Global Human Resource Metrics

[Excerpt] What is the logic underlying global human resources (HR) measurement in your organization? In your organization, do you measure the contribution of global HR programs to organizational performance? Do you know what is the most competitive employee mix, e.g., proportion of expatriates vs. local employees, for your business units? (How) do you measure the cost and value of the different types of international work performed by your employees? In the globalized economy, organizations increasingly derive value from human resources, or “talent” as we shall also use the term here (Boudreau, Ramstad & Dowling, in press). The strategic importance of the workforce makes decisions about talent critical to organizational success. Informed decisions about talent require a strategic approach to measurement. However, measures alone are not sufficient, for measures without logic can create information overload, and decision quality rests in substantial part on the quality of measurements. An important element of enhanced global competitiveness is a measurement model for talent that articulates the connections between people and success, as well as the context and boundary conditions that affect those connections. This chapter will propose a framework within which existing and potential global HR measures can be organized and understood. The framework reflects the premise that measures exist to support and enhance decisions, and that strategic decisions require a logical connection between decisions about resources, such as talent, and the key organizational outcomes affected by those decisions. Such a framework may provide a useful mental model for both designers and users of HR measures

Maximizing Foundation Effectiveness: Aligning Program Strategy, Organizational Capacity, Strategic Planning, and Performance Assessment to Achieve Success

This paper outlines a framework for increasing the philanthropic performance of an organization by focusing on strategic planning and development of tight logic models for the organization's programs. Strategic planning gets broken down into five steps: meta-planning, evaluation of the internal/external environment, establishment of priorities and vision, development of the strategic plan, and implementation/refinement. Though this paper stresses evaluation and meticulous planning, it finishes by imploring organizations to "allow room for serendipity, improvisation, and intuition in the process, too.

Success Factors of Small and Medium-Sized International Enterprises in the Chinese Market from the Perspective of Polish Direct Investment (Cultural Approach)

Globalization has resulted in increasing transfer of firms operations, regardless of their size, to other countries. The recent dynamic emergence of China in the global economy, connecting with the vast inflows of foreign direct investment in their territory and common adjustments problems of many Western companies, has resulted in growing interest for best suitable business practices to this culturally and socially different environment. In this article, the key factors critical to the success of international companies in this region are introduced, with particular consideration to indigenous cultural elements and specific operation requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises in Business-to-Business sectors. The presented information are based on the broad literature review, five years of direct observation and thirty eight interviews conducted with Polish managers directly residing in China. In addition, some practical recommendations for managers and further research are given.Globalizacja wymusza na firmach, niezależnie od ich wielkości, coraz częstsze przenoszenie operacji do innych krajów. Dynamiczne pojawienie się Chin w światowej gospodarce i szeroki napł;yw zagranicznych inwestycji bezpośrednich na ich teren oraz problemy adaptacyjne wielu zachodnich przedsiębiorstw, spowodował;y zainteresowanie najlepszymi praktykami biznesowymi dostosowanymi do tego odmiennego kulturowo i społ;ecznie otocznia. W artykule zaprezentowane został;y najważniejsze czynnik mające wpł;yw na osiągnięcie sukcesu przez firmy międzynarodowe na tym obszarze, ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem aspektów kulturowych i specyfiki dział;ania mał;ych i średnich podmiotów na rynkach B2B. Prezentowane informacje są oparte na przeglądzie literatury, pięcioletnich obserwacjach bezpośrednich oraz trzydziestu ośmiu wywiadach przeprowadzonych z menadżerami polskich przedsiębiorstw odpowiedzialnymi za operacje w Chinach. Dodatkowo wskazano kilka praktycznych rekomendacji menadżerskich oraz możliwości dalszych badań

Data-Driven Application Maintenance: Views from the Trenches

In this paper we present our experience during design, development, and pilot deployments of a data-driven machine learning based application maintenance solution. We implemented a proof of concept to address a spectrum of interrelated problems encountered in application maintenance projects including duplicate incident ticket identification, assignee recommendation, theme mining, and mapping of incidents to business processes. In the context of IT services, these problems are frequently encountered, yet there is a gap in bringing automation and optimization. Despite long-standing research around mining and analysis of software repositories, such research outputs are not adopted well in practice due to the constraints these solutions impose on the users. We discuss need for designing pragmatic solutions with low barriers to adoption and addressing right level of complexity of problems with respect to underlying business constraints and nature of data.Comment: Earlier version of paper appearing in proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Software Engineering Research and Industrial Practice (SER&IP), IEEE Press, pp. 48-54, 201

How do top- and bottom-performing companies differ in using business analytics?

Purpose Business analytics (BA) has attracted growing attention mainly due to the phenomena of big data. While studies suggest that BA positively affects organizational performance, there is a lack of academic research. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to examine the extent to which top- and bottom-performing companies differ regarding their use and organizational facilitation of BA. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses are developed drawing on the information processing view and contingency theory, and tested using multivariate analysis of variance to analyze data collected from 117 UK manufacture companies. Findings Top- and bottom-performing companies differ significantly in their use of BA, data-driven environment, and level of fit between BA and data-drain environment. Practical implications Extensive use of BA and data-driven decisions will lead to superior firm performance. Companies wishing to use BA to improve decision making and performance need to develop relevant analytical strategy to guide BA activities and design its structure and business processes to embed BA activities. Originality/value This study provides useful management insights into the effective use of BA for improving organizational performance

Optimizing of the Balanced Scorecard method for management of mining companies with the use of factor analysis

The managers of information age companies cannot rely merely on data derived from past activities of the company and focus on improving existing processes. They need a frame for measuring values that result from strategic goals of the company, a tool, which is focusing on obtaining information about company's current success, as well as finding new driving forces to ensure the future competitiveness of the company. Strategic business performance measurement system the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a suitable tool for improving the competitiveness of industrial companies. During its implementation, however, there is a conflict of perception of the importance of individual goals and measurable characteristics in partial perspectives of the BSC and its actual enforcement of the various strategic objectives in companies. The aim of this article is to verify the accuracy of BSC settings in an environment of selected companies in the Moravian-Silesian region with the emphasis placed on mining companies with the help of multidimensional statistics - factor analysis. The research took place in 2015 in cooperation with managers from the Moravian-Silesian Region (MSR), and it was divided into two kinds of research - quantitative and qualitative.Web of Science22444743

Trusting in Change

Describes the background to a series of changes that led the foundation, beginning in 2000, to implement a new grantmaking approach

RETHINKING THE BUSINESS PROCESS THROUGH REENGINEERING

Rethinking business through reengineering is based on the assumption that to meet contemporary demands of quality, service, flexibility, and low cost, processes must be kept simple. Examples of simplifying processes are combining several jobs into one, letting workers make decisions, performing the steps in a process in a natural order, and performing work where it makes the most sense. The net result is that work may be shifted across functional boundaries several times to expedite its accomplishment. Traditional inspection and control procedures are often eliminated or deferred until the process is complete, providing further cost savings. The authors, focusing their research on enterprises from Oltenia Region, demonstrate how reengineering can be carried out in a variety of corporate settings. But although workers are the ones who need to be empowered to carry out reengineering, the authors are adamant that the process must start at the top. This is because it involves making major changes that are likely to cut across traditional organizational boundaries. Those empowered to make the changes at lower levels must know they have the support of top management, or change won�t occur.reengineering, rethinking business processes, regional economy, leadership, organization

Achieving Gender Justice in Indonesia's Forest and Land Governance Sector: How Civil Society Organizations Can Respond to Mining and Plantation Industry Impacts

Land based industries, most significantly palm oil plantations, timber concessions and mining operations, are expanding quickly in Indonesia. With approximately 840,000 ha of forest loss per year (Margono et al 2014), Indonesia suffers the world's highest rate of deforestation. As civil society organizations (CSOs) implement forest conservation strategies and programs to respond to the issue of forest loss, there is a growing concern that they lack the ability to address gender justice, or more specifically, Gender, Environment and Development, one field of Gender and Development. 1 This weakness may undermine CSO's ability to ameliorate the gendered injustices that limit women and marginalized communities' participation in forest governance. It also limits CSO's ability to build grassroots constituencies, which are crucial for driving reform. Drawing on the Gender, Environment and Development literature, and a gender assessment of selected Indonesian environmental CSOs, this paper provides a brief overview of the major gender issues relevant to forest and land governance, and makes six recommendations to help CSOs develop more gender sensitive advocacy and programming. The paper aims to contribute to the overall objective of improving gender justice (including women's participation) in forest governance