Dissertation_Paula Aleksandrowicz_12 ... - Jacobs University

Polish firms lacked such a focus, therefore I solely assessed whether the firms had a
personnel policy in many fields (e.g. recruitment, know-how transfer, early retirement;
comp. Table 21 in section 4.3.2.). That leads to the conclusion that German firms score
better with regard to the awareness to and inclusion of ageing issues in personnel policy.
Figure 14 visualises the institutional determinants of HRM policies, or the “societal effect”
(Maurice 1991) – the position of Polish firms on the Y axis is not assessed based on
universal criteria, but on criteria specific to the national context. Polish firms which reach
high values on the Y axis are as good as they can be in the given institutional context.
Firms in the quadrant ´bad practice´ could also be characterised as representing a
“short-term- and externally oriented HRM system” (Nienhüser 2002: 77-8). It is
characterised by solving personnel adjustment problems on the external labour market by
recruiting young personnel and releasing older workers. Tasks performed by workers are
usually not very complex and firm-specific know-how, loyalty and know-how transfer play
almost no role in the work process (ibid). Firms in the quadrant ´good practice´, in turn,
represent firms with a “long-term- and internally orientied HRM system” (ibid: 78).
Workers in such firms usually perform complex tasks, experience, specialist know-how and
social cohesion play a large role in the work process. The firms strive to build up human
and social capital by investing in the qualification of workers and have a long-term oriented
personnel planning. The work morale of workers is preserved by means of employment
security and promotion opportunities (ibid). 59
It stands out that Polish firms occupy more extreme positions on the X axis. There is a
higher polarisation between firms in Poland with regard to personnel policy towards older
workers, and a generally broader scope of policy orientations than in Germany – two Polish
firms have the highest factual value of internalising policy (2.66), and two others the lowest
(0.33). That forms the quantitative support for hypothesis 5 (see section 2.2.) – crossnational
differences on the externalisation-internalisation continuum are larger than branch
similarities across both countries.
59 A legitimate question in this context is, can only firms which can guarantee that employment security and
which do not have to conduct large personnel reductions uphold that internal orientation in HRM? Examples
of firms in my study which cut back on innovative age management practice under unfavourable economic
conditions suggest a ´yes´, but more comprehensive studies of firms officially acknowledged as ´good
practice´ in times of economic crisis would help to shed more light on that issue.
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