Kevin Dalton

Management culture in Romania: Patterns of change and resistance

This study examines how far restructuring has involved a change in leadership style and the development of new philosophies and approaches which derive from the Anglo-American model of ‘people management’. During the Communist period, Romania experienced a highly centralised system of management. Broader currents of historical and political culture also served to inculcate values of bureaucratic formalism. In transitional times it appears that the management role is being re-defined and management culture is changing. This article seeks to understand these changes in the culture and identity of Romanian management by examining experience in a range of organisations. It also considers how far Anglo-American values of HRM and managing are relevant to a country where the wider cultural and historical experience differs so strikingly from that in the West.

A social institutionalist perspective on HR diffusion: historical and cultural receptivity to HRM in a post-communist context

Abstract This research considers cross-national diffusion of international human resource management (IHRM) ideas and practices by applying an emergent frame of sociological conceptualisation – ‘social institutionalism’ (SI). We look at cultural filters to patterns of diffusion, assimilation and adoption of IHRM, using Romania as a case study. The paper considers the former Communist system of employment relations, suggesting that through institutionalisation former ways of thinking have a residual influence on definitions and practice of people management in post-Communist Eastern Europe. The paper provides a new perspective on HRM by discussing the value of SI as a general model for understanding cross-cultural receptivity to HR ideas, sensitising the HR practitioner and academic to institutionalised culture as a historical legacy influencing absorption of international management ideas.

People Management in a Transitional Society: The Case of Romania

This article reports the results of an extensive survey of Romanian corporate experience in absorbing, adapting, and ignoring international human resource management (HRM) practices and Anglo-American concepts of leadership. The study seeks to represent and explain social patterns in the articulation and implementation of HRM in small and medium-sized Romanian companies, foreign enterprises, including multi-nationals, and the Romanian public service. An attempt is made to relate chequered organizational experience to cross-cutting themes of national management culture.

Management culture in Eastern Europe: Romania in a period of transition

Since the early 90s, managers in Eastern Europe have had to adjust to the consequences of large scale re-structuring from a command to a market economy. Building on a previous paper accepted by the journal which examined shifts in HRM during transitional times, this study exaines the evolution of management cultures in one EE country- Romania. During the Communist period, Romania experienced a highly centralised and hierarchical system of economic management which tightly constrained the roles of the individual managers within it. At the enterprise level, the operational activities of managers were largely concerned with fulfilling the targets of planners laid down from above. Broader currents of historical and political culture also served to inculcate values of bureaucratic formalism and conformity among the cadres of managers. However, with the fall of Communism and fundamental system change (marketisation, privatisation etc), the post- command system forced managers to acquire new skills, knowledge and attitudes. As a consequence, it appears that the management role and identities are being re-defined and management cultures are changing. This article seeks to understand these cultural movements by examining management experience in a number of organisations- multi-national subsidiaries, state owned enterprises, public service organisations, charities and newly established companies- based in Romania.