This article builds on the work of J. Rodney Turner by exploring the link between HRM (human resource management) and PBO (project based organizing) (hereafter the HRM-PBO link). HRM is a vast area of scholarship. Among his manifold contributions to the scholarly field of project management is his work on HRM (human resource management) (Huemann et al., 2004; Keegan et al., 2012; Keegan and Turner, 2003; Turner et al., 2007, 2008). Turner’s early work explored possibilities for “developing a theoretical basis for the project and process-based approach” (Turner & Keegan, 1999: 269) and covered HRM as well as governance, learning, knowledge management, and leadership (Keegan and Turner, 2001, 2002; Turner and Keegan, 1999; Turner and Müller, 2005). He found HRM research especially lacking in the project management research domain and ignored by most HRM journals. HRM is a vast area of scholarship covering single and multiple practices, and different levels of analysis (Wright and Boswell, 2002), as well as themes such as managing people to create strategic contributions and achieving HR implementation and execution (Lengnick-Hall et al., 2009). Notwithstanding that any attempt to review this field is necessarily limited (Keegan and Boselie, 2006; Lengnick-Hall et al., 2009; Marchington, 2015), we draw on the HRM research framework of Wright and Boswell (2002) to identify categories of HRM research. We also adapt and extend this framework to consider recent theoretical developments in mainstream HRM. More importantly, we reconsider the levels of analysis identified in the original work in light of projects and their managerial and organizational implications. We then identify fertile areas of research on the HRM-PBO link, and we highlight missed opportunities. To achieve this, we provide a schematic overview of research published in the International Journal of Project Management (IJPM) Project Management Journal (PMJ) and the International Journal of Managing Projects in Business(IJMPB) during the period 1996– ۲۰۱۶, tabulating key works on the HRM-PBO link. We then consider detailed exemplars from work published in IJPM over the last two decades. Our review leads us to argue that greater clarity is needed in distinguishing at what level HRM-PBO studies are undertaken, and whether studies focus on individual or multiple/sets of practices. This clarity is required to allow a stronger focus on research that spans different levels, and on research that explains how activities/practices at one level are presumed to influence outcomes at other levels.