The impact of culture on human resource practices: The Swedish case

In today's competitive world, organizations must first recognize, direct and manage the resources they have, especially human resources, in order to exist for a long time. As a result of all these requirements, the importance given to human resources management and practices by organizations is increasing. With the industrial revolution, personnel management practices gained importance and later became known as human resources management. While the success of an organization depends largely on human resources management, the success of human resources management depends on the adaptation of its practices to the organization. When human resources management practices are examined in different countries around the world, many models that are being applied in both America, Europe and independent countries emerge. It is known that the starting point of these models is cultural and institutional factors. Since human resources management is the most influential field in the field of culture, the main starting point of our study has been cultural differences. Cultural differences between nations have a significant impact on the human resources management policies and practices adopted by nations. Therefore, the aim of our study is to reveal the ways in which cultural differences are influenced by the human resources management practices of Swedish organizations within the framework of cultural dimensions defined by Hofstede and other researchers. For this reason, within the scope of our study, firstly, the different classifications made in the field of culture are explained and the national business systems and economic indicators that affect the human resources practices of Sweden are examined. The cultural values of Sweden were examined and information was given about the transformation of Swedish human resources management during the 20th century. In order to better express the transformation of Sweden and human resource management after the 1980 world crisis, the data from the last three reports of Cranet researches were used. Culture has the greatest impact on recruitment and selection practices and performance management practices in human resource management. Institutional impacts were found to be more effective in training and development and wage management practices. Although there is little effect of culture in career management practices, it is seen that institutional and organizational effects have more impact.