The effect of human resource management policies on organisational performance in Greek manufacturing

This paper investigates if HRM policies have an impact on organisational performance. The research is based on a sample of 178 organisations operating in the Greek manufacturing sector. The 'universalistic model’ of HRM is adopted to conduct the investigation. The results show strong support for the model, indicating that the HRM policies of recruitment, training, promotion, incentives, benefits, involvement, and health and safety are positively related with organisational performance. The study contributes to both HRM theory and has important messages for practitioners.

Organizational weaknesses of the Greek Manufacturing industry: a case study of footwear

This thesis is concerned with those factors influencing the present performance of Greek manufacturing industry and the ways in which improvements could be realized after Greece joins European Communities..Detailed examination is made of the Greek footwear industry and its problems as the country emerges from a semi developed state to a position approaching parity with Western European countries. Particular attention is paid to the technology employed, capital deployment, industrial structure and managerial performance. In order to illustrate the path of development of the Greek footwear industry a comparison is undertaken with the British footwear industry which has a longer history and has employed larger scale methods since the 19th century. This comparison illustrates the opportunities and pitfalls likely to face the Greek industry in coming years. One section of the thesis is also concerned with trading relationships between the U.K. and Greece and identifies the market opportunities available to Greek industrialists. A detailed analysis is undertaken of the available secondary sources of information particularly official statistical data relating to production, capital expenditure, imports and exports, employment and consumption. Use is also made of various surveys of trade and production in footwear undertaken by trade associations and other bodies. The field research study has been largely directed towards practicing managers in companies of various size and is concerned with exposing standards of management and of relating efficiency to organization structure. The thesis is also concerned with the many wide issues affecting the development of manufacturing industry in Greece including the influence of social structure and social institutions, the values of modern Greek society and the complex organizational problems which Greece needs to overcome in order to take its place amongst the more established states of Europe.

Making Sense of Home and Homeland: Former-Soviet Greeks' Motivations and Strategies for a Transnational Migrant Circuit

Focusing on former-Soviet Greeks' experiences of cross-border movement to Greece, this paper sheds light on the impact of this migration on the social identities of Russian Greeks as a transnational community. It draws on informants’ narratives and ethnographic observations recorded among Greek migrants in their home communities in southern Russia, and shows how their motivation, in their transnational movement, is determined by the ‘push-and-pull’ forces of socio-economic and political transformations in post-Soviet space. In these conditions, Greek identity becomes a resource which facilitates the organisation of transnational migration. The cultural, social and economic differences between the former-Soviet Greek migrants and the native-born population of Greece result in the emergence of a Pontic-Greek cultural identity which emphasises migrants’ connections with the former USSR. The difficulties of economic and cultural adaptation for migrants to Greece are examined in relation to the Russian Greeks' economic strategies within their home communities and their perception of the ‘homeland’ as a constantly contested and relocated social construct.