Human resource management implications of dual-career couples

The dual-career couple is a contemporary phenomenon in Western industrialized nations. This Australian qualitative investigation explored the organizational issues associated with dual-career couples from the perspective of both dual-carrer couple members and their employing organizations. Overall, it was found that organizational responsiveness to dual-career issues was limited, and consequently dual-carrer couples themselves were forced to make most of the necessary accommodations. Human resource management implications of the dual-career couple are discussed. To date, however, such implications have been largely ignored by organizations. The findings of this study suggest that the failure of organizations to respond to dual-career issues results in costs, not only to the couple, but also to their employing organizations. Predictions for continued growth of the dual-career phenomenon mean that an organization s willingness to address dual-career issues may become an important element in achieving and retaining competitive advantage.     

Human Resource Management and the Permeable Organization: The Case of the Multi‐Client Call Centre*

ABSTRACT Despite the interest over recent years in the fragmentation of organizations and the development of contracting, little attention has been paid to the impact of the associated inter‐organizational relationships on the internal organization of employment. Inter‐organizational relations have been introduced primarily as a means of externalizing – and potentially rendering invisible – employment issues and employment relations. In a context where inter‐organizational relationships appear to be growing in volume and diversity, this constitutes a significant gap in the literature that this paper in part aims to fill. The purpose of the paper is two‐fold: to develop a framework for considering the internal and external organizational influences on employment and to apply this framework within a case study of a multi‐client outsourcing call centre. We explore the interactions between internal objectives, client demands and the use of external contracting in relation to three dimensions of employment policy: managing the wage‐effort bargain, managing flexibility and managing commitment and performance. It is the interplay between these factors in a dynamic context that provides, we suggest, the basis for a more general framework for considering human resource policy in permeable organizations.     

Inpatriate managers: how to increase the probability of success

Developing multicultural management teams has gained increasing importance in many global organizations. One global staffing option — inpatriate managers — has the potential to provide a more multicultural management frame-of-reference when developing global strategies. Inpatriates have social knowledge of global operations and countries facilitating the modification of organizational strategies to local competitive/market conditions while ensuring their consistency and coordination with the existing global strategic thrust. This paper addresses the need to provide an effective mechanism for increasing the success rate of inpatriate managers thus improving the global performance of the organization. To achieve enhanced organizational performance the need for a proactive inpatriate program is critical to engender long-term commitment and loyalty of inpatriate managers.     

Planning and performance in public organizations An empirical analysis

The impact of planning on organizational performance in the public sector has been widely debated but has never previously been tested empirically. We develop a statistical model of planning effects that contains five explanatory variables: the extent of organizational analysis, the extent of environmental scanning, the number of precise performance targets, the existence of formal action plans for service improvement and the attitudes of staff involved in the planning process. This model is applied to data obtained from seventy services in Welsh local government. The statistical evidence shows that organizational performance is positively related to favourable attitudes towards planning processes, but negatively related to the number of targets that are set. On balance, the results are consistent with a small positive effect of planning on the performance of public organizations.     

Formation of the information systems strategy: in a global financial services company

Over the past few decades, the potential of information systems (IS) to support organizational activities and help them gain competitive advantage has been widely recognized. At the level of strategy, there is a genre of organizational activities dedicated to realizing this potential. Methods known broadly as strategic information planning have been constructed to support such activities in organizations but these methods have not lived up their promises. Meanwhile, the use of evolutionary approaches in the application of IS in organizations have also received some attention. This paper describes and analyzes a case study of the evolution of the IS strategy within LeaseHold NV, a Dutch global leasing company. The study reveals that no IS planning was used. Instead, concepts of organizational evolution are found to be useful in analyzing the development of the IS strategy at LeaseHold.     

High level of education builds up strong relationship between organizational culture and organization performance in Pakistan

Organizational culture is an important aspect to be considered by dynamic organizations in order to develop some competitive advantage to ensure enhanced organizational performance. This study aims to elaborate the dimensions of cultural construct in organizations of diversified sectors and their implications in Pakistan. Ten organizations were selected for the study. Four hundred and seventy eight questionnaires were received from these organizations. The questionnaires consisted of three parts, of these, the first part had nine elements that were related to organization and personal profile of the respondents, whereas the second part consisted of 60 elements of cultural construct, namely mission, adaptability, consistency, and involvement. In the third part, dependent variable appears as organization performance and was evaluated by asking eight questions. Results are revealed in two models: according to the first model, organization performance increases from negative 56% to positive 92% due to organizational culture with respect to education. And the second model is also significant at the 95% of confidence level (p < 0.05), and there is a positive relationship between independent and dependent variables. Organizational culture is an essential part of organizational success. Core organizational values typically emphasize special themes such as performance excellence, innovation, social responsibility, worker involvement, and quality of work life. Literacy rate in Pakistan is far below the literacy rate in developed countries. Educated employees play an important role in enhancing organizational performance, particularly in corporate setup. To measure affects of education on organizational performance through its construct involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission have been endeavored in this study.     

Key human resource strategies in an organization downturn

Increasingly often, executives are being called upon to manage organizations through downturns. Of critical importance to the long-term health of a firm is how its employees are treated during these stressful periods. Human resource strategies must minimize the loss of key personnel needed for organizational survival and turnaround. The purpose of this article is to discuss why key employees leave organizations following a downturn. We propose two reasons: Either employees abandon a sinking ship or upon considering a lack of career opportunities, they take well-timed exits. Then, by considering individual career issues that arise from an organization downturn, ways to counteract ill-timed employee exit are identified. These human resource strategies either reduce organizational uncertainty or increase career opportunity.     

ENVIRONMENT, ORGANIZATION AND EFFECTIVENESS: A BIOGRAPHICAL APPROACH[1]

Answers to the question of what makes an organization effective have proved elusive despite more than 20 years of intensive theorizing and research. Yet the search for answers, which gained momentum with Lawrence and Lorsch's (1969) Organization and Environment, clearly has had salutary effects on students of organizations and their work. This paper offers an approach to analysing organizations explicitly based on two of those benefits. The first is the shift toward a more dynamic orientation for explaining organizational configurations and outcomes. The second is the identification of strategic decisionmaking as the key link between organizational environment, structures, and effectiveness. By merging these two, we construct a biographical approach to the study of organizations. This approach sees organizations as evolving through time in response to, or in anticipation of, both external and internal forces. We view effectiveness as the outcome of a variety of decisions taken by one or more groups of organizational actors - elites or coalitions - in the context of bounded rationalities and environmental and structural constraints. So decision processes underpin observed configurations of environmental and structural features and link these configurations to effectiveness. An organization's biography - the pattern of its evolution - can be conceptualized as a succession of decisions and their consequences, with some decisions having a major long-term influence on the direction taken by the organization and its effectiveness, while others have but an incremental influence. This article is an initial effort to make concrete our ideas. The opening section discusses organizational decision-making and organizational effectiveness. This is the core of our approach: a basis for categorizing organizational decisions and in particular for singling out those which can be regarded as strategic. It is our contention that significant decisions vary across organizations and that it will embrace rather than ignore history and context. And ultimately, it will enhance our understanding of organizational effectiveness.     

Resilience,wellbeing and HRM: a multidisciplinary perspective

Abstract

Research on resilience has accumulated a vast body of knowledge which has assisted in comprehending complex HRM issues in diverse organizational settings. Yet, the existing studies have hitherto not paid sufficient attention to the multifaceted aspects of resilience and occupational contexts. We join the conversation with resilience, wellbeing and HRM by suggesting that investigating resilience from a multidisciplinary perspective situated in varying occupational contexts can advance our collective understandings of the phenomena in important ways. This paper has three general objectives. First, we show that resilience has been a long-standing issue in organizational behavior and organization studies and provide an overview of the puzzles that underpin and trigger this special issue. Second, we highlight the key insights and contributions of the papers included in this special issue by reviewing their theoretical underpinnings, methodological approaches and findings. Finally, we outline a future research agenda on resilience in organizations that can help advance international HRM research.     

Management Innovation and Leadership: The Moderating Role of Organizational Size

Recent research on management innovation, i.e. new managerial processes, practices, or structures that change the nature of managerial work, suggests it can be an important source of competitive advantage. In this study, we focus on management innovation at the organization level and investigate the role of leadership behaviour as a key antecedent. Due to its prominent role within organizations, top management has the ability to greatly influence management innovation. In particular, we focus on leadership behaviour and examine transformational and transactional leadership. Additionally, as contextual variables like organizational size may influence the impact of leadership, we investigate its moderating role. Findings show that both leadership behaviours contribute to management innovation. Interestingly, our study indicates that smaller, less complex, organizations benefit more from transactional leadership in realizing management innovation. On the other hand, larger organizations need to draw on transformational leaders to compensate for their complexity and allow management innovation to flourish.     

Effects of strategic human resource management on strategic vision

It is pertinent for organizations that operate in a highly competitive environment to pursue a strategic vision. This study explores the effects of strategic human resource management (SHRM) on the implementation of a strategic vision. Other constructs of importance in the model include leadership, commitment and organizational structure. A total of 400 questionnaires were sent by mail to organizations of various industries and the total number of respondents was 104. Leadership was found to be significant in eight out of ten of the hypotheses, thereby indicating that the leadership of an organization plays an extremely important role in the achievement of a vision. Also, SHRM functions such that HR planning, recruitment and selection, rewards and compensation as well as training and development have significant effects in the achievement of different visions. For the vision of regional growth, leadership and organizational structure was found to be significant. Where market growth is pursued, leadership, reward system, commitment, training and staffing are significant. In the case of a strategic vision of mergers and ventures, only leadership was found to be significant. The only significant factor in the vision of low cost and productivity is planning. For a vision of customer focus and innovation, leadership and selection are the significant factors. Where innovation and product development are pursued, only planning is significant. For organizations that pursue cluster visions, the factors that are significant include leadership, commitment and selection.     

To change or not to change–antecedents and outcomes of strategic renewal in SMEs

Companies need to constantly renew themselves to remain competitive in rapidly changing market environments, regardless of their size or age. Even though strategic renewal is a crucial factor for sustainable success of organizations, it is only an emergent area in literature. This article examines potential antecedents of strategic renewal and impact on firm performance. Based on 104 companies’ responses to a structured questionnaire, the empirical findings demonstrate that strategic renewal positively impacts firm performance, and that entrepreneurial orientation and organizational learning are antecedents. From a practical managerial viewpoint, our results suggest that firms following a strategic renewal approach can increase the long-term success of their organizations: Firms that are entrepreneurially oriented and willing to learn can successfully manage strategic renewal.     

Human resources planning on terrorism and crises in the Asia Pacific region: Cross‐national challenge,reconsideration, and proposition from western experiences

Since the 9/11 attacks in the United States (2001) and the two bombing events in Bali (2002, 2005), there has been renewed interest in emergency prevention policies in many organizations around the world. Functional terrorism preparedness requires changes in organizational thinking about external environmental threats. This shift in organizational thinking could be led by human resource departments. In order to achieve this goal, HR departments must redefine their role in terms of crisis management, and then four key planning measures for insuring postemergency operations should be observed. Using system dynamics (SD) methodology, this article examines the causes of states in which organizations operate after terrorist attacks. Based on the qualitative analytic approach of causal loops, this article explores the major challenges for HR development prompted by terrorism. Specifically, we focus on changes both to organizational communication and to workforce planning and succession. These activities are a tremendous challenge immediately following a disaster. A functional HR plan must include elements for proactive alertness, the ability to dispatch inventory, evacuation plans, and record preservation coupled with dissemination to employees and explicit employee training and cross‐cultural management. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impact of face-to-face street fundraising on organizational reputation

Although many stakeholders perceive face-to-face street fundraising as unpleasant, nonprofit managers encourage it as a way to attract donors. To understand the long-term effects of this fundraising method, we used a mixed-methods experimental design to investigate how face-to-face street fundraising affects organizational reputation and stakeholder support intentions in comparison with letter fundraising. The findings reveal that face-to-face street fundraising has a significant negative influence on the stakeholders' perceptions of an organization. Further, qualitative data show that the negative perception originates primarily from perceived pressure, distrust, and obtrusion, which are triggered by face-to-face street fundraising. Our study thus reveals long-term reputational consequences that nonprofit organizations should consider before deciding on fundraising methods.     

Incorporating employee resourcing requirements into deployment decision making

Employee resourcing is the process of matching human resource capabilities to the strategic and operational needs of the organization. This is exceptionally problematic in project‐based organizations due to the competing priorities of the project, the individual employee, and the wider succession needs of the organization. This article presents the findings of research examining the human resource management practices that form the key components of the resourcing process. These included, inter alia, human resource planning, recruitment and selection, team deployment, performance management, and human resource administration. Current practices were examined in seven leading construction firms, all of which faced dynamic resourcing priorities. Within an inductive methodology, semistructured interviews were carried out with senior executives, human resource management (HRM) specialists, senior operational managers, and project‐based staff. Based on a synthesis of the promising practices extracted from the case‐study organizations, an innovative approach to project resourcing was developed that aims to balance organizational, project, and individual employee requirements. Team deployment resides at the center of resourcing process for the project‐based organization as it determines the success of the project, which in turn determines the competitiveness of the organization. Long‐term planning and employee involvement enable team deployment to integrate with other elements of HRM effectively and thus help to balance the organizational strategic priorities, project requirements, and individual employee needs and preferences.     

SECTOR-SPECIFIC PATTERNS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN CHANGE*

Recent approaches to understanding change in organizations have moved beyond just looking at structure and have focused on the role of values in defining the manner in which organizations change. This article integrates the concepts of design archetypes, tracks and high impact systems in an effort to understand the patterns of change for an institutionally specific set of organizations. the sample used for the study was a set of Canadian national sport organizations undergoing institutional change. Three design archetypes (Kitchen Table, Boardroom and Executive Office) that represent institutionally specific coherent value-structure relationships were used to show that patterns of change are determined by the extent to which the coherence of organizational design elements shift over time. Using these design archetypes as a model for change, tracks were identified that provided an indication of the degree and direction of change and the extent to which design coherence was maintained. This paper shows that there is variety in organizational design coherence and that this is related to patterns of change. In addition, reorientations to a new design are signalled by changes in structures or systems that are central to the organization's purpose and as such can have a high impact on moving the organization to a new design.     

Systems for Sustainable Organizations: Emergent Strategies,Interactive Controls and Semi-formal Information

New-form organizations are likely to organize more explicitly around processes than traditional-form organizations that emphasize functional hierarchy. Developing process-based strategic responses quickly using diffuse sets of resources is likely to play an increasingly important role in sustaining new organizational forms. Three ideas introduce alternative perspectives on strategy formulation, management control and information systems design that may be useful in understanding organizational performance in this area. They focus on: (1) emergent strategies, (2) interactive management controls, and (3) semi-formal systems. In combination these three perspectives describe relationships between strategy, organizational design and systems support that suggest mechanisms for improving the sustainability of new organizational forms. To some degree distributed organizational structures such as networked organizations and quasi-organizational forms such as alliances, partnerships and joint ventures represent attempts to solve a paradox of competitive agility. This paradox suggests that in the context of rapidly changing, increasingly global markets, organizations need to be flexible (so they can respond quickly to competitive threats) yet remain stable (so they can learn and grow based on their strengths). If this is the case, what systems and tools are available that encourage a productive balance between flexibility and stability? This paper uses the experience of regional management teams at a large consumer goods company to suggest how interactive controls and semi-formal information systems combine to increase the agility of a distributed organization that can employ emergent strategies. Evidence illustrates some of the mechanisms by which (a) faster response times deliver organizational flexibility while (b) semi-formal analytics add the stability of knowledge and guidance shared across organizational sites. Examples discuss the use of information within management teams, discussion behaviour within management meetings, and organizational performance in response to crisis events. In this context the paper analyses the characteristics of new-form systems that could be used to sustain new-form organizations While the development of process-oriented semi-formal systems is just beginning, the potential for linking such technology with newly developed approaches to management control appears to have important implications for the practice and performance of management in new-form organizations. In particular, interactive controls and semi-formal information appear to offer leverage as mechanisms for organizational adjustment during times when organizations must exploit emergent strategies     

Strategic Global Human Resource Management: The Role of Inpatriate Managers

The need for highly qualified multicultural managers will increase as more organizations globalize their operations. These global managers may be perceived as organizational resources and, therefore, a resource-based view of human resource management is utilized. At the same time, relational view of human capital provides insight into the value of managers who have unique local market knowledge (i.e., social knowledge). By integrating the two aspects of the resource-based view, one can develop a dynamic capabilities approach to staffing global assignments. Within this integrative theoretical perspective, inpatriate managers (i.e., host or third country managers who are transferred into the home country organization on a semi-permanent to permanent basis) can be explored as a potential pool of uniquely qualified global managers to be utilized in global organizations. It is envisioned that through this unique building of managerial talents, organizations can develop/maintain a distinct competitive advantage in the markets they enter. This article explores inpatriation as an innovative means to develop managers as strategic resources to be used in formulating and implementing a global strategic plan.     

NON-LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS

Whereas organizational learning and unlearning enjoy a well-established reputation in organization theory, non-learning has rarely if ever been discussed. In this article organizational non-learning is characterized, and techniques for non-learning are identified. It is argued that nonlearning organizations have developed a proficiency in ignoring. They may ignore problems and solutions to problems, as well as their own attitudes to these problems and solutions. Non-learning organizations accomplish this essentially by placing problems and potentially problematic issues with somebody else, to be attended to in the future. Their behavior is supported and reinforced by procedures: by the particular distribution of responsibility that procedures entail, and by the fact that procedures recur. A non-learning option allows for organizational discretion. Organizations are free to account for their work in a contradictory manner — realistic and idealistic at the same time. They are free to learn slowly and to take advantage of their learning.