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1 – 10 of 18Joost Bücker, Erik Poutsma, Roel Schouteten and Carolien Nies
The purpose of this paper is to explain how and why HR practitioners perceive the need to develop international HRM practices to support short-term assignments, international…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain how and why HR practitioners perceive the need to develop international HRM practices to support short-term assignments, international business travel and virtual assignments for internationally operating organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors interviewed 29 HR practitioners from multinationals located in the Netherlands.
Findings
Alternative international assignments seem not to belong to the traditional expatriate jobs, nor to regular domestic jobs and show a liminal character. However, over the last few years we have gradually seen a more mature classification of the Short-term Assignment, International Business Traveler and Virtual Assignment categories and more active use of these categories in policymaking by organizations; this reflects a transition of these three categories from a liminal position to a more institutionalized position.
Research limitations/implications
For this research, only international HRM practitioners were interviewed. Future studies should include a broader group of stakeholders.
Practical implications
International HRM departments should take a more proactive role regarding alternative forms of international assignees. Furthermore, HR professionals may develop training and coaching and consider rewards and benefits that could provide allowances for specific working conditions that are part of international work.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to relate the framework of institutional logic and liminality to explain the why of HR support for alternative international assignees.
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Joost Bücker, Erik Poutsma and Hananja Monster
The purpose of this paper is to offer a timely assessment of the influence of human resource (HR) processes and policies on expatriates’ employability, using a Dutch international…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a timely assessment of the influence of human resource (HR) processes and policies on expatriates’ employability, using a Dutch international engineering firm as the study setting.
Design/methodology/approach
The qualitative study, based on in-depth interviews with 15 respondents in various roles, such as expatriates, repatriates, HR managers and line managers, is complemented by a document analysis of HR policy reports about expatriation processes.
Findings
Expatriation management influences the internal employability of engineering expatriates, yet most HR policies related to expatriation work are counterproductive in terms of in-company employability of expatriates.
Research limitations/implications
Further research could extend this single case study by differentiating engineering from management functions and addressing employability implications for other assignments and other forms of expatriation. Comparisons are also possible across various stakeholders with regard to social support.
Practical implications
HR management can follow several prescriptions revealed by this study to increase expatriates’ employability within the organization.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to relate expatriation processes to the dimensions of employability.
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Inge Bleijenbergh, Pascale Peters and Erik Poutsma
This paper aims to introduce the theme of the special issue – diversity management beyond the business case. It addresses two main questions: first, how increased diversification…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce the theme of the special issue – diversity management beyond the business case. It addresses two main questions: first, how increased diversification within workgroups or labour is dealt with via diversity management, and second what the effects are of this increased diversity for group performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The different contributions are embedded into two important discussions in the literature: problems with the concept of diversity and problems with outcomes of diversity management.
Findings
Reflecting on the contributions to this special issue, it is argued that solely emphasizing business case arguments for supporting the implementation of diversity management may be rather risky. They conclude with a plea for emphasis on arguments of justice and sustainability of the employment relationship and discuss future avenues for research.
Originality/value
The paper shows the difficulty of universally applying the concept of diversity and diversity management. In addition, it shows that the claimed positive impact of diversity management is contingent on several factors.
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Pascale Peters, Inge Bleijenbergh and Frederik Poutsma
The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the work of the Dutch government's “Taskforce Part‐time Plus” set up to stimulate longer working hours for particularly Dutch…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the work of the Dutch government's “Taskforce Part‐time Plus” set up to stimulate longer working hours for particularly Dutch women holding part‐time jobs of less than 24 h per week, to help counteract a predicted structural shortage of manpower.
Design/methodology/approach
In 2009, the Taskforce commissioned two studies. The first study comprised three surveys, respectively, among: women holding smaller part‐time jobs; full‐time working men; and employers. The second study focused on the relationship between ambition, working hours and gender. A survey of 7,000 male and female labour‐market participants was combined with qualitative data collection, encompassing focus group interviews with 35 male and female part‐time workers and their managers, and three group model building sessions.
Findings
The first study showed that only a small amount of Dutch part‐time working women is willing to work longer hours in the short term. In the second study, the hypothesis that women's lower working hours could be explained by a lack of career ambition was rejected. However, the results showed that women did neither feel challenged, nor supported by their working and household conditions to extend their working hours to realize their ambitions (in the short run).
Originality/value
The paper illustrates that, in the Dutch case and in some contexts, greater equality, diversity and inclusion not only demands support for reduced work‐loads, but rather calls for a new culture in which women's marginal labour‐market participation does not remain unquestioned.
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Pascale Peters, Laura den Dulk and Judith de Ruijter
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to two related contemporary debates on the changing views of the employment relation and on the adoption of telework as a new work…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to two related contemporary debates on the changing views of the employment relation and on the adoption of telework as a new work practice by analyzing line managers' general telework‐attitude formation processes, and possible outcomes in concrete request situations, mirroring managers' views of the employment relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
This multi‐method study among 65 managers in six financial‐sector organizations comprises two parts. The interview part focuses on managers' arguments for or against telework in their departments, and how these are weighed in the telework‐attitude formation process. In the vignette study, managers assess their attitudes towards specific, hypothetical, but realistic telework requests of fictive employees in their departments.
Findings
Combining the results of both studies, it is shown that the governance view dominates. Some managers, however, consider telework an “idiosyncratic deal.” Particularly in telework‐request situations, also the exchange view enters into the managers' perceptual frames. In order to decrease managers' ambivalence towards telework, the human resource management (HRM)‐system needs to be internally consistent and based on a view of the employment relationship which stresses commitment and trust as guiding principles, rather than control and coordination.
Originality/value
Employing a “configurational approach to strategic HRM,” this paper focuses on the importance of the “embeddedness” of telework practices in larger HRM‐systems in general, and the role of cultural obstacles in particular. Telework arguments are considered the HR principles guiding the telework‐attitude formation process, and mirroring managers' views of the employment relationship as part of their workforce philosophies.
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Ilona Buc˘i¯unien˙e and R¯uta Kazlauskait˙e
The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into diversity management practices in the Baltic states and present experience of HRM practitioners' in initiating the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into diversity management practices in the Baltic states and present experience of HRM practitioners' in initiating the integration of people with disability into the workforce at a multi national retail chain.
Design/methodology/approach
An interview with HR managers of a retail chain on issues related to the integration of people with disability into the workforce, providing background for the relevance, motives, implementation difficulties and organisational benefits of such practices from a business perspective.
Findings
Main challenges related with integration of people with disability into the workforce are as follows: attraction of people with disability, work adjustment to meet the abilities of employees with disability, and preparation of managers and co‐workers to work along with these people. Attraction of people with disability works best on the basis of references from their peers. These people make highly loyal employees. Besides they contribute to the development of a more positive climate in the organisation.
Originality/value
This paper presents a good practice case on the integration of people with disability, one of the most discriminated groups of employees, which is still a rare business practice in the Baltic countries. It also provides recommendations on integration issues for other practitioners.
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This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the concept of “global management competencies”.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the concept of “global management competencies”.
Design/methodology/approach
An extensive review of most of the relevant literature on global management competencies was done. By investigating four constructs, i.e. the global mindset, cross‐cultural competence, intercultural sensitivity and cultural intelligence, all related to “global management competencies” the authors made an in‐depth investigation of the contributing organizational behaviour components, the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other personality characteristics (the KSAOs), useful for a construct of global management competencies.
Findings
A configuration of the above components as an integrative model was developed. This model could serve as the basis for the development of measurement instruments.
Originality/value
The construct of global management competencies, albeit with different labels and in different disguise, has received a lot of attention in the last two decades but has not been conceptualised satisfactorily. This article is an attempt to do so.
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Leonie Heres and Yvonne Benschop
Originating from the USA in the early 1990s, diversity management has been “imported” to Europe to become a fashionable practice in many business organizations. The aim of this…
Abstract
Purpose
Originating from the USA in the early 1990s, diversity management has been “imported” to Europe to become a fashionable practice in many business organizations. The aim of this paper is to provide further insight into whether and how the diversity management discourse challenges and replaces existing local discourses on equality and diversity, and how diversity management is given content and meaning in a specific local context.
Design/methodology/approach
Statements on diversity, diversity management and equality on both the Dutch and the international websites of ten leading companies in the Netherlands are analyzed.
Findings
The analysis shows that translations of diversity management may in fact not actually replace existing local discourses, but rather leave the existing local discourse more or less intact and alter the original diversity management discourse to fit into this local discourse.
Originality/value
This paper offers some important lessons for management practice.
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Laura den Dulk, Pascale Peters, Erik Poutsma and Paul E.M. Ligthart
The purpose of this paper is to propose an “extended conceptualization of the business case” including both organizational characteristics and institutional conditions to analyse…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an “extended conceptualization of the business case” including both organizational characteristics and institutional conditions to analyse employer involvement in extra statutory childcare and leave arrangements. Special attention is given to Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The (multi‐level) multinomial regression analyses included company‐level data on human‐resource practices of 2,865 firms nested in 19 countries, representing all European welfare state regimes.
Findings
The extended business case appeared fruitful in order to explain variations in employer involvement. Particularly, state support was found to be negatively related to employer involvement. In the liberal regime, employer involvement was high, but variations across organizations were significant. In CEE‐countries, employer involvement was lowest, and did not vary by organizational business‐case factors.
Research limitations/implications
The paper used data from a cross‐sectional survey. To capture the long‐term trends, dynamics and nuances in employer involvement within and across various institutional contexts, a longitudinal in depth study is needed.
Practical implications
While state support in many CEE countries is declining, the analyses showed that employers will not automatically step in by providing additional work‐family arrangements. Social partners could use institutional pressure to stimulate a balance between state support and employer involvement.
Originality/value
The extended business‐case perspective contributes to the theory on the institutional embeddedness of decision making of employers. Moreover, it adds to the knowledge on employer involvement in institutional contexts which have hardly been studied before.
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Macarena López‐Fernández and Gonzalo Sánchez‐Gardey
The purpose of this paper is to link previous research on diversity, social capital and strategic human resource management (SHRM), and propose a model to explain how an SHRM…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to link previous research on diversity, social capital and strategic human resource management (SHRM), and propose a model to explain how an SHRM system can moderate the effects of diversity on cognitive and relational dimensions of social capital.
Design/methodology/approach
Quantitative methodologies were used to address the study's research questions and hypotheses drawing on aggregated data obtained from 53 groups (228 individuals).
Findings
The empirical evidence analyzed rejected a deterministic view of the consequences of diversity, assuming that the extent to which they benefit group social interaction depends on certain conditions that can be managed by SHRM. Adopting a configurational point of view, it is concluded that different SHRM configurations can be used, depending on the effects of diversity that the organization wishes to moderate.
Research limitations/implications
Future research should consider the particularities of the sample.
Practical implications
To define diversity‐oriented SHRM strategies, firms must start with a systematic analysis of their diversity profiles, studying the concrete relational and cognitive dynamics that heterogeneity causes.
Originality/value
This model considers the SHRM system as a construct that determines social interaction between employees and therefore moderates the effects of demographic and human capital diversity on group performance.
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