The implementation of formal HRM strategies is more common in highly unionized companies, while the opposite is true for the use of competence needs analysis. Unions generally favor collective, rather than individualized arrangements. A formal HRM strategy is likely to improve the predictability for employees since company policy is made public and in writing. In this way, a formal HRM strategy is more a collective arrangement than an individualized one, and may even be an issue in scheduled negotiations between unions and employers that are common in many European countries. Analysis of training and development needs, on the other hand, is tailored to the individual employee, particularly when carried out in conjunction with performance appraisals. This type of individualized arrangements may not after all be in the interests of the trade union (Ng/Maki 1994), which can be illustrated by the union opposition against the introduction of individual performance appraisals and rewards in for instance Norway (Røvik 1998) and France (Hegewisch/Larsen 1996). Our results do, however, contradict Ng/Maki’s findings that unions oppose the use of performance appraisal in general and particularly with regard to salary and promotion decisions, but unions do not oppose the use of appraisal results for developmental purposes.