Elina M. Antila and Anne Kakkonen
The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons behind human resource (HR) managers' participation in the international mergers and acquisitions (IM&A) process building on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the reasons behind human resource (HR) managers' participation in the international mergers and acquisitions (IM&A) process building on the general discussion of the factors explaining the roles of HR in organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Six sets of factors can be found to affect the roles of HR managers in general: the orientation of top management to people management; the skills, abilities and competencies of HR managers themselves; the HR function and its characteristics; the expectations that line managers have of HR; external factors; and internal factors. This review forms the basis for subsequent data analysis in the context of IM&As. The factors that contribute to HR managers' participation are studied from HR and other management's perspectives. Based on interviews with 12 corporate level managers in three Finnish international industrial companies.
Findings
The results show that top management sees the participation of HR managers as being very important and agree that it should be a common policy. The factors explaining the roles in the case organisations focused on certain factor groups and were similar across the cases. Based on empirical analysis, this study finds that the most important contributing factors to HR managers' participation are HR managers' own capability and activity throughout the IM&A process.
Originality/value
This study has analysed the reasons related to the roles of HR managers in an IM&A context in general, not just the strategic role within. Based on the case studies it seems, however, that a seat on the management team and HR managers' business competencies as well as personal skills contribute to the strategic role.
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Keywords
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer, who adds their own, impartial, comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
Despite the recent boom in international mergers and acquisitions (IM&As) driven by globalization, technological change and deregulation, statistics show that the outcome of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) is mostly disappointing. It has been argued that the challenge of M&As is the management of people and the human resource (HR) function
Practical implications
This paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.
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Keywords
Lauri Kokkinen, Anne Konu and Elina Viitanen
The purpose of this study is to examine components of good personnel management and how they come true in accounts of social and health care managers.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine components of good personnel management and how they come true in accounts of social and health care managers.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were obtained by means of a postal survey sent to middle‐line managers in positions above the first‐line management level in the responsibility area of Tampere University Hospital. The questionnaire was sent to 703 managers; 433 sent in responses indicating a response rate of 62 percent.
Findings
Middle‐line managers considered themselves as interactive, responsibility‐sharing and understanding leaders, but found shortcomings in the leadership style of their superiors. Only 18 percent of the middle‐line managers received feedback and only 42 percent received support from their superiors when needed. There were significant differences between genders, activity sectors and professional backgrounds in the responders' accounts concerning personnel management practices.
Research implications/limitations
The results of this study reliably describe how middle‐line managers consider things to be, not necessarily how things are in reality.
Practical implications
The findings confirm the assumption that the importance of personnel management is still not perfectly understood in the upper management levels of the social and health care sector. At the same time the self‐evaluations of middle‐line managers implied an ambition towards better personnel management.
Originality/value
This study identifies components of good personnel management from literature and uses them as the basis for analysing the data.