Tackling landslide risk: Helping land use policy to reflect unplanned housing realities in the Eastern Caribbean

Landslide risk reduction in developing countries is preferable to disaster remediation and recovery, in both social and economic terms. The implementation of landslide preventative measures is closely related to the development of ‘good practice’ in land use management, at government and community levels, especially in the face of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. These areas of poverty and vulnerability to ‘natural’ hazards present a challenging environment for which to develop realistic land use policies and practices. There is little evidence of on-the-ground delivery of landslide risk reduction. However, scientifically based landslide risk reduction strategies can be effective. In the Eastern Caribbean construction of drainage networks in communities afforded an improvement in slope stability – after a 1 in 100-year rainfall event there were no landslides on previously unstable slopes in densely populated urban communities. This has been recognised in policy terms in the first ever Caribbean-wide, 5-year risk reduction programme. Such evidence represents an important first step in developing realistic land use policies for landslide-prone areas occupied by those migrating to urban centres in the Eastern Caribbean.     

Antecedents of well-being: a study to examine the extent to which personality and emotional intelligence contribute to well-being

In the debate surrounding the relationships between HRM and performance, there is an argument suggesting that a focus on understanding the role of employee attitudes and behaviours may elicit valuable insights into performance drivers. In examining individual behaviour and performance links, there is evidence that well-being plays a significant role. Other notable performance antecedents are personality and emotional intelligence (EI). This paper explores the relationships between these variables and reports the findings from a study of 156 managers. Results show relationships between well-being and EI as well as with personality, although EI explained variance beyond personality dimensions. The implications for HR of these findings are discussed.     

Accuity携手青鸟商务开拓中国支付市场

在严格遵守反洗钱监管机构规定的合规及尽职调查法规前提下，提高支付效率成为当前国内商业银行关注的话题。作为国际知名的支付数据、反洗钱软件和服务的供应商，Accuity一直致力于银行业支付效率的提高。在中国市场，北京青鸟商务应用技术发展有限公司（以下简称“青鸟商务”）作为Accuity的合作伙伴，     

A study of follower's personality,implicit leadership perceptions,and leadership ratings

This research was designed to test the theoretical relationship between personality, implicit leadership, and leadership style suggested in past studies. Specifically, it was designed to link traits from the five‐factor model of personality (the Big Five), by utilizing the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), to a follower's perception of the leadership style of George W. Bush, based on Bass and Avolio's (1997) MLQ5X. A voluntary sample was taken consisting of undergraduate and graduate students from three universities in southern Texas in 2006, with a sample size of N = 303. Respondents who scored high in neuroticism rated the leader as less transformational than those who did not. Also, the ancillary variable good leadership had a positive effect on the respondent's ratings of the leader as a transformational leader, and as a less passive leader, than subjects who did not rate the leader as being a good leader. There was a significant relationship found between respondents' political party affiliation and their transformational and passive leadership ratings. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the Obama versus McCain presidential race.     

China's Labour-Management System Reforms: Breaking the ‘Three Old Irons’ (1978–1999)

This article systematically examines the fundamental changes that have taken place in China's labour-management system since China embarked on its economic reforms in 1978. The system was, from the 1950s onwards, characterized by what were called the three old irons, i.e. life-time employment (the iron rice bowl), centrally administered wages (the iron wage), and state-controlled appointment and promotion of managerial staff (the iron chair). This study reviews the degree to which the reform process is breaking these three old irons and is arguably replacing them with a hybrid human resource management model, albeit with Chinese characteristics, that reflects the influence of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) that have invested in China.     

Changing patterns of human resource management in contemporary China: WTO accession and enterprise responses

This study examines the increasingly complex challenges facing human resource management (HRM) in China following the country's accession to the WTO and, consequently, the implications for further reform of government policy and enterprise‐level HRM practices. The article concludes that current HR practices among enterprises vary depending on ownership, industrial sector, location and history. The direction of future changes may depend on the level of involvement from external forces as well as internal strategies adopted by Chinese enterprises to survive.