Management of human resources in foreign firms operating in India:the role of HR in country-specific headquarters

Multinational companies (MNCs) are known to establish country-specific headquarters (CSHQs) or centres to create and transfer knowledge in order to better co-ordinate and control their operations, and also to share knowledge between affiliates both within and outside the country. This paper highlights the role played by the human resource (HR) function in Indian CSHQs. The analysis is based on interview and survey data from senior HR specialists in 74 foreign firms operating CSHQs in India. The study identifies the range of services that the Indian CSHQs' HR function provides to the local business units of the MNC. A high level of freedom from the MNCs' corporate headquarters to both develop and implement HR policies and practices is found. The CSHQ is found to be instrumental in the creation and dissemination of HR-related learning. The study also identifies the problems faced by the HR function operating with a CSHQ and the actions necessary to overcome these issues.

Management of human resource in Oman

This paper provides an overview of the scenario of management of human resources and the factors influencing the same in the Sultanate of Oman. The initial section of the paper builds the case for investigating HRM practices in the Omani context. This is followed by an analysis of the background information and aspects of social environment of the Sultanate of Oman along with key national initiatives that are likely to influence the take-up and endorsement of HRM in Oman. Next, research evidence in support of key issues related to management of human resources is presented, and conclusions are drawn by analysing the significance of the reported findings. This is done by considering the current situation in Oman and by assessing key challenges for the future.

The many faces of strikes : attitudes towards industrial action by labour, management and human resources

Strikes provide a current, fresh but also a seldom-addressed issue to study from economic sciences perspective. This study provides to filling this research gap by trying to identify attitudes towards strikes that can be found inside organizations. The research problem this study then sets out to answer is: “What kinds of attitudes exist inside organizations towards industrial actions and how attitudes vary between labour, management and human resources?” This study has been planned with a view to test how qualitative attitudinal research, as a method, is suited to studying a phenomenon such as strike. At the heart of this research approach lies an assumption linked to rhetoric social psychology, that attitude is a phenomenon that can be identified in argumentation. For this research 10 semi-structured interviews in 4 organizations were conducted utilizing statements and pictures as stimulants for discussion. The material was transcribed and analysed following the two levels, categorical and interpretive, demanded by the chosen method. Altogether five attitudes were discovered; three of them negative, one indifferent and one positive by nature. The negative attitudes of unfairness, failure and personification towards strikes represented the side of strikes that was perhaps the most anticipated, portraying the contradictions between employees and employer. The attitude of ordinariness, which portrayed indifference, and the positive attitude of change however, were more unanticipated findings. They reflect shared understanding and trust between conflict parties. The utilization of qualitative attitudinal approach to study strikes was deemed successful. The results of this study support prior literature on workplace conflicts for example in regards of the definition of conflict and typologies conflicts. In addition the multifaceted nature of strikes can be perceived as one statement supported by this study. It arises in the nature of the attitudes, the diversity of discussion themes during the interviews as well as in the extent of possible theories to apply.

Change in Managers’ Conceptions of Human Resources in Organisations : Outcomes of an Intervention

Managers’ conceptions of the importance of human resources are essential for creating ‘attractive workplaces’. This paper examines an intervention method aimed at creating insight among managers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) concerning the potential of human resources. The intervention method is called Focus Group Attractive Work (FGAW) and was conducted at eight enterprises in Sweden. Based on the analysis, it is concluded that the intervention method seems to be thought-provoking and to facilitate changes in managers’ conceptions of the importance of human resources, albeit to different degrees. 

Capitalisation of Experiences of the Swiss Support to Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (SMNR) in Bulgaria

Following the collapse of the communist regime in 1989, Bulgaria has undergone dramatic political, economic and social transformations. The transition process of the past two decades was characterized by several reforms to support democratisation of the political system and the functioning of a free-market economy. Since 1992, Switzerland has been active in Bulgaria providing assistance to the transition process, with support to Sustainable Management of Natural Resources (SMNR) starting in 1995. The SMNR Capitalisation of Experiences (CapEx) took place between March and September 2007, in the context of SDC phasing out its programmes in Bulgaria by the end of 2007 due to the country’s accession to the European Union. The CapEx exercise has culminated in the identification of 17 lessons learned. In the view of the CapEx team, many of these lessons are relevant for countries that are in the process of joining the EU, facing similar democratisation challenges as Bulgaria. Overall, the Swiss SMNR projects have been effective entry points to support areas that are crucial to democratic transitions, namely participation in public goods management, decentralisation, human capacity development in research and management, and preparation for EU membership. The specificity of the Swiss support stems from an approach that combines a long-term commitment with a clear thematic focus (forestry, biodiversity conservation and organic agriculture). The multistakeholder approach and diversification of support between local, regional and national levels are also important elements that contributed to make a difference in relation to other donors supporting the Bulgarian transition. At the institutional level, there are a number of challenges where the contribution of SMNR activities was only modest, namely improving the legal framework and creating more transparency and accountability, both of which are time and resource-consuming processes. In addition, the emergence of competent and sustainable non-government organisations (NGOs) is a complex process that requires support to membership based organisations, a challenge that was hardly met in the case of SMNR. Finally, reform of government institutions involved in management of natural resources is difficult to achieve via project support only, as it requires leverage and commitment at the level of policy dialogue. At the programme management level, the CapEx team notes that corruption was not systematically addressed in SMNR projects, indicating that more attention should be given to this issue at the outset of any new project.

Summary report of Human Resources Planning Conference : Hunt Valley, November 1984.

Mode of access: Internet.

Small-scale fishing in Central American indigenous people: governance, tenure and sustainable management of marine resources

This research develops four case studies on small-scale fisheries in Central America located within indigenous territories. The ngöbe Bugle Conte Burica Territory in the south of Costa Rica, the Garífuna territory in nueva Armenia Honduras, the Rama territory in Nicaragua and the ngöbe Bugle territory in Bocas del Toro, Panamá. This is one of the first studies focusing on indigenous territories, artisanal fisheries and SSF guidelines. The cases are a first approach to discussing and analyzing relevant social and human rights issues related to conservation of marine resources and fisheries management in these territories. The cases discussed between other issues of interest, the relationships between marine protected areas under different governance models and issues related to the strengthening of the small-scale fisheries of these indigenous populations and marine fishing territories. They highlight sustainability, governance, land tenure and access to fishing resources, gender, traditional knowledge importance and new challenges as climate change.

Multilevel negotiation in smart grids for VPP management of distributed resources

A multilevel negotiation mechanism for operating smart grids and negotiating in electricity markets considers the advantages of virtual power player management.

Integrated Management of IaaS Resources

This paper proposes and reports the development of an open source solution for the integrated management of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud computing resources, through the use of a common API taxonomy, to incorporate open source and proprietary platforms. This research included two surveys on open source IaaS platforms (OpenNebula, OpenStack and CloudStack) and a proprietary platform (Parallels Automation for Cloud Infrastructure - PACI) as well as on IaaS abstraction solutions (jClouds, Libcloud and Deltacloud), followed by a thorough comparison to determine the best approach. The adopted implementation reuses the Apache Deltacloud open source abstraction framework, which relies on the development of software driver modules to interface with different IaaS platforms, and involved the development of a new Deltacloud driver for PACI. The resulting interoperable solution successfully incorporates OpenNebula, OpenStack (reuses pre-existing drivers) and PACI (includes the developed Deltacloud PACI driver) nodes and provides a Web dashboard and a Representational State Transfer (REST) interface library. The results of the exchanged data payload and time response tests performed are presented and discussed. The conclusions show that open source abstraction tools like Deltacloud allow the modular and integrated management of IaaS platforms (open source and proprietary), introduce relevant time and negligible data overheads and, as a result, can be adopted by Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) cloud providers to circumvent the vendor lock-in problem whenever service response time is not critical.