The dynamics of HRM systems in Indian BPO firms

This paper highlights the context within which business process outsourcing (BPO) has rapidly grown in India and the critical need to investigate the dynam-ics of human resource management (HRM) practices and systems in this sector. Using a mixedmethod approach involving both indepth interviews and self-completing questionnaires, we analyze the nature of HRM systems in BPO orga-nizations operating in India. The analysis is based on a sample of 51 BPO com-panies, a majority of which are located near the capital of New Delhi. The results focus on the nature and structure of work and organization of Indian BPOs, as well as the strategic role played by HRM in such organizations. Fur-thermore, the findings highlight the way specific HRM practices such as recruit-ment, performance appraisal, training and development, and compensations are implemented. Our study suggests the existence of formal, structured, and ratio-nalized HRM systems in Indian BPOs. A number of insights related to HRM poli-cies and practices are shared by the HR managers interviewed shedding more light on the inner workings of the Indian BPO companies and their challenges. The analysis provides original and useful information to both academics and practitioners and opens avenues for future research on the nature of HRM sys-tems and practices in the Indian BPO industry. We thank the managers of the sample firms who agreed to in-depth interviews and provided the data for this research.     

Missing in Action: Strategic Human Resource Management in German Nonprofits

Human resource (HR) management is important for human service nonprofits because they rely on the quality of their employees for the provision of their services. Using a typology of nonprofit HR architecture developed by Ridder and McCandless (Nonprofit Volunt Sect Q 29(1):124–141, 2010), we attempt to unpack the black box between performance and HR practices. To this end, we conducted semi-structured interviews with HR managers and young employees to investigate their perceptions of HR practices in their nonprofit organizations. Based on the findings, we extend the research on HR management in nonprofit organizations and caution that success or failure of implementing HR practices may be directly influenced by the external environment.     

My company or my career: managerial achievement and loyalty

This article examines the objective and subjective aspects of managerial careers in six large firms that have experienced organizational restructuring. We begin by assessing the dominant models of change in career structures, particularly those which emphasize the 'portfolio' route to career success. Although elements of the bureaucratic career remain, we find some evidence of the shift predicted by these models amongst the younger generation of managers. However, it is striking that not all young managers are able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the new career model. Indeed, cultural capital has an increasing impact on career achievement. Younger managers are responding by reorienting away from organizational loyalty towards a concern with individual career projects.     

Individualism/Collectivism Orientations and Reactions Toward Alternative Human Resource Management Practices

In this study, we examined the relationship between individualism collectivism orientations of potential job seekers and their reactions toward alternative human resource management (HRM) practices in the areas of selection, performance appraisal, reward system, career system, and employment security. Using several subdimensions of individualism collectivism, we found many significant relationships between individualism collectivism orientations and preferences for alternative human resource management practices that might affect the effectiveness of alternative HRM practices.     

Mentors as Social Capital: Gender,Mentors, and Career Rewards in Law Practice*

Previous studies have demonstrated that mentoring provides numerous career benefits to individuals and organizations. This article advances past work by examining the effects of individuals’ primary and multiple developmental relationships in a longitudinal study of the careers of lawyers. We develop a social capital perspective on mentorship emphasizing reciprocity of exchange, resource mobilization, and normative expectations embedded within mentoring relationships. We empirically assess mentoring benefits across a diverse range of career rewards. The results provide evidence that male lawyers gain more from their mentor‐derived social capital than female lawyers. Specifically, male lawyers with mentors of senior status benefit with elevated earnings, greater perceived fairness in their workplace, and greater work satisfaction. Women with multiple mentors, however, report enhanced work satisfaction. Implications for research on mentoring, social capital, and professional careers are discussed.     

Let the right one in: A Bourdieusian analysis of gender inequality in universities’ senior management

This article examines the lack of gender diversity in senior management positions in professional staff in universities. These results are analysed via a Bourdieusian analysis of economic, social, cultural and symbolic capital. Through a purposeful sample of senior professional staff working in universities in three countries: Australia, Canada and the UK, six career‐enhancing strategies needed for career success were determined. The article critiques the resource‐based view of career capital and argues that capitals accumulation for career success can be understood by considering the concepts of symbolic violence and habitus as a way of understanding intra‐cohort differences. It proposes that by considering both the subjective and objective cultural constructs via habitus, and by acknowledging the importance of symbolic capital and symbolic violence towards women, this may be one way of increasing female representation in senior management.     

Social capital,human capital,and career success in public relations in Taiwan

This study examined the degree to which demographic, human capital, and social capital variables can predict career success for public relations practitioners in Taiwan. Social capital includes two dimensions: social trust and social network. Human capital includes education, rank, career tenure, and motivation. Public relations practitioners (150) from 16 agencies in Taiwan were interviewed in 2006. Social capital explained the significant variance in subjective career success. As for human capital, motivation negatively predicted job comfort, but positively predicted challenge and task significance. Career tenure and rank in the agency positively predicted autonomy, while only age and professional tenure predicted objective success. This study also revealed that the longer the practitioners stay in the business, the more the sense of autonomy, financial rewards, and support they have. Combined with the results of objective career success, career tenure is the best predictor for career success among all the variables in human capital. Since gender does not predict career success, we may infer that public relations practice in Taiwan does not seem hostile to women.     

Career Competencies for Career Success

This article addresses the general question as to which competencies employees need to possess in order to engage in self‐management in their career development. The authors distinguished and operationalized 6 career factors and competencies of self‐management in career development. A quantitative study was performed using 1,579 employees in 16 Dutch companies to investigate the relationship between career competencies and career success. The results indicate that, among others, the factors career control and networking are strongly associated with career success. The results are discussed with respect to the facilitation organizations can provide for their employees' career actualization.     

Managing human resource shortages in a unionized setting: Best practices in air traffic control

Human resource shortages require effective human resource management (HRM). Findings from research about ongoing labor shortages in air traffic control (ATC) are used to build a preliminary theory of appropriate HRM responses. Our international sample of major ATC agencies generally developed a set of best HRM practices to attract, motivate, and retain human assets. Key factors included (1) cultural and institutional norms, (2) technological change, (3) union responses, and (4) organizational form and structure (e.g., civil service versus commercial firms). While ATC’s rare human aptitudes, lengthy training to develop firm-specific human capital, and lifelong employment may limit the preliminary theory’s general applicability, crucial lessons emerge about human resource planning. This research was conducted with the support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Rice Fellowship, the Ziegler Fellowship, and the Center for International Business Studies at the University of Alberta. We are indebted to the individuals interviewed.     

Challenging the gendered rhetoric of success? The limitations of women‐only mentoring for tackling gender inequality in the workplace

Mentoring is widely acknowledged to be an important contributor to women's career success and progression, but women often struggle to access mentoring networks that can help sponsor and develop their careers. Formal mentoring programmes designed specifically for women help overcome this challenge, but such schemes may at the same time reinforce masculine discourses which position women as deficient in relation to the invisibly male norm that is implicit within contemporary working practices. Drawing on a formal women‐only mentoring programme built on gender‐positive goals to empower women to ‘be the best they can be’ within the events industry, this article considers the extent to which such programmes can both challenge and reproduce gendered discourses of business and success. Interviews with mentors and mentees illustrate how such programmes make gender visible within business and individual careers, but masculinist underpinnings of organizational discourses remain invisible, unacknowledged and thus largely unchallenged.     

‘Belonging’ and ‘Otherness’: Sex Equality in Banking in Turkey and Britain

The struggle for sex equality at work has largely been achieved in the developed world, it is claimed. The number of well‐qualified young women entering white‐collar employment and achieving promotion to first‐line and middle management positions now matches or exceeds their male peers. Many young women have high career aspirations and argue that sex discrimination no longer exists. However, this perception is over‐optimistic. Major sex inequalities persist at senior management level in the salaries and benefits offered to female and male staff and in access to certain favoured occupations and sectors of employment. Questionnaires, interviews and documentary evidence from three Turkish and six British banks and high street financial organizations showed that their claimed commitment to equal opportunities by sex was not matched by their practices. Members of managerial elites (who were almost exclusively male) held firm views about the characteristics of ‘the ideal worker’, which informed organizational ideologies, including human resource policies and practices concerning recruitment and promotion. They also permeated organizational cultures, which affected employees’ working practices and experiences. The outcome of these internal negotiation processes was to differentiate between a favoured group of staff seen as fully committed to the companies’ values, who were promoted and rewarded, and an ‘out’ group, whose members were denied these privileges. This distinction between ‘belonging’ and ‘otherness’ is gendered not only along the traditional lines of class, age, sexual orientation, religion and physical ability, but also along the new dimensions of marriage, networking, safety, mobility and space. Despite local and cross‐cultural differences in the significance of these factors, the cumulative disadvantage suffered by women staff seeking career development in the industry was remarkably similar.     

Human resource management,employee engagement,and nonprofit hospital performance

Human resource management (HRM) has been shown to impact organizational performance, but more research is needed on particular human resource (HR) practices in nonprofits and their effect on performance. In this article, we explore one HRM practice argued to influence performance, employee engagement in decision‐making, examining whether involving staff at different levels of a nonprofit affects nonprofit organizational performance. Drawing on data from a 2011 study of nonprofit hospitals, we find employee engagement has a positive influence on managerial and stakeholder perceptions of organizational performance. Employee engagement in decision‐making is also related to objective nonprofit performance measures, although the effects are less consistent. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for nonprofit research and practice.     

An exploratory study of subjective well-being in organizations–A mixed method research approach

ABSTRACT

Subjective well-being (SWB) has been widely found to have a profound impact on the individual, yet the process of its occurrence in public organizations remains unexplored. So the primary purpose of this paper is to explore the determining factors affecting the process of employee’s subjective well-being in public organizations using mixed methods research. Qualitative analysis using the grounded theory methodology reveals the effective factors that affect the process of employee’s subjective well-being in public organizations. Quantitative hypotheses are then developed based on a qualitative investigation. Survey data were collected from employees of public organizations in one of the provinces of Iran. Analysis of Moment Structure is used for data analysis. The results of the research revealed that both individual and organizational factors (as causal factors) influence the employees’ subjective well-being process (life satisfaction and positive affect). This phenomenon leads to the use of strategies which are affected by intervening and contextual factors. The consequences of this process are to change the attitude and behavior of individuals and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. This paper is among the first known to examine subjective well-being in public organizations using mixed methods research. The mixed methods approach offers a better insight to understanding effective factors affecting subjective well-being compared to the use of either a qualitative or quantitative method alone.     

Narratives of Spousal Support for the Careers of Men in Managerial Posts

This article analyses the narratives of men managers to see how they perceive their wives' support in relation to their careers. Our aim is to focus on different forms of spousal support and explore how the support can evolve in the course of the men's careers. We are also interested in what kind of gender relations men produce when narrating their experiences of spousal support for their career. The research material comprises interviews with 29 managers who are fathers. In contrast to many previous studies, the results here suggest that spousal support is not a fixed or uncomplicated phenomenon but is constructed as various and flexible by men: negotiated, enriching and declining. The narrative analysis, in which we detected three different story‐lines — romance, ‘happily‐ever‐after’ and tragedy — shows that the most positive narratives in terms of life satisfaction and career success were those in which spousal support was constructed as negotiated and men were willing to be flexible and adaptable in their gender relations with their spouse. More attention to a father's work and family integration is needed in the field of management and organizations.     

Work-life balance for sustainable human development: Cultural intelligence as enabler

It is proposed that sustainable human development can occur only when there is a reasonable work-life balance for humans. Developmental work for humans is mostly achieved through high performing organizations, and the performance of organizations, in turn, depend on the commitment and engagement of their employees. While societies organize themselves though groups which come together to form an organization, the individual continues to play a key role in success of these organizations. This article explores the impact of an individual’s work-life balance on his/her role—related engagement, thereby contributing to the sustainable human development. Since culture drives behavior for all three, that is, the individual, the organizations, and the society, it is suggested that if we create a culture that supports work-life balance, it is likely to promote sustainable human development though higher role-related engagement of individuals. Further, it is suggested that cultural intelligence plays an important role in achieving both work-life balance and sustainable human development.     

Firm-level training in local economic systems: Complementarities in production and firm innovation strategies

The paper presents a conceptual review over the main aspects concerning the role of human capital investments and training activities within production processes, followed by empirical evidence on two local economic systems in Northern Italy, based on recent survey data. Theoretical and empirical considerations are brought together in order to provide new insights on the role of training and the factors associated to training activities at firm level.The potential driving factors of training here analysed compounds structural characteristics, labour demand dynamics, human resource management practices, workforce features, and firm performances. We observe that training activities emerge positively associated with high-performance practices, innovative labour demand features, workforce skill level, firm size, and are affected by labour flexibility in various directions. Empirical evidence confirms most previous results but also adds further important insights. The analysis suggests that a widening gap, between few innovatively evolving and many stagnant firms, could characterise the future dynamics of the Region. The high relevance of structural variables, labour demand factors and HRM/innovation practices shows that regional industrial policies and labour policies should be jointly implemented for increasing potential firm productivity. This is a key concern for the current debate on local systems economic development in the European and Italian environment.     

Women's Accounts of Organizational Politics as a Gendering Process

Organizational politics is implicated in all levels of organizational functioning, from power structures and informal interaction to individual identity. This study argues that organizational politics provides an approach to examining professional women's experiences of organizations as gendered. Women graduates in male‐dominated organizations claimed not to be limited by explicit discrimination, but they construct organizational politics as being masculine in character and as a barrier to their careers. These women represent organizational politics as irrational, aggressive, competitive and instrumental, leading to individual, not organizational, success. Their accounts undermine the stereotypical dichotomy of masculine rationality and feminine emotion by claiming that women behave reasonably and by focusing on emotion in men's political game playing. However, claiming to be rational and rejecting politics, while acknowledging its role in career success, is uncomfortable for ambitious women. They risk sabotaging their own position by appearing too sensitive to engage in the less savoury aspects of organizational life. Organizational political processes are seen as fundamental to gender in organizations, first, because political activity is seen as gendered and masculine and contrary to female identity; secondly, because politics is part of the informal system which constructs organization from which outsiders are excluded; and finally, because political activity is linked to the performance, achievement and maintenance of power.     

Beyond bureaucracy and entrepreneurialism: Examining the multiple discursive codes informing the work,careers and subjectivities of management graduates

This paper examines how discursive codes and demands associated with ‘bureaucratic and entrepreneurial regimes’ of work and career organization shape the work, careers and subjectivities of management graduates. The study is based on an analysis of 30 narratives of management professionals who graduated from an Austrian business school in the early 1970s or 2000s. Its insights suggest that variegated discursive codes manifest in the graduates’ articulated professional practices and subjectivities, thereby challenging established assumptions regarding the organization of work and careers. While the practices and subjectivities of the 1970s graduates are often informed by codes and demands ascribed to ‘entrepreneurialism’, those of the 2000s graduates are infused with several codes commonly portrayed as ‘bureaucratic’.     

Applying Image Norms Across Super's Career Development Stages

D. E. Super's (1957) theory of career development has long been of interest to careers researchers (M. Savickas, 1994; S. C. Whiston & B. K. Brecheisen, 2002). Its insightful illustration of career stages has made it widely applied by careers practitioners. Image norms may influence the career decisions and developmental tasks inherent in each stage. An image norm is the belief that individuals must present or possess a certain image, consistent with occupational, organizational, or industry standards, in order to achieve career success. Understanding the effects of image norms across D. E. Super's (1957) career stages has important implications for individuals, organizations, and career counseling professionals.