Freddy Hällstén
Senior Lecturer
Department of Business AdministrationAbout Freddy Hällstén
My research and, to some extent, the education I have been involved in, have long focused on value-creating human resource management (HRM). Between 2008 and 2021, we (myself, Anders Boglind, and Per Thilander) conducted research on the organization of HR work and the changes that have been referred to as HR transformation and shared service organization (presented below). In recent years, I have worked extensively with education in the bachelor program Human Resource Management and the international master's program in Strategic HRM and Labour Relations, where I have tried to demonstrate to students what value creation really is and how it can be practically applied in various operations. In the master's program, we have worked a lot with the concept of strategy and combined HRM theories with business benefits and sustainability. In recent years, I have also worked on research on strategy (see below), the development of the HR profession (with Agneta Häll and Stefan Tengblad), and sick leave in the retail trade (with Anna Davidsson and master's students), which are partly ongoing projects (2025). Below are some in-depth descriptions of the research.
STRATEGY
I have participated in the book With Empathy and Strategy – An Anthology on HR and the Future (in Swedish), published by the SSR Academic Association at Premiss Förlag (2025), where 14 different researchers contribute. My chapter is called HR Strategic Work – Realizing the Role (in Swedish). HR has long strived to gain greater influence and a more strategic position within companies. The opportunities for this have increased since HR began focusing on the organizational perspective and integrated into corporate and organizational management. To take further steps, HR must increase its understanding of what strategy means and learn more about the business and the other professional categories it needs to collaborate with. Examples are given of how HR can strengthen its professional role.
HR TRANSFORMATION
The results of this project have been reported in a scientific journal (2011) and a book (2013; new version 2021 – see selected publications below) indicating that many have followed the concept of HR transformation and seemingly copied large multinational companies' ways of organizing HR operations. In practice, however, many different ways of organizing the operations emerge, which means that one can speak of "HR transformations." At the same time, the changes have not been as significant as the proponents had hoped, which is because it is not enough to change the organization of HR work; you must have line managers and other actors on board to succeed. This is because these categories are also affected by HR changes. Additionally, there is still much to be done regarding HR's business connection, value creation, and strategic HR work. In the cases we have studied, we can see a greater focus on efficiency and cost focus than on what is value-creating for the organization and its employees, while the strategic HR dimension is mostly expressed as beautiful words.
PERSONNEL RESPONSIBILITY AND EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
During the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s, I studied areas such as HR accounting (or personnel economics) and managers' personnel responsibilities, as well as employee engagement and ethics. The research results on employee engagement are included in the book Employee Engagement in Practice (Studentlitteratur 2006). In 2007, we published a practical handbook, Employee Engagement from Words to Action (Liber). The book (also available as an audiobook) has also been published in Norway.
Research areas
- Human Resource Management
Teaching areas
- Human Resource Management
- Ethics
- Leadership och Coworkership
- Organization theory
Selected publications
HR transformation and shared services: Adoption and adaptation in Swedish organisations. Boglind, Anders, Hällsten, Freddy, Thilander, Per. Personnel Review, 40:5, s. 570-588, 2011
Nordic HRM: Distinctiveness and Resilience. Andersen, Torben, Hällsten, Freddy. International Human Resource Management: Contemporary HR Issues in Europe. Eds.: Dickmann, M., Brewster, C. and Sparrow, P, London : Routledge, s. 100-114, 2016