HRM practice in emerging economies: a long way to go in the Slovak hotel industry?

Using empirical data from interviews among leading hotels in Slovakia, this paper sets out to explore recent developments in human resource management (HRM) policies and practices and labour relations in an emerging Central European economy. The main areas explored are the HRM function, employee resourcing, employee development, employee relations and emerging HRM issues. The paper establishes that there has been a move away from the traditional rigid socialist type of personnel management, but it has not been fully replaced by HRM practices. The emergent 'model' is a hybrid of the traditional Western personnel management and basic HRM activities, alongside which some legacies of the socialist personnel function still exist.     

Customer attributions of service failure and its impact on commitment in the airline industry: an emerging market perspective

The purpose of this study was to establish the impact of customer service failure attributions on customer commitment and the influence of service failure severity on recovery satisfaction. Data were collected through structured questionnaires and the hypotheses were tested using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The study revealed that service failure severity and attribution dimensions of stability and controllability influence recovery satisfaction. No relationship was established between locus of causality and recovery satisfaction. It was revealed that recovery satisfaction influences customer commitment and knowledge of alternatives moderates the relationship between the two. Service providers are recommedend to avoid preventable service failures.     

Mobility and the middle classes: a case study of Manchester and the North West

While much is known about the mobility patterns of the middle classes in London and the South East, far less is certain about middle‐class migration patterns in other regions of the country. Nor has the importance of other regional centres in providing opportunities in the professions and management been acknowledged. This article rectifies these omissions by drawing on research with young professionals employed in Manchester in the North West. It explores the migratory patterns of the ‘migrant’ interviewees. The article will show that the majority of young professionals were ‘migrants’ in having been geographically mobile at some point in their lives. Different types of migrants are identified: (1) those with family affiliations; (2) those with university roots; and (3) those with (seemingly) no connections to the city or the region. These migratory practices are shaped by different factors: namely, the close proximity of family and friends, attractive job opportunities in Manchester, the role of universities in establishing roots and a sense of belonging and, finally, an identification with the North — widely defined and straddling the Pennines. These factors also shaped the residential patterns of the sample. Si l'on connaît l'essentiel des schémas de mobilité des classes moyennes à Londres et dans le Sud‐Est, on a bien moins de certitudes quant aux modèles migratoires de ces populations dans d'autres régions britanniques. Pas plus que n'a été reconnue l'importance d'autres centres régionaux concernant l'offre d'opportunités pour les professions libérales et les cadres. Cet article corrige ces omissions à partir d'une étude réalisée auprès de jeunes diplômés travaillant à Manchester dans le Nord‐Ouest. Il étudie les schémas migratoires des ‘migrants’ interrogés. En majorité, ces jeunes sont des ‘migrants’, car ils ont été mobiles géographiquement à un moment de leur vie. Parmi eux, différents types sont identifiés: ceux qui ont des attaches familiales, ceux qui ont des racines universitaires, et ceux qui n'ont (en apparence) aucun lien avec la ville ou la région. Plusieurs facteurs façonnent ces pratiques migratoires, à savoir: proximité de famille ou d'amis, propositions d'emploi attirantes à Manchester, fonction d'enracinement et de sentiment d'appartenance des universités et, enfin, identification au Nord — selon une définition large s'étendant de part et d'autre des Pennines. D'après l'échantillon, ces facteurs structurent également les schémas résidentiels.     

Inflation,stabilization and attempted redemocratization in Peru, 1975–1979

This paper discusses the acute stabilization crisis of 1975–1978 and attempts to explain why, for so long, it proved difficult to handle both in economic and in political terms. The role of external creditors, in particular the International Monetary Fund (IMF), is discussed. We examine the response of the entrepreneurial and labour sectors to the policy of the government, and attempt to explain why a coup along Chilean lines would have been very difficult to impose in Peru. Finally we analyse the implications of the recovery of 1979, when suddenly IMF targets were easily fulfilled, but with a proposed return to democracy and not, as in the southern-cone countries, a repressive authoritarianism. The development of 1979 do not qualify the earlier analysis of the unsuitability of abrupt and orthodox stabilization to an economy such as Peru's.     

A conceptual model of how people adopt recreation activities

This paper reports an investigation of the process which mediates between preoccupations and interests and the point at which a specific recreational activity is adopted. In conceptualizing this process, a phenomenological approach is utilized with three series of interviews. The practical application of the model was also explored, using a written questionnaire. Four necessary and sufficient conditions: opportunity, knowledge, favourable social milieu and receptiveness, are identified. The concept of a key event is used to explain how these are integrated, often being modified in the process, so as to result in adoption when a satisfying experience is anticipated.     

Integrating online communities within business-to-business marketing communications: an exploratory study

The article provides a conceptual contribution by developing a framework for business-to-business (B2B) marketers seeking to implement online communities (OLCs). Furthermore, the conceptual contribution is augmented by a small-scale exploratory study comprising in-depth interviews with B2B chief marketing officers (CMOs). The findings challenge existing thinking that B2B marketers can follow generic marketing communication frameworks. This is due to the differences in B2B OLCs in terms of multiple stakeholders and two-way information flows and differences in buyer behaviour. For researchers, the contribution is an embryonic model that will facilitate future conceptual development as well as empirical testing through a series of research propositions. A sequential decision-making framework, which identifies key implementation challenges, is provided for B2B managers.     

Remuneration practice in a wages council sector: some empirical observations in hotels

The Wages Act 1986 aimed to change the substantive and procedural rules of remuneration practice in order to increase labour market flexibility. Here the findings of a subsequent study on wages and employment conditions are presented and assessed in relation to some of the potential effects of the 1986 legislation     

What Is happening to middle managers in Europe? problems and promises associated with their changing roles and responsibilities

Few people have anything encouraging to say about middle management: past, present, or future. The picture of middle management that comes from many articles and from the business press is predominantly a gloomy one. Most writers portray the middle manager as a frustrated, disillusioned individual caught in the middle of a hierarchy, impotent, and with no real hope of career progression. In this article, these predictions are discussed and compared with a recent study of middle management in Europe that suggests a different picture. The authors have been participating in a six-country Western European study, initiated and partially funded by the European Foundation for Living and Working conditions, which has been examining the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to such changes. Specifically, the study sought to examine the nature of the changes affecting middle management jobs and careers and middle managers' reactions to these changes in six countries: U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, and The Netherlands. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.