The Transformation of Employment Relations Systems in Central and Eastern Europe. University of Illinois EUC Working Paper, Vol. 3, No. 2

During the 1990s employment relations systems in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) experienced a complex, multilevel process of transformation. In this article, we discuss the transformation of employment relations systems under the impact of privatization, foreign direct investment, and pressures for the accession to the European Union enlargement at the enterprise, industry-, and national levels. We argue that the pattern of embeddedness of ER in the former planned economic system, the developmental role of the state during the period of transition and the timing of the changes at a moment of intensified international competition resulted into unique configurations of employment relations in the different CEE countries, not necessarily converging toward the incremental adjustments of Western European employment relations. Key factors bound to further introduce transformations convergent with Western ER models include the growing presence of multinational companies and the perspective of the EU enlargement

Strategic Human Resources Management: Between the Resource-Based View of the Firm and an Entrepreneurship Approach

Mercatus Center, George Mason University, n° 4174This working paper is an attempt to illustrate some of the avenues through which Austrian and entrepreneurship theory ideas are further incorporated in management sciences as part of the aforementioned disciplinary evolutions. The paper uses as a vehicle the case of a subfield emerging at the disciplinary boundaries of human resources management theories, theories of the firm and strategy theories of competition: strategic human resources management. In other words, it uses the concrete example of strategic human resources management (SHRM) to show why and how the evolutions in the field may lead to a renewed focus on entrepreneurship and how they reinforce the idea that entrepreneurship is an indispensable element of the intellectual toolbox one uses in management and organization science

The HR Consulting Entrepreneur: Firm-Builder, Market-Maker and Diffuser of HR Management Knowledge in an Emergent Business System

237 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.The study makes three key contributions: First, in a departure from the standard institutional approaches to the study of management practices transfer, it uses the lenses of two entrepreneurial theories of decision-making in early markets---the effectuation and the nexus of individual-opportunities approaches---to unravel how the building of HR consulting firms sets practice theorization and diffusion processes into motion in an emergent economy (Romania). Second, the investigation is empirically anchored in extensive field work, and framed in a multicase study design format. Developing an analysis framed on ground-theory lines it reveals three distinct entrepreneurial decision-making patterns that are responsible both for the formation of causal beliefs about the role of HR practices and for the build up of new market institutions that diffuses them into the broader environment. Third, the analysis illuminates the formation of preferences for new (or previously unknown) management practices. At the same time it refines our understanding of the role of entrepreneurs in the build-up of proto-institutions that further the process of HR practices diffusion in institutional contexts (including in advanced Western economies) where they are met with stiff indifference or reluctance. As such, the insights and findings of the study become the basis of a comparative research agenda that is relevant not only for transition and emerging economies but also for Western, advanced ones.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD

The Transformation of Employment Relations Systems in Central and Eastern Europe

International audienceDuring the 1990s, employment relations systems in Central and Eastern Europe experienced a complex, multilevel process of transformation. In the present paper, we discuss the transformation of employment relations systems under the impact of privatization, foreign direct investment, and pressures for the accession to the European Union enlargement at the enterprise, industry, and national levels. We argue that the pattern of embeddedness of employment relations in the former planned economic system, the developmental role of the state during the period of transition and the timing of the changes at a moment of intensified international competition resulted in unique configurations of employment relations in the different Central and Eastern European countries, not necessarily converging towards the incremental adjustments of Western European employment relations

Land Reform and Agricultural Reform Policies in Romania's Transition to the Market Economy: Overview and Assessment

International audienceThis article explores in depth the key legislative and policy elements of the Romanian agrarian reform, surveys their historical and social context, articulates the ideas and beliefs that guided them, and assesses their success and repercussions. This detailed overview reveals that above and beyond any structural constraints, legacies of the past, or interest group pressures, the relative failure of the Romanian agriculture reform could be largely traced to a set of assumptions and beliefs that inspired the policymakers in charge of the process: (a) The erroneous assumption that land restitution and private ownership of the land could by themselves solve the problems of low productivity; (b) the paradoxical resilience of the idea that large farm size was the ideal form of organization of production in agriculture; (c) the misplaced belief that rural markets were to emerge naturally as a result of the reintroduction of private property rights over land; and (d) the notion that agricultural policies can be designed in isolation from the overall development of the other sectors of the economy

Land Reform and Agricultural Reform Policies in Romania's Transition to the Market Economy

This article explores in depth the key legislative and policy elements of the Romanian agrarian reform, surveys their historical and social context, articulates the ideas and beliefs that guided them, and assesses their success and repercussions. This detailed overview reveals that above and beyond any structural constraints, legacies of the past, or interest group pressures, the relative failure of the Romanian agriculture reform could be largely traced to a set of assumptions and beliefs that inspired the policymakers in charge of the process: (a) The erroneous assumption that land restitution and private ownership of the land could by themselves solve the problems of low productivity; (b) the paradoxical resilience of the idea that large farm size was the ideal form of organization of production in agriculture; (c) the misplaced belief that rural markets were to emerge naturally as a result of the reintroduction of private property rights over land; and (d) the notion that agricultural policies can be designed in isolation from the overall development of the other sectors of the economy.