Focus on the Impact of the Economic and Financial Crisis on the Human Resource Function - Four Eastern European Countries in the Light of Empirical Research in 2009

When the crisis broke out in October 2008, the economies of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia were in different situations, but the governments of these countries took very similar action to eliminate the negative impacts. It is extremely important to know how their companies reacted to the crisis, and our study aims to uncover what actions companies from the selected four countries plan to take concerning the field of human resource management in the present financial and economic crisis. With a brief review of the literature we demonstrate the role of Human Resources in this critical period before presenting the findings of our empirical research conducted from November 2008 to February 2009.