Abstract

NEVES, José  and  GONCALVES, Sónia. Human Resources Management in Portugal: results and trends. Rev. Portuguesa e Brasileira de Gestão [online]. 2009, vol.8, n.4, pp.66-83. ISSN 1645-4464.

Human Resources Management (HRM) research has evolved both theoretically and empirically throughout the 20^th century. The definition of its contents and the evolution of practices were influenced by the importance of contextual factors, each time proved as more decisive. This evolutionary perspective occurred across continents and countries although with different time lags. In Portugal such influences have been felt, being possible today to draw frontiers of its evolutionary contents. Aiming to identify the results of scientific HRM research in Portugal, this work intends to contribute to the definition and understanding of the evolution the concept and research on HRM had in Portugal as well as to identify research outcomes on this subject in Portugal. A content analysis of annual events taking place in the last 40 years promoted by the professional body that aggregates HR Portuguese managers allows identifying 4 periods of evolutionary time, marked chronologically by the dominant function HRM was required to perform, by the emphasis on dimensions of practice and by academic and professional profiles commonly required to be a HRM. A quantitative data analysis of Portuguese masters and doctoral theses’ titles produced in the past 25 years, showed that there was a thematic concentration, that the subjects were temporally and spatially distributed.The sample comprised of 176 documents used for analysis, comprehends mostly master dissertations that were asymmetrically distributed by 15 higher education institutions, and produced between 1995 and 2005. They were mostly focused on training topics and strategic human resources management. This paper ends with a discussion of results against the background of similar international studies and it discusses the degree of proximity between practitioner' interests and researcher’s motivations.

Keywords : Human Resources Management; Research in Portugal; Results and Trends; Conceptual and Empirical Evolution.

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