The state of HRM in the Middle East:Challenges and future research agenda

Based on a robust structured literature analysis, this paper highlights the key developments in the field of human resource management (HRM) in the Middle East. Utilizing the institutional perspective, the analysis contributes to the literature on HRM in the Middle East by focusing on four key themes. First, it highlights the topical need to analyze the context-specific nature of HRM in the region. Second, via the adoption of a systematic review, it highlights state of development in HRM in the research analysis set-up. Third, the analysis also helps to reveal the challenges facing the HRM function in the Middle East. Fourth, it presents an agenda for future research in the form of research directions. While doing the above, it revisits the notions of “universalistic” and “best practice” HRM (convergence) versus “best-fit” or context distinctive (divergence) and also alternate models/diffusion of HRM (crossvergence) in the Middle Eastern context. The analysis, based on the framework of cross-national HRM comparisons, helps to make both theoretical and practical implications

Multiphase Consensus Communication in Collaborative Problem Solving

. The big strength of intelligent agents | their communicative abilities | can often change into a big hindrance in real-world applications of collaborative problem solving. One can often observe that communication overhead annihilates the merits of partitioning the given problem. In this article, I introduce a concept called dynamic reconguration that allows for adapting the multi agent system structure to the given problem structure thus saving communication costs. The main focus lies on a novel consensus protocol that supports this reconguration and assumes benevolent, trustworthy agents. Hence, it is like the whole reconguration approach itself mainly applicable for rather closed systems, e. g. information or control systems. The protocol claims to enhance the eciency of consensus nding by using several dierent phases of negotiation. 1 Introduction Todays information technology systems face a great demand for managing complex distributed business processes. Rece..