Evaluating the human resource shared services model: evidence from the NHS

This paper examines the shared service model of organizing the human resource management function. It reports the results from a study of the introduction of human resource shared services (HRSS) in four NHS organizations. Findings suggest that the HRSS model has a number of advantages for organizations but that it has difficulty addressing the transformational HR agenda. In contrast, with the exception of a small cadre of staff, there is few advantages for HR employees themselves in HRSS systems. We suggest that the apparent neglect of the work experience of HR staff under HRSS models may significantly undermine the potential for its wider successful implementation.     

How effective human resource management promotes corporate entrepreneurship: evidence from China

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) represents a set of HRM practices that are aligned with firm strategies. The relationship between SHRM and organizational performance has been extensively examined; however, whether and how SHRM influences corporate entrepreneurship remains unknown. Based on the resource-based perspective, this study examined a model linking SHRM with corporate entrepreneurship. The importance of HRM people's political skill for a firm's development of devolved management through SHRM implementation was also examined. Data from a survey of 201 Chinese manufacturing firms confirm a significant relationship between SHRM and corporate entrepreneurship and that the relationship is partially mediated by a devolved management style. The relationship between SHRM and devolved management was shown to be stronger for firms with more politically skillful HRM people.     

Private takings

This paper examines the implications associated with a recent Supreme Court ruling, Kelo v. City of New London (2005). Kelo can be interpreted as supporting eminent domain as a means of transferring property rights from one set of private agents—landowners—to another private agent—a developer. Under voluntary exchange, where the developer sequentially acquires property rights from landowners via bargaining, a holdout problem arises. Eminent domain gives all of the bargaining power to the developer and, as a result, eliminates the holdout problem. This is the benefit of Kelo. However, landowners lose all their bargaining power and, as a result, their property investments become more inefficient. This is the cost of Kelo. A policy of eminent domain increases social welfare compared to voluntary sequential exchange only when the holdout problem is severe, and this occurs only if the developer has very little bargaining power. We propose an alternative government policy that eliminates the holdout problem but does not affect the bargaining power of the various parties. This alternative policy strictly dominates a policy of eminent domain, which implies that eminent domain is an inefficient way to transfer property rights between private agents.     

Arms production as a form of import-substituting industrialization: The Turkish case

There has been a trend towards increased Third World arms production since the 1960s and by the beginning of the 1980s some 46 developing countries were producing or planning to produce weapons domestically. This paper examines the arguments for indigenous Third World arms production in the context of the Turkish case. The evidence indicates that arms production will be inefficient, expensive and unreliable with limited export potential. The manufacturing base in Turkey is too weak to provide essential components, which will need to be imported, and licensed production will ensure technological dependence is maintained. Employment and backward linkages will be small and, given scarce resources, development will be affected adversely.     

A new game plan for C players

It's a big driver of business success, but one that executives are loath to talk about: upgrading the talent pool by weeding out "C" players from management. These aren't the incompetent or unethical managers whom organizations dismiss without a backward glance; C performers deliver results that are acceptable--barely--but they fail to innovate or to inspire the people they lead. The authors of The War for Talent have studied what it takes to upgrade an organization's talent pool. In this article, they explore the hidden costs of tolerating under-performance and acknowledge the reasons why executives may shy away from dealing decisively with C players. They recommend that organizations take an "iron hand in a velvet glove" approach to managing subpar performers. That is, companies should establish rigorous, disciplined processes for assessing and dealing with low-performing managers but still treat them with respect. The authors outline three ironhanded steps. First, executives must identify C players by evaluating their talents and distributing employee performances along an assessment curve. Second, executives must agree on explicit action plans that articulate the improvements or changes that C performers must achieve within six to 12 months. And third, executives should hold managers accountable for carrying out the action plans. Without such discipline, procrastination, rationalization, and inaction will prevail. The authors also emphasize the need for the "velvet glove." Executives must ensure that low performers are treated with dignity, so they should offer candid feedback, instructive coaching, and generous severance packages and outplacement support. The authors' approach isn't about being tough on people; it's about being relentlessly focused on performance.     

The four spikes

The unintended impacts of human appropriation of the planet's resources have become so numerous, voluminous, and entangled in feedback loops that they often overwhelm the capacities of decisionmakers to cope with current crises, much less prepare for a sustainable future. The difficulty may be alleviated by viewing global change from a broader perspective than is normally offered either by specialists (whose views are necessarily narrow) or by mainstream media (whose interests are usually fragmentary and parochial). From this broader perspective, it can be seen that four “megaphenomena” began sweeping the planet in the past century. Graphed on a time-line of millennia rather than years or days, they appear as four enormous “spikes” — of human population, materials/energy consumption, carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, and extinctions of species. These megaphenomena account for the proliferation of afflictions swamping humanity at the outset of the 21st century. Understanding the nature of the spikes may offer the most viable means of managing — by attacking the roots — of what could otherwise escalate into an increasingly disastrous cascade of impacts.