Thus, those nations who allow least autonomy to their managements (with most legal regulation and trade union influence), tend to have been most successful in recct years. Those successful nations, in Europe, include some where organizations tend to have an hr function closely integrated with business strategy and some where it is only rarely represented at board level. Many successful European states have moved in the direction of external labour markets. National differences in human resource management and in practices linked frequently with views of ‘food hrm practice’ have no correlation with national differences in economic performance.