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The theoretical model of the CBHRT — which includes factors such as industrial relations, strategy, human resource management, and performance — was proved to have value on the sectoral, individual organization, and international comparative levels. In attempting to achieve the balance between social justice and competitiveness to further the uniqueness of HRM, this book has tried to illustrate some practical insights on HR roles and introduce the 4logic HRM scorecard. Research and development in the area of HRM and performance carries on as this proves to be a relevant topic for enchancing the competitive advantage of firms. HRM is concerned with several issues regarding legitimacy, fairness, sustainability, and other such issues. This concluding chapter realizes that it takes a lot to study the factors that shape HRM practices and policies, and it is important for practitioners to consider a unique HRM approach that is appropriate for their respective organizations.

There is a dearth of existing literature on cross-national variations in the organization, role, and boundaries of the personnel function. This chapter explores the evolving role and structure of the personnel function within the different national subsidiaries of US multinationals, and how these fit with the multinational company’s conception of the function’s role at an international level. It is argued that personnel departments in US multinationals face mounting pressures to reduce costs, leading to structural innovations such as shared service centres. Subsidiary personnel departments have pursued a more strategic role as ‘business partner’, and as contributor to the design of international HR policies. The management of tensions between the US approach and different host-country traditions of personnel management are examined, as well as the way in which subsidiary personnel managers ‘negotiate’ with higher levels of the international HR function, drawing on the institutional resources of their local environment.

This chapter looks at the HRM (human resource management) and knowledge system dimensions of open innovation, highlighting the rising importance of externally-derived knowledge. It establishes a link between the internal-external orientation of HRM systems and the type of external knowledge accessed. Internally/externally-oriented HRM systems are associated with public/private external knowledge, respectively. The latter type of knowledge tends to be closer to the cutting edge, as it takes time to codify knowledge. Once again, this analysis points to difficulties Japanese companies face in participating in global knowledge networks. However, it also points to tradeoffs between support for individual creativity on the one hand, and team work and control on the other.

This chapter provides a case study of Hitachi's response to its first postwar loss in 1998, in the face of growing competitive challenges, and ‘large firm malaise’. It began with HRM reforms and an attempt to reshape employment relations, as well as organization and governance reforms. From 2001, MOT concepts were progressively introduced, through exploratory, strategic, and systemic stages. These attempted to combine technologies with new business models to develop areas of technology focus and develop management systems to mobilize more effectively and integrate group and external resources. The resulting blend of continuity and change is called a ‘new production(ist) system’.

The recent rapprochement between management studies and studies of science and technology recreated an interest in management studies. This chapter presents examples showing that the role of things in management is complex. Managers try to defend themselves from the insubordination of technical and material things, and they spend much time applying quasi-objects such as managerial technologies to mediate the fate of technical or material objects. Much effort is also dedicated to turning people into objects, which permits the use of procedures of insulation and control on them. The chapter concludes that in exercising management, managers avoid certain material objects but make use of quasi-objects such as accounting systems and management technologies in order to make the world (i.e. organization, public agency, or firm) more interventionable or manageable, and yet they also create new uncertainties in the process.

Although human resource management (HRM) is not often viewed as a priority for strategic alliance managers, it still proves to play no small part in achieving alliance success since the people who are working in and for the alliance should be viewed as the most significant resource. Also, some of the major performance problems in alliances are rooted on HRM policies that may be poorly designed and executed. This chapter identifies some of the major HRM activities and how these contribute to key issues including the selection of personnel, and the development of a common culture through fostering control, trust, and learning. It also explores the broader policy issues attributed to how alliances approach HRM in terms of addressing whether a leading partner should impose standardized practices across various affiliates and alliances.

During the last decade of the 20th century, human resource management gained much interest in academic fields. Compared to earlier periods in which the focus was more on the business process of re-engineering, strategy, marketing, and other such aspects, the 1990s seemed to embrace the notion of ‘people management’. Discussing human resource management (HRM) is required for all executive development programmes as managing people proves to bring about improvements in an organization's competitive advantage. Much of the focus on HRM was initiated by Huselid's study that demonstrated how a substantial increase in market value and sales per employee could result from high performance work practices. Although HRM became popular in both management and academic fields during the 1990s, there was still much debate regarding the relations between HRM and performance.

This chapter introduces its own model of the Contextually Based Human Resource Theory (CBHRT) through utilizing insights that have been derived in the previous chapters for establishing the design parameters for this model. As the chapter explores the model in terms of strategy, context, and performance, it also discusses the fundamental theoretical factors of the model. The chapter examines the model itself, provides an in-depth discussion of its various parts, and also identifies how the model can be utilized in various fields such as in consultancy practice, teaching, and research. HRM serves as a device for enabling several strategic options. Willingness and high trust may be generated from HRM's value-laden base, and this serves as an initial point in dynamic market situations. As such, this chapter illustrates how ethical HRM leads to organizational viability which further results in the enabling of strategic options.

This chapter focuses on examining the relationship between the role-set of HR managers and how this role-set is associated with the performance and effectiveness of HR. The HRM role has undergone a significant evolution as it has experienced a shift from the role of ‘clerk of works’ to that of business partner and change agent. Since more focus was given to coming up with ways of improving added value, increased attention has equally been given to the issue of measuring the contributions brought about by the HRM function. Other fundamental questions that need to be answered in relation to this issue include the following: Measuring of what? Measuring for whose sake? Who sets the standards and decides when corrective action is needed? This chapter introduces the notion of the 4logic HRM scorecard since it considers professional and strategic logics as well as the societal perspective.

Chapter 13 addresses human resource management and the potential contribution that an appropriate HRM policy can make to alliance success. The chapter outlines key HRM activities and indicates how these are required at different stages of an alliance’s development. It then examines the contribution of HRM to key alliance needs including the selection of personnel, the development of a common culture (including building trust), control, and learning. Its last section considers broader policy issues concerning the approach to HRM in alliances, namely its strategic role and the question of whether a leading alliance partner should standardize its HR practices across different alliances and affiliates. The sensitivity of HRM practices to cultural and institutional norms is noted.

Chapter Four presents an overview of critical writing on work and employment, drawing a distinction between critical labour studies and critical management studies. The chapter examines how the employment relationship is conceived in the critical tradition and outlines the critical research agenda, conceptions of worker subjectivity, explanatory theories, and forms of engagement. A central activity in the critical tradition is critique and the chapter identifies the main ‘critical tropes’ that are relied upon by critical scholars both when they engage with the real world of work and with the work of their unitary and pluralist counterparts. The chapter concludes with an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the critical tradition, endorsing its focus on critique and identification with those who have less power but arguing that the tradition persistently exaggerates the degraded character of capitalist work relations and underestimates the scope for meaningful reform within capitalist economies.

The central issue in this chapter is people management in public organizations. That is, managers’ implementation of HR practices and their leadership behavior in supporting the employees they supervise at work. This chapter focuses on five key aspects related to HRM and leadership in a public sector context. First, the historical move from personnel management to HRM and leadership. Second, the distinction between external and internal management and this chapter’s focus on internal management. Third, the role of middle and frontline leaders in the implementation of policies and their responsibility for turning general policies into results. Fourth, the mutual dependency between HRM policies and leadership. Fifth, the distinction between intended, implemented, and perceived HRM and leadership. This chapter systematically draws on both the general HRM and leadership bodies of literature, and specifies these insights to the public sector context whenever possible.

This chapter examines managers’ role in people management within a public sector setting and the factors explaining differences in people management performance between managers. The main question guiding this contribution is: What are the antecedents (favoring and hindering factors) of public managers’ HRM implementation and leadership behavior? The AMO model is used as a conceptual framework to map and examine the antecedents of public managers’ people management. Under the Ability category of the AMO model, the focus is on managers’ people management abilities and management development. Under the Motivation category, the focus is on managers’ willingness to take up people management responsibilities and their priorities. Under the Opportunities category, support from different organizational stakeholders (HR department, upper management, etc.) and (personnel) red tape are covered. As such, this chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the impact that typical public sector characteristics have on managers’ people management performance.

Early research exploring the link between HRM and performance primarily focused on private sector and organizational-level factors (the firm’s HR policy and financial performance). Although the evidence revealed a positive link between organizational approaches to HR practices and performance, the effect on employees was not considered. Although there is now emerging evidence across the private and not-for-profit sectors which includes the employee experience, theory advancement remains limited. The aim of this chapter is to address this issue by identifying relevant theories that explain why HR systems affect employees’ responses. Of the three theories identified, namely (1) ability, motivation, opportunity (AMO); (2) social exchange; and (3) self-determination theory (SDT), it is believed AMO is the least suited for the public sector context, even though the results of a review study show that AMO is the preferred choice for analysis by public sector scholars. This chapter expands on the rationale for this choice and highlights implications for management practice and research.

Based on editors’ research, this chapter presents the research findings of four Indian multinationals on three distinct but related sections: strategic intent, control and coordination, and international HRM (IHRM) strategy with specific reference to global staffing and mindset.

This chapter integrates the conclusions of the different chapters into a coherent picture. The chapters outlined how open innovation research should evolve in their particular research area. The chapter integrate these ideas and crosslink them to each other, but it also focuses on topics that have not been covered and, in its opinion, still deserve more attention in the future.

The objective of this chapter is to provide a summary of the knowledge that is available in the project management domain that could be useful for the study of project teams. The primary target audience for this chapter is organizational psychologists interested in studying project teams, who are not familiar with the field of project management. An illustration of the concept of progressive elaboration introduced in chapter one is presented. The chapter highlights project management practices that have a strong structuring effect on the project task and context, including the project life cycles with end-of-phase reviews and planning techniques based on the work breakdown structure. It also presents several important elements of the project context of which researchers studying project teams should be aware, including HRM practices, team member churn, project governance, project sponsor, stakeholder management, and organizational structures including matrix structures.