Human resource management,trade unions and empowerment: two cases from India

This paper discusses the introduction of schemes aimed at employee empowerment within a context of strong industrial relations in India. The pressure put on profit margins by a competitive business environment is forcing an increasing number of Indian enterprises to view employee empowerment as a serious strategic option. Getting workers to take responsibility for shop-floor decisions over quality, safety, productivity and material use appears, at first sight, an alluring prospect. It would seem that men and women at the bottom of the pyramid cannot but be warmly appreciative of power-sharing arrangements from which they have something to gain, but there are forces at work which can actively obstruct or quietly subvert attempts at redistributing power. In this paper the focus is on some of the motives a trade union might have to do so.     

Globalization,labour markets and human resources in Asia-Pacific economies: an overview

Abstract This article argues that the impact of globalization on labour markets and human resources on the Asia-Pacific economies may be recognizable but is as yet relatively limited. The sheer variation of geography, population, economies, labour markets, IR and HRM systems there, as well as of values and the like, makes it difficult to talk of 'hard convergence'. We thus emphasize the notion of 'soft convergence'. The article develops a number of empirical propositions regarding the uneven impact of globalization on economies in the region. It concludes that any generalization on this theme should be greatly qualified.     

Externalization of employees: thinking about going somewhere else

Externalization of employment relations was a general trend among businesses in the 1990s. As a consequence we observe an increasing use of temporary workers, outsourcing and insourcing. This paper is concerned with the consequences of externalization of employment relations from the perspective of employees. The paper is based on an in-depth empirical study of a corporate adjustment programme in a large government-owned energy producer in Sweden. The company is trying to stimulate internal mobility by means of training programmes, adjusting its workforce to changes in market demand without lay-offs. I argue that externalization of employment relations is not only a matter of temporary, administrative or geographical distance between employer and employee. Instead a complementary form - externalization of responsibility - is suggested. The results may have consequences for the understanding of human resource policies aiming at employability.     

A survey of corporate perceptions of short-termism among analysts and fund managers

There is a popularly held view that institutional investors and stockbrokers' analysts take a short-term view when making or advising on investment decisions. Short-termism is held to be a particular problem for economies such as the US and the UK which rely heavily on stock exchanges to price securities and help reallocate resources through take-over. This is deemed to be detrimental to long-term corporate development and overall economic growth. The paper seeks to show the extent to which directors of large UK companies perceive that analysts and institutional investors evaluate their companies on short-term criteria. The role of institutional investors in the context of short-termism is important because they own a large proportion of equity. The paper then seeks to explain why some company directors appear to believe in short-termism while others do not. Hence the paper is not investigating whether ‘the City’ is short-termist but is examining the reasons why directors of large publicly quoted companies believe ‘the City’ is or is not short-termist about their company. The conclusion of this paper is that there is some evidence to support the view that ‘the City’ is perceived as being short-termist towards some companies but that the phenomenon is more narrowly focused and of lesser importance than its supporters claim.     

Economic relations between China and the U.S

ABSTRACT

First, we summarise the chronology of the China-U.S. trade war. We then show that the China-U.S. trade surplus, correctly measured, is not as large as it is made out to be, but is nevertheless still a large number. In terms of the total domestic value-added generated by the exports of goods to each other, the China-U.S. bilateral gap is even smaller. Next, we analyse both the immediate and real impacts of the mutual tariffs on the two economies. Third, we discuss economic and technological competition between China and the U.S. and present long-term projections of the two economies to 2050. Fourth, we identify the economic complementarities between China and the U.S. We then discuss the possibility of coordinated expansion of trade. Fifth, we also discuss the thorny bilateral issues in the economic relations between the two countries.     

Approaches to investor relations: implementation in the British context

This paper reports on an empirical study conducted in British organizations focusing on the role of investor relations as part of a coordinated marketing communications strategy. Consequently, this study considers the greatly neglected research area of the management of relationships between national and international organizations and both investors and those others who might consider themselves significant financial stakeholders. It examines the organizational role of investor relations within a coordinated communication programme and suggests that communication with financial stakeholders has a significant role to play as part of a developed corporate communication strategy.     

Multinationals and human resource practices in Ireland: a rejection of the 'new conformance thesis'

In a previous edition of this journal, Turner et al. (1997a) claim that the industrial relations and human resource management practices of multinational companies operating in Ireland bear a close resemblance to those of indigenous firms. The advancement of this (new) conformance thesis stands in stark contrast to much recent work on Irish industrial relations. In this paper we criticize Turner et al.'s argument for its failure to appreciate and acknowledge the weight of evidence both internationally and in Ireland which points to the predominance of 'country-of-origin effects' over 'hostcountry effects', especially in countries characterized by weak industrial relations systems. We are also critical of the empirical basis of the 'new conformance thesis'. In analysing data from a recently conducted national workplace survey our doubts as to the empirical validity and generalizability of Turner et al.'s results are confirmed. In brief, the 'new conformance thesis' is refuted and the employment relations practices of foreign- and particularly US-owned establishments are shown to be very different from those of Irish workplaces.     

Bulgaria's Long March Towards Meaningful Credit Contracts

This article is based on the hypothesis that the development of creditors' remedies and their actual practicability is a good yardstick for progress towards the rule of law. According to this measure Bulgaria achieved little progress throughout much of the 1990s, but this improved significantly after 1997. Legal reforms were only one among several factors driving this progress; among the others were macroeconomic stabilisation, privatisation, the disintegration of trade unions and the ultimate failure of attempts to keep most of the socialist giants alive. Only the recognition of this failure facilitated some crucial reforms; nevertheless these reforms have been too halfhearted to put creditors' rights on a secure footing. In actual fact debtors have remained a very well protected group.     

桂越边境贸易关系探析

本文首先重点分析了桂越边境贸易的现状及双方进出口产品的竞争力,并总结了双边贸易中所存在的问题;然后探寻了对其产生影响的具体因素;在此基础上,最后提出了相应的改进措施,以期促进桂越边境贸易的进一步发展。     

Strategic and environmental determinants of HRM innovations in post-socialist Poland

In the last two decades, research in human resource management has increasingly focused on the strategic linkage between the activities of the human resource function and the business goals of enterprises. Most of the theoretical and empirical work in this area has focused on the US context. This paper extends this research to a non-US business environment. Specifically, we examine data from 303 state-owned, domestic private and foreign-owned Polish firms to test how strategic and environmental variables are related to the adoption of human resource innovations. This analysis suggests that business strategies, local labour markets and the presence of foreign competition are related to the complexity and extensiveness of firm-level human resource practices.