Human resource strategies for managing knowledge workers: an Afro-Asian comparative analysis

We use the model of culture fit to determine the human resource (HR) strategies for managing knowledge workers in two socio-culturally different countries: South Africa (SA) and Singapore. The national culture of SA is ethnically more diverse. Enterprise environment, such as institutional factors, particularly ownership, organization size and industry type, has more HR impact in Singapore than in SA. We found that there were convergent effective HR strategies used for motivating and retaining, but practices were divergent for attracting knowledge workers. When most frequent and ineffective strategies were studied, there were divergent practices. This knowledge of effective strategies being transferred to the two countries from more developed economies is in line with similar HR research.     

Managing change in South Africa: developing people and organizations

The interaction of Western and non-Western management practices is a growing issue in transitional and emerging economies through the world, not least within the multicultural context of South Africa. This is characterized in this article as an antithesis between instrumental and humanistic views of people in organizations, which is fundamental to the way change is being managed. In order to better understand how the management of people and change may be related to this antithesis, the results of an exploratory study, involving focus-group methods with thirty managers, and of a survey of some 200 employees in participating organizations are presented. Indicative results suggest that, despite best efforts from organizations which may represent best management and development practice, issues concerning the value attached to people in these organizations are still not being properly addressed. It may be only through understanding and reconciling this antithesis that change concerning the development of people, in South Africa as well as in other emerging economies, may be successfully achieved.     

Employment equity in Canada and South Africa: progress and propositions

In 1998 the South African government attempted to redress historical workplace discrimination through the introduction of the Employment Equity Act, largely modelled on the Canadian legislation. This paper provides a background to the rationale for employment equity and related practices in both Canada and South Africa. Policies and practices are compared and progress achieved thus far in both countries is discussed. Suggestions for future consideration by South African policy makers and business leaders are proposed that include issues that are more difficult to legislate, yet which will determine the optimal progress of employment equity in South Africa. The issues highlighted in this regard pertain to top management commitment, the development of holistic human resources policies and practices, the appreciation and management of employee diversity and the creation of inclusive organizational cultures that address historical systemic discrimination.     

Managing Human Resources in East Asia

This article reports on the management of international assignments (IAs) in fifteen UK companies who have expanded their operations into the international arena over the last three to twelve years.¹The results show that very few of these companies currently follow examples of ‘good practice’ as espoused by most management theorists and other commentators on the management of expatriate assignments. However, at this moment in time, they do not have any significant problems with either high expatriate failure rates (HEFRs) or with staff performing under par on IAs. However, many are experiencing considerable problems with returning expatriate staff. The implications of these findings for expatriate management are discussed in detail.     

Western high-performance HR practices in China: a comparison among public-owned,private and foreign-invested enterprises

The current study is a comparison of the status of high-performance human resource (HR) practices and organizational goal priorities (economic and humanistic) in Chinese domestic-owned (public-owned and private-owned) and foreign-invested enterprises. This study also investigates the relationship between organization goal priorities and the adoption of high-performance HR practices. The study sample included 167 different organizations in China. The results indicate that, as predicted, humanistic goals were emphasized most in foreign-owned enterprises, least in Chinese public-owned enterprises and the emphasis in privately owned enterprises fell in between the other two types of enterprises. However, the three types of organizations did not differ from each other on most of the high-performance HR practices, except in their levels of recruitment autonomy. We also found that the link between organizational goals and HR practices was the strongest for private-owned enterprises, followed by foreign-invested enterprises, and then public-owned enterprises. The implications of these results are discussed.     

Structural Change in Apartheid-era South Africa: 1975-93

This paper examines the sources of structural changes in output growth of South Africa's economy over 1975-93 using a decomposition method within the inputoutput (IO) framework for analysing output changes from a demand side perspective. It decomposes output growth into private consumption, government consumption, investment and export components and also measures the impact of import substitution and changes in intermediate input use (as indicated by changes in IO coefficients). It is found that, before 1981, overall output growth was multi-components driven with all the above components contributing positively to economic growth. However, the collapse of investment demand is by far the single largest factor contributing to the economic stagnation that categorizes the post-1981 period.     

Managing for organizational effectiveness in sub-Saharan Africa: a culture-fit model

Research in comparative management has suggested that an organization's policies can lose their effectiveness when its cultural environment changes. Going beyond the traditional cultural-free versus culture-dependent debate, the present article develops a culture-fit model, that is, a model suggesting a synthesis between indigenous cultures and modern management techniques in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Positive cultural patterns may help implement new managerial techniques such as total quality management, just-in-time, re-engineering, teamwork and collaborative management. Implications for research and practice are suggested.     

南非标准化发展趋势研究

文章通过对国家标准馆馆藏的南非国家标准文献资源的调查,利用定量分析方法试从南非标准时效性、技术领域等方面分析南非标准化发展趋势,确定南非重点发展的标准化领域,从而为我国开拓南非新兴贸易市场提出参考性建议。     

The relationship between HRM practices and service behaviour in South African service organizations

This paper reports on findings from research conducted in South African service organizations that frontline employees' perceptions of HRM practices have a direct influence on their service behaviour. Specific HRM practices have more impact than others and this was attributed to the influence of external factors such as the socio-political situation and national culture and to internal factors linked to the way managers implemented the HRM practices in the organization. Organizational commitment was found to play a mediating role in the relationship between frontline employees' perceptions of HRM and their service behaviour.     

Project Management Learning: A Comparative Study Between Engineering Students’ Experiences in South Africa and the United Kingdom

This study explores how engineering students studying project management perceive their learning experiences. To facilitate an understanding of the constituent components of engineering students’ experiences and to understand how these experiences influence preferred learning styles, a comparative study of university students studying engineering in South Africa and the United Kingdom is conducted. The study finds no significant demographic differences in learning experiences across the two student cohorts. However, the South African cohort reports higher levels of overall experiences. They also report higher usage of online learning materials but lower levels of blended learning and individual critical evaluation skills experiences.     

High-investment HR values and firm performance among local firms and U.S. MNCs’ subsidiaries in South Asia: a comparative study

Grounded in institutional theory, this study investigates the differential adoption and internalization of high-investment human resource (HR) values by local companies and by subsidiaries of US firms located throughout South Asia; and the impact of these HR values on firms’ performance. In line with our predictions, results suggest that US subsidiaries have a greater rate of adoption of high-investment HR values compared to local South Asian firms. Contrary to our predictions, however, both types of firms are similar in the level of internalization of their respective HR values. Finally, while greater levels of high-investment HR value adoption is associated with firm performance across the board, this relationship tends to be stronger for US MNCs’ subsidiaries compared to local South Asian companies. Theoretical and practical implications for the transfer and diffusion of high-investment HR values in institutionally and culturally distant contexts are discussed.     

The impact of employment equity regulations on psychological contracts in South Africa

This article will show the impact of employment equity legislation on the psychological employment contracts of the three main employee groupings in South African society. This study is important in that it fills the gap in the literature that identifies labour market regulations as an important shaping influence on the psychological contract. More than 500 managers from across South African industry and from all ethnic groups were surveyed to identify differences in psychological contracts and attitudes towards the social transformation regulations. We found that the legislation has impacted differentially on the three groupings mainly in terms of their loyalty to stay with their organizations, the focus on their career development in terms of the external labour market and the degree to which they felt they had been affected by the legislation. Additionally we find that the perceived linkage between job satisfaction and labour turnover is significantly weakened by labour market legislation in the case of the beneficiaries of the legislation, but that this may not be the case for those negatively affected by the legislation. The findings have significant implications for the HRM practices of multinationals operating in societies with significant labour market regulatory interventions.     

The Research‐Practice Gap in Human Resource Management: A Cross‐Cultural Study

In this study, we examine the cross‐cultural differences in human resource (HR) managers’ beliefs in effective HR practices by surveying HR practitioners in Finland (N = 86), South Korea (N = 147), and Spain (N = 196). Similar to previous studies from the United States, the Netherlands, and Australia, there are large discrepancies between HR practitioner beliefs and research findings, particularly in the area of staffing. In addition, we find that interpersonal‐oriented aspects of HR practices tend to be more culturally bound than technical‐oriented aspects of HR practices. We interpret the differences using Hofstede's cultural dimensions (Power Distance, Individualism versus Collectivism, Masculinity versus Femininity, Long‐Term Orientation versus Short‐Term Orientation, and Uncertainty Avoidance). We discuss the overall nature of the science‐practice gap in HR management, and the implications for evidence‐based management. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Managing aging workers: a mixed methods study on bundles of HR practices for aging workers

Since abilities and motives change with age and common human resource (HR) practices might be less suitable for aging employees, scholars and practitioners are currently challenged to find new ways of managing aging workers and motivating them to continue working. Therefore, this mixed methods study builds on literature on lifespan development and literature on HR practices in proposing four new bundles of HR practices for aging workers: accommodative, maintenance, utilization and development HR bundles. Since we draw on separate bodies of literature to propose new constructs, we use a mixed methods design in order to triangulate our findings. The proposed HR bundles were explored with a qualitative interview study among HR managers, line managers and employees in the Dutch construction sector, and tested with a quantitative survey study among Dutch government workers. Both studies confirmed that HR practices for aging workers can be classified into accommodative, maintenance, utilization and development HR bundles of practices.     

2010年南非世界杯对中国足球的启示

2010年南非世界杯已经落下帷幕,但32强的表现令我们回味,尤其是亚洲球队的表现更是令人称赞。通过总结南非世界杯比赛,提出世界足球的发展趋势,分析中国足球的现状,提出对中国足球发展的建议和可行措施。     

Managing AIDS in Africa: HRM challenges in Tanzania

The impact of the AIDS epidemic in developing countries, and in Africa in particular, is now a matter of great concern to policy makers, managers, and academics on a global scale. The magnitude of the potentially disastrous effects of the disease has severe implications for management in organizations, and, in particular, for HRM. The AIDS epidemic is imposing, and will continue to impose, in the foreseeable future, a significant burden on the way people are managed. Little has been written on HRM in Africa, and the present literature on AIDS and HRM in Western societies is inappropriate and insufficient in relation to African organizations. Fifteen organizations in Tanzania took part in this study, which is probably the first of its kind, to produce a picture of current developments and approaches in managing people under the threat of AIDS.     

中国与南非矿山安全标准的对比

对比分析了中国和南非的矿山安全健康法律法规及标准体系,以及矿山安全健康的关键标准,给出了中国和南非的矿山安全健康法律法规及标准体系的特点。得出的主要结论是：南非的法律法规及标准体系以人为本、严中有宽,最大限度地给予矿山企业乃至矿工个人根据矿山或工作场所的实际状况、因地制宜地充分发挥其能动作用的空间,以及结合国情、抓住影响矿山安全健康的岩体稳定性及冒顶、岩爆、井下空气温度及湿度等主要矛盾,强化相应的法律法规及标准建设与实施,对实现矿山安全健康目标具有重要意义,值得借鉴;而中国的法律法规及标准体系则应该着重提高有关矿山环境及井下作业场所工作条件和矿工医疗保健条件的法律法规及标准实施水平,通过改善矿工安全健康状况和加强资源开发利用成本内部化,促进矿山社区的社会经济可持续发展及人们生活质量的提高。     

Understanding Employees’ Perceptions of Human Resource Practices: Effects of Demographic Dissimilarity to Managers and Coworkers

Strategic HRM researchers have increasingly adopted an employee perspective to understand the influence of HR practices on employee outcomes and have called for studies to explain variability in employees’ perceptions of HR practices. To address this research need, we used the social information processing perspective to examine the contextual influence of managers and coworkers on employees’ perceptions of HR practices and explore demographic dissimilarities as boundary conditions of the contextual influence. Conducting research in two organizational settings, we found that both manager‐perceived and coworker‐perceived HR practices were positively related to employees’ perceptions of HR practices. The results also revealed that employee demographic dissimilarity to coworkers in terms of age and organizational tenure weakened the positive relationship between coworker‐perceived and employee‐perceived HR practices. However, the relationship between manager‐perceived and employee‐perceived HR practices was not influenced by demographic dissimilarities. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Racial harassment and job satisfaction in South Africa: the moderating effects of career orientations and managerial rank

Employee job satisfaction is a strong predictor of pivotal individual and organizational outcomes, e.g. commitment, productivity, retention. This study examines the mediating role of workplace racial harassment in the association of employee racioethnicity and job satisfaction in the South African context. Furthermore, this study investigates the moderating effects of career-related variables, i.e. career orientations and managerial rank. Results of a survey of 154 employees in South Africa indicate that black South Africans experience more workplace racial harassment than white employees and thus show lower job satisfaction. Moreover, the detrimental effects of workplace racial harassment on job satisfaction are more pronounced among highly career-oriented individuals and/or among employees with no or low managerial rank. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.     

Human resource function strategic role and trade unions: exploring their impact on human resource management practices in Uruguayan firms

Organizations worldwide are confronted with different contextual constraints. Jackson and Schuler [1995, ‘Understanding Human Resource Management in the Context of Organizations and their Environments,' Annual Review of Psychology, 46, 237–264], in their classical review, highlight the importance of the impact of the internal and external organizational context on human resource management (HRM) practices. This paper uses data collected through a survey of firms located in Uruguay, in a context where HR function and trade unions have gone through significant changes, to determine their impact on the adoption of different HRM practices. The authors find that organizations with an HR function strategically involved and with higher degree of union presence have more person-centred HRM practices, while performance-centred HRM practices were positively influenced by HR function strategic role. However, the findings do not support the moderating role of trade union presence on the relationship between the HR function strategic role and HRM practices.