... many cases writers are cautious not to describe HRM as a theory, but they do however offer various models to describe approaches to HRM. Some of these approaches are normative (e.g. Legge, 1995), others are theoretical and derived form literature (e.g. Guest, 1989) and others are empirically derived (e.g. Storey, 1992). Although there are a number of models, there has been little success achieving a fully-fledged theory due to complexities in terminology; lack of generalisation; contradictions and failure to provide any predictive capability (Truss, 1999) The two most widely accepted models of HRM and frequently cited are those that adopt the 'hard' and 'soft' approaches. These two models are viewed as being opposing and incompatible and 'capable of signalling diametrically opposite sets of assumptions' (Storey, 1992, p. 26.) This reason for this view is that the set of assumptions on which they are based seemingly differ with the soft model placing ...

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