Human Resource

Human resource management (HRM, or simply HR) is a function in organizations designed to maximize employee performance in service of their employer's strategic objectives. (HRM in changing organizational contexts, 2009). HR is primarily concerned with how people are managed within organizations, focusing on policies and systems ( Human resource management: A critical approach , 2009). HR departments and units in organizations are typically responsible for a number of activities, including employee recruitment, training and development, performance appraisal, and rewarding. HR is also concerned with industrial relations, that is, the balancing of organizational practices with regulations arising from collective bargaining and governmental laws.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to give a state-of-the art overview of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model Design/methodology/approach -The strengths and weaknesses of the demand-control model and the effort-reward imbalance model regarding their predictive value for employee well being are discussed. The paper then introduces the more flexible JD-R model and discusses its basic premises. Findings -The paper provides an overview of the studies that have been conducted with the JD-R model. It discusses evidence for each of the model's main propositions. The JD-R model can be used as a tool for human resource management. A two-stage approach can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of individuals, work groups, departments, and organizations at large. Originality/value -This paper challenges existing stress models, and focuses on both negative and positive indicators of employee well being. In addition, it outlines how the JD-R model can be applied to a wide range of occupations, and be used to improve employee well being and performance.

This research examines how people manage online personal brands in a Web 2.0 context. Using a novel mixed-method approach and consenting participants, the authors generated digital brand audits of 12 people and asked undergraduate students and a human resources professional to judge their profiles (made anonymous), both qualitatively and quantitatively. After comparing these evaluations with participants' own judgments of their online profiles, the authors conducted long interviews to understand how people manage online profiles and feel about others' judgment of the content they post. According to these results, people engage in personal branding, though their efforts are often misdirected or insufficient. They consider personal online branding challenging, especially, during life changes or when managing multiple audiences.

Upaya pemerintah dalam memperbaiki pengelolaan lahan kering di daerah aliran sungai (DAS) bagian hulu telah dilakukan melalui berbagai proyek. Proyek tersebut bertujuan untuk meningkatkan produktivitas lahan dan pendapatan petani, serta untuk mendorong partisipasi petani dalam pelestarian sumber daya tanah dan air. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahwa sistem usaha tani konservasi teras bangku dan teras gulud dapat meningkatkan produktivitas usaha tani dan pendapatan petani, serta dapat menurunkan laju erosi. Tingkat adopsi teknologi secara parsial cukup tinggi, khususnya teknologi pola tanam, varietas unggul, budi daya tanaman pakan dan usaha ternak, serta upaya tindakan konservasi tanah secara vegetatif. Hasil tersebut diduga karena evaluasi dan analisis alternatif sistem konservasi belum memberikan informasi yang komprehensif. Untuk mengadopsi paket teknologi secara utuh, para petani mengalami kesulitan karena beberapa kendala seperti keterbatasan modal dan tenaga kerja keluarga. Implikasi kebijakan pada tahapan perbaikan teknologi dan formulasi kebijakan perlu memperhatikan upaya untuk mendorong partisipasi masyarakat dalam pelestarian sumber daya tanah dan air. Pada tahap awal, pemerintah berperan untuk meningkatkan sumber daya manusia dan subsidi, dan pada tahap pengembangan untuk mendorong pihak swasta agar berinvestasi di lahan tersebut.

The successful implementation of new technologies is dependent on many factors including the efficient management of human resources. Furthermore, recent research indicates that intellectual assets and resources can be utilised much more efficiently and effectively if organisations apply knowledge management techniques for leveraging their human resources and enhancing their personnel management. The human resources departments are well positioned to ensure the success of knowledge management programs, which are directed at capturing, using and re-using employees' knowledge. Through human resources management a culture that encourages the free flow of knowledge for meeting organisational goals can be created. The strategic role of the human resources department in identifying strategic and knowledge gaps using knowledge mapping is discussed in this paper. In addition, the drivers and implementation strategies for knowledge management programs are proposed.

Strategic human resource management researchers have strongly advocated a system perspective and provided considerable evidence that certain systems of human resource practices have a significant impact on individual and organizational performance. Yet, challenges of understanding the construct of human resource systems still remain in the literature. Specifically, few efforts have been made to explicate the internal fit in human resource systems referring to how the practices in human resource systems work together. For the purpose of clarifying human resource systems construct, we review the components of human resource systems and delineate how the parts of human resource systems work together to influence employee performance. Theoretical and empirical implications for future research are also discussed. Published by Elsevier Inc. j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / l o c a t e / h u m r e s

Human resources are often seen as one of the most important assets of tourism and hospitality organizations. Numerous studies have examined how employee performance can be managed to contribute to the organizational bottom line. This article is a structured review of the literature regarding key human resources management (HRM) issues in the tourism and hospitality industry. Based on this review, the authors offer an assessment of emerging trends in HRM and a summary of what has been advocated in the literature for managing employee performance.

The study is designed to assess the organisational and human resource challenges faced by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). Its objectives are to: specify the organisational and human resources challenges faced by PCTs in fulfilling the roles envisaged in government and local policy; examine how PCTs are addressing these challenges, in particular, to describe the organisational forms they have adopted, and the OD/HR strategies and initiatives they have planned or in place; assess how effective these structures, strategies and initiatives have been in enabling the PCTs to meet the organisational and human resources challenges they face; identify the factors, both internal to the PCT and in the wider health community, which have contributed to the success or failure of different structures, strategies and initiatives. The study will be undertaken in three stages. In Stage 1 the key literature on public sector and NHS organisational development and human resources management will be reviewed...

While much of our knowledge concerning traditional HR topics (e.g., recruiting, compensation, or performance management) in large firms may also apply in small or emerging organizations, evidence suggests that new ventures are different and that management of people within them may not clearly map to management within larger, more established organizations. This paper reviews extant research on managing people within small and emerging ventures and highlights additional questions that have not yet been addressed. Our review suggests that as scholars, our understanding of the HR issues important to small and emerging firms is limited. While we have begun to understand how these firms should hire, reward, and perhaps even motivate their employees, we lack much of the theory and data necessary to understand how small and emerging firms train their employees, manage their performance, promote or handle organizational change, or respond to potential labor relations and union organization issues. The existing literature presents an often-confounded relationship between size and age, between the issues important to small firms and the issues important to young ones. Given the potential early HR decisions have to impact the organization's downstream success, it is important that we understand how these functional areas of HR (as well as their integration and evolution) affect small and emerging firms, and how the HR decisions made during the formative stages of firm development impact the firm's long-term goals.

Businesses are confronting continuous and unparalleled changes. For organizations to assist employees in being motivated and prepared for change, it is essential that managers, leaders, and organization development professionals understand factors that may influence individual change readiness. The purpose of the research study examined here was to investigate the relationship between readiness for change and two of these possible factors: organizational commitment and social relationships in the workplace. Four hundred sixty-four usable surveys were returned from full-time employees in four companies in two northern Utah counties. The findings indicate significant relationships between readiness for change, organizational commitment, and social relationships. Relationships were also found between readiness for change and number of children, social relationships and gender, and organization commitment or one of its three components (identification, job involvement, and loyalty) and employee age, educational level, and gender.

This article uses the resource-based view of the firm, along with other theoretical sources, to outline the basic elements of a theory of 'human resource advantage'. It asks the question: how can firms build and defend competitive superiority through HR strategy across the phases of the typical industry life cycle? Human resources capable of yielding sustained advantage are those which meet tests of (1) rare value, and (2) relative immobility and superior appropriability. While we can identify certain broad principles associated with human resource advantage, cycles of establishment, maturity and renewal in industries add important complexities. The article identifies situations in which we can he reasonably confident we understand the requirements for HR advantage and others where much more research is needed.

The globalization of business is having a significant impact on human resource management practices; and it is has now become more imperative than ever for business organizations to engage in human resource management practices on an international standard. While the management of people is mostly associated with HRM, the definition, parameter and context are contested by different writers. Some authors such as argued that HRM is in its infancy, while other authors such as Welbourne and Andrews (1996) dispute it. However, other writers have attempted to differentiate between personnel management and HRM , by emphasizing on the strategic approach to managing people. Other writers such as Legge (1995) have focused on the soft and hard approach to managing human resources. All these distinctions have contributed to the fundamental differences in understanding and defining human resource management practices, and therefore, HRM should not be incorporated within a single model, but rather adequate emphasis should be on understanding human resource management issues, which will assists practitioners, authors, mangers and organizations in developing and implementing HRM policies and practices that will be productive and that can make businesses to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. This is paper is aimed at exploring HRM practices in Nigeria.

This research, conducted by the author when a Senior Researcher at Newcastle University, UK, was funded by a UK governance organisation to help them assess, integrate and improve their understanding of the governed population.

ABSTRACT: Governance organisations have been urged to develop more holistic evidence-based approaches with partners to better deal with issues affecting the governed population. This presupposes an understanding of the population, yet there has been little research work addressing how governance organisations come to understand their governed population, nor how this understanding can be improved upon within such organisations.

This case study examined in-depth how understanding of a governed population was developed within one UK local governance organisation and it explored how such understanding might be developed and improved through more holistic and evidence-based organisational learning within the organisation and its governance partnerships.

The research methodology involved placement within the governance organisation, participant observations on several projects and innovative initiatives, observations within, across, and outside the organisation, and also interviews with varied key stakeholders.

The study examined:

- stakeholder engagement and networks
- current and varied understandings of the population
- mechanisms actually used for developing understandings
- the influence of context on organisational learning

and analysed these to arrive at a recommendations to improve organisational understanding of the governed population.

In the case studied, significant strengths were found: including innovative past learning trials for development, extensive ongoing networking activities, and many varied and accumulating quantitative datasets available across partnerships.

However, entrenched organisational approaches and practices constrained the development of holistic evidence-based understanding, for instance: the absence of systematic maintained collective learning processes; weak recording and forgetting of understandings; methodological exclusion of stakeholders from the development of understanding; the relative neglect of qualitative data, explanations, investigations, interpretations, and reflexivity; and also implicit organisational acceptance of such limitations and low aspirations.

Nonetheless, untapped opportunities existed to enable change including: latent practitioner knowledge and innovative management champions, the desire for improvement and raised aspirations within learning networks, and the development potential of alterative learning approaches.

It was concluded that more holistic evidence-based understanding was possible, but required new learning approaches beyond those then in use in both local government or academia.   

Recommendations are made to utilise and develop improved organisational learning approaches trialed and reported in the case study.

It is argued that the case study findings, conclusions, and recommendations may be applicable to other similar local governance organisations and partnerships that seek to better understand local populations, services and interventions.

The work was also submitted for, and awarded, an MPhil (at Newcastle University, supervised by Prof. Patsy Healy)

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This article demonstrates that a diversity and equality management system (DEMS) contributes to fi rm performance beyond the effects of a traditional high-performance work system (HPWS), which consists of bundles of work practices and policies used extensively in high-performing fi rms. A DEMS typically includes diversity training and monitoring recruitment, pay, and promotion across minority or other disadvantaged groups. Our analysis of quantitative data from service and manufacturing organizations in Ireland confi rms that HPWS practices are associated with positive business performance and fi nds specifi cally that DEMS practices are positively associated with higher labor productivity and workforce innovation and lower voluntary employee turnover.

Game-thinking is beginning to appear in a wide variety of non-game contexts, including organizational support settings like human resource management (HRM). The purpose of this chapter is two-fold: 1) to explore the opportunities for game-thinking via gamification and serious games in HRM based on current and previous HRM literature and 2) to identify future research areas at the intersection of game-thinking and HRM. Prevailing HRM theories will be applied to the use of game-thinking in different sub-fields of HRM, including recruitment, selection, training, and performance management.n

We evaluated the impact of human resource (HR) managers' capabilities on HR management effectiveness and the latter's impact on corporate financial performance. For 293 U.S. firms, effectiveness was associated with capabilities and attributes of HR staff. We also found relationships between HR management effectiveness and productivity, cash flow, and market value. Findings were consistent across market and accounting measures of performance and with corrections for biases.

Within the strategic human resource management (SHRM) perspective, psychology-based practices, especially empowerment, extensive training, and teamwork, are seen as vital to sustained competitive advantage. Other approaches, such as those of integrated manufacturing and lean production, place greater emphasis on operational initiatives such as total quality management, just-in-time, advanced manufacturing technology, and supply-chain partnering as determinants of organizational performance. We investigated the relative merits of these practices through a study of the productivity of 308 companies over 22 years, during which

Every period has its dominant concern. The recent wave of interest in productivity, quality circles, quality of work life, or Japanese management is a rekindling of old fires that stressed the importance of the human element in organizational performance. We have gone through other dominant concerns. It wasn't long ago that strategic planning had its moment of glory. Or that marketing sat at the right hand of the Chief Executive, himself a representative of sophisticated finance.

There is growing evidence available to suggest that HR practice is an important predictor of organisational performance. In this article, we argue that HR practices also have the potential to promote organisational innovation. We describe a longitudinal study of 22 UK manufacturing companies and ...

This study explores the nature of the relationship between transformational leadership and two work-related attitudes, organizational commitment and job satisfaction, by comparing Kenya and the United States. The results show that transformational leadership has a strong and positive effect on organizational commitment and job satisfaction in both cultures. Simultaneous factor analyses in several populations (SIFASP), using AMOS maximum likelihood procedure, provides evidence of conceptual and measurement equivalence for all three measures (transformational leadership, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction) employed in this study.

This paper reports on a global study that sought to identify the extent to which coaching is a distinct occupation, or task, performed within a portfolio of HR or other roles. The study also sought to ascertain the extent to which coaches identify with coaching as a profession and to explore how their professional identity (or multiple identities) are created and maintained.

This article examines the impact of HR practices and organisational commitment on the operating performance and pro® tability of business units. Using a predictive design with a sample of 50 autonomous business units within the same corporation, the article reveals that both organisational commitment and HR practices are significantly related to operational measures of performance, as well as operating expenses and pre-tax pro® ts. Contact:

The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of strategic human resource development (HRD) in small-medium enterprises (SMEs) with specific reference to key issues around training, development and education as well as an emerging issue of significance, age diversity management. The approach undertaken in the paper is to draw upon relevant literature and research as well as the authors' own analysis of the relationship between strategic human resource management (SHRM), HRD and SMEs based on prior research. The findings of the research and analysis is that SMEs which take a strategic approach to training and development of their human resources will profit not only from a competitive position in their marketplace but also be well placed to adjust to changing and often uncertain external influences on the business environment presented to organisations in the 21 st century. It is envisaged that SMEs should make changes to their current practices and adopt a more strategic approach to the development 1 of their people based on the practical implications outlined within the paper as to how organisations can implement HRD practices linked to broader corporate strategy. The paper adds value in broadening the existing focus of SHRM and HRD on large corporations to engendering the need to also develop good HRD practices within emerging and growing SMEs and recognising the important role that they can play in developing an age diverse workforce.

As green marketing strategies become increasingly more important to firms adhering to a triple-bottom line performance evaluation, the present research seeks to better understand the role of “green” as a marketing strategy. Through an integration of the marketing, management, and operations literatures, an investigative framework is generated that identifies the various stakeholders potentially impacted through the environmentally friendly efforts of a firm. Specifically, the inter-connected nature of the core business disciplines of marketing, management (both strategy and human resources), and operations are examined as controllable functions within an organization from which strategies can be enacted to affect a firm’s stakeholders. The prior research in these areas is examined to identify potential research opportunities in marketing while also offering a series of representative research questions that can help guide future research in marketing.

Organizations find it increasingly difficult to stay competitive in today's global economy. Leaders in the workplace are using benchmarking, competency, competency models, and competency studies to help make human resource decisions, such as hiring, training, and promotions. In training and development (T&D), it is helpful for competencies to focus on knowledge, skills and/or abilities. But neither the field of T&D, nor competency within the field, is static. Reported here is a careful review of literature showing the trends in competency over the past three decades in the training and development field, and provides some speculation regarding competencies needed in the near future for professionals in T&D. Two of the most apparent changes in T&D are the shift to performance improvement and the use of technology. Thus the skills, knowledge, and abilities involving these areas will continue to become increasingly necessary for T&D professionals. The research register for this journal is available at Interpersonal competencies Communication Communicate effectively in visual, oral, and written forms Communication theory Listens actively to all forms of communication Tailors communication styles to needs of learners Explains complex ideas so they can be easily understood Nonverbal communications Interviewing techniques Engaging communications Communications are clear, concise, and grammatically correct Assisting the clear statement and communication of problems Clement et al.

Today, competencies are used in many facets of human resource management, ranging from individual selection, development, and performance management to organizational strategic planning. By incorporating competencies into job analysis methodologies, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) has developed robust competency models that can form the foundation for each of these initiatives. OPM has placed these models into automated systems to ensure access for employees, human resources professionals, and managers. Shared access to the data creates a shared frame of reference and a common language of competencies that have provided the basis for competency applications in public sector agencies. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

This review takes an evolutionary and chronological perspective on the development of strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature. We divide this body of work into seven themes that reflect the directions and trends researchers have taken over approximately thirty years of research. During this time the field took shape, developed rich conceptual foundations, and matured into a domain that has substantial influence on research activities in HR and related management disciplines. We trace how the field has evolved to its current state, articulate many of the major findings and contributions, and discuss how we believe it will evolve in the future. This approach contributes to the field of SHRM by synthesizing work in this domain and by highlighting areas of research focus that have received perhaps enough attention, as well as areas of research focus that, while promising, have remained largely unexamined.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) influences the host country economic growth through the transfer of new technologies and know-how, formation of the human resources, integration in global markets, increase of the competition, and firms' development and reorganization. A variety of studies considers that FDI generate economic growth in the host country. However, there is evidence that FDI is also a source of negative effects for the host country. Existing literature also emphasises the ambiguity of the results, and mentions that this ambiguity can be explained by the existence of a gap in the research concerning the ways through which FDI influences the host country economic growth.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature of Singapore Airline's human resource (HR) management practices that enable the company to deliver consistent service excellence in an efficient manner and achieve sustainable competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach -The paper presents an in-depth case study based on primary and secondary data, and especially in-depth interviews of senior management and senior flight crew. Findings -The study finds that Singapore Airlines' HR practices involve stringent selection and recruitment processes, extensive training and retraining, successful service delivery teams, empowerment of front-line staff to control service quality, and motivating staff through rewards and recognition. Practical implications -This research has implications for organisations that aim to deliver consistent service excellence, by outlining HR practices that assist in this goal; and for senior management, particularly highlighting the importance and contribution of HR to competitive advantage, and the importance of strategic alignment between functional strategies and business-level strategies. Originality/value -The paper contributes to the understanding of how HR practices contribute to service excellence and competitive advantage, this being a key dimension of strategic alignment.

Researchers have begun to test the idea that work and family can benefit, rather than just conflict with one another; yet, theoretical development is lacking. In this paper, we define work-family facilitationor the positive influence of an individual's engagement in a domain on functioning of another life system. We merge and extend ideas from Positive a new discipline. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler], Ecological Systems Theory . The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press] and Conservation of Resources Theory . Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. The American Psychologist, 44, 513-524] to develop the Resource-Gain-Development perspective. Using this perspective, we explain why and how facilitation occurs, what contributes to it, and why it relates to domain outcomes. We use this perspective to draw broad constructs representing predictors, moderators, and consequences of facilitation. To illustrate how one might test these theoretical propositions and to provide an agenda for research, we provide specific exemplars of the work-to-family direction. Implications for human resource research and practice are discussed.

In the contemporary business environment, human resource (HR) is an indispensable input for organizational effectiveness. Hence, an effective management of human resources has an important role to play in the performance and success of organizations. Competitive pressures have encouraged organizations to be proactive in diagnosing HR problems and to adopt more innovative HR practices since these were no longer a matter of trend, but rather of survival. The present study attempted to explore the relationship of three dimensions of innovative human resource practices (IHRPs): that is,

Kenya, including high-potential and pastoral areas, to document and assess the significance of different actors and organisations as potential uptake/dissemination pathways for agricultural technologies, and to consider ways to improve the performance of the knowledge and information systems in the districts. Databases of the organisations, institutions and actors involved in agriculture in the four districts were compiled, and a series of participatory and rapid appraisal exercises were carried out with people concerned with agriculture in selected sub-locations and divisions within each district.