Can HRM Alleviate the Negative Effects of the Resource Curse on Firms? -Evidence from Brunei

Purpose: The resource curse literature suggests that firms operating in non-oil and gas industries in petrostates face considerable challenges in securing competitiveness and sustaining themselves. Based on a firm level survey within a micro-petrostate, Brunei, this study explores the relationship between specific HR policies and practices and organisational performance, analysing, comparing and contrasting oil and gas with non-oil and gas sectors, and draws out the comparative lessons for understanding the potential and performance consequences of HR interventions in resource centred national economies. Design/methodology/approach: Data for this study was generated from a primary survey administered amongst the HR Directors in companies operating in all sectors in Brunei. A statistically representative sample size of 214 was selected. Findings: We confirmed that firms in the oil and gas sector indeed performed better than other sectors. However, we found that the negative effects associated with operating outside of oil and gas could be mitigated through strategic choices: the strategic involvement of HR directors in the affairs of the company reduced employee turnover and added positively to financial returns across sectors. Practical implications: Developing and enhancing the role of people management is still very much easier than bringing about structural institutional reforms: the study confirms that at least part of the solution to contextual difficulties lies within, and that the firm level consequences of the resource curse can be ameliorated through strategic choice. Originality/value: The nature of the present investigation is one of few studies conducted in South East Asia in general and in the context of Brunei in particular. It also contributes to our understanding whether HR interventions can ameliorate the challenges of operating in a nonresource sector in a resource rich country

Human resource management in multinational and domestic enterprises: A comparative institutional analysis in Southeast Asia

This paper looks at the relative impact of context on the role of senior managers. It compares HR Directors of Domestic Enterprises (DEs) against those of multinational enterprises (MNEs), within an emerging market setting, based on a survey of HR Directors in Brunei. We found that that, with the exception of some aspects of selection and recruitment, HR Directors of MNEs accorded a higher priority to strategic tasks, yet were more reluctant to delegate. This study confirms the importance of MNEs in pioneering more modern and integrated approaches to people management, but also limitations to the extent to which they might act as evangelists of new practices that are adopted by their local peers. In contrast, local firms were more likely to concentrate their attention on administrative, rather than strategic, issues. We draw out the implications of our findings for theory and practice

The Role of HR Directors in Multinational and Domestic Enterprises

This chapter explores the comparative effect of context on the senior management role. A comparison is presented between HR directors of DEs and those working in MNEs in the case of a developing market setting, in the country context of Brunei. This chapter presents support for the perceived value of MNEs in establishing more innovative and combined methods for managing people, although there have remained a number of limitations in terms of the degree to which they might position themselves as evangelists in the case of new methods implemented by their local peers. On the other hand, local organisations are seen to be far more inclined to emphasise administrative considerations as opposed to strategic ones. The implications for theory and practice are drawn out in the chapter

Health-status outcomes with invasive or conservative care in coronary disease

BACKGROUND In the ISCHEMIA trial, an invasive strategy with angiographic assessment and revascularization did not reduce clinical events among patients with stable ischemic heart disease and moderate or severe ischemia. A secondary objective of the trial was to assess angina-related health status among these patients. METHODS We assessed angina-related symptoms, function, and quality of life with the Seattle Angina Questionnaire (SAQ) at randomization, at months 1.5, 3, and 6, and every 6 months thereafter in participants who had been randomly assigned to an invasive treatment strategy (2295 participants) or a conservative strategy (2322). Mixed-effects cumulative probability models within a Bayesian framework were used to estimate differences between the treatment groups. The primary outcome of this health-status analysis was the SAQ summary score (scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating better health status). All analyses were performed in the overall population and according to baseline angina frequency. RESULTS At baseline, 35% of patients reported having no angina in the previous month. SAQ summary scores increased in both treatment groups, with increases at 3, 12, and 36 months that were 4.1 points (95% credible interval, 3.2 to 5.0), 4.2 points (95% credible interval, 3.3 to 5.1), and 2.9 points (95% credible interval, 2.2 to 3.7) higher with the invasive strategy than with the conservative strategy. Differences were larger among participants who had more frequent angina at baseline (8.5 vs. 0.1 points at 3 months and 5.3 vs. 1.2 points at 36 months among participants with daily or weekly angina as compared with no angina). CONCLUSIONS In the overall trial population with moderate or severe ischemia, which included 35% of participants without angina at baseline, patients randomly assigned to the invasive strategy had greater improvement in angina-related health status than those assigned to the conservative strategy. The modest mean differences favoring the invasive strategy in the overall group reflected minimal differences among asymptomatic patients and larger differences among patients who had had angina at baseline

Initial invasive or conservative strategy for stable coronary disease

BACKGROUND Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, whether clinical outcomes are better in those who receive an invasive intervention plus medical therapy than in those who receive medical therapy alone is uncertain. METHODS We randomly assigned 5179 patients with moderate or severe ischemia to an initial invasive strategy (angiography and revascularization when feasible) and medical therapy or to an initial conservative strategy of medical therapy alone and angiography if medical therapy failed. The primary outcome was a composite of death from cardiovascular causes, myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina, heart failure, or resuscitated cardiac arrest. A key secondary outcome was death from cardiovascular causes or myocardial infarction. RESULTS Over a median of 3.2 years, 318 primary outcome events occurred in the invasive-strategy group and 352 occurred in the conservative-strategy group. At 6 months, the cumulative event rate was 5.3% in the invasive-strategy group and 3.4% in the conservative-strategy group (difference, 1.9 percentage points; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.8 to 3.0); at 5 years, the cumulative event rate was 16.4% and 18.2%, respectively (difference, 121.8 percentage points; 95% CI, 124.7 to 1.0). Results were similar with respect to the key secondary outcome. The incidence of the primary outcome was sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction; a secondary analysis yielded more procedural myocardial infarctions of uncertain clinical importance. There were 145 deaths in the invasive-strategy group and 144 deaths in the conservative-strategy group (hazard ratio, 1.05; 95% CI, 0.83 to 1.32). CONCLUSIONS Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, we did not find evidence that an initial invasive strategy, as compared with an initial conservative strategy, reduced the risk of ischemic cardiovascular events or death from any cause over a median of 3.2 years. The trial findings were sensitive to the definition of myocardial infarction that was used