ABSTRACT
HRM in Germany seems in various ways to be mission impossible. For outsiders it is hard to understand, and those aspects which seem to be understood present a rather frightening picture. Trade unions, codetermination, works councils and extremely high wages do not look very inviting to foreign investors. But even for insiders, HRM in Germany has become a rather strange system in recent years: short-term layoffs of employees as the dominating cost reduction strategy, but at the same time long-term efforts to secure the qualification level for the future; concentration on younger employees in spite of the expectation of a ‘greying workforce’; a continuing lack of professionalism among HR managers and the need to economise affecting the HRM function. Many contradictory forces make it hard to manage the human resource and to anticipate the rules of the game in the future. However, there are signs that at least some of the changes might be pointing in the right direction. One example was Time magazine’s cover story ‘What’s right with Germany’ (Wallace 2004), telling us the economic challenges that are definitely a mission most likely to succeed, with HR as the key factor for success.
