Top management: the missing stakeholder in the HRM literature

Abstract

Despite the significant influence that top management exerts on different aspects of people management, it remains the missing stakeholder in the HRM literature. In this paper, we take stock of previous research, and conclude that it is scarce and lacks consolidation. On the basis of our findings, but also thinking in terms of what is still missing, we develop a conceptual framework that may guide further research, advocating for the need to consider co-evolutionary approaches in an attempt to integrate selection and adaptation perspectives, as well as multi-level and multi-actor factors. Future work should systematically address and distinguish top management characteristics from top management agency and link these more clearly to a diversity of HRM dimensions. By doing so, scholars will help to firmly incorporate the role of top management in the research agenda of HRM and pursue different avenues that can be scientifically sound as well as practically relevant.     

Golf Versus Nongolf Club Operations: Benchmarks for 2014

With the club industry comprising of different types of clubs, a more in-depth analysis separating clubs with and without golf operations would be beneficial. Financial performance can be summarized via financial ratios. This study surveyed 115 clubs regarding their financial performance and calculated 24 financial ratios for 2014. The median profit margin of all clubs was at 1.65%. Clubs with golf operations reported a median profit margin at 1.73%, doubling that of the nongolf operations at 0.83%. T-tests using means of financial ratios showed a statistically significantly difference in only the food inventory turnover by days.     

The (potential) demise of HRM?

This article seeks to provoke that human resource management (HRM), both as an academic field of study and as a form of professional practice, is at risk of impoverishment. The main reasoning for this is because of ideological individualism and marketisation with an attendant neglect on wider organisational, employee, and societal concerns. Following a review of the context of financialised capitalism, three contemporary developments in HRM are used to illustrate the argument: reward strategies, talent management, and high performance work systems. Implications for the practice of HRM and the way the subject area is taught in mainstream business schools are considered.     

Human resource management in multinational and domestic enterprises: A comparative institutional analysis in Southeast Asia

This article looks at the relative impact of context on the role of senior managers. It compares HR directors of domestic enterprises (DEs) with those of multinational enterprises (MNEs), within an emerging market setting, based on a survey of HR directors in Brunei. We found that, with the exception of some aspects of selection and recruitment, HR directors of MNEs accorded a higher priority to strategic tasks but were more reluctant to delegate. This study confirms the importance of MNEs in pioneering more modern and integrated approaches to people management but also demonstrates the limitations to the extent where they might act as evangelists of new practices that are adopted by their local peers. In contrast, local firms were more likely to concentrate their attention on administrative, rather than strategic, issues. We draw out the implications of our findings for theory and practice.     

HRM in dynamic environments: Exploitative,exploratory, and ambidextrous HR architectures

Abstract

The current economic crisis has brought to the fore the need for firms to deal with ambiguity and complexity. Hence, firms need a specific balance between exploration and exploitation in order to keep pace with varying and changing environmental conditions. Hitherto, there is limited research that has examined the nexus of HR architectures, ambidexterity, and environmental dynamics. In this conceptual paper we ask: How do HR architectures serve as a means of balancing exploitative and exploratory learning in different dynamic environments? We explain how exploratory, exploitative, and ambidextrous HR architectures with their embedded HRM systems on the business unit level enable organizations to meet different environmental requirements. Thus, firms in which heterogeneous demands for flexibility and for innovation co-exist need to develop internally differentiated HR architectures. In particular, we elucidate how critical the organization’s ability is to connect different HRM systems to create an ambidextrous HR architecture to find an appropriate balance between exploration and exploitation.     

Leadership integrity and the role of human resource management in Greece: Gatekeeper or bystander?

With ethical misconduct commonplace in organizations and with the touting of competitive advantage associated with ethical organizational practices, considerable attention has turned to leadership integrity. Leaders are uniquely situated to influence the behavior of organizational members, and integrity has been shown to be instrumental in supporting ethical behavior and decision‐making. This article explores the role and influence of human resources management (HRM) in supporting leadership integrity among a group of large organizations operating in crisis‐stricken Greece. Although the institutional and cultural context of Greece appears to exacerbate role tensions confronted by human resources (HR) professionals, its forces are not deterministic; findings from in‐depth interviews with 12 HR directors indicate that the HR potential to secure ethical influence at the top level is primarily contingent on the nature of the organization's culture. Cultures of integrity enable HR executives to influence integrity and ethical behavior in top management teams (TMTs). In contrast, compliance‐based organizational cultures appear to breed a fickle HR presence: fostering integrity and ethical behavior for the middle and lower levels of an organization, while turning a blind eye to integrity violations at the top.     

Then and Now: Examining Older People's Engagement in Outdoor Recreation Across the Life Course

Outdoor recreation provides a range of health and wellbeing benefits and facilitates engagement with natural environments. We explore older people's participation in outdoor recreation throughout their lives to examine how past experiences shape engagement later in life. A qualitative life history approach, consisting of semi-structured interviews and a focus group in three place-specific (urban, rural, and small town coastal) case studies in Scotland, was adopted. Thematic analysis revealed ways in which childhood experiences shaped adult engagement and highlighted life course transitions where behaviour change was most pronounced. Place and gender were considered as factors which may affect responses. Participants identified the points of getting married, becoming a parent, children entering adolescence, retirement, the onset of disabilities or ill health, and the death of others as “moments of change” in the extent and/or form of their outdoor recreation. The findings highlight potential for targeted interventions to promote outdoor recreation throughout life.     

Beyond merger syndrome and cultural differences: New avenues for research on the “human side” of global mergers and acquisitions (M&As)

This paper focuses on research on the “human side” of global mergers and acquisitions (M&As). We argue that there is a need for a more fine-grained understanding of the “human side,” which requires conceptualizing M&As as practice-oriented processes. Drawing on the practice approach, we outline avenues for further research on the “human side” of global M&As. The research directions include (1) multilayered identity dynamics, (2) emotional processes, (3) participation and change agency, (4) resistance, (5) human resource management (HRM) practices and tools, and (6) new forms of communication.     

Alternative balanced scorecards built from paradigm models in strategic HRM and employment/industrial relations and used to measure the state of employment relations and HR system performance across U.S. workplaces

This paper constructs alternative balanced scorecards based on high‐performance work system (HPWS) and employment relations system (ERS) models. The models are depicted and compared in diagrams and used as framework skeletons for building separate HPWS and ERS scorecards, intended to provide a detailed data picture of the operational health and performance of an organization's employment/HR system and its operations, processes, and inputs/outputs. The scorecards are filled in with nationally representative data from 2,000+ U.S. workplaces using more than 50 employment/HR indicators, as reported by separate panels of managers and employees. The indicators for each workplace are aggregated into an overall HR/employment system score, ranked from low‐to‐high, and graphed as frequency distributions. These distributions provide a unique snapshot picture of the mean and dispersion of the state of employment relations and HR system performance for companies across the United State. They also reveal that “models matter” since the HPWS and ERS scorecards provide distinctly different evaluation assessments.     

高职院校思想政治理论课与职业素养教育融合研究

高校思想政治理论课是大学生思想政治教育的主渠道。职业素养教育是高职院校人才培养体系中的特色环节,也是高职院校进行大学生素质教育的重要阵地。高职院校思想政治理论课与职业素养教育实现有机融合,可以有效调动各种资源形成教育合力,有利于高职院校构建大思政工作格局。高职院校可以从做好顶层设计、整合人才队伍、融入教育载体、互鉴教育方式、规范考核评价五个方面加强思想政治理论课与职业素养教育的有机融合,形成协同育人效果。