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A key issue in international management is the extent to which management practices are converging in response to the pressures of globalisation, and the ready availability to managers in all parts of the world of the same concepts of what constitutes best practice in the different management disciplines. In some instances convergence may be encouraged by Government action. This is the case with the introduction into The Netherlands of the Investors in People (IiP) scheme that originated in the UK. IiP is a benchmark award, given to organisations that can demonstrate that they meet a set of criteria that relate to employee management and the commitment of resources to training. This article is a review of the introduction of IiP in The Netherlands, with the aim of seeing what insights are provided in relation to the cross‐cultural transfer of employment relations practice. Two case studies are used to explore the issues from the perspective of organisations working towards the standard in the two countries. It is concluded that the IiP standard can be transferred to another country, but that modifications have to be made to aspects of its organisation to take account of national differences. The implications of the transfer are discussed in relation to the convergence debate.

A study of the impact of globalisation on the structure and management of multinational enterprises, based upon research into twenty‐four manufacturing MNEs. Three research questions, developed from the literature, were used as the basis for an investigation into structure, control, knowledge transfer and culture in MNEs. The results confirm that there is a widespread move towards global integration, and that this is accompanied by changes in the relationships between managers from corporate and country units, and a tendency to encourage the development of best management practices across national boundaries.

This paper aims to highlight the main debates in the field of skill development in a UK context. We begin with an examination of the economic and labour market conditions and their potential implications for skill development. The supply of training and development is examined through a critique of policy developments in both initial and continuing education and training. Original survey data are used in combination with national statistical sources and other survey findings to present a picture of human resource development activity within organisations. In conclusion the paper considers the implications of national policy and economic and labour market conditions for the state, employers and the individual.

Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

A system for doing finite element computations in parallel is described. It is general purpose in the sense that it can be used across a wide range of finite element applications and in the sense that it is not restricted to any particular parallel hardware. Its performance on computers ranging from clusters of PCs to massively parallel high performance machines is illustrated.

The purpose of this paper is to briefly outline the current debate on the delivery of sex education in the UK. The paper presents a brief summary of the recently published literature and details how the research papers in this special issue add to the current body of evidence.

This special issue introduces five new articles, including both original studies and reviews of the current literature. In response to a call for papers, five abstracts were selected and each author or group of authors invited to submit a fully developed paper, which was then subjected to blind peer review by two independent experts.

The brief summary of the recently published literature details how the research papers in this special issue add to the current body of evidence.

The dissemination of research evidence helps to ensure that practice is continually informed by emerging evidence and it is hoped that the publication of this special issue may contribute to this process.

The use of algebraic languages such as REDUCE makes possible the automatic generation, from fairly concise data, of the main families of two and three dimensional C0 continuous finite element shape functions, with a high confidence in their correctness. This paper gives a tutorial introduction to the REDUCE language and describes how it was used to generate shape function routines.

Investors in People (IiP) is a UK government-backed scheme aimed at enabling organizations to develop their training and development cultures and, thereby, their competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions and understandings of individuals in six organizations undergoing IiP to explore recent claims within the literature concerning the Standard's impact on training and development, and job satisfaction.

Data from 35 semi-structured interviews among managers and employees of six diverse organizations were gathered and analysed.

The paper identifies three key findings in response to recent literature: first, the findings do not support a causal relationship between IiP and training and development; second, the findings do not support a causal relationship between IiP and job satisfaction; third, and to support the other findings, the results indicate little employee awareness of IiP.

If IiP – UKCES are to realize the potential of their Standard, it needs to find a way to ensure it has a direct and positive impact on skill development.

While much of the previous research has identified associations between IiP and various outcomes, this paper seeks to identify the extent to which these associations can be considered to be causal.

In Europe, the alignment of national public administration policies and practices to EU directions is regarded as a key factor in the process of integration. Administrative convergence within European public administration systems places new demands on human resource managers in every member state. Seeks to show that Greek public administration is aiming to investigate the organizational competencies needed for the successful alignment of the Greek civil service with EU directions.

The approach is survey research conducted within Greek public administration. The STAIR (strategy, targets, assignment, implementation, results) model has been used as the appropriate performance management framework.

Suggests that the HRM role in the contemporary public sector environment is to develop a strategic performance management framework for changing performance at organizational level and make human resources active drivers of this process.The results reveal that convergence with EU policies draws heavily on how human resource executives can manage the following three soft organizational capabilities: competence, commitment and continuity – the STAIR model's 3“Cs”.

Contributes to the literature on directions for public sector management in Greece.