German Human Resource Management:: A Source of Inspiration?

This paper demonstrates that American and Japanese HR managers hardly perceive German human resource management (HRM) as a role model from which they might wish to learn. As will be shown, the reason for this attitude is that American and Japanese HR managers have barely any knowledge about German HRM. It is argued here that this lack of knowledge results from the rather ‘balanced’, ‘moderate’ and ‘equilibrated’ character of German HRM, making it very difficult to define and grasp the essence of German HRM. Paradoxically, however, the data suggest that it is exactly this ‘balanced’ approach for which HR managers from the USA, Japan and Germany are striving.