Analyzes devolution from HR departments to the line at the plant engineering and automation unit of global food‐processing and packaging company Tetra Pak.
Highlights a new HR‐orientated management role created to replace the traditional line‐management role and how the new role of competence coach is molded in the context of a project‐based organization.
Points to the need to break out of traditional conceptions of line management and to develop the concept of an HR‐orientated management role that is a legitimate player in the HR organization of a firm.
Provides a rich case description of HRM in a project‐based firm.
Gives practical as well as theoretical implications of HRM issues that arise in project‐based firms, and of changes in line management as a way of developing the capabilities to handle these issues.
