Human resource management and early internationalization: is there a leap-frogging in international staffing?

The present study focuses on the international staffing of early internationalizers by linking the Ethnocentric, Polycentric, Regiocentric, and Geocentric (EPRG) concept with the Process Theories of Internationalization. On a dataset of 116 (N) German medium-sized companies, we test whether the determinants which allow firms to internationalize shortly after their inception, namely prior international experience, technological intensity, and networks, influence the firms' international staffing. We further elaborate whether this influence differs between early and late internationalizers. The empirical results show that prior international experience is not associated with the firms' international staffing at all, and thus, does not allow conclusions. Technological intensity increases the probability of the choice of an ethnocentric staffing policy, especially for early internationalizers. In contrast, networks enable firms, especially early internationalizers, to pursue regiocentric or geocentric staffing policies.     

Broad‐based employee stock ownership: What makes it effective in the management of human resources?

Research linking broad‐based employee stock ownership (BESO) with firm performance continues to receive considerable attention both in and outside the field of management. Despite the evidence being generally positive regarding the BESO–firm performance relationship, there has been a relative dearth of research providing insights into the circumstances surrounding the effectiveness of BESO. With this research gap in mind, we formulated and launched this special issue. This guest editor introduction begins with a look at the research on this topic, followed by a brief discussion of each article accepted for publication. We conclude by highlighting the major themes from the collective contributions of the articles and share insights regarding future research in this growing research domain.     

Human resources in the German maritime industries: ‘back-sourcing’ and ship management

In today's global shipping industry have management functions often been outsourced to separate companies and to overseas locations. With the appearance of socalled ‘flags of convenience’ the world shipping industry has increasingly registered commercial vessels overseas. Following this trend, human resource management functions have also been relocated, with the opening of recruitment offices and the use of HR agencies outside OECD countries. Recently, new German regulation has sought to attract previously outsourced HRM functions back to Germany. A case study of such a newly established firm, called ‘Reimarus’, will exemplify the impact of the new regulation on HR firms in shipping. The following paper analyses this process based on an empirical study of Germany's commercial shipping industry.     

Evolution of the practices of human resource management in France towards a strategic model: rhetoric or reality?

This article analyses the evolution of the human resources management in France. The study attempts to understand the transformation of administrative practices of HRM towards strategic practices of HRM (SHRM) in the French context. It also shows the factors responsible for this change. The results of this study support the development in France of SHRM and the regression of administrative practices of HRM, although a third hybrid model of HRM seems to appear between both practices. This tendency towards SHRM is accentuated in large firms, quoted on the stock exchange, in services and finance sectors with international activities. This study confirms that the SHRM in France is reality rather than rhetoric.     

Human resource management: gendered terrain?

This paper addresses the question of whether human resource management can offer greater possibilities for training, development or career advancement for women. Data from two case-study organizations with contrasting approaches to HRM ('soft' and 'hard') are presented. It was found that events in the external environment had impacted on both organizations and led to a reconceptualization of careers which had affected men and women. In general, women at Lloyds Bank, which was characterized by a bias towards the 'hard' approach to HRM, fared less well than those at Hewlett Packard, where the rhetoric, at least, was of 'soft' HRM. However, women's presence at higher levels in both organizations was limited.     

Deposit insurance as private club: is Germany a model?

This paper describes and evaluates the deposit insurance scheme set up by private commercial banks in Germany in 1975. Unlike schemes in most countries, its funding and management is completely private. While other schemes rely on monitoring by depositors to decrease moral hazard, the German scheme relies on peer monitoring by its member banks. This paper evaluates the German deposit insurance scheme against the background of its unique characteristics, a very concentrated private banking market, a strong institutional environment and an antibankruptcy bias in Germany, and determines to which extent it serves as a model for other countries.     

Who is attracted to an organisation using a forced distribution performance management system?

Arguments related to forced distribution systems (FDS) are often dogmatic, but typically do not consider for whom such systems might be most and least appealing. We examine the relationships between participants' individual differences (cognitive ability, collectivism and core self‐evaluations) and their attraction to an organisation utilising an FDS. From a sample of 143 advanced undergraduate students, we found that individuals were more likely to be attracted to an organisation using FDS when they possessed higher levels of cognitive ability and perceived FDS to be fairer. We also found a significant interaction between respondents' collectivism and fairness perceptions of FDS, indicating that individuals who are high in collectivism are particularly sensitive to perceptions of FDS fairness. Implications for organisational practice and future research are discussed.     

Developing a ‘European’ model of human resource management

The concept of human resource management (HRM) has been much debated in the literature. Space limitations preclude an examination of that debate here, but it is clear that the concept developed initially from work in the United States of America in the 1960s and 1970s and since then has been adopted increasingly in the academic literature, by consultancy services and in organizational terminology. The terminology spread from the USA firstly into the developed English speaking world and recently - and more partially - into Europe. Is the concept, as opposed to the terminology, applicable in Europe? This paper argues that the organizational autonomy on which the subject is propounded in the United States is not espoused in Europe. A range of subject areas in which organizations in Europe are supported/constrained by external factors are analysed, thus challenging the validity of the American model. This raises the need to consider different conceptual approaches to HRM: a new model of the concept which would encompass EuroHRM is proposed.     

Work performance: is it one thing or many things? The multidimensionality of performance in a Middle Eastern context

This paper aims at exploring the multidimensional nature of performance in a Middle Eastern country. Using eighteen-item scales, 1,000 employees from twenty industrial firms were surveyed, representing the three managerial levels, i.e. top, middle and bottom management. Both self-performance ratings (SPR) and immediatesupervisor-performance ratings (ISPR) were used to examine the dimensionality of performance. The study results revealed that performance is a multifaceted concept, and that it comprises five factors. Both SPR and ISPR were found to be multidimensional constructs. The implications of the results for both researchers and practitioners are also discussed in the paper.     

What is it going to cost? Empirical evidence from a systematic literature review of audit fee determinants

Management Review Quarterly - The audit market is subject to ongoing regulation to ensure or improve the quality of audit services. For this reason, international research on the audit market is...     

What does it take to be (counted as) unemployed? The case of Spain

This paper analyzes the effects of the new European Commission regulation 1897/2000 which establishes a new definition of unemployment. It first examines the conditions that unemployed people have to meet in order to be deleted from unemployment by the new notion, to turn then to an application to the case of Spain, the first country where the new regulation was implemented. The paper then turns to study whether the very nature of the regulation is warranted, i.e. whether it is appropriate to delete passive job seekers from unemployment, on the basis of their labour market behaviour. The conclusion is that the new regulation does not capture the real complexities of the labour market.     

Consolidation in the European banking industry: how effective is it?

The European banking industry is becoming increasingly consolidated as banks engage in domestic and cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) activities. Due to cultural differences in cross-border consolidations, the benefits of domestic and cross-border consolidations are likely to differ. This paper examines the effectiveness of merger processes, with a detailed analysis of both domestic and cross-border consolidations in Europe from 1998 to 2004. Effectiveness is measured via several criteria: improvement in costs, return on assets (ROA), and return on equity (ROE). To analyze potential cost efficiency improvement, we use a stochastic cost frontier approach. The same methodology is used for ROA and ROE to estimate efficiency in profitability. Finally, considering cross-border mergers as a form of entry, we carry out an analysis of the entry effect in response to the performance and profitability of the incumbent market participants. Results show that mergers in the European banking industry have been effective. Although domestic M&As are more common than cross-border M&As, banks involved in cross-border M&As are more efficient. Moreover, cross-border merged banks seem to outperform incumbent banks.     

Human resource management with ‘Asian’ characteristics: a hybrid people-management system in East Asia

The central theme of this article is to illustrate the similarity and difference of people-management system among the key economies in East Asia. The article not only identifies what elements do exist in East Asian people-management system, but also examines other new elements being adopted into the existing system with the influences from the US and Europe. The authors analyse the information on the changes of people-management system, factors causing the changes and time. The common phenomenon is that when there is a crisis, then that may provide some opportunities for drastic changes. The authors conclude the article by pointing out that HRM is in a reforming process towards hybrid people-management system in East Asia. However, this reforming process is not one-way only. A triangle-influence between East Asia, Europe and the US is the reality. In addition, multi-factors are shaping the outcome of reforming people-management system in East Asia, identified as foreign influence, the State's influence, the stage of social and economic development, and national and organizational historical path. Other economies, no matter in East Asia or other parts of the world, may draw some lessons from this study.     

Power of sustainable development: Does environmental management system certification affect a firm's access to finance?

Although prior research generated inconclusive findings between a firm's environmental management system and firm financial performance, attention to resolve this inconsistency by examining the internal channels is limited. Thus, this study focuses on a firm's access to finance and investigates whether a firm's environmental management system certification (EMS) leads to better access to finance. Based on the organizational legitimacy perspective, we hypothesize that this certification will benefit a firm with stakeholder approval and support and consequently alleviate its financial capital constraints. We further posit that the proposed relationship will be moderated by three types of legitimacy environments pertaining to how stakeholders and investors make the judgment on the environmental management system certification. We document that the proposed relationship, that is, the positive relationship between environmental management system certification and access to finance, will be stronger when the government attaches larger importance to environmental protection (regulative legitimacy), better environmental record (moral legitimacy), and better financial position (pragmatic legitimacy). Empirical analyses provide strong corroborating evidence for our predictions. These findings have important theoretical and managerial implications that are well discussed in this study.     

Company performance in Ukraine: is this a market economy?

This paper examines empirically the responsiveness of firm performance to ownership and market structures, sector and regional specificity, and varying degrees of soft budget constraints. It does so by providing a “snapshot” of the economy. For cross-sectional data on Ukrainian firms in 1998, the paper presents evidence that the firms in the snapshot behaved more as if they were still in a loosely reformed Soviet environment where exchange via interpersonal connections, rather than the price mechanism, determined the allocation of resources.     

Executive development in China: is there any in a Western sense?

A recurring theme in the literature on Chinese management has been the impact of culture and, in particular, the influence of values derived from Confucianism on Chinese management practices. The reforms that led to foreign direct investment (FDI), the problems of State-owned enterprises (SOEs), the social, political and economic changes and analyses of Chinese managerial styles and performance have been the major concerns. There has been less attention specifically paid to Chinese managers' characteristics and to managerial career patterns, which may be shaped by national culture and values. In contrast, in the West, there is a vast body of literature covering career theories and managerial growth, dealing variously with personal values and other factors, such as family upbringing, education, social background and employment structure, that have major impacts on managers' career pathways. This paper explores how far executive career development in modern China (PRC) corresponds to Western notions, and also tries to determine whether there are specific factors relating to Chinese executives' personal biographies and career paths. A pilot study was carried out to identify the variables that might shed light on career patterns and, if possible, to profile the Chinese manager. A number of emergent themes are described. They derive from the experience of individual interviewees who took part in the pilot research, which was conducted in Beijing and Shanghai and in which forty-nine managers in forty-two companies were interviewed. These pilot interviews revealed a complex interplay of biographical data and career themes. Of clear importance was the guanxi mechanism (direct or indirect personal relationship to solicit favours) which has no exact comparison in the West and which does not figure in Western career theories. A preliminary tentative Chinese executive career model has been developed.     

Strategy rhetoric in city management: How the presumptions of classic strategic management live on?

This article focuses on the cultural and textual (re)production of the taken-for-granted assumptions of orthodox strategic management in city management practice. It is suggested that in order to make sense of the persistence of some of the classic difficulties of strategic management we need to study not only the strategy processes, but also the language practices of the dominant strategy models. By performing a detailed textual analysis of the rhetoric of one particular strategy document, the article shows how strong strategic leadership and hierarchical relationships persist. In addition the analysis illustrates how a paradox called `participation by command’ is produced by combining the classic top-down strategy rhetoric with the new strategy discourse focusing on empowerment, networks and cooperation.