‘Building for the Future?’ Government and Industry Responses to the Challenges of Talent Management in China Following the GFC

China suffered minimal fallout from the global financial crisis due to its burgeoning economy and ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ political strategy. However, despite this, its industries face enormous human resource management (HRM) challenges associated with the country's rapid economic growth. Principal amongst these HRM challenges is the need to attract and retain crucial talent. It is likely that if Chinese industry is unsuccessful in these endeavours, the future economic growth of China may be stalled, resulting in more serious long-term outcomes. This paper explores these challenges together with some possible solutions and future research directions

Silk garments plus standard care compared with standard care for treating eczema in children: a randomised controlled, observer blind, pragmatic trial (CLOTHES Trial)

Background The role of clothing in the management of eczema (syn. atopic dermatitis, atopic eczema) is poorly understood. This trial evaluated the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of silk garments (in addition to standard care) for the management of eczema in children with moderate to severe disease. Methods and findings This was a parallel group randomised controlled, observer-blind trial. Children aged 1 to 15 years with moderate to severe eczema were recruited from secondary care and the community in five UK centres. Participants were allocated using on-line randomisation (1:1) to standard care, or standard care plus silk garments; stratified by age and recruiting centre. Silk garments were worn for 6 months. Primary outcome (eczema severity) was assessed at baseline, 2, 4 and 6 months, by nurses blinded to treatment allocation using the Eczema Area and Severity Index (EASI), which was log-transformed for analysis (intention-to-treat analysis). Safety outcome: number of skin infections. Three hundred children were randomised (26th Nov 2013 to 5th May 2015): 42% girls, 79% white, mean age 5 years. Primary analysis included 282/300 (94%) children (n = 141 in each group). The garments were worn more often at night than in the day (median of 81% of nights (25th to 75th centile 57% to 96%) and 34% of days (25th to 75th centile 10% to 76%)). Geometric mean EASI scores at baseline, 2, 4 and 6 months were 9·2, 6·4, 5·8, 5·4 for silk clothing and 8·4, 6·6, 6·0, 5·4 for standard care. There was no evidence of any difference between the groups in EASI score averaged over all follow up visits adjusted for baseline EASI score, age and centre (adjusted ratio of geometric means: 0·95, 95% CI 0·85 to 1·07). This confidence interval is equivalent to a difference of -1·5 to 0·5 in the original EASI scale units which is not clinically important. Skin infections occurred in 36/142 (25%) and 39/141 (28%) for silk clothing and standard care respectively. Even if the small observed treatment effect was genuine, the incremental cost per QALY was £56,881 in the base case analysis from an NHS perspective, suggesting that silk garments are unlikely to be cost-effective within currently accepted thresholds. Main limitations: whilst minimising detection bias, use of an objective primary outcome may have underestimated treatment effects. Conclusions Silk clothing is unlikely to provide additional benefit over standard care in children with moderate to severe eczema

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Vulnerability and sustainability in the tourism industry

As the focus of this research- ie. an examination of the internal and external vulnerabilities of the international tourism industry - is both exploratory and multi-disciplinary, a broad range of generic and industry-specific sources have been consulted. Accordingly, depending on their direct or peripheral relevance to the research topic, some areas have been researched more comprehensively than others. In addition, some issues have richer research bases than others. As examples, the literature on strategic management theory is quite comprehensive, but it is not the central focus of the topic, whereas the structure of the tourism industry is crucial to an analysis of its vulnerability but literature on this issue is sparse and fragmented. Notwithstanding these limitations this literature review attempts to encompass all relevant research areas in a logical manner, proceeding from a cursory examination of the economic and social significance of the tourism industry, its research and definitional issues; through a considerably more comprehensive analysis of its complex inter- and intra- sectoral structures and relationships with its multiple business environments; towards an exploration of the application of vulnerability/sustainability and strategic/crisis management theories. Specifically, the review is divided into the following sections: the nature of the tourism industry; the business environments for tourism; vulnerability and sustainability, strategic and crisis management. The structure parallels the framework used in the accompanying rationale. All sections analyse the major issues of the relevant literature and discuss them in relation to the vulnerability and sustainability of the international tourism industry. The review concludes with an overall summary of the significant themes and dilemmas

Strategic human resource management/ Nankervis

xiv, 616 p.: tab.; 24 cm

Performance Management: a Seven Country Study

Of all the human resource management (HRM) processes performance management (PM) is potentially the most powerful, yet simultaneoustly the most problematic. This paper reports the findings of a recent research study of the usage, characteristics, and effectiveness of performance management systems across seven countries in the Asia Pacific region. Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka were surveyed. Whilst the sample sizes were widely divergent, ranging from only eight responses in Sri Lanka to almost one thousand in Australia, the themes which emerged are interesting not only for their similarities but also for their contextual differences. There are some signs of an increasing convergence between system types and usage, but as expected, this trend is undoubtedly mediated by specific socio-cultural differences

Unions and collective bargaining

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The Australian bargaining framework

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