Since the 1980s, HRM has come of age. No serious established organization thrives without professional resources allocated to address operational and strategic HRM tasks and people-issues. This has created the seedbed for a diverse range of empirical and theoretical research into HRM as a social phenomenon and an organizational practice: collaborative practices, diversity and inclusion, well-being, workforce planning, talent management, AI and HRM, to name a few.
In the Nordic countries, early studies into HRM were carried out with an industrial relations and work environment focus, often supported by employer associations and trade unions. More recently HRM has become an academic subject in its own right, with professorships in HRM early in Copenhagen and later in the other five Nordic countries in, for instance, Reykjavik, Gothenburg and Vaasa. This development is constituting the backbone of the standing HRM track. A Nordic network of HRM-researchers, anchored in Gothenburg by Stefan Tengblad, has been started in the fall 2023, and will be a complementary activity to this standing HRM track.
Workshop “HRM in the Nordics: Where do we stand?” coming up in June 2025:
In June 2025, the NFF Standing Track on Human Resource Management will organize a workshop themed HRM in the Nordics: Where Do We Stand? at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. Read more about the workshop here and submit your abstract by March 15, 2025!
