The federal arbitration system and Australian economic performance

Has the Federal arbitration system been a facilitator, a barrier or irrelevant in the twentieth century growth record of Australia? To consider this question, the present review considers the role of wage setting institutions in the growth process. It then goes on to consider the contribution of the arbitration system to Australian economic performance. A number of criteria will be addressed, including inflation, unemployment, allocation of labour, productivity growth and responsiveness to economic shocks. The evidence is inconclusive in terms of a direct relationship between the wage setting decisions of the arbitration system and macroeconomic performance. Nevertheless, there are important institutional features of the arbitration system that are important in shaping the growth path of the Australian economy over the past century

The role of national context and HR strategy in shaping training and development practice in French and U.K. organizations

A comparative analysis of French and U.K. organizations is used to explore the impact of national context and formal human resources (HR) strategy on employee development systems. Survey data is drawn from 531 French and 879 U.K. organizations. The results indicate that national context is the strongest predictor of how employee development is organized above and beyond the impact of a formalized HR strategy. In contrast to French organizations, U.K. companies tend to be less restrictive in the range of management tools they use for monitoring, evaluating and delivering training and development. These differences are considered in the light of divergent national approaches to education and skill development. The use of a formalized HR strategy was correlated with the collection of workforce data on training and development need and effectiveness. It is suggested that the formalization of an HR strategy promotes HR planning mechanisms. The implications of these findings with respect to the ethnocentricity of the human resource management literature are considered