ABSTRACT

Chapter 7 focuses on articles that cover human resource management (HRM) in European economies in the context of transition to a market economy. It empirically verifies the relationship between the existing studies that deal with socialist institutional and cultural legacies and their literature attributes. A systematic review shows the following findings: (1) even after the passing of 25 years since the transition to the market economy, the socialist legacies in HRM in the European transition economies remain an important research topic, (2) studies of the traditional industries that used to have strategic importance under the socialist system tend to focus on the socialist legacies, and (3) although studies on human resource management divergence based on socialist cultural legacies tend to lose their significance in accordance with their deepening economic integration with the European Union (EU), the socialist institutional legacy could keep contributing to understanding the diversity of European HRM. Socialist legacies are still alive in the HRM of this region. The reader may realize these legacies will, therefore, continue to be a unique and important research topic to be addressed for a long time to come.