Small system dynamics model for alleviating the general practitioners rural care gap in Ontario,Canada

The disproportionate concentration of healthcare professionals in urban areas is a concern in many countries, including Canada. A need to address this rural care gap has driven a large number of government led initiatives worldwide over the years. This paper presents a model that can be used as a tool to examine the efficacy of such policies on the workforce distribution in the long term. A small system dynamics model is employed to simulate the current and future distribution of general physicians at a jurisdictional level. The model represents the transition of general practitioners to provide insight into the dynamics of care provision over time. The movement, and competition, between rural and urban areas is modeled to enable detailed exploration of the ability for proposed measures to alleviate the care gap in the future. Among the tested policies are such commonly used initiatives as financial incentives to rural professionals, promotion of medical education in rural areas, expansion of rural education programs and the engagement of international medical graduates etc. We demonstrate how the model can be used as a tool to determine an efficient and well-chosen combination of policies which can help alleviate the rural care gap in the future, given that some policies are more effective than others alone but also combined with other initiatives. The presented small system dynamics model is tested on Canada's reality, but its simple nature lends itself to easy application to other countries that experience a similar problem.     

Green human resource management and the enablers of green organisational culture: Enhancing a firm's environmental performance for sustainable development

Scholars have shown that green human resource management (GHRM) practices enhance a firm's environmental performance. However, existing studies fail to explain how GHRM initiatives can enable a green organisational culture or how such a culture affects the environmental performance and sustainable development of the firm. This paper examines the relationship between GHRM practices, the enablers of green organisational culture, and a firm's environmental performance. We conduct a large‐scale survey of 204 employees at Chinese manufacturing firms. Our findings suggest that proenvironmental HRM practices including hiring, training, appraisal, and incentivisation support the development of the enablers of green organisational culture. We suggest the key enablers of green organisational culture include leadership emphasis, message credibility, peer involvement, and employee empowerment. Our paper contributes to HRM theory in terms of originality and utility of research by explaining that the enablers of green organisational culture positively mediate the relationship between GHRM practices and environmental performance. Managers are provided with a detailed understanding of the GHRM practices needed to enable an organisational culture of environmentally aware employees. Finally, we address potential implications of this work for teaching green organisational culture to future generations of responsible managers.     

Green human resource management: Development of a valid measurement scale

The objective of the study was to develop a valid measurement scale for green human resource management (HRM). Even though the common practices of green HRM have been presented in much of the literature, the previous studies focused only on a small number of functions in integrating environmental management with HRM. Additionally, the measurement of green HRM practices still calls for empirical validation. The two‐stage methodology of structural equation modeling in AMOS was employed for data analysis. Exploratory factor analysis revealed seven dimensions of the construct measured by 28 items. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the factor structure. The measuring instruments revealed convergent and discriminant validity. Several model fit indices indicated the model fitness. The study provided supplementary evidence on the underlying structure of the construct that can be valuable to researchers and practitioners in this area.     

The virtuous circle of human resource investments: A precrisis and postcrisis analysis

We propose a dynamic model of positive feedback between human resource (HR) investments and companies' economic performance. The model assumes that HR investment increases profitability through labor productivity and, in turn, profitability improves HR investment through organizational slack. Based on data from a sample of 2,497 industrial companies over a 7‐year period (2005–2011), longitudinal analysis corroborates the existence of a two‐way relationship between HR investment and profitability over time. However, the emergence of an economic crisis weakens this feedback, identifying the effect of organizational slack on HR investment as the weakest causal chain link. In a postcrisis period, HR investment is not such a high priority for managers.     

The relationship between principals’ configuration of a bundle of HR practices for new teachers and teachers’ person–organisation fit

Abstract

Based on studies in the private sector showing the positive effects of strategic human resources management (SHRM) on performance, many stress the value of adopting SHRM in the public sector. However, until now, the argument for applying SHRM in the public sector remains largely theoretical. Especially in educational contexts, it is unclear through which mechanisms SHRM affects performance. Therefore, this paper zooms in on the relationship between the configuration of a bundle of human resources (HR) practices and person–organisation (P–O) fit. A mixed methods design was used to collect both qualitative and quantitative data from principals and teachers in 56 Flemish primary schools. The qualitative data, which provides insight into principals’ configuration of HR practices, were converted into numerical scores and analysed, together with the quantitative teacher data, using multilevel analysis. The results show that both principals’ strategic and HR orientation are associated with teachers’ P–O fit. This study contributes to the research field of SHRM in education by studying a bundle of HR practices and how this relates to the fit of teachers’ own values with the school culture. The practical implications for schools are discussed.     

In the line of fire: managing expatriates in hostile environments

Abstract

This study explores best practice in the preparation and protection of strategic HRs deployed by Multinational corporations (MNCs) in hostile environments. By building on the literature from the areas of strategic and IHRM, expatriation, as well as risk and crisis management, the limitations and gaps of the extant research are highlighted. This provides a foundation for our investigation through a series of in-depth interviews with corporate executives, and insurers and relocation specialists with professional expertise in protecting and supporting HRs. This represents the first time such a detailed picture of the partnerships between MNCs and the specialists, required to deliver preparation and protection in hostile environments, has been depicted in the IHRM literature. The findings identify the challenges MNCs face when protecting their HRs and highlights the importance of specialist expertise, knowledge, and management. A framework for managing HRs within international hostile environments is subsequently developed offering an opportunity to systematically consider some of the ethical and strategic issues associated with the contemporary challenges of international mobility.     

浅谈企业的人才留用机制与人力资源管理问题

进入现代社会,企业之间的竞争日益激烈,而要想在激烈的市场竞争中站稳脚跟,就必须加强企业的人才储备。本文对人才留用机制的建设和人力资源管理方面提出一些意见和建议以供参考。     

我国资源系统健康状况评价——基于熵值赋权视角

随着我国资源消耗量的逐年增加、资源压力的攀升,资源系统的健康状况也亟待诊断与评价。将资源系统分为资源占有子系统、资源消耗子系统和资源供需压力子系统,在各个子系统内选取评价指标,构建出我国资源系统健康状况评价指标体系。运用熵值赋权法对我国资源系统健康评价指标进行赋权,计算出各个评价指标项和子系统的评价值,并依据评价结果对资源系统健康状况进行总体评价。     

企业间合作创新演化博弈研究

运用演化博弈理论及方法,构建基于知识资源企业间合作演化博弈模型,研究知识资源因素对企业合作创新策略选择的影响。研究结果表明,选择合作策略的概率与知识资源的收益系数及相互间的信任水平正相关,与知识资源的成本和风险系数负相关。以此为基础,提出了激励企业利用知识资源进行合作的策略建议。     

干旱区内陆河流域城镇化与水资源环境系统耦合分析——以石羊河流域为例

在建立内陆河流域城镇化与水资源环境系统耦合评价指标体系的基础上,以石羊河流域为例,运用灰色关联分析法定量分析流域城镇化与水资源环境系统交互耦合的主要因素,并揭示了耦合度的时空变化规律。结果表明:①流域城镇化与水资源环境系统内部要素间的交互耦合是复杂的。其中,城镇人口增长较快、社会化服务水平较低、产业结构不合理是胁迫水资源环境的主要因素,而总用水规模偏大、水资源管理落后以及水资源匮乏的本底条件是制约流域城镇化的主要原因。②流域城镇化与水资源环境系统耦合度的时序变动表现出明显的阶段性和波动性,其变化曲线呈现出两个连续U型。第一个U型表明2001—2007年期间水资源环境对城镇化的约束力总体上是先变小、后变大的趋势。第二个U型在验证2007年《甘肃省石羊河流域重点治理规划》出台后流域生态恶化趋势有所缓和的同时,警示继续加强流域水资源综合管理以实现耦合协调的必要性。③各县(区)耦合度表现出复杂多样的空间差异,这与各县(区)所处的经济社会发展水平、城镇化进程以及区域自然条件有关。