A Conceptual Analysis of Global Human Resource Practices: Challenges and Prosp

With the advent of globalisation, all firms, large or small have become global, they ceased to be local. Even those organisations who consider themselves immune to transactions across geographical boundaries are connected to the wider network globally and this has encouraged many multinational companies to extend their operations to other countries by establishing subsidiary companies in other countries. For these companies to do well, sound human capital management practices must be embraced. This paper therefore examines the trends in globalhuman resource management practices, as well as the functions and challenges. As a conceptual paper, it is based on review of scholarly articles with a focus on creating a local appeal without compromising the global identity; generating awareness of cross-cultural sensitivities among managers globally and hiring of staff across geographical boundaries; and upon cultural sensitivities, training and development for the host communities. It concludes that success lies in a firm’s ability to build a unique competitive advantage against others. This competitive advantage will last longer if it is within the human capital of the organization rather than just a technology that others can buy. To become and remain competitive globally, it is recommended that a multinational enterprise acquaint itself with the various environmental settings that are likely to inhibit its success and design ways to beat them in advance.Keywords: HRM, staffing policy, labour relations, inter-country differences, Global HR Syste

Cost-effectiveness analysis of abobotulinumtoxinA for the treatment of cervical dystonia in the United Kingdom.

Cervical dystonia (CD) involves painful involuntary contraction of the neck and shoulder muscles and abnormal posture in middle-aged adults. Botulinum neurotoxin type A (BoNT-A) is effective in treating CD but little is known about its associated cost-effectiveness.This article is freely available via Open Access. Click on the Additional Link above to access the full-text via the publisher's site.Publishe

A Conceptual Analysis of Global Human Resource Practices: Challenges and Prospects

With the advent of globalisation, all firms, large or small have become global, they ceased to be local. Even those organisations who consider themselves immune to transactions across geographical boundaries are connected to the wider network globally and this has encouraged many multinational companies to extend their operations to other countries by establishing subsidiary companies in other countries. For these companies to do well, sound human capital management practices must be embraced. This paper therefore examines the conceptual analysis of global human resource management practices, it functions and challenges. It is a conceptual paper that is based on review of scholarly articles. Objectives of the paper include; creating a local appeal without compromising the global identity; generating awareness of crosscultural sensitivities among managers globally and hiring of staff across geographical boundaries; and upon cultural sensitivities, training and development for the host communities. It is therefore concluded that success lies in a firm’s ability to build a unique competitive advantage against others. This competitive advantage will last longer if it is within the human capital of the organization rather than just a technology that others can buy. To become and remain competitive globally, it is recommended that a multinational enterprise acquaint itself with the various environmental settings that are likely to inhibit its success and design ways to beat them in advance

Taking up the cudgels against gay rights? Trends and trajectories in African Christian theologies on homosexuality

Against the background of the HIV epidemic and the intense public controversy on homosexuality in African societies, this article investigates the discourses of academic African Christian theologians on homosexuality. Distinguishing some major strands in African theology, that is, inculturation, liberation, women’s and reconstruction theology, the article examines how the central concepts of culture, liberation, justice, and human rights function in these discourses. On the basis of a qualitative analysis of a large number of publications, the article shows that stances of African theologians are varying from silence and rejection to acceptance. Although many African theologians have taken up the cudgels against gay rights, some “dissident voices” break the taboo and develop more inclusive concepts of African identity and African Christianity

A Pilot Study Combining a GC-Sensor Device with a Statistical Model for the Identification of Bladder Cancer from Urine Headspace

There is a need to reduce the number of cystoscopies on patients with haematuria. Presently there are no reliable biomarkers to screen for bladder cancer. In this paper, we evaluate a new simple in-house fabricated, GC-sensor device in the diagnosis of bladder cancer based on volatiles. Sensor outputs from 98 urine samples were used to build and test diagnostic models. Samples were taken from 24 patients with transitional (urothelial) cell carcinoma (age 27-91 years, median 71 years) and 74 controls presenting with urological symptoms, but without a urological malignancy (age 29-86 years, median 64 years); results were analysed using two statistical approaches to assess the robustness of the methodology. A two-group linear discriminant analysis method using a total of 9 time points (which equates to 9 biomarkers) correctly assigned 24/24 (100%) of cancer cases and 70/74 (94.6%) controls. Under leave-one-out cross-validation 23/24 (95.8%) of cancer cases were correctly predicted with 69/74 (93.2%) of controls. For partial least squares discriminant analysis, the correct leave-one-out cross-validation prediction values were 95.8% (cancer cases) and 94.6% (controls). These data are an improvement on those reported by other groups studying headspace gases and also superior to current clinical techniques. This new device shows potential for the diagnosis of bladder cancer, but the data must be reproduced in a larger study. © 2013 Khalid et al