Handbook of research in comparative human resource management

This unique and path-breaking Handbook explores the issue of comparative Human Resource Management (HRM) and challenges the notion that there can be a 'one best way' to manage HRM. The Handbook of Research on Comparative Human Resource Management provides a theoretical, practical and regional analysis of comparative HRM. This book, edited by two specialists on comparative HRM and written by leading experts on each topic and from each region, explores the range of different approaches to conceptualising HRM, and highlights HRM policy and practice that occur in the various regions of the world. As such, the volume provides a challenge to the typical assumption that there are consistent problems in managing human resources around the globe that call for standardised solutions. Instead, the contributors emphasise the importance of institutional and cultural factors that make HRM a most context-sensitive management task. Offering a comprehensive view for readers with different interests, this insightful Handbook will prove to be an essential resource for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in international business, business administration, HRM, socio-economics and cross-cultural management. Practitioners interested in the cultural aspects of HRM will also find this Handbook invaluable.

Future research on human resource management systems in Asia

Re-emphasizing the need to examine human resource management (HRM) in context, this article builds around four themes. First, it analyses the main issues discussed in the existing literature regarding HRM in the Asian context. Second, it highlights the critical challenges facing HRM function in the region. Third, along with the analysis, it presents an agenda for future research. Fourth, it presents a framework useful for highlighting the context specific nature of Asian HRM functions and the main determinants of HRM policies and practices from a cross-national comparative perspective.

International human resource management

Over the last two decades, international human resource management (IHRM) has evolved into an important field of research, teaching and practice. Until recently the focus of IHRM was on how to best manage human resources (HRs) in the multinational enterprise; however, IHRM has now evolved to incorporate two more perspectives, cross-cultural HRM and comparative HRM. Significant developments are taking place in the corporate world which have serious implications for IHRM. These include globalization, increasing foreign direct investments into emerging markets, growing intensity of cross-border alliances, growth of multinationals from emerging markets (such as China and India), increasing movement of people around the globe and an increasing trend in business process outsourcing to new economies. This emerging global economic scenario is creating immense opportunities for IHRM students and researchers. International Human Resource Management brings together articles which highlight the historical evolution of IHRM, discuss the contemporary issues and make projections for further developments in the field. The articles have been selected and arranged into sections in a way to help the reader better understand the developments in the field from different perspectives.

Sierra : cooperative request-response for resource management in disasters using semantic web principles

Disasters cause widespread harm and disrupt the normal functioning of society, and effective management requires the participation and cooperation of many actors. While advances in information and networking technology have made transmission of data easier than it ever has been before, communication and coordination of activities between actors remain exceptionally difficult. This paper employs semantic web technology and Linked Data principles to create a network of intercommunicating and inter-dependent on-line sites for managing resources. Each site publishes available resources openly and a lightweight opendata protocol is used to request and respond to requests for resources between sites in the network.

Integrating skills profiling and purchasing portfolio management:an opportunity for building purchasing capability

Kralijc’s (1983) purchasing portfolio approach holds that different types of purchases need different sourcing strategies, underpinned by distinct sets of resources and practices. The approach is widely deployed in business and extensively researched, and yet little research has been conducted on how knowledge and skills vary across a portfolio of purchases. This study extends the body of knowledge on purchasing portfolio management, and its application in the strategic development of purchasing in an organization, and on human resource management in the purchasing function. A novel approach to profiling purchasing skills is proposed, which is well suited to dynamic environments which require flexibility. In a survey, experienced purchasing personnel described a specific purchase and profiled the skills required for effective performance in purchasing that item. Purchases were categorized according to their importance to the organization (internally-oriented evaluation of cost and production factors) and to the supply market (externally-oriented evaluation of commercial risk and uncertainty). Through cluster analysis three key types of purchase situations were identified. The skills required for effective purchasing vary significantly across the three clusters (for 22 skills, p<0.01). Prior research shows that global organizations use the purchasing portfolio approach to develop sourcing strategies, but also aggregate analyses to inform the design of purchasing arrangements (local vs global) and to develop their improvement plans. Such organizations would also benefit from profiling skills by purchase type. We demonstrate how the survey can be adapted to provide a management tool for global firms seeking to improve procurement capability, flexibility and performance.

Handbook of human resource management in emerging markets

Bringing together a diverse set of key HRM themes such as talent management, global careers and employee engagement, this remarkably wide ranging work on managing human resources in more than 20 emerging markets is written by world-leading experts in HRM in emerging markets and based on leading-edge research and practice.

Human resource management in emerging markets:an introduction

The shifting of global economic power from mature, established markets to emerging markets (EMs) is a fundamental feature of the new realities in the global political economy. Due to a combination of reasons (such as scarcity of reliable information on management systems of EMs, the growing contribution of human resource management (HRM) towards organisational performance, amongst others), the understanding about the dynamics of management of HRM in the EMs context and the need for proactive efforts by key stakeholders (e.g., multinational and local firms, policy makers and institutions such as trade unions) to develop appropriate HRM practice and policy for EMs has now become more critical than ever. It is more so given the phenomenal significance of the EMs predicted for the future of the global economy. For example, Antoine van Agtmael predicts that: in about 25 years the combined gross national product (GNP) of emergent markets will overtake that of currently mature economies causing a major shift in the centre of gravity of the global economy away from the developed to emerging economies. (van Agtmael 2007: 10–11) Despite the present (late 2013 and early 2014) slowdown in the contribution of EMs towards the global industrial growth (e.g., Das, 2013; Reuters, 2014), EMs are predicted to produce 70 per cent of world GDP growth and a further ten years later, their equity market capitalisation is expected to reach US$ 80 trillion, 1.2 times more than the developed world (see Goldman Sachs, 2010).

Future trends in human resource management in emerging markets

In many ways the emerging markets represent something of a new frontier for academics and practitioners alike, or as one author puts it, ‘a significant topic of interest for a multitude of constituencies’ (Alkire, 2014: 334). The very term itself ‘emerging markets’ is something of a portmanteau one built on a series of layered insights garnered from several academic fields and multiple levels of analysis. Originally coined as a term in the 1980s, albeit with several earlier linked terminologies, this is an evolving and diverse literature. Inherent in its diversity lies a whole series of opportunities, encompassing the purely theoretical through to the methodological and the analytical. Capturing the essence of this in his Editorial in the inaugural edition of The International Journal of Emerging Markets, Akbar (2006) noted that from an academic perspective the emerging markets as a context for the creation and execution of a sustainable research agenda represent ‘a heterogeneous group of economies and societies’ and an ‘important testing ground for our existing theories, models and concepts of business and management’ affording those who focus on them as a research location the opportunity for ‘the development of new theoretical contributions in the field’. In this volume, we have sought to bring some systematics to this evolving literature dedicated to charting HRM in these emerging markets.

Emberierőforrás-menedzsment gyakorlatokkal kapcsolatos kutatások a lean termelés irodalmában (Researches on human resource management practices of lean production literature)

A lean termelési rendszer szociotechnikai megközelítése szerint a lean technikai elemei (technikai alrendszer) a kimagasló teljesítményt nyújtó munkaerő-szervezési rendszer (HPWS) gyakorlataival (szocio alrendszer) kapcsolódnak össze. A tanulmány ezt a megközelítést MacDuffie (1995) szervezetilogika-koncepciója alapján mutatja be. A lean termelési rendszer munkaerő-szervezési rendszerével kapcsolatosan négy témakört tekint át: (1) a lean termelési rendszer munkaerő-szervezési rendszerekre gyakorolt hatását, (2) a HPWSgyakorlatok használatát és (3) teljesítményhatását, végül a (4) munkásokra gyakorolt hatásokat. A feldolgozott koncepcionális és empirikus munkákban valamennyi pontban számos ellentmondás fedezhető fel. _____ According to the socio-technical view of lean production lean system is built on both technical and human resource practices (subsystems). The concept of organizational logic developed by MacDuffie (1995) describes how lean techniques and high performance working systems practices mutually suppose each other in lean environment. This study reviews four fields of human issues in relation to lean production: (1) the impact of lean system on work organization; (2) the use HPWS practices and (3) their impact on operational performance indicators in lean producers; (4) the impact of lean production on workers. The review of empirical and conceptual studies points out that there are many contradictions regarding the above points.