National context as a predictor of high-performance work system effectiveness in small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs): a UK–French comparative analysis

High-performance work systems (HPWSs), a large firm model, have recently attracted interest within small-to-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In addition, institutional settings have been shown as an important determinant in the types of human resource management (HRM) practices adopted by employers. This paper progresses these topics through a comparative analysis of SMEs within Cote d’Opale/Nord Pas de Calais (French) and Kent (UK) regions. Clear divergence is evident in the nature of HPWS. Whilst UK SMEs are found to adopt a wider range of practices, French firms exhibit a higher degree of integration portrayed through a collective range of practices that engender employee participation and commitment

Separate and unequal: Prison versus free-world medical care*

Rusche and Kirchheimer argued that attempts at penal reform are limited by a principle of less eligibility, by which the regimen of punishment is made harsher than the conditions of life among the least well-off members of the working classes. In addition, Black posited that the benefits of law are inversely related to stratification and morphology; that is, inmates would be entitled to fewer benefits in law than would free-world citizens. Today the penal harm movement strives to make prison life harder, asserting that comfortable prison conditions are responsible for high crime rates. Critics frequently blame judicial intervention in prison operations for upsetting the careful calibration necessary to deter crime. In this article we examine these assertions by focusing on medical care litigation. Comparing the legal rales and precedents used to hold prison physicians liable for inadequate medical care under 42 U.S.C., Section 1983 with the standards customarily employed by courts in evaluating medical malpractice in the free world, we conclude that judicial decisions in this vital area conform to what would be expected, given the operation of the principle of less eligibility and Black’s “differentiation of law” thesis. © 1998 Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences

Enabling organizational cultural change using systemic strategic human resource management – a longitudinal case study

Researchers report that successful cultural change in an organization is difficult to achieve. This research contends that it is more likely to be successful when a systemic approach to strategic human resource management (SHRM) is used to facilitate the change. The contention was tested in an action research case study and longitudinal assessment of change in a large Australian public sector agency. A clear finding from this research is that the cultural change had been sustained through the systemic application of SHRM.<br /