Managing Human Resources in the Retail Industry: the role of first-line managers

The notion of line managers taking on operational personnel roles has been steadily interwoven into descriptions of an HRM approach. This paper draws on case study based empirical evidence obtained from the multiple store retail industry to investigate the devolution of HR activities to line managers. The research found that line managers often diverged from company policy. Since the emphasis by the centre was often on achieving tangible goals, any manipulation of local HR led to a focus on ‘hard’ HRM techniques.