Exploring the mutual interaction of societal culture and human resource management practices Evidence from 19 countries Nancy Papalexandris and Leda Panayotopoulou Department of Marketing and Communication, Athens University of Economics and Business, Athens, Greece Keywords Human resource management, National cultures Abstract This paper attempts to interpret the HRM practices studied through the CRANET research in the light of the general societal culture tendencies as revealed by the GLOBE study. The study analyses the nine dimensions of societal culture, using data from 19 countries that have participated in both studies (Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany (former East and West), Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and UK). The most significant correlations between societal culture and HRM have been isolated and will be discussed. Results show that the function that seems to be related the most to culture is internal communication, while the least related is rewards and benefits. This study’s findings could serve as a guide in transferring HRM policies within MNCs or across countries, as they give an indication of the most culture-sensitive practices and the way they are related to societal culture characteristics. Introduction Every researcher looking into human resource management (HRM) practices on a comparative basis comes across a major question. This question has to do with the extent at which societal culture influences the way firms manage their personnel and the way HRM practices are developed and implemented within firms across various countries. In view of the above, this paper has focused on the following two objectives: first, to statistically examine the relationship between societal culture and HRM practices; second, to help the readers further understand this relationship by presenting and discussing the above results. This is a first attempt to interpret the data of HRM management practices gathered through the CRANET research in the light of the general societal culture tendencies as revealed by the GLOBE study. Background and methodology of the study Globalisation as well as the expansion of multinational companies (MNCs) has shifted the attention of both researchers and practitioners to the way that organizational practices, and especially HRM, are differentiated across various countries. In the literature one can find several comparative HRM studies concluding, in their majority, The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/0142-5455.htm An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 7th IHRM Conference “Developing the Discipline, Exploring the Mosaic”, Limerick, Ireland, June 2003, and is included in the Conference Proceedings. Societal culture and HRM 495 Received December 2003 Revised March 2004 Accepted April 2004 Employee Relations Vol. 26 No. 5, 2004 pp. 495-509 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0142-5455 DOI 10.1108/01425450410550473