International Mine Action Standards: Future Development of PPE Standards

This article explains developments since the issue of International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) 10.30 in order to illustrate the potential amendments to IMAS 10.30 over the next two years

Business strategy and the management of labour in the Co-operative Bank.

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:D187816 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

The HR literature won’t give you a complete picture of employee voice

There's a tension between employees' desire for independent voice and the management agenda, write Michael Barry and Adrian Wilkinso

Adoption of High-Performance Work Systems by Local Subsidiaries of Developed Country and Turkish MNEs and Indigenous Firms in Turkey

High‐performance work systems (HPWSs) are seen as important in helping strengthen competitive strategies of developed‐country multinational enterprises (DC MNEs). Commensurate with global competitive pressures and internationalization strategies, emerging‐country MNEs (EC MNEs) and indigenous firms are also increasingly adopting HPWSs. HPWSs are not only seen as simply performance enhancing systems, but also as facilitators of internationalization. MNEs represent an important test bed for the HPWSs and their applicability in different national contexts. In this article, we contribute to the extant literature by focusing on HPWS adoption level within domestic subsidiaries of DC MNEs and EC MNEs along with stand‐alone indigenous firms in a single‐country setting by keeping the host‐country environment as constant

Employment relations and human resource management.

This chapter locates the emergence and significance of key intersections of Human Resource Management (HRM) and Employment Relations (ER) in a threefold manner. First, the chapter traces the origins of HRM, highlighting the importance of longstanding domain assumptions which formed the conceptual heritage of the term. Second, the chapter explores key waves of research that have characterised the field since the mid-1980s, including an emphasis on strategy, HRM-Performance linkages, and employee outcomes. Third, the chapter draws on a 5C framework to provide a critical evaluation of HRM. Overall, this serves to illuminate the value of more employment relations grounded understanding and on-going conversation between related modes of thinking about the management of people at work in contemporary society

Changing patterns of human resource management in construction

Recent years have seen increased emphasis on the need for construction organizations to be more client and market oriented—a tantalizing vision of a new quality world driven by clients with an emphasis on best value. This is likely to have significant implications for the business model and management in the industry. However, while construction constitutes an important component of global economic activity, and the very nature of the work is labour intensive, there has been a lack of attention given to the study of human resource management issues. Yet it has long been recognized that the way employees are managed can have important implications for organizational performance, and can even be a differentiator between successful and unsuccessful organizations (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2012). Context-specific factors are believed to partly explain typical approaches to managing people in the sector. These include the nature of complex project-based environments, ingrained cultural norms, cyclical demand and structural flexibility. Delivery of construction projects often requires the coordination of a multiplicity of actors, within a largely fragmented, transient and heterogeneous workforce. The construction industry therefore offers a rich and distinctive context for the study of employment issues, and an interesting counterpoint to the employment models traditionally associated with many manufacturing or service contexts. Much of the existing research tends to paint a fairly bleak picture of employment practices and industrial relations in the construction sector, often depicted as an informal, casualized and even cavalier approach to the management of people with long working hours (Lingard et al., 2008; Townsend et al., 2011) and high rates of health and safety incidents (Loudoun, 2010). Though management styles clearly vary between firms and across countries, thus making it difficult to generalize, the construction industry has been beset by a poor image in relation to approaches to human resource management and workforce relations (International Labour Office, 2001). In contrast to the model of HRM developed by Storey (1995) which emphasizes an approach to people management concerned with developing and utilizing employees in pursuit of organizational objectives, people management in construction is often characterized as a ‘black hole’ or ‘hard HRM’. Perhaps it is a by-product of the gendered nature of the construction industry, but Ness and Green (2012) report hostility of project managers towards HRM as a concept, citing evidence from managers who described investment in HR as ‘a luxury’, ‘namby-pamby’ and viewed HR practitioners as ‘pen pushers’. Indeed the British government has published various reports exhorting the need for a review of traditional employment practices, for both economic and social reasons. Encouragingly, there is also some evidence of the existence of more ‘enlightened’ approaches to managing people. This special issue aims to take stock and evaluate such changes

Integrating products and services through life : an aerospace experience

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the evolution of "product-service" (P-S) strategies in the aerospace sector. Despite the widespread perception that aerospace organisations are advanced in terms of P-S integration, little is known about the realities of P-S provision in the sector. Much of the existing literature is normative and prescriptive, focusing upon what organisations aspire to do, but offers little insights into how attempts to integrate products and services occur or the challenges organisations encounter. Design/methodology/approach - This paper presents an in-depth case study of an international aerospace original equipment manufacturer, referred to as "JetCo". A total of 18 interviews were conducted with key actors involved in the operationalisation of P-S strategy within defence aerospace and civil aerospace divisions. In addition, analysis of internal company documentation was also undertaken. Findings - This paper reveals that current P-S strategy, which builds upon a long history of service offerings, initially evolved separately in each division in response to the particular markets in which they operate. However, there was evidence of a corporate-wide strategy for P-S provision being developed across divisions to improve co-ordination. This was founded on the recognition that P-S delivery requires the development of a stronger customer orientation, better knowledge and information management strategies and the engagement of employees. A key challenge concerned integrating the product and service parts of the business to ensure consistent delivery of a seamless value offering to customers. Originality/value - The paper offers fresh empirical evidence into the development of P-S in an organisation drawn from a sector often flagged as an exemplar of P-S provision, and provides insights into the complex realities of P-S implementation and delivery. Notably, it highlights the challenge of attempting to embed an organisation-wide "service culture" in pursuit of integrated P-S delivery, and questions the nostrums and overly simplistic models which pervade the current solutions discourse. Aerospace industry After sales service Product life cycle Product management

The potential of labour−management partnership: a longitudinal case analysis

Issues of labour−management cooperation have long attracted the attention of management researchers, practitioners and policymakers. In Britain, the most recent wave of interest has been under the rubric of labour−management partnership, normally concerning the development of cooperative relations between unions and employers. A recurring theme is that cooperative relations can be difficult to develop and sustain, especially in liberal market economies. This paper advances the debate by examining the dynamics of labour−management partnership within the context of a British financial services organization over a 25‐year period. Drawing upon empirical case study data collected between 1990 and 2014, we assess the dynamics of the relationship between a building society and the recognized staff union. We confirm the possibility of sustaining collaborative relationships associated with a mutual gains agenda within a liberal market economy as well as the fragility of such arrangements. While we acknowledge that sustaining cooperative regimes can be difficult, we also caution against the tendency towards institutional determinism and underplaying of agency in many of the partnership critiques. Given the lack of a credible alternative, we conclude that labour−management partnership remains an important public policy goal and should not be dismissed as a chimera

Reconceptualizing the service paradox in engineering companies : is HR a missing link?

Many global engineering organizations have gradually shifted away from the provision of tangible products toward the provision of high-value-combined product-service solutions. This business paradigm is purported to represent a key strategic opportunity for such firms, and has attracted the attention of practitioners, consultants, and researchers. However, it has also been recognized that many firms fail to generate increased financial returns, the so-called the 'service paradox.' Despite an emerging international research literature which alludes to cultural and human resource challenges, few studies have explicitly explored such issues from a human resource (HR) perspective. Informed by two in-depth case studies of global engineering organizations in the U. K., this paper examines the HR challenges and reveals the complex realities of enacting product-service (PS) strategies in practice. It reveals that even where services have proved profitable, firms may still encounter various HR challenges, and struggle to fully exploit their service strategies. Addressing such challenges may represent a key enabler in delivering integrated product-services in organizations attempting to mesh distinctive engineering and service paradigms