HRM in Thailand: a post-1997 update

This essay updates an earlier study of human resource management (HRM) practices in Thailand, focusing specifically on HRM in the post-1997 Asian financial crisis. HRM in Thailand has undergone gradual, but significant, change, with movement away from more traditional styles of HRM and management rooted in personalism and social relationships, toward more flexible employment systems in which employment opportunities are based on merit and performance rather than connections and personal characteristics. These changes are clearly more pronounced in subsidiaries of multinational corporations, particularly those based in Western countries.     

Option Implied Dividends Predict Dividend Cuts: Evidence from the Financial Crisis

We employ the forward‐looking implied dividend information contained in option prices to predict dividend cuts and omissions during the recent financial crisis. The large number of dividend cuts and omissions during the 2008–09 financial crisis period provides the opportunity to study the predictability of dividend cuts in a controlled environment. Implied dividends and implied volatility, based on put–call parity and computed from put and call option prices, prove to be effective in predicting those cuts, especially compared to only using the equity market and accounting variables conventionally used for this purpose. Options‐derived variables (implied dividends and implied volatility) enhance the ability to identify firms more likely to reduce or omit dividend payments.     

Conclusion: changes in Asian HRM – implications for theory and practice

A number of significant events have impacted on Asian countries over the period sine 1997 and the Asian crisis. This means that much of what we know about Asia is outdated and may well be irrelevant. It is for this reason that this contribution re-examines a number of Asian countries to explore how human resource management (HRM) has changed over this period. A model that can be used for a comparative analysis of HRM, and one that allows the various levels of change to be assessed, is presented. This is followed by an overview of the volume's contents with the common focus on the changes that have occurred over this period.     

The evolution of post-Soviet labour processes: a case study of the hollowing out of paternalism in Moldova

During the Soviet era, directors and workers derived mutual benefits from concealing true capacity, hoarding labour and just fulfilling an enterprise's plan. In an environment of labour shortages and guaranteed markets, managers used informal mechanisms to reward and retain good workers given the absence of unemployment and meaningful wage differentials as mechanisms to discipline workers. This cultivated a paternalistic set of relations between enterprise managers and workers, which, it is argued, are being hollowed out in the post-communist era. This is explored in a case study of evolving labour relations in Moldova. Casualization of the workforce has been used as a buffer against greater instability in both the supply of raw materials and demand. Such a strategy has become feasible as enterprises, such as the case-study firm, now have a large pool of external surplus labour on which they can draw. However, paternalism has not been hollowed out completely but rather a split-level realignment is identified.