The Relationship Between HR Practices and Firm Performance: Examining Causal Order

Significant research attention has been devoted to examining the relationship between HR practices and firm performance, and the research support has assumed HR as the causal variable. Using data from 45 business units (with 62 data points), this study examines how measures of HR practices correlate with past, concurrent, and future operational performance measures. The results indicate that correlations with performance measures at all three times are both high and invariant, and that controlling for past or concurrent performance virtually eliminates the correlation of HR with future performance. Implications are discussed

Idiosyncratic deals for older workers: increased heterogeneity among older workers enhance the need for i-Deals

The rapid aging of the workforce throughout the Western world and parts of Asia, including Japan and China, poses many challenges on contemporary organizations (European Commission, 2010 ; Wang & Shultz, 2010 ). The Babyboom generation, consisting of workers born between 1945 and 1965, constitutes a large part of the current workforce. Due to decreased fertility rates, there are fewer younger workers entering the labor market, as a consequence of which the percentage of older workers is rapidly increasing (Truxillo & Fraccaroli, 2013 ). Consequently, organizations are increasingly aware that the employee population is changing, and that strategies to employ, motivate, and retain workers have to be adapted accordingly. It is no longer suffi cient for organizations to focus on employing younger workers (e.g., through designing traineeships for graduates), because the infl ux of younger workers in the labor market is stagnating, which is in particular present in certain sectors, such as technical occupations and health care (Polat, Bal, & Jansen, 2012 ). Hence, organizations increasingly will have to rely on older workers, and try to retain older workers, and motivate them to stay longer in the workforce. Similarly, governments across Europe are also increasing offi cial retirement ages, and making it fi nancially less attractive for older workers to retire early (European Commission)

Assessing the evolution of primary healthcare organizations and their performance (2005-2010) in two regions of Québec province: Montréal and Montérégie

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The Canadian healthcare system is currently experiencing important organizational transformations through the reform of primary healthcare (PHC). These reforms vary in scope but share a common feature of proposing the transformation of PHC organizations by implementing new models of PHC organization. These models vary in their performance with respect to client affiliation, utilization of services, experience of care and perceived outcomes of care.</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>In early 2005 we conducted a study in the two most populous regions of Quebec province (Montreal and Montérégie) which assessed the association between prevailing models of primary healthcare (PHC) and population-level experience of care. The <b>goal </b>of the present research project is to track the <it>evolution </it>of PHC organizational models and their relative performance through the reform process (from 2005 until 2010) and to assess factors at the organizational and contextual levels that are associated with the transformation of PHC organizations and their performance.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>This study will consist of three interrelated surveys, hierarchically nested. The first survey is a population-based survey of randomly-selected adults from two populous regions in the province of Quebec. This survey will assess the current affiliation of people with PHC organizations, their level of utilization of healthcare services, attributes of their experience of care, reception of preventive and curative services and perception of unmet needs for care. The second survey is an organizational survey of PHC organizations assessing aspects related to their vision, organizational structure, level of resources, and clinical practice characteristics. This information will serve to develop a taxonomy of organizations using a mixed methods approach of factorial analysis and principal component analysis. The third survey is an assessment of the organizational context in which PHC organizations are evolving. The five year prospective period will serve as a natural experiment to assess contextual and organizational factors (in 2005) associated with migration of PHC organizational models into new forms or models (in 2010) and assess the impact of this evolution on the performance of PHC.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>The results of this study will shed light on changes brought about in the organization of PHC and on factors associated with these changes.</p

Sharing vocabularies: towards horizontal alignment of values-driven business functions

This paper highlights the emergence of different ‘vocabularies’ that describe various values-driven business functions within large organisations and argues for improved horizontal alignment between them. We investigate two established functions that have long-standing organisational histories: Ethics and Compliance (E&C) and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). By drawing upon research on organisational alignment, we explain both the need for and the potential benefit of greater alignment between these values-driven functions. We then examine the structural and socio-cultural dimensions of organisational systems through which E&C and CSR horizontal alignment can be coordinated to improve synergies, address tensions, and generate insight to inform future research and practice in the field of Business and Society. The paper concludes with research questions that can inform future scholarly research and a practical model to guide organizations’ efforts towards inter-functional, horizontal alignment of values-driven organizational practice

High-Performance Work Systems and Organizational Performance in Emerging Economies: Evidence from MNEs in Turkey

This study examines the association between the usage of high-performance work systems (HPWS) by subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Turkey and employee and subsidiary level outcomes. The study is based on a survey of 148 MNE subsidiaries operating in Turkey. The results show that the usage of HPWS has a significant positive impact on employee effectiveness. However, their impact on employee skills and development, and organizational financial performance are far less clear. Our findings highlight the extent to which HWPS need to be adapted to take account of context-specific institutional realities. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

Bolivian Marmosops

40 p. : ill., maps ; 26 cm.Electronic version available in portable document format (PDF).Includes bibliographical references (p. 34-37).In order to facilitate much-needed revisionary research on Marmosops, we summarize the currently accepted species-level taxonomy, provide full bibliographic citations for original descriptions of all 36 included nominal taxa, map their type localities, and list their type material (if known). We rediagnose the genus Marmosops, compare it with three other didelphid genera to which misidentified specimens of Marmosops have often been referred, and review the phylogenetic evidence that Marmosops is monophyletic. After describing a new species from the eastern-slope montane forests of Bolivia, we review the taxonomy of other Bolivian congeners based on morphological characters and published cytochrome-b gene sequences. Among our taxonomic results, we synonymize albiventris Tate (1931), dorothea Thomas (1911), and yungasensis Tate (1931) with M. noctivagus (Tschudi, 1845). By contrast, M. ocellatus (Tate, 1931), currently considered a synonym of dorothea, appears to be a valid species. Whereas published range maps of Bolivian species of Marmosops are demonstrably based on misidentified material and show little correspondence with known environmental factors, locality records based on specimens examined for this report make much more ecogeographic sense

HRM and the health of hospitals

Muurlink, OT ORCiD: 0000-0002-8251-9521While there is a plethora of research on people management and high-commitment management, most are focused on commercial enterprises. Even the high-commitment management literature on commercial organisations argues that we need to move beyond the confines of financial performance. There are relatively few studies of high-commitment management which focus on hospitals. This is despite the fact that human resources are a major cost and source of performance leverage in hospitals. © The Author(s) 2018