Human resource management in transition

Abstract

The current research is part of a long-term research cooperation – Central and Eastern European International Research Team (hereinafter CEEIRT) – that is composed of researchers from different universities from Central and Eastern European (CEE) Region and aimed at examining the changing of HR practices and roles in MNC subsidiaries. We seek to understand what trends have emerged in the certain HR practical applications and roles in our region in response to the socio-economic changes. In the research project we examined the HR functions and practical applications of Multinational Company (MNC) subsidiaries in Croatia. Croatia’s competitive advantages over other countries in the region are based on developed infrastructure, a highly educated workforce and proximity to raw materials and resources allow. Persistent economic problems still remain and include a rather high labor cost, the slow progress of necessary coordination of economic activities and the government has done very little to improve the situation regarding climate of the foreign direct investments. The Croatian labor force is the second most expensive in the region. In order to avoid competition with countries with low operating costs (Romania and Bulgaria), Croatia should focus on higher value-added sectors and knowledge-intensive activities. Foreign investors report high profitability and quality standard. Croatia's greatest strength is the relatively stable economy and excellent infrastructure. Last but not least, the proven ability of the country that high-tech industries are performing well and there is a high level of engineering and design skills. In Croatian economy employees have extremely good attitude, which includes the low level absenteeism, high levels of motivation, labor productivity and accuracy. As negative factors of Croatian economy include employment of unskilled workers at high costs compared to regional competitors. It should be remembered there is a shortage in the labor market of experienced professionals. Labor taxes are considered relatively high, which is illustrated with a significant difference between net wages and total labor costs of employment. The above findings are the results of our CEEIRT research. We used same questionnaires. The mostly paper-based ones and a small part of the web-survey was supplied via a Web interface. The report's findings were the methods of descriptive statistics (frequency, distribution average) were based on use. Answers to a number of priority issues by the processing ofdata are visualized graphically. In several cases the personal interviews that were usedto collect case-examples - while ensuring the anonymity – have been added to the analysis.