Purpose – Two research questions are asked in this paper: RQ1. How does line management involvement inPA work unfold in practice? RQ2. How does line management involvement contribute toward any divergencearising between intended and implemented PA work?

Design/methodology/approach – An in-depth case study from a multi-actor perspective based oninterviews with HR managers, line managers and employees, and organizational documents.

Findings – The findings illustrate how line managers faced three types of complexities duringimplementation, i.e. dilemmas, understandings, and local adaptations. These jointly contributed to adivergence arising between the PA as intended and the PA as implemented. This divergence became associatedwith how line management involvement was restricted to the local context and the initial stages of the PAprocess, highlighting how HR practices can contain both devolved and non-devolved elements.

Originality/value – We respond to calls for more in-depth qualitative studies of how line managers areinvolved in HR work; this is done specifically by conceptualizing the complexities line managers face in practicewhen implementing HR practices. As such, we add to the understanding of HR practices as relational and socialin nature. We also contribute to the processual understanding of HRM by highlighting how HR practices cancontain both devolved and non-devolved elements. By stressing the limitations of binary conceptualizations ofHR devolution, we add to the understanding of HR devolution as more complex and multifaceted thantraditionally assumed.