Exploring the central characteristics of HR shared services: evidence from a critical case study in the Netherlands

Human resource shared service centers (HR SSCs) are foreseen as improving HR service delivery for their end-users: employees, line managers and decentralized HR professionals. Although the concept expects the benefits of HR SSCs to come from centralizing knowledge and decentralizing the control exercised over an HR SSC, research into these two fundamental shared service characteristics is scarce. The purpose of this research is therefore to explore whether resource bundling, combined with business unit control over an HR SSC, is sufficient to improve HR service delivery to its end-users. Using concepts from intellectual capital and agency theory, we find that the combination of these two characteristics of shared services is not sufficient to improve HR service delivery. Rather, we suggest that (1) HR SSCs have to update the knowledge and skills of their staff; (2) end-users have to effectively maintain the codified knowledge centralized in the HR SSC; and (3) business units and the HR SSC need to collaborate in order for the benefits of an HR shared service to be realized.     

The role of HR managers in international mergers and acquisitions: a multiple case study

The article departs from the existing research treatment of expatriation as an individual-level phenomenon, and looks at the expatriation of work teams. We examine the performance management of expatriate teams brought in from 17 independent organizations to work on a new-product development project. We find that the teams faced diverse stakeholder expectations and that these stakeholders' expectations were a source of tension for the teams. The teams responded by adopting performance management strategies that tended to prioritize their respective home organizations' expectations. We discuss the vulnerability of contextual performance and the relative insignificance of national cultural differences in this expatriation context. We propose practical considerations and an agenda for further international human resource management (IHRM) research on expatriate teams.     

The role of HR practices in developing employee resilience: a case study from the Pakistani telecommunications sector

Abstract

There has been increasing interest in understanding the factors that contribute to the development of employee resilience. Despite such interest, there is a dearth of research examining the contributory role played by HR practices in enhancing employee resilience. Looking at the context of Pakistan’s telecommunications sector and deploying a qualitative methodology, this paper examines the impact of HR practices on employee resilience. The findings indicate that four key areas of HR practices – job design, information sharing and flow within an organisation, employee benefits (monetary as well as non-monetary), and employee development opportunities – enable the development of employee resilience. Consequently, the effective implementation of HR practices in these areas has been the key factor for the development of employee resilience.     

The transformation of industrial authority and paternalistic capitalism in the global economy: case studies of Taiwan's textiles industries

Abstract This paper is an attempt to theorize changing employment relations in capitalist development, drawing upon Taiwan's experience of industrialization within the context of global economic competition and undertaking case studies in the textiles industries. It aims to investigate changes in the nature of employment relations, with special reference to authority relations, by examining how they have been shaped by changes in Taiwan's textiles industries. It argues that a transformation of paternalistic capitalism is under way in Taiwan. The study also examines how changes in economic activities have profoundly affected people's lives and experiences. It is suggested that the underpinnings of traditional authority are being shaken. Loosened personal ties and claims for statutory working rights have led to the emergence of different sources of industrial authority. Here is a crucial 'ideological break' in terms of workers' consciousness. Moreover, the 'communal paternalism' or 'enterprise paternalism' of labour regimes in Taiwan propounded by Deyo (1989, 1998) is now called into question.     

Cross-functional alignment in supply chain planning: A case study of sales and operations planning

In most organizations, supply chain planning is a cross-functional effort. However, functional areas such as sales, marketing, finance, and operations traditionally specialize in portions of the planning activities, which results in conflicts over expectations, preferences, and priorities. We report findings from a detailed case analysis of a supply chain planning process that seemingly weathers these cross-functional conflicts. In contrast to traditional research on this area, which focuses on incentives, responsibilities, and structures, we adopt a process perspective and find that integration was achieved despite formal functional incentives that did not support it. By drawing a distinction between the incentive landscape and the planning process, we identify process as a mediator that can affect organizational outcomes. Thus, organizations may be capable of integration while functions retain different incentives and orientations to maintain focus on their stakeholders’ needs. Through iterative coding, we identify the attributes of the planning process that can drive planning performance—information, procedural, and alignment quality—but also find evidence that achieving alignment in the execution of plans can be more important than informational and procedural quality. In addition to process attributes, we also identify social elements that influenced the performance of the planning process and place the information processing attributes within a broader social and organizational context.     

The digital transformation of business models in the creative industries: A holistic framework and emerging trends

This paper examines how digital technologies facilitate business model innovations in the creative industries. Through a systematic literature review, a holistic business model framework is developed, which is then used to analyse the empirical evidence from the creative industries. The research found that digital technologies have facilitated pervasive changes in business models, and some significant trends have emerged. However, the reconfigured business models are often not ‘new’ in the unprecedented sense. Business model innovations are primarily reflected in using digital technologies to enable the deployment of a wider range of business models than previously available to a firm. A significant emerging trend is the increasing adoption of multiple business models as a portfolio within one firm. This is happening in firms of all sizes, when one firm uses multiple business models to serve different markets segments, sell different products, or engage with multi-sided markets, or to use different business models over time. The holistic business model framework is refined and extended through a recursive learning process, which can serve both as a cognitive instrument for understanding business models and a planning tool for business model innovations. The paper contributes to our understanding of the theory of business models and how digital technologies facilitate business model innovations in the creative industries. Three new themes for future research are highlighted.     

Cluster evolution and urban industrial dynamics in the transition from a planned to a socialist market economy: the case of Beijing

Cluster evolution and urban industrial dynamics in the transition from a planned to a socialist market economy: the case of Beijing. Spatial Economic Analysis. The transformation of the industrial structure of Beijing in the transition from a planned to a socialist market economy integrated into global markets is examined through the lens of cluster evolutions and life cycles in 1987–2007. Cluster emergence, decomposition, stabilization, upgrading, restructuring and disappearance are identified using exploratory factor analysis of input–output tables. These evolutions are interpreted in the light of the way in which backward and forward linkages provide channels of communication, new intermediate goods, new divisions of labour and new patterns of co-location, and are related to the changing industrial geography of Beijing.     

社会工作介入企业人力资源管理的可行性与难点分析——以山东某机械公司为例

在当前企业人力资源管理各项职能中还存在着几方面值得关注的问题,需要企业引入一种新的力量专门解决。这种新的力量可以是社会工作理念、社会工作方法和社会工作者。企业社会工作能够增强员工的社会功能,充分挖掘员工自身潜能和调动外部资源促进生产环境改善。但社会工作介入企业人力资源管理仍有困难,社会工作者要想在企业中实现其价值,首先还要服从企业的战略,灵活地运用社会工作的方法和技巧帮助企业解决问题,做到"有为有位"。     

An analysis of geographical agglomeration and modularized industrial networks in a regional cluster: A case study at Yamagata prefecture in Japan

In a regional innovation system, a dense inter-organizational network within the region is recognized as a key factor in enhancing knowledge diffusion, regional learning, and effective resource transfers. Therefore, understanding the network structure and physical proximity of organizations is essential. In this paper, we investigated the industrial structure of Yamagata prefecture in Japan as a case study. Because Yamagata is a representative industrial region, the analysis can also provide an insight into other industrial regions. Initially, we investigated the geographical dispersion of firms and found them to be agglomerated along Route 13 and the Tohoku Shinkansen railroad, indicating that infrastructures for transportation still have a decisive role in terms of site location. Subsequently, we analyzed the modular structure of the inter-firm network. The results showed that hub firms construct a different type of network and play different roles within the inter-firm network, reflecting their strategic choice. The results also showed that there is a tendency for firms to transact with those in close proximity, and that firm location is also affected by the location of the hub firm in the module in addition to the infrastructures.     

The deployment of temporary production workers in assembly operations: a case study of the hidden costs of learning and forgetting

The dynamics of workforce skill levels has a considerable impact on plant-level performance that is commonly overlooked by managers of manufacturing operations. In this study, we present a discrete event simulation model inspired by and validated in an actual manufacturing setting that includes short product life cycles, mid-volume production quantities, and a production environment consisting of assembly, inspection and testing.The effect of worker skill dynamics is analyzed using a factorial experimental design that contrasts the use of temporary versus permanent workers on manufacturing cost performance. The manufacturing costs assessed include labor, inspection and testing. The cost of reworking a defect is captured as an increase in the labor consumption. Materials costs are not assessed. At the core of the analysis, it is assumed that temporary workers have relatively less skill and therefore have higher average production times, higher average defect rates associated with their assembly activity, and lower rates of learning. In addition, the variance of the production time is higher for the temporary workers. Despite these indicators of performance problems, temporary workers may be used because of the considerably lower wage rate compared to permanent employees.Our in-depth case analyses shows that assigning skilled permanent workers to upstream build operations was superior to other policies deploying temporary workers, regardless of lot size or product complexity. Attesting to the importance of the labor mix component of manufacturing strategy, workforce deployment policies tended to dominate product switching frequency (a proxy variable for lot size and product mix) in impacting costs.     

Exploring external and internal pressures on the environmental behavior of paper enterprises in China: A qualitative study

As one of the typical high‐polluting and high‐energy‐consuming industries in China, the paper industry's environmental behavior has become the focus of a range of stakeholders, policy makers, and the whole society because the industry's business activities are a main source of environmental pollution and contribute to massive energy consumption. This study used a qualitative approach to examine the relative importance of external and internal pressures (EP and IP) in driving the environmental behavior of paper enterprises in China. Based on grounded theory, this study aimed to examine the EP and IP on the environmental behavior of paper enterprises to create a comprehensive theoretical model based on grounded theory code analysis. It was found that government pressure, economic pressure, social pressure, and IP have direct and significant positive effects on the corporate environmental behavior (CEB) of paper enterprises in China. Furthermore, government, economic, and social pressures have indirect and significant positive effects on CEB through other pressures. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of these four pressures and provides policy implications.     

轻轨对中小城镇商业发展的影响——以中山市为例

作为一种大运量、快捷、准点的交通方式,轻轨的建成运营将对相关城镇的客流量在数量、空间分布等方面产生深刻影响,并对城镇发展产生积极的作用.在商业发展方面,轻轨交通的影响主要体现在市场因素、空间因素、竞争因素等方面.在深入剖析轻轨交通对商业发展的影响因素、借鉴地铁商业经验、分析相关预测数据的基础上,就广珠轻轨对中山市城镇商业发展的商业格局、商业规模、商业网点空间分布和商业业态结构等多方面的影响进行了探析.     

空间重组背景下城市社区疫情防控的挑战与策略——以安徽省Y县城C社区为例

新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情的发生,对我国城镇化及人居环境提出了严峻的挑战。在这场事关人民健康和社会安全的疫情防控战"疫"中,城市社区是整体疫情防控工作的重要堡垒,是阻断疫情蔓延的重要空间。以安徽省Y县城C社区疫情防控实践为例,分析了大规模城镇化推动的城市空间重组给疫情防控带来的挑战,认为物理空间重组加大了疫情扩散与异地传播的风险,社会空间重组凸显了疫情联控与人口结构的矛盾,心理空间重组加深了疫情恐惧与社会心态危机,网络空间重组促使疫情防控与信息管理更加复杂。基于此,提出城市社区疫情防控的基本策略,即建章立制辅以精细化管理,严控物理空间的越轨行为;协同适应,营造社区共同体,筑牢群防群治的社会基础;扩展心理空间,释放情绪压力;净化网络空间,维护舆情健康与信息透明。     

Assessment of the sustainable development of rural minority settlements based on multidimensional data and geographical detector method: A case study in Dehong,China

In a developing country, paying attention to the sustainable development of rural areas is conducive to the development of the entire country. Ethnic minority areas are an important part of China's economic and social development. Owing to a lack of relevant statistical data, most previous studies in this area have focused on the sustainable development of rural areas or the development of ethnic minorities, but have not studied the sustainable development of rural ethnic minorities. The development of rural ethnic minorities is worthy of attention. In this study, we took Dehong as the study area. First used toponyms to accurately identify the rural minority areas and then calculated a grid of settlement density. Second, we considered the digital number (DN) value of the visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) as a measure of the development of the region and digital elevation model (DEM), net primary productivity (NPP), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), and gross domestic product (GDP) data as the indicators of terrain, climate, ecological, and economic factors, respectively. Finally, linear regression and the geographical detector method were used to determine the weight of the factors for constructing a sustainable development index (SDI) to quantitatively analyze the sustainable development and influencing factors of each minority nationality. The factors evaluated using linear regression and the geographical detector method were ranked as follows: NDVI > elevation > GDP > slope > NPP > settlement density. The results demonstrate that of the five main ethnic minorities in Dehong, Dai and Jingpo have higher SDI, followed by Achang, Lisu and De'ang. In addition, we provide some suggestions for ethnic minorities in Dehong.     

城市传统菜市场的地方芭蕾与地方感研究——以成都市青羊小区菜市场为例

在传统菜市场日趋式微的背景下,基于消费者视角对城市传统菜市场给予观照,运用地方芭蕾和地方感理论,通过问卷调查和深入访谈,探讨消费者的日常菜市场行为特征与模式以及由此形塑的多元地方意义。研究发现,消费者将传统菜市场纳入到居家、工作、休闲等日常生活轨迹中,形成三种富有时空韵律的惯常模式;通过个体化的生活习惯和时空轨迹,形塑出丰富多样的"地方芭蕾";在人与菜市场空间的互动中,菜市场也被赋予多元价值和意义,生发出地方依赖、地方依恋和地方认同三个维度的地方感。据此进一步讨论了作为传统日常生活空间的菜市场在当代城市中的作用及其对城市未来发展的启示。