What is European Economic and Monetary Union Telling us About the Properties of Optimum Currency Areas?

Our understanding of optimum currency area (OCA) properties has changed over time. While all properties can now be discussed in detail, the challenge of weighing and reconciling them remains. Looking ahead, we may be confronted with two distinct paradigms: specialization versus 'endogeneity of OCA' that may give rise to a paradox if taken to the extreme. The merits of OCA theory as an organizing device and a research catalyst are underlined, but its limitations are also revealed. Also noted here is the complementarity between empirical studies of OCA properties and progress toward EMU. Copyright 2005 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

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 /