Copyright (c) 2010 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill Recent documents in Carol Gill en-us Tue, 02 Mar 2010 22:30:58 PST 3600 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/28 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/28 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:58:10 PST Take advantage of the tools available to check the fit between HRM and business strategy Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/27 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/27 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:54:42 PST A previous article published in this magazine concluded that whilst many organisations have adopted employee surveys as regular HRM practice it is only when surveys are linked to organisational strategy and implemented effectively that they can make a contribution. This article articulated two principles, firstly organisations should onlys ask what they want and need to know (relevant data) and they should be able and willing to act on what they find (actionable data). This article focuses on the implemenation of an employee survey that is consistent with these two principles. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/26 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/26 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:48:02 PST This article demonstrates that employee surveys can be an important strategic tool but poor implmentation can diminish their value. Specifically surveys should be linked to Business Strategy and have actionable outcomes. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/25 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/25 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:34:58 PST Workplace stress and its causes can pose a dilemma for HR practitioners Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/24 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/24 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:32:26 PST Progressive HR Practices can make your business an employer of choice if you can move beyond 'toxic accounting' and 'downsizing' anorexia. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/23 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/23 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:28:43 PST Performance assessments can be a shattering experience, writes Carol Gill, who looks at one way of making them more objective Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/21 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/21 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:08:19 PST Psychological testing has the mystique of white magicpotential and existing employees complete several relatively brief paper and pencil tests and the organization receives a concise report (accurate to the percentile!) that is able to describe personality, intelligence and various other significant characteristics in detailto predict the future! This magic though, in most cases, can only be performed by a witch doctor (Psychologist), which contributes to the "black box" aura of testing. Despite the reported validity of testing there are a range of methodological and ethical issues in using psychological tests, however, the most important question is how significant is the psychological test to the selection and management of employees? In particular, can we assess "fit" to a static concept of job or culture when organizations are complex and dynamic systems? Can simplistic solutions provide answers to complex phenomenon such as personality, when we know that behavior is context dependent? Can we be sure that employees that have "it" will be willing and able to use "it"? In this light is "human being gazing" superior to staring at the stars or a crystal ball? Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/20 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/20 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 20:56:48 PST This paper examines the impact of psychological flexibility on emergent leadership behavior in a sample of 395 MBA students, comprising 76 self-managed teams at a large Australian university. We hypothize that psychological flexibility enhances team member performance by allowing individuals to notice, comprehend and respond effectively to leadership opportunities in the team context. Consistent with predictions, results show that individuals' psychological flexibility had a positive impact on emergent leadership behavior, which in turn influenced individuals' peer-rated performance and individuals' satisfaction with the team experience. The findings provide initial evidence that the development of psychological flexibility in team members can improve performance in self-managed teams. Carol Gill Leadership http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/19 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/19 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:39:59 PST This article draws together empirical research in the psychological contract, trust, unions and NWP literatures to draw conclusions on the way in which unions impact on NWP. It finds that strong unions that have a co-operative relationship with management prevent and heal breaches in the psychological contract and facilitate a virtuous trust cycle that is important to the implementation of NWP. This has significant implications for theory and practice, particularly in anti-union institutional contexts that are focused on union avoidance, suppression and substitution. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/18 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/18 Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:39:27 PST The Contingency approach to human resource management leads to the hypothesis that High Performance Work Practices (HPWP) are more compatible with 'High Road' business strategies that emphasize product differentiation through quality and innovation. More traditional human resource management is better suited to 'Low Road' business strategies that emphasise cost control and competition based primarily on price. Using data collected from a sample of 179 large Australian workplaces we tested the contingencies that influence HPWP implementation and impact. Our results support the Contingency approach in that High Road organisations are more likely to adopt HPWP and the Universal approach in that both High and Low Road organisations derive equal benefit from the implementation of HPWP. High Road organisations may be more likely to adopt HPWP because they see more benefit from their introduction or they may find it easier to implement HPWP because they have a less prohibitive union presence, a theory Y management attitude and a longer-term time horizon. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/17 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/17 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:40:31 PST This article draws together extant knowledge from the psychological contract, trust, union and new work practices (NWP) literature to develop a model on how union presence impacts on the effective adoption of NWP. It proposes that the strength of unions, coupled with the quality of industrial relations, determines whether unions will have a positive or negative impact on NWP. Unions can have a positive impact on the adoption of NWP by reducing the gap between management rhetoric and reality through employee voice and workforce stability. This builds trust between management and employees creating a virtuous cycle that can mitigate contract breaches which threaten the employee commitment so essential to NWP success. This article also finds that management attitude plays a significant role in determining the quality of industrial relations. This has significant implications for theory and practice, particularly in anti-union institutional contexts that are focused on union avoidance, suppression and substitution. In particular it informs management decision making on the implementation of NWP and unions. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/16 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/16 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:35:52 PST This paper examines how national and organizational culture influences supply chain management. To do this it reports on the case of Nissan Motor Company and finds that Japanese national culture had a significant impact on Nissan's inter organizational supply chain. In addition to this, national culture influenced organizational culture which had a substantive impact on Nissan's intra organizational supply chain. This article also analyses how Nissan was able to integrate its internal supply chain through culture change that successfully introduced Anglo business and human resource management practices into a Confusion Asian culture. It concludes that Nissan's organization culture had a greater impact on Nissan's performance than its country of origin. In doing so it counters the resource based proposition that a misfit between national culture and management practice reduces effectiveness and the collorary that a fit between the two is a source of competitive advantage. These findings have implications for international supply chain and human resource management, particularly in high context countries which characterize many emerging economies that are of increasing relevance as supply chains globalize. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/15 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/15 Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:30:42 PST This paper examines the literature and research on unions relevant to the effective adoption of High Performance Work Practices and demonstrates that unions that have a cooperative relationship with management can play an important role in overcoming barriers to the effective adoption of practices that have been linked to organizational competitiveness through the development and application of human capital. In particular, unions have the unique advantage of delivering independent voice that can not be substituted by management. Not only can unions make a contribution to organization competitiveness but they can also ensure that employees benefit from High Performance Work Practice adoption and in doing so secure their own relevance. The contribution that unions can make is inhibited by management and union's reluctance to engage in an integrative relationship and an institutional context that does not value unions. Organizations that want to capture the value that unions can add must move away from a pluralist model of autocratic management, hostile unions and adversarial industrial relations, beyond a unitarist model that sees no role for unions, to a cooperative partnership with unions that shares the gains of implementing High Performance Work Practices. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/13 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/13 Sun, 30 Mar 2008 23:11:10 PDT This paper examines extant theory and empirical research on new work methods, employee voice, employee trust and unions to draw conclusions on the relationship between these constructs and make recommendations for future empirical research. It found that trust is an important antecedent of new work methods and that union collective voice when coupled with collaborative industrial relations enhances employee trust which facilitates the successful adoption of new work methods and delivers sustainable competitive advantage. This refutes the proposition that unions are a threat to productivity which leads management respond with union avoidance and suppression. This paper has implications for management decisions on the implementation on new work practices and the relationship that they will have with unions. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/11 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/11 Sun, 09 Dec 2007 16:36:20 PST The Critical Perspective on Human Resource Management argues that HRM has inherent contradictions derived from its foundation in two different US models that lead to a gap between rhetoric and reality. The gap is interpreted in two ways. Firstly, the Critical Perspective proposes that HRM has only been implemented in rhetoric making it ineffectual. Secondly it proposes that HRM is manipulative and uses soft rhetoric to disguise and gain employee commitment to a hard reality characterized by work intensification and job insecurity. Critiques of the Critical Perspective propose that HRM cannot be both ineffective and manipulative and that the Critical Perspective's view of Human Resource Management is derived from simplistic concepts of HRM and scant and possibly biased evidence. This critique proposes that the Critical Perspective is an academic debate that has had little impact on, or value for, Human Resource Management practitioners. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/4 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/4 Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:27:53 PDT The Human Capital approach to Human Resource Management proposes that unlike traditional sources of competitive advantage, a quality, motivated workforce is a source of competitive advantage that is difficult for competitors to replicate. Research has indicated that High Commitment, Performance or Involvement Work Practices (HCWP) are a vehicle for creating such a workforce. Despite methodological problems, research to date points to a positive relationship between HCWP and organizational outcomes. There is little research data to explore how and why HCWP impact, and why if they are so successful, more organisations don't adopt these practices. There is also little research on HCWP in Australia. This paper firstly examines the adoption of HCWP practices in Australia and considers the impact they have on employer and employee outcomes. This paper then examines the factors that contribute to the adoption of HCWP. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/2 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/2 Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:16:27 PDT The Contingency approach to human resource management leads to the hypothesis that High Performance Work Practices (HPWP), which focus on the soft HRM strategy of Developmental Humanism, are more compatible with 'High Road' business strategies that emphasize product differentiation through quality and innovation More traditional human resource management, which is focussed on Utilitarian Instrumentalism and Numerical Flexibility, is better suited to 'Low Road' business strategies that emphasise cost control and competition based primarily on price. To date most research on HPWP has only examined the direct relationship between practices and performance outcomes and, whilst the link between HPWP and organizational performance has been established, the mechanics of the linkages are considered a 'black box' with empirical and theoretical gaps. Using data collected from a sample of 179 large Australian workplaces we tested the contingencies that influence HPWP implementation and impact. Our results support the Contingency approach in that High Road organizations are more likely to adopt HPWP and the Universal approach in that both High and Low Road organizations derive equal benefit from the implementation of HPWP. High Road organizations may be more likely to adopt HPWP because they see more benefit from their introduction or they may find it easier to implement HPWP because they have a less prohibitive union presence, a theory Y management attitude and a longer-term time horizon. Carol Gill Human Resource Management http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/1 http://works.bepress.com/carol_gill/1 Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:11:27 PDT The Critical Management Studies debate on Human Resource Management proposes that reality is socially constructed for employees through macro discourse. It argues that in response to a unitary rhetoric of mutual gains, employees trust the organization to take care of their needs, preferring a direct individual relationship with their employers over a collective workplace relationship facilitated by unions, and that this produces superior outcomes for employers at the expense of employees. This research extends extant knowledge in this field by using a large scale empirical perspective based on a survey of 189 large, Australian organisations. This research concludes that Human Resource Management does not construct reality for employees, but does play a significant role in the gap between rhetoric and reality. When Human Resource Management is strategic and well resourced it effectively implements soft reality and delivers mutual gains for both employers and employees, even in the absence of a union. Carol Gill Human Resource Management