lit this study scales were developed to measure the extent to which organis
ations exhibited 'Soft" or "hard" approaches to HRM, and the extent to whic
h potential barriers to the effective operation of HRM were present The sam
ple comprised 549 employees, managers and HRM staff across a wide range of
types of organisations in Australia, New Zealand the USA, the UK and Canada
. While the results supported the contention that HRM effectiveness can be
achieved via both ''soft" and "hard" approaches, several barriers to HRM ta
ke-up were identified and there was little evidence that organisations gene
rally operated HRM policies and practices that were seen as effective. Alth
ough very few differences between countries were found, the authors Suggest
the barriers identified and related ineffectiveness of HRM may be all the
more detrimental to the competitiveness of Australian and New Zealand organ
isations in light of the recent economic downturn in the Asia-Pacific regio
n.