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.     

Looking East: diffusing high performance work practices in the southern Afro-Asian context

Most cross-cultural international human resource management (IHRM) literature contains instructive comparative analyses of East Asian and Western countries and lessons from Japanese best operating practice. There is a paucity of literature extending this debate to the African context and of comparative IHRM work between East Asia and African countries. This article fills a contextual gap in offering a comparative analysis of diffusion and adoption of high performance work practices from East Asia in southern African firms. The continued relevance of 'context' is critically evaluated, given powerful forces for convergence in the global economy. However, much of the debate on the convergence/divergence framework appears to neglect process dynamics and cross-vergence in the development and implementation of hybrid practices as well as reverse diffusion. This article highlights the importance of considering certain variables of local distinctiveness and diversity as features of the notion of cross-vergence which shape particular human resource practices.     

A Ten-Year Study of the Effectiveness of an Educative Programme in Ensuring the Ecological Sustainability of Recreational Activities in the Brisbane Ranges National Park,South-Eastern Australia

Managing the spread of cinnamon fungus, an exotic root-rotting pathogen which kills a wide range of native plants, is an over-riding management concern in the Brisbane Ranges National Park of south-eastern Australia. Parks Victoria has implemented a suite of approaches for informing recreational users about the disease and its ecological impacts. To assess longitudinal changes in the effectiveness of the educative programme, recreational users were surveyed in 1993 and in 2003. 81% were not aware of cinnamon fungus dieback in 1993; the proportion in 2003 was almost unchanged at 83%. Despite the lack of awareness of cinnamon fungus dieback, a large majority (76% in 1993; 74% in 2003) of respondents replied that they had viewed information boards in the park or read visitor guides with information on the disease and its ecological impacts. When recreational users were informed of the impact of infection, there was unanimous support for track closures for quarantine purposes. Our findings indicate that current methods of educating recreational users about cinnamon fungus dieback are not effective. Recommendations are made to improve the penetration of the educational and interpretive information, including the incorporation of affective and cognitive approaches.     

A Confucian perspective on conflict resolution

Chinese business managers, in general, have been portrayed as valuing harmony and peace and having a tendency to avoid confrontation for fear of disturbing relationships involving mutual dependence. This is held to be a reflection of traditional Confucian cultural values.

This paper is an exploratory study which attempts to establish the relationship between the traditional, Confucian cultural values and the modes of conflict resolution preferred by Chinese business managers. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument was employed in this study to describe the preferred conflict resolution modes of Chinese business managers. The results show that compromising tend to be the most preferred conflict resolution mode of Chinese business managers because of the latter's predominantly humanistic, Confucian self-concept.

However, other modes, that is, collaborating, competing, avoiding and accommodating, are also being employed by Chinese business managers as a strategic and political variation of that Confucian self-concept.     

Advertising Spending Efficiency Among Top U.S. Advertisers from 1985 to 2012: Overspending or Smart Managing?

The current study tests two competing predictions of long-term adspend efficiency: the “overspending perspective” predicts continued high inefficiency, while the “smart manager perspective” predicts improved efficiency. Longitudinal analysis of efficiency among top 100 U.S. advertisers from 1985 to 2012 using data envelopment analysis reveals that inefficiency has increased over time. Approximately 61% of top advertisers are inefficiently using their ad dollars and are overspending by an average of 34%. Findings also indicate that the Internet, a medium highly praised and utilized for the amount and depth of consumer data it generates, has not impacted overall efficiency in any meaningful way.     

Does pre‐packed bankruptcy create value? An empirical study of postbankruptcy employment retention in The Netherlands

In recent years, there has been growing interest in whether pre‐packed bankruptcy can be a mechanism through which firms facing imminent insolvency can preserve value. Although an extensive body of literature exists on “pre‐packs,” whether such techniques really preserve value remains ambiguous. By analysing bankruptcy proceedings filed with Dutch courts in the period 2012–2018 through the lenses of real options and debt overhang theory, we examined employment retention postbankruptcy as a consequence of the type of bankruptcy proceeding (pre‐packed bankruptcy and conventional bankruptcy) and the severity of prebankruptcy financial distress. The results show that in the Netherlands, a pre‐packed bankruptcy, when compared with a conventional bankruptcy proceeding, positively impacts employment retention rates after bankruptcy. The severity of financial distress before bankruptcy does not affect employment retention rates postbankruptcy. This implies that despite the amount of resource slack, the preservation of employee value is better served under a pre‐packed bankruptcy than a conventional bankruptcy proceeding. This finding is important for insolvency practice, as up to 22 June 2017, employee rights in the Netherlands (including redundancy) were not considered to be automatically transferred to the firm acquiring the bankrupt debtor's assets when a pre‐packed bankruptcy was applied. Implications for insolvency regulation and practice are discussed.     

Implicit deposit insurance and deposit guarantees: Characteristics of Australian bank risk premia

This paper examines the hypothesis that CD issue yields of Australian banks incorporate a premium that reflects bank risk. Our empirical analysis of Australian banks' CD premiums suggests the data is consistent with this hypothesis and hence supports the view that CD holders do not perceive their deposits as being risk-free. Nor do we find any statistically significant difference between the premiums paid by private banks with implicit deposit insurance vis-a-vis those paid by government-owned banks with explicit government guarantees.     

Issues in diversity in recreation and leisure studies: perspectives from US educators at a public institution of higher education

The value of academic and professional role models cannot be overestimated for today's college and university students of all races. Students are the generational link in the perpetuation of the leisure services profession and 'belong' to the profession via their initial enculturation in educational encounters. Accredited programmes in leisure studies at comprehensive US public colleges have missions that mandate attention to diversity. The following article integrates and synthesizes thought from the most contemporary literature on diversity in higher education, and writings in the discipline of recreation and leisure studies. The authors describe how the instruction of students in leisure studies programmes can benefit from faculty/staff who either represent, or deliberately emphasize, diversity. Positive potential outcomes are presented as they enhance the act of teaching and the process of learning for recreation and leisure studies majors in an increasingly complex, multicultural world.     

By chance or by choice? Biased attribution of others’ outcomes when social preferences matter

Experimental Economics - Decision makers in positions of power often make unobserved choices under risk and uncertainty. In many cases, they face a trade-off between maximizing their own payoff and...