HRMization in Turkey: Expanding the rhetoric-reality debate in space and time

Building on the debate in HRM literature which asserts that rhetorics and realities about HRM diverge, the concept of HRMization is developed to make sense of complex processes that tend to happen when the HRM label travels in space and time. Subsequently, some of the interesting dynamics of the HRMization process, as it has taken place in the Turkish context, are explored by means of a large sample of extensive textual analyses and in-depth interviews. The findings indicate that HRMization has not just taken place at the rhetorical level, but has also meant changes at the activity level for professionals and other organizational members. Local rhetorics of HRM are found to be affected by the debates on the nature of HRM in the European context and tend to decouple, in some aspects, from activities that are conducted under the HRM label. Moreover, being a 'receptive country', Turkish experience also reveals differential adoption patterns for diverse organizational structures as these structures have varying degrees of access to inflowing state-of-the-art HRM ideas.