perspective. More seriousdebates about HRM concerned the activity level and posited that only minute variationshave been observed between the actual practices of the HRmanagers and their precursors(Armstrong, 1987; Caldwell, 2002; Legge, 1995a). The tasks and activities definingHRM have been found to remain unchanged for most of the time (Guest, 1995; Purcell,1995) and this reflects not just the similarity of PM and HRM in the real sense but alsoproves that the rhetoric of HRMism and the ‘reality’ do not coincide. Recently, evidencehas shown that while the rhetoric–reality distinction appears to be a major issue inBritain (Gratton et al., 1999), a surging overlap between discursive and practical aspectsof HRMism is being observed with reference to the US setting (Mamman and Rees,2004). At this point, however, one should note that factors affecting the rhetoric–realitydistinction and/or correspondence diverge based on the paradigmatic assumptions ofresearchers, which introduce extra complexity in discussions. Furthermore, empirical

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evidence about the effects of HRM activity, namely HRM’s impact on variousperformance measures, has hitherto produced conflicting results (Guest, 1997; Guestet al., 2003; Hiltrop, 1996; Huselid, 1995; Legge, 1995a). Thus, there seems to bereasonable doubt about the superiority of HRM activity, which, in the end, is thought tolead into better bottom line performance.

Debates on the nature(s) of HRM, therefore, range from realist representations ofpractical differences and outcome effectiveness to critical treatments that point at hiddenagendas and illusory realms, and even to constructionist representations of meaningmaking and activity constitution. Added to such diversity is the fact that conditionsexternal to HRM discourse and activities are also found to shape meanings attached toand practices associated with the HRM label. There seems to be considerable theoreticalfragmentation and significant incoherence between rhetorical and ‘realistic’ aspects ofHRMism, as it has been elaborated in prominentWestern settings. Yet, the effects of suchfragmentation and incoherence, when the HRM label travels from its original context todeveloping countries, call for additional theoretical scrutiny.

HRMization: as the duality of rhetoric/reality travels in time and space

The debates on the rhetoric–reality distinction take on a more complex character whenHRM travels into less-developed countries, where contextual conditions differ radicallyfrom developed countries. Since less-developed countries are more inclined to borrownovel managerial discourses from relatively developed countries (see Bjarnar andKipping, 1998; Djelic, 1998; Guillen, 1994), the impact of such novel discourses on less-developed country settings is usually unknown and unpredicted. With the intensificationof globalization processes, the faster spread of, and greater fascination with, fashionablemanagerial discourses has become evident (Meyer, 1996; 2002). It has recently beenreported that there is an increase in the number of publics that extensively engagein knowledge producing and disseminating activities, who come to be definedas ‘knowledge carriers’(Alvarez, 1998; Sahlin-Andersson and Engwall, 2002). Theseknowledge carriers are generally composed of consultants, gurus, academics, massmedia journalists and professionals, who increasingly develop complex webs ofinteractions and interdependencies among themselves in order to promulgate suchfashions and exploit emergent markets of fashion (Abrahamson, 1996a; 1996b; Sahlin-Andersson and Engwall, 2002).

In view of these arguments, the HRMization process suggests that a multitude ofmeanings evoked by the label of HRM are continuously constituted and reconstituted asthese meanings spread across national borders via a network of numerous ‘knowledgecarriers’. Thus, there are numerous factors that impinge on the extent of similaritybetween the original meaning of a label and the ‘translated’ meaning that emerges after across-border travel (Czarniawska and Joerges, 1996). Economic (Arias and Guillen,1998), social (Usdiken and Cetin, 2001) and legal (Gooderham et al., 1999) differencesbetween recipient and sender country contexts; the number, connectivity and role ofknowledge carriers involved in travel (Sahlin-Andersson and Engwall, 2002; Usdiken,2004); and the nature of knowledge that travels (Alvarez, 1998) affect the adoption andfurther entrenchment of managerial discourses in recipient contexts. Accordingly, it canbe argued that the HRMization process is not uniform across national contexts and thereis only limited evidence about what it will be like given the complexity of dynamicsinvolved in such intricate processes.

The spread of managerial discourses in space and time constitutes a rather recentresearch track and therefore lacks powerful empirical evidence to make theoretical

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generalizations about the process, nature and consequences of such spread. One of thefew studies that tries to explain the spread of managerial discourses from more- to less-developed country settings suggests that the transfer of novel managerial discourses toless-developed countries results in ritual adoption patterns, that is, activity level changesare less likely to occur (Arias and Guillen, 1998). Others maintain that economic,political and social differences between the sender and receiver countries can inhibitfaster diffusion and replicative adoption of HRM practices (Gooderham et al., 1999).Studying the adoption process of HRM in the German context, Muller (1999) informsthat contextual differences, such as differences in the industrial relations system, cantrigger critical adoption of HRM ideas and practices. Similarly, differences in thepolitical systems and in the cultural heritage of the sender and recipient countries arefound to cause differential adoption patterns of HRM practices in developing countries(Al-Arkoubi and McCourt, 2004; McCourt and Ramgutty-Wong, 2003). In stark contrastto the unwillingness regarding the replicative adoption of HRM practices, evidencereveals that replicative transfer and even superior adoption of HRM activities can bepossible when linguistic barriers do not exist, significant foreign direct investment ispresent and similar industrial relations systems are instituted (Galang, 2004). In addition,there is also evidence about the legitimization and commodification of HRM ideas bymeans of popular mass media coverage, which becomes increasingly prevalent amongdeveloping countries (Ercek, 2004; Mazza and Alvarez, 2000). Yet, considering theproblematic nature of HRM, which has been hotly contested in developed-countrycontexts, it still becomes difficult to anticipate its fate when it travels into a less-developed country such as Turkey.

Specific evidence about the HRMization process, or any other cross-border travel ofmanagerial discourse concerning Turkey, is limited. Lines of research that contain suchevidence show that Turkey has for long been an importer of managerial ideas, especiallyfrom the US (Usdiken et al., 1998). In addition, Ozen (2002a) suggests that importationof managerial ideas at the firm level is linked to the degree of internationalization ofTurkish firms, which refers to the nature and duration of connections to foreign-capitalfirms. Although, Turkey enjoyed an inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) for a verylong time owing to her links with the US and Europe, the amount of such investmentswere quite small even compared with relatively undersized countries like Poland, CzechRepublic and Hungary (World Bank, 2005). The composition of FDI in terms of countryof origin indicates that approximately 90 per cent of total FDI belongs to OECDcountries, among which the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, US, Italy andJapan come first (YASED, 2005). Yet, no systematic study concerning the effects of theinflow and operations of FDI that could inform us about the adoption of modernmanagerial discourses and practices in Turkey exists.

Apart from that, it has been revealed recently that academics have deliberatelyimported and widely adopted US-origin PM and HRM ideas in Turkey (Usdiken andWasti, 2002). Also, there has been a significant increase in the number and effectivenessof management consultancies in Turkey, especially from 1990 onwards (Kadakal, 1996).Yet, there is also evidence that HRM consultancy represents an even younger endeavouramong such consultancy activities and this casts doubt on the significance of consultancyeffects regarding the adoption patterns of HRM ideas (Ercek, 2004). All thingsconsidered, very little is known about the extent to which HRM ideas have penetratedTurkish companies and if those ideas have ever turned into action (cf. Aycan, 2001).Given the problematic character of the HRMization process, it becomes even moreinteresting to map out the Turkish experience since conflicting views about the natureof HRM in the reference contexts may have caused unexpected adoption patterns.

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In an effort to unveil these research questions, the next section dwells on the researchdesign and data.

Data and method

Since the purpose of the research is about understanding and explaining the Turkishexperience of the HRMization process as it has taken place both at the discursive andactivity levels and trying to account for factors that might have affected this process, twocomplementary studies were carried out with different methods and different data sets.The first study focused on understanding the dynamics of the HRMization process, as ithas taken place in Turkey, via an analysis of professional P/HRM discourse from 1980 to2000. As Angley (1999) carefully noted, process research designs usually differ fromprobabilistic research designs by their emphasis on (the passage of) ‘time’. Thus,employing discourse analysis in order to uncover the rhetorics of P/HR professionals intime was considered essential to reveal the HRMization process in Turkey. Professionaldiscourse is preferred since there exists no systematic study that analyses Turkishprofessional discourse on HRM issues (Usdiken and Wasti, 2002; Yildirim and Calis,2003). The second study, on the other hand, focused on the results of this process byanalysing current HRM activities in large-sized Turkish companies and tried to accountfor structural factors that might have affected differences of activities across companies.Detailed discussions about the method and data of the second study are provided in thefollowing part.

Peryon Bulletin (PB) is the official magazine of Personnel Managers’ Association(PMA), which represents the most important professional network of personnel/humanresource managers in Turkey, and it is therefore selected as the major source ofprofessional HRM discourse. PMA was established in 1971 and the membershipnumbers indicate a continuous upsurge from the date of founding to the end of the periodof analysis. While there were 312 members in 1980, the number almost doubled to 607 in1990 and peaked at 1327 in 2001. Interviews with the PMA officials indicated that PBwas circulated among all PMA members at all times. In addition to PB, anotherprofessional-oriented journal, titled Employer’s Journal (EJ), which was published bythe Turkish Confederation of Employers’ Union (TCEU), was also cross-checked forHRM discourse during the period. TCEU was founded in 1962, after the 1961constitution granted unionization rights to both Turkish employees and employers. Theorganization has until now remained the official representative of major employers inTurkey regarding various issues of industrial relations (IR) and membership to nationaland international committees (e.g., Minimum Wage Fixation Committee, ILO). Yetunlike PB, EJ has published heavily on the topic of IR and thus only scarcelyincorporated firm-level employment management issues in its content. Systematicanalyses of the EJ for P/HRM topics significantly helped to fix a time frame within whichfirm-level management of employment relationships gained popularity and how suchpopularity was interpreted in the language of a rival discourse. Archival analysesindicated that EJ was published regularly on a monthly basis whereas only 24 issues ofPB were published between 1980 and 2000 due to the financial difficulties of PMA.Further analysis of the PB revealed that only 120 individual texts appeared in those issuesand all these texts were discourse analysed to account for their representation of HRM.Since EJ heavily focused on IR issues only relevant texts were selected for furtheranalysis according to their firm-level employment management focus. The selectionprocess was first made based on the title of the texts and when title failed to provideenough clues about the focus of the text all of the text was read in order to

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include/exclude the text in/from the discourse analysis. This produced a total of 36 textsfor the period among over 1,000 texts.

At this point, a less structured discourse analysis was preferred in order not to imposepredetermined theoretical categories on the data (see vanDijk, 1997). Instead, each textwas carefully read and its normative claims about ‘what HRM and/or PM should be like’were coded into an electronic database for further review. Special attention was devotedto the representational qualities associated with the HRM label – for example, soft-hardversions – and its differential characteristics – for example, integration aspect – as thesewere proposed by authors in the texts. In addition, nationality of references, number ofcitations and identity of authors were also coded with the intention of identifying diversepublics that endorse different views of HRM. These analyses indicated that 120 PB textswere produced by 68 different Turkish authors and a few of these authors contributedmore than five times. Overall, there were 24 texts that were written by non-Turkishauthors and 58.3 per cent or 14 of these texts were from European sources, whereassources of 6 translations were unidentified. In the case of EJ, 36 texts were produced by23 different authors, only one of which was European. Lower ratios of translated tooriginal texts implied that each source represented the discourse of Turkish professionalson P/HRM issues. Normative claims about HRM are thematically presented in the formof a narrative in order to situate the findings of the discourse analysis in their social,institutional, inter-textual and historical context (Fairclough, 1989; 1995; Hardy, 2001;Richardson, 1994). The plot of the narrative of Turkish HRMization was constructed byreferring to extensive secondary sources that contain ‘objectivized’ evidence such asevents, generalizable observations and collectively held facts.

Apart from, but connected to, the first study, a field analysis was designed as a secondstudy to investigate the current HRM activity in Turkish organizations. A research teamfrom senior graduate students was selected to carry out the field research and thesestudents were extensively trained to make sure that their understanding of the researchprocess and method was complete. The research team was provided with a set of openended questions, which asked about: (1) detailed description of HRM activities carriedout in the organization; (2) to what extent HRM practices were closely integrated amongthemselves; (3) the extent to which the organization prefers soft or hard approaches inretaining and controlling its employees; (4) if selection, retention and controllingactivities are regarded by the organization as HRM or line responsibilities; and (5) if anymodern management techniques (such as TQM, six sigma, EFQM, BPR etc.) are beingapplied in the organization and how these relate to HRM practices and processes. Themethod also required detailed description of structural characteristics of the organizationsuch as the establishment date, industrial domain, ownership structure, number ofemployees, presence or absence of HR department, number of employees working in HRdepartment and the hierarchical status of the HR department. Face-to-face and semi-structured interviews were preferred to mail or electronically ordered questionnairessince the latter were more prone to fallibility regarding their ability to secure reliableknowledge. In addition, face-to-face and open-ended format provided rich informationand enabled on-site observations that provide useful clues about the validity of theresponses.

Although a theoretical sampling procedure was designed in the beginning, whichintended to incorporate firms from major industries according to their weight in the list ofbiggest 500 industrial firms, this objective could not be met because of the unwillingnessof some of the firms. Nevertheless, 114 firms were interviewed and 8 cases were laterexcluded from the sample because their data were deemed as incomplete. Of the finalsample of 106, 38 firms belonged to the service sector and the remaining 68 were

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operating in various sectors of manufacturing industry. Table 1 shows the characteristics

of the firms in the sample. It should be noted that these companies represented an elite

group considering the domination of small and family owned business operations in

Turkey.Findings of the interviews were initially inscribed fully and then coded carefully

according to nominal categories in an electronic database. After careful reading of all

interview texts, each individual case was coded on the extent to which HRM activities

and processes were integrated. Integration achieved through information technology

solutions, presence of clearly structured integration plans and programs, and positive

answers to specific applications of integration were used in assessing the integration level

of HRM activities. Coding categories were threefold: 1 – ‘well integrated’, 2 – ‘to some

extent integrated’, and 3 – ‘weakly connected’. Likewise, the extent to which the

organization prefers soft or hard approaches in retaining and controlling its employees

was coded as: 1 – ‘soft’, 2 – ‘hard’, and 3 – ‘a blend of both soft and hard’. Softer

approaches were considered as any type of managerial activity concerning the shaping of

beliefs, sentiments and values of employees and included such practices as managing and

maintaining company culture, breadth and depth of the communication of company

goals, preference of intrinsic rewards, existence of participative management systems,

employee recognition programmes, socialization practices and counselling (Gooderham

et al., 1999; Legge, 1995a; Mamman and Rees, 2004). Harder approaches were defined

as reliance upon extensive measurement procedures and concrete sets of reward or

punishment schemes targeted at directing and controlling employee behaviour. These

practices included a general preference of material rewards for motivation, deployment

of various performance-oriented pay schemes, benefit packages and promotion, and the

reference to types of punishment – suspension from work, cutting salary etc. – (Legge,

1995a; Mamman and Rees, 2004). HRM’s strategic partnership role was assessed

according to membership to the company board of directors and participation in the

strategic decision-making process. Texts were coded as either 1 – ‘strategic partnership

achieved’ or 2 – ‘strategic partnership not achieved’. Interview texts were also coded

concerning their description of selection, retention and controlling activities as HRM or

line responsibilities. Coding was made as: 1 – ‘line responsibility’, 2 – ‘HR

responsibility’, 3 – ‘both line and HR are responsible’, and 4 – ‘employee him/herself is

Table 1 Sample characteristics of interviewed firms

Description Frequency Percent

Industrial domain

Transportation/Logistics 7 7

Automotive 15 14

Banking/Finance 12 11

Consumer goods mnfg. 16 15

Major drugs mnfg. 6 6

Textile 10 9

Other services 19 18

Other manufacturing 21 20

Size (no. of employees)

Employing less than 500 44 41

Employing 500 to 999 23 22

Employing more than 1000 39 37

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responsible’. Consequently, interviews were coded so as to represent whether anymodern management techniques (such as TQM, six sigma, EFQM, BPR etc.) are beingapplied in the organization. For those who responded positively about the presence of amodern management technique that was implemented, the type of technique or programand its connection to P/HRM practices or processes was also noted.

Since data gathered from the interviews allowed only cross-sectional interpretations,which only served to understand the effects of the HRMization process, findings ofsimilar surveys in Turkey, which investigated HRM activities in Turkish companies atdifferent times, were also cross-checked. Unfortunately, only a few empirical studies thatinvestigated similar characteristics of Turkish HRM practices existed. Two such studieswere conducted under the auspices of the Cranfield Network on European HRM Projectin 1991 and 1995 respectively (Kocel et al., 1992; Uyargil, 1996). Yet, neither the samplenor the questions of each research were the same, which made historical comparison ofthe HRMization process at the activity level problematic. I still made use of comparableaccounts derived from each research in order to provide a better view of the HRMizationprocess in Turkey.

Having provided the basics of research design for each study, the findings derivedfrom each study are provided in the following part as separate subsections. Given thecharacteristics of the research design, dense and rich data were produced at the end of theresearch process. Findings about the research will, therefore, focus only on moreimportant findings, as the space for a detailed treatment is limited.

HRMization in Turkey: analysis of professional rhetorics

Turkey experienced a chaotic period in the second half of the 1970s, which fundamentallyaffected both her socio-political order and her IR system in particular (Cetik and Akkaya,1999). A military coup followed by a three-year martial regime came after such adestructive period and the first half the 1980s embodied a tightly restricted labour activity,if not absolute containment, for organized labour (Cizre-Sakallioglu, 1991). Only withinsuch a context could managers start to talk about the activities of employmentmanagement at the firm level, which until then were overshadowed by the prevailingstatus of collective labour relations (Akbiyik, 1992a). Even then, uncertainty about theregulations concerning the IR system smothered the talks about and interest in PM.

At this point, it could be argued that the discursive patterns of EJ and PB exhibited asignificant correspondence with the material changes that occurred in the institutionalcontext of the Turkish IR system. While EJ hesitantly embodied 13 texts about firm-levelgovernance of employment relationships from 1980 to 1987, the escalating uneasiness inthe Turkish IR system, which cropped up in the second half of the 1980s, completelyclosed the discursive boundaries of EJ to managerialist ideas until 1993. Decompositionof 13 texts that appeared in EJ between 1980 and 1987 revealed that these texts generallyconcentrated on the traditional functions of PM, such as compensation (Kaya, 1980),performance appraisal (Kaya, 1981), selection (Salgar, 1982), health and safety issues(Gulerman, 1982, 1987) and behavioural processes (Baykal, 1982). There was neither adiscussion about the new HRM label nor was there an underlying pattern of rhetoricassociated to such texts, except for the emphasis on formal, rational and ratherconventional ways of managing employees.

On the other hand, interruptions in PB discourse and generally weak demand forvarious PMA activities during 1980s also showed that uncertainties associated with thegovernance of employent relationships significantly curbed the activities of andenthusiasm about PM topics. There were as many as 16 texts that appeared between 1980

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and 1987 within the PB discourse. The decomposition of texts indicated that there weretwo important differences between PB and EJ discourses for the period. First, one of thetexts in PB introduced the HRM label for the first time in 1984 (Celasin, 1984).Although, the exact words were not used, the author was confident that the PM disciplinewas changing and a challenge for personnel professionals was near. It was also importantto note that the first text that introduced the notion was written by a personnelprofessional working for a multinational company and the original idea was adoptedfrom the Personnel Journal of 1979 (Celasin, 1984: 3). Second, PB discourseincorporated a significant amount of legal and IR issues – 37.5 per cent or 6 out of 17texts – in its total, especially in the first half of the 1980s. This also indicated that macroaspects of employment relationship governance were considered as equally importantvis-a-vis managerial points of view in the professional discourses for the period. Beyondthat the rhetorics of PB paralleled EJ in their rather covert emphasis on calculative andformal approach to PM functions.

Despite the early introduction of the HRM notion in the PB discourse, analysesindicated that the talks on the fate of the profession generally took place in the mid-1990s. As discussed earlier, an upsurge in labour unease between 1987 and 1992 and alack of financial resources generated by PMA in Turkey brought about a silence in EJ andPB discourses for the period (Cetik and Akkaya, 1999; MESS, 1999).

Therefore, it could be argued that discursive activity about the firm-level managementof employment relationships and the outlets of professional activity were under pressureafter the second half of 1980s. However, both the discursive activity of professionals andthe texts directly engaging in a dialogue with the novel HRM ideas proliferated in thefollowing period. PB and EJ produced 47 and 20 texts respectively, which explicitlyproblematized the nature and definition of HRM during the period of 1990s.2 Yet, thediscursive rhetorics of this era completely differed from the earlier era.

First, the number of texts that attempted to bring on a general debate about the firm-level management of employment relationships climbed dramatically both in PB and EJ.Thus, this era typified a period of questioning, alteration and reformation of the existingpattern of beliefs regarding the governance of employment relationships for PM and IRprofessionals. Second, managerialist rhetorics, which included the notions ofproductivity, quality, flexibility and technological innovation rapidly and persistentlyinfiltrated into the EJ discourse (see, e.g., Arguden, 1998; Atasayar, 1996; Berkman,1998; Buyukuslu, 1995; Yuksel, 1993). Within EJ, a discursive rhetoric emerged withthe aim to reconstitute a shifting pattern of reality regarding the governance ofemployment relationships. According to this rhetoric, powerful forces of globalizationand integration of world markets encouraged cut-throat competition, instigated rapidtechnological innovations and necessitated a more ‘flexible’ employment relationship toadapt to fast-paced changes in the market (Atasayar, 1996; Buyukuslu, 1996; Ekin,1996). As a result, this wave of change endorsed championship of the HRM approachinstead of the traditional PM or IR functions. Although, this rhetoric about emergenceand necessity of HRM as a new model to govern employment relationships wastransferred from foreign sources, there was a systematic effort to contextualize thisoccurrence within the EJ discourse. Conditions in, and the institutional framework of,Turkey were evaluated throughout the texts considering the relevance of HRM approach.In accordance with such contextualization efforts, analyses indicated that EJ did notexlusively rely on foreign sources of emulation since the majority of references withinthe texts (46%) were given to Turkish sources. Although the impact of foreign sourceswas still notable, European and US origin sources received less attention by 27 per centand 26 per cent respectively.

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Complementary to the conditions which necessitated the ascendance of HRMapproach, another rhetoric emerged in EJ which suggested that TQM was anindispensable means of designing the competent organization of the 1990s, andtherefore, was integral to the novel HRM approach (Arguden, 1998; Buyukuslu, 1996;Gokce, 1996; Pirler, 1998).

Within most of the corporations the quality management department works in close cooperation

with, or sometimes, even structurally embedded in the human resources management

department. Characteristics like effective communication, sharing, participation, creativity,

teamwork, openness to continuous improvement and productivity, which together constitute the

important advantages of total quality, can only become possible by training and development of

employees and individuals. (Arguden, 1998: 10)

In addition, it could be argued that the lines of rhetoric that surfaced in EJ during the1990s combined softer notions of ‘learning and development’ (Bozkurt, 1998), ‘cultureand values’(Pirler, 1998), ‘participative management’(Arguden, 1998; Gokce, 1996) and‘the significance of the human element’(Atasayar, 1996; Buyukuslu, 1996) with theharder notions, which included ‘costs’(Atasayar, 1996; Buyukuslu, 1996), ‘systems’(Atis, 1996) and ‘productivity’ (Yaprak, 1995; Yuksel, 1993). Thus, the rhetorics of EJobserved during the 1990s significantly diverged from the rhetorics of the earlier periodconcerning its emphasis on softer aspects of HRMism.

Aside from their softer underpinnings, the rhetorics of EJ embodied both deterministicand realistic elements. According to these rhetorics, powerful national and supra-nationalforces were shaping the ways of business making, which in turn gave rise to novel waysof dealing with the workforce. Yet as these rhetorics suggested, Turkish businessorganizations lacked the skills and structures to cope with these new requirements. So,there was a ‘real’ gap between what existed and what was required.

Discourse analysis of PB, on the other hand, revealed that there were both similaritiesand differences between the rhetorics of PB and EJ for the period of 1990s. First,deterministic and realistic rhetorical claims that were used to justify the necessity of theHRM label were employed within the PB discourse as well (Akbiyik, 1991; 1992a;Yucel, 1997). However, additional emphasis was placed on the tension associated withthe HRM label within the PB discourse. Accordingly, the HRM notion was notappropriated unquestionably, as the term ‘resource’ seemed to undermine the ‘humaneorientation’ of the profession according to some of the personnel elite (Akbiyik, 1991;1992a; 1994; 1999; Erol, 1996; Yucel, 1997). Analyses showed that the tension between‘human’ and ‘resource’ within the new label was clearly transferred from Europe, withwhich members and administrators of PMA maintained extensive relationships via theEuropean Personnel Managers Association (EAPM).3

As you can recall, we have frequently written about the change ‘from Personnel Management to

Human Resources Management’ in this bulletin. We tried to explain the label’s difference as a

concept and definition. However, European Personnel managers do not like this notion anymore.

They both dislike it from the expression point of view and also they find it a little bit too

American. (Akbiyik, 1993: 2)

Thus, unlike Turkish academics, who almost altogether adopted the US version ofHRMism in an automatic manner (Ercek, 2004; Usdiken and Wasti, 2002) and unlikeIR professionals, who did not point to any major contradictions within the HRM label,P/HR professionals became aware of the multiplicity of and inherent tensions within thenovel label via their connections to both European and US outlets. Nevertheless, towardsthe end of the twentieth century, a slight preference for the US model solidified among

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the P/HR professionals as the managerialist overtone of the US model infiltrated in thePB discourse through consultants and HR managers of the multinational corporations(Erengul, 1998; Hallet, 1996; Kurn, 1996; Selcan et al., 1996; Tandogan, 1998; Van Es,1996). Yet, analyses carried out about the references cited in the texts of PB discourserevealed that US, Turkish and European origin references received similar attention.References to US origin sources amounted to 36 per cent of all citations, whereas Turkishand European origin citations received approximately equal interest by 32.4 per cent and31.6 per cent respectively. Despite the significant influence of US-based rhetorics on thePB discourse relative to EJ, which especially intensified from 1994 to 1997 with the helpof ‘guru talk’, PB also seemed to secure a pluralist bearing in terms of its sources ofemulation.

Another point, which exemplified a differentiation between EJ and PB rhetorics, wasrelated to the professional aspirations and position power of PMA. According to thisrhetoric, members of PMA seemed to be puzzled regarding the pros and cons of the rapidemergence and dissemination of HRM across all types of media and companies(Akbiyik, 1994, 1998; Peryon, 1994; Yucel, 1993, 1996a, 1996b). Although heightenedrecognition of the profession was regarded as a positive outcome, some members fearedthat the emergence and rapid prevalence of new actors, such as consultants and massmedia professionals, might weaken the professional authority of PMA (Akbiyik, 1996;Yucel, 1997). Besides, some of the ideas that made reference to performance-based paysystems, outsourcing and human resource accounting were found excessively ‘hard’ byPMA members since such ideas were deemed to undermine ‘the human element’ ofHRM, which should be the essence of the approach (Akbiyik, 1996; Erol, 1996; Yucel,1996a; 1997). Nevertheless, lacking the professional power to control the domain ofHRM, PMA chose to incorporate itself in this rapid transformation, which was alreadyled by the powerful actors of mass media and consultants. In time, PMA collaboratedwith consultants, namely Management Centre Turkey (MCT), and mass media, namelyHurriyet IK, to organize meetings and conferences about HRM. Following 1996, MCT’sannual HRM conferences became the most important platform in Turkey for sharingstate-of-the-art ideas about HRMism, since these conferences featured the world’s mostpopular management gurus and leading academics. It could be argued that thiscollaboration, at least, provided PMA with an opportunity to associate its identity withwhatever new was introduced in the Turkish context.

Aside from such differences, significant emphasis placed on the topic of TQM by PBsuggested that this point constituted a major similarity between PB and EJ rhetorics. Thebeliefs about TQM-HRM partnership was even stronger in the PB discourse and analysesindicated that champions of TQM also promoted HRM as an integrated part of their all-encompassing managerial solution for Turkish business (Argun, 1996; Coskun, 1995;Erkut, 1993; Ipbuken, 1996; Turhanoglu, 1993). Besides, appreciation of TQM by mostof the members of PMA (e.g., Celasin, 1997; Coskun, 1995; Unal, 1999; Unsal, 1998;Yucel, 1996b) served to ‘soften’ the rhetorics of HRM since the TQM approach, as it wasconstructed in the Turkish setting, argued for participation, shared values and employeesatisfaction (Ozen, 2002a). It should be also noted that TQM, especially in the 1990s,represented a comparatively entrenched management rhetoric in the Turkish context,substantiated by the media attention devoted to the subject and aggressive adoptionpatterns observed in both large-sized and medium-sized enterprises (Ozen, 2002a,2002b). By rapidly jumping on the quality bandwagon, professionals of PM/HRM alsoadopted similar claims in their discourse. ‘To sum up, total quality philosophy, is aphilosophy of continuous development and innovation, which embraces trust and respectto human matters’ (Coskun, 1994: 22). Hence, adopting the language of the TQM

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discourse not only served for legitimization of the discipline in terms of aligning with acontemporary managerial philosophy but also emphasized the ‘human’ aspect of theambiguous new label.

In addition, rhetorical claims developed by PMAmembers further indicate that HRM,in fact, is not different from PM (Erol, 1996; Yucel, 1996a, 1996b). The problem was PMdid not fully function in the Turkish setting due to the struggle with trade unions in 1970s(Akbiyik, 1992b; Artan, 1992; Erol, 1996). Thus, both the humane views of HRM and itsmanagerialist intentions were already present in the content of the ‘ideal’ PM discipline.As maintained by several authors the only point that distinguished PM from HRM wasthe emphasis of the new label on the integration aspect (Akbiyik, 1991; Demir, 1995;Erol, 1996; Selcan et al., 1996; Yucel, 1996b). According to this rhetorical claim, eventhough HRM and PM were similar in their managerial orientations, PM did not prioritizecoordination of its tasks among each other and linking all these with the strategicobjectives of the company. HRM, on the other hand, differed in its keen emphasis onintegration together with its softer tone wrapped up in the brand new managerialvocabulary. In spite of the emphasis on the strategic dimension and integration of thefunctions, only a single entry recorded for the label SHRM throughout the entireprofessional Turkish discourse and even within that text HRM and SHRM labels werenot adequately differentiated (Buyukuslu, 1995). This suggested that the break withSHRM and HRM was not transferred to the language of Turkish professionals, butinstead the meanings associated with the SHRM label were attached to the HRM label.

In view of the major rhetorical claims employed within the PB discourse, it could beargued that not only deterministic and realistic rhetorics were brought into play but alsocritical claims were invoked by PMAmembers from time to time. Some of the argumentsdeveloped in thePB discourse explicitly questioned particular groups of actors, whomightbenefit from promoting specific HRM rhetorics. Nonetheless, critical rhetorics were notembraced by all participants and they seemed to diminish in profile especially toward theendof the period.As a result, it became clear by the endof the twentieth century that the PMnotion was substituted by HRM in most, if not all, of the professional texts, despite thehesitations of some professionals about the novelty and superiority of the HRM label.

HRMization: differences at the activity level

Analyses of the interview data, based on the coding schemes, revealed interesting resultsabout the adoption patterns of HRM inTurkish companies. Initially, it should be noted thatin 98 (92.5 per cent) of all cases, there were established departments which contained‘Human Resources’ words in their titles. This indicated that for an elite part of Turkishcorporations the transformation from PM to HRM was complete, at least at the level ofnametags. Other forms of historical evidence also support results indicating a rapidHRMization at the level of nametags. According to the studies conducted under theauspices of Cranfield Project, which covered 142 and 208 big companies in 1991 and 1995respectively, the portion of managers with a HRM title in 1992 was only 3 per cent.Although, the same questionwas not asked in the second study, the findings about the titlesof respondents provided a significant increase in the portion of HRM titles: 18 per cent.Further evidence about HRMization of titles could be gathered from the annual reports ofPMA, each of which included a list of members for the respective period (Peryon, 1985,1991, 1997). A careful analysis of the titles of PMA members confirmed theCranfield survey results. In 1985, ‘personnel manager’ title was the most common,which accounted for approximately 50 per cent of all occurrences, whereas even a singleentry for ‘human resources’ title did not exist. Yet, the results of following years indicated

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that ‘personnel manager’ title was replaced by ‘human resources manager’, since theformer’s proportion fell to 42.5 per cent in 1991 and 26.5 per cent in 1997, while the latteraccounted for 2.3 per cent and 20 per cent of all titles in 1991 and 1997 respectively. Thus,HRMization of titles in Turkey was a rather fast-paced process, which commenced afterthe first half of 1990s and completed soon after the beginning of the new millennium.When one goes on further to analyse HRM activities, however, things start to change.

Data gathered from the interviews suggest that the adoption of main practices andprocesses that were rhetorically associated with the HRM label was not uniform acrossTurkish companies. Table 2 demonstrates the differences discovered in HRM activitiesaccording to the structural characteristics of Turkish firms, namely, firm size, ownershipstructure, industrial domain and holding membership. Accordingly, collaborating with aforeign partner seemed to account for most of the differences that were found to existwithin the HRM practices of Turkish companies. Firms that had developed ties withforeign capital either gave more credit to their HR managers about taking care of criticalHR activities, or they tended to distribute responsibilities evenly among HR and linemanagers. Besides, foreign capital firms entirely distinguished themselves from theirlocal capital counterparts by the extent to which they integrated their critical HRactivities. Approximately 90 per cent, or 39 out of 44, foreign capital firms displayed, atleast, an intermediate level of integration between their HR activities. This portrayalsignificantly clashed with the disappointing degree of integration that local capital firmsachieved among their HR activities. In addition, foreign capital firms situated their HRdepartments relatively higher in the hierarchy by granting them director or vice executiveofficer titles. HR directors or managers of foreign capital firms also served on theircompany boards and participated actively at top decision-making structures.

Related to the effects of foreign ownership, another source of difference between theHRM activities of Turkish firms was found attributable to the effects of industrialdomain. Industries dominated by foreign capital firms, such as the Turkish automotiveand pharmaceutical industries, tended to appropriate HRM ideas and implement HRMactivities more wholeheartedly. For example, while there was only one company, outof 15, in the automotive sector that had HR practices coded as ‘weakly connected’,7 out of 10 textile companies were evaluated as having weakly connected HR practices.Similarly, textile companies preferred harder approaches whereas automotive industryabsolutely relied on softer or balanced approaches in managing their human resources.Although the textile sector had been deemed the engine of Turkish exports, and thus, haddeveloped and maintained dense linkages with foreign clients, HRM activities in thissector lagged behind the applications of other Turkish industrial sectors. Further datafrom interviews suggested that cost-reduction pressures stemming from Chinesecompetition in global markets and a relatively less qualified workforce employed in thetextile industry might have contributed to the preference for direct control mechanisms,which were prevalent across the members of the textile industry.

Another factor that accounted for dissimilar HRM applications was membership toholding structures. Membership to holding structures is of particular importance in Turkeysince the Turkish big business scene is dominated by family owned business groups, legallyorganizedunder thenameofholdings (Bugra, 1994). ProminentholdingsofTurkeycontrol asignificant portion of the biggest companies in Turkey and many of these groups consist ofnumerous diversified organizations, which are centrally controlled by family members(Selekler-Goksen and Usdiken, 2001). Results suggested that the centralized architecture ofholding structures enabled circulation and further adoption of fairly standardized HRMactivities. Yet, not all holdings effectively employed such a strategy, nor did all companiesthat were controlled by holdings participate in the application of such standardized HRM

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Table

2D

iffe

ren

ces

of

HR

Ma

ctiv

ity

wit

hin

Tu

rkis

hfi

rms

by

stru

ctu

ral

cha

ract

eris

tics

Fir

msi

ze(N

=1

00

)

(Em

plo

yee

#)

Pre

sen

ceo

ffo

reig

n

cap

ita

l(N

=1

06

)

Mem

ber

ship

toa

ho

ldin

gst

ruct

ure

(N=

10

6)

Ob

serv

ati

on

of

ind

ust

ria

ld

iffe

ren

ces

(N=

10

6)

Les

s

tha

n

50

0

50

0o

r

ove

r

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

/No

Inte

gra

tio

no

fH

RM

act

ivit

ies

(N¼

10

6)

x2¼

4.0

3x

2¼

12

.85**

x2¼

3.3

9Y

es

1Wellintegrated

5 (11.6%)

10

(17.5%)

13

(29.5%)

4 (6.5%)

7 (14.9%)

10

(16.9%)

Sig

nifi

can

td

iffe

ren

ces

bet

wee

nte

xtil

e,co

nsu

mer

go

od

s

mn

fg.

an

da

uto

mo

tive

ind

ust

ries

2Tosomeextentintegrated

24

(55.8%)

38

(66.8%)

26

(59.1%)

39

(62.9%)

33

(70.2%)

32

(54.2%)

3Weakly

connected

14

(32.6%)

9 (15.8%)

5 (11.4%)

19

(30.6%)

7 (14.9%)

17

(28.8%)

Em

plo

ymen

to

fso

fter

or

ha

rder

ap

pro

ach

es(N

¼1

05

)

x2¼

1.7

2x

2¼

1.5

0x

2¼

1.7

7Y

es

1Soft

12

(28.6%)

13

(22.8%)

10

(22.7%)

16

(26.2%)

10

(21.3%)

16

(27.6%)

Sig

nifi

can

td

iffe

ren

ces

bet

wee

nte

xtil

e,co

nsu

mer

go

od

s

mn

fg.,

ph

arm

aa

nd

au

tom

oti

vein

du

stri

es

2Hard

12

(28.6%)

12

(21.1%)

8 (18.7%)

16

(26.2%)

9 (19.1%)

15

(25.9%)

3Both

18

(42.9%)

38

(56.1%)

26

(59.1%)

29

(47.5%)

28

(59.6%)

27

(46.6%)

Ach

ieve

men

to

fst

rate

gic

pa

rtn

ersh

ip(N

¼1

06

)

x2¼

6.3

2*

x2¼

17

.35**

x2¼

14

.19**

Yes

1-A

chieved

18

(41.9%)

46

(80.7%)

38

(86.4%)

28

(46.8%)

39

(83.0%)

28

(47.5%)

Sig

nifi

can

td

iffe

ren

ces

bet

wee

np

ha

rma

an

dte

xtil

e

ind

ust

ries

2-N

otachieved

25

(58.1%)

11

(19.3%)

6 (13.6%)

33

(53.2%)

8 (17.0%)

31

(52.5%)

Note

s

*p,

0.05;**p,

0.01.

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activities. Interviewees from holding member companies added that the biggest holdings inTurkey started to implement strategic change programmes during the 1990s and establishedstandardized performance management systems, instituted central job application andselection pools, and devised competency-based training and promotion mechanisms. Thus,member companies of the prominent holdings tended to be rated high in terms of strategicpartnership and integration of their HRM activities. Besides, these companies were quick toappropriate modern managerial discourses that were introduced in Turkey. ‘TQM’, ‘six-sigma’, ‘EFQM model’ and ‘balanced scorecard’ were the most pronounced among thefashionable practices adopted by these companies, albeit with minimal connection to theHRM strategy and practices-in-use.

Firm size, defined in terms of the number of employees, did not account fordifferential application of HRM ideas, except for the extent of strategic partnership.Bigger firms tended to achieve a far better degree of strategic partnership between theircorporate-level and HRM-related objectives compared with smaller firms. Similar to firmsize, family ownership did not explain any differences that were observed between theHRM activities of Turkish companies. Indeed, this insignificance itself reflects a steptowards the institutionalization of modern employee management practices in Turkey,surpassing their pre-modern roots based on blood relations and kinship. However, thisinterpretation should be regarded with caution since the sample represented a fairly eliteportion of the Turkish big business. Also, size of the HR department was not found to beassociated with any significant differences of HR applications across Turkish companies.

The last factor that explained differential adoption of HRM activity across Turkishfirms was outstandingly time. Firms that began their HRM journey earlier and set upinstitutional structures seemed to exhibit different characteristics compared to lateadopters. Firms that established HR departments before 1993 not only achieved a highdegree of integration – none of themwere evaluated as performing weakly connected HRactivities – between their HR practices, but also favoured a balanced approach to theiremployees. Besides, these firms seemed to distribute the responsibilities of HR activitiesmore evenly across their personnel – 55.6 per cent or 15 out of 27 firms. The picture totallyalters for the late adopters. For firms that established HR departments after 2000, the levelof integration between HR activities was rated as poor, since 36.8 per cent, or 7 out of 19firms were regarded as performing weakly on the integration aspect. Latecomers alsotended to portray an ‘either-or’ type of motivation approach to their employees, becauseonly 26 per cent, or 5 out of 19, of the firms preferred a balanced mix of soft and hardapproaches. Further data from the interviewees of such companies suggested that for aconsiderable portion of these companies, direct control methods such as extensivesurveillance and punishment mechanisms were still evident. For these intervieweesestablishment of HR departments in their companies elicited a transformation fromconventional ‘hard’ ideologies to modern ‘balanced’ approaches. However, they alsoadded that this transformation still needed more effort and time to succeed.

While the design of surveys conducted under the Cranfield Network guidance did notallow systematic analysis about the factors that might have influenced the HRMizationprocess at the activity level, they still provided useful data for making comparisons interms of time. First, membership to company board were repeatedly queried in theprevious Cranfield surveys and the results obtained were alike, to be precise, 37 per centand 39 per cent for 1991 and 1995 respectively. However, these ratios reflected formal andpermanent membership of the company board and did not consider the participation of thehuman resources (HR) manager in strategic objectives beyond such formal platforms.Several measures, such as participation in strategic decision-making process and strategicplans, which were also surveyed in the second Cranfield survey, indicated that nearly

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50 per cent of Turkish HR managers were involved in strategy formulation at this level.The results of interviews specified that board membership among Turkish HR managershad climbed since the administration of the second Cranfield survey. In 52, orapproximately 50 per cent of, companies, the HR manager was a formal board member,and when questioned deeper in terms of taking part in strategic plans and decisions, theratio increased to 62 per cent. Although more ethnographic data is needed to uncover theextent of strategic interaction between HRM and top management, this finding providedexploratory evidence for the ‘realization’ of the managerial rhetoric of HRMism, at least,within the confines of Turkish big business.

Another point that earlier Cranfield surveys contributed to the understanding ofTurkish HRMization process at the activity level concerned the devolvement of HRMpractices to line management. Devolvement of HRM practices were also sought in theCranfield surveys since it was thought that devolvement denoted a shift fromuncoordinated professional activity to allied managerialism (Uyargil, 1996). Whatsurveys of Cranfield and interview results found about Turkish experience were similaron this particular subject. Line managers tended to enjoy superior authority regarding alltypes of HRM activities, such as wage administration, employee selection, training anddevelopment etc. In both Cranfield surveys and the interviews conducted, approximatelyone-third of all respondents answered that line managers held primary authority overHRM activities, whereas only 13 per cent of respondents claimed that HR managerspossessed the same authority. HRM activities often seemed to be carried out under acoordinated enterprise, which required both line managers and human resourcesmanagers to join in. This revealed that there was no radical modification on the borders ofauthority for either line or human resources managers regarding HRM activities. Therewere no differences between the activities of the Turkish personnel manager or thehuman resource manager, except that the latter engaged also in combining all theseactivities within themselves and the company strategy when s/he had his/her chance.

Concluding remarks

Given the complicated nature of the HRM discipline that traps itself in never endingdebates about how the rhetoric and reality about HRM should be understood, Turkishexperience of HRMization contributes to these debates in an interesting way. To beginwith, such debates differ according to their prioritization of external conditions orinternal dynamics regarding the shaping of P/HRM discipline. For internalists, there iseven further fragmentation about the factors that underlie rhetoric–reality correspon-dence/discrepancy. Ones that rely on critical theory argue that rhetorical claims of HRMare misleading – i.e., under a softer disguise HRM tries to institute a keen performance-oriented managerialism – whereas realists believe that rhetorics of HRM, howeverinspiring, are not fully realized – i.e., rhetorics and realities decouple and there are noexact differences with the earlier PM discourse. Constructionists, on the other hand,assert that there are multiple HRMs due to an ongoing interplay between differentrhetorics and actors, which together shape the plethora of meanings and practicesassociated with the label. At this point, Turkish experience suggests that the picture is fartoo complex to be explained with recourse to a single perspective.

The effects of external conditions and internal dynamics are found to coalescethroughout the TurkishHRMization process. Evidently, the 1980 coup, and the period thatfollowed, significantly curbed practices associatedwith and talks relating to P/HRM.Also,the impact of the tension in labour relations, which lasted from 1987 to 1992, pressuredfirm-level solutions to employment-relationship problems. These conditions favoured

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macro solutions to employment-relationship problems and thus practices associated withP/HRM, as well as the identity profile of P/HRM professionals, were adversely affected.Likewise, financial liberalization efforts, integration to global markets and diminishinglabour unease triggered managerial discretion and promoted P/HRM solutions toemployment-relationship problems in the following period. While the effects of suchexternal conditions are important, they alone fail to explain the dynamics of theHRMization process in its entirety.

Additionally, the Turkish experience revealed that there were more than a singlemodel of HRM to appropriate and there were multiple actors that adopted these models.Besides, not only HRM was being appropriated by Turkish professionals at the sameperiod but other managerial discourses as well. Thus, there were interactions betweendiscourses – versions of HRM and TQM – and actors – P/HRM professionals, IRprofessionals, consultants, mass media professionals – about what type of rhetorics andactions could be deployed in governing firm-level employment relationships. Initially,suspicions about the rhetorics and nature of the HRM label were partly carried to theTurkish settings, and thus, PMAmembers became aware of pros and cons of HRMizationsimultaneously with the diffusion process. Nevertheless, the forces for and rewards aboutHRMization were so intense that the ‘personnel’ tag was easily replaced with the new‘human resources’.

An instituted habit of emulating contemporary Western practices and aligning withprominent actors, such as mass media and consultants, accounted for the fastappropriation of the HRM label. Also, the concurrent dissemination and successfuladoption of TQM ideas in the Turkish context helped to promote HRM ideas as well. Inaddition, interaction between TQM and HRM discourses served to ‘soften’ the rhetoricsof HRM in Turkey. It was uncovered that while ‘hard’ rhetorics surfaced in thebeginning of the period, ‘softer’ or ‘balanced’ ideals prevailed throughout the Turkishprofessional HRM discourse. On the other hand, the majority of the rhetorical claimsdeveloped by Turkish professionals resorted to deterministic and realistic arguments forlegitimizing the HRM approach, whereas critical rhetorics were also employed by someof the PMA members. This suggested that the HRMization process in Turkey did notevolve in a uniform way. Thus, not only social factors accounted for shaping the processbut also constitutive forces of actors and discourses equally contributed to theconstruction of HR manager identity and HRM practices in an interactive and continuousmanner. As a consequence, evidence about the HRMization process in the Turkishcontext calls for the integration of divergent theoretical perspectives, namelydeterministic and internalist standpoints, in order to provide a fuller explanation ofhow meanings and actions sediment in space and time.

Concerning the rhetoric–reality discrepancy, analyses revealed that both HRMrhetorics and activities associated with the HRM label became available only after thebeginning of the 1990s in the Turkish big business context. However, the extent to whichthe rhetorics and realities of HRMization in the Turkish context coincided, was a morecomplicated issue. In general, a soft tone of professional rhetorics was mingled withharder performances at the activity level. Besides, the overall significance attached toTQM philosophy throughout the professional rhetorics turned out to be slightlyembellished when compared with the detached activities observed in work settings.Connection to and being aligned with TQM ideas seemed to be only weakly establishedin the real life of Turkish professionals, similar to the preference of soft/hardmethodologies. Beyond these points, however, the general tone of rhetorics did coincidewith activities carried out across the large-sized Turkish organizations in that bothpointed out the similarity of personnel and human resources labels. While rhetorics of the

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Turkish professionals stressed the ‘human’ aspect of their job and its equal weight in theirearlier ‘personnel’ work, similarity of the activities carried out by professionals throughtime confirmed that only little has changed. Evidently, the profession became morerenowned among large publics and other organizational members. Also, there wasevidence that a significant level of horizontal and vertical integration had been achievedby some of the Turkish companies. Besides, increased recognition of the function carriedHR professionals to higher levels in the hierarchy, while granting access to higher-orderdecision-making processes and structures. Yet, analyses also showed that rhetoric–reality coupling was not uniform across the whole of Turkish big business and tended toalter significantly according to a set of structural characteristics.

The most significant structural characteristics, according to which materialization ofHRM ideas across large-sized Turkish organizations varied, were industrial domain,ownership structure, size and age. Bigger and older manufacturing firms, whichdeveloped ties with foreign capital, generally jumped the HRM bandwagon earlier andthus had enough time and resources to appropriate the essence of such ideas. Hence, forthose Turkish firms, which had ties with foreign partners, rhetoric–reality discrepancymeant very little. However, for latecomers, the traditional scenario of Turkish business,such as domestic ownership, infancy of formal structures, small size and disengagementwith foreign capital, elicited a rather decoupled profile. HRMization was no more thanchanging nametags under the isomorphic pressures of gaining legitimacy and, therefore,traditional employment relations tended to linger on under fancier impressions.

Acknowledgement

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Thirteenth Annual World BusinessCongress, Maastricht, The Netherlands. I am extremely grateful for the commentsprovided 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 EAPMcongress in Istanbul, Turkey, and election of

Aydin Akbiyik, the president of PMA, as the president of EAPM for a two-year period.

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