The current research firstly explores the degree of organisation/market orientation of Japanese managers in Japanese plants in Japan - called "Japan plants" hereafter - and British managers in Japanese owned UK plants - called "UK plants" hereafter - in terms of values and attitudes related to the work place. Secondly, the research examines the degree of organisation/market orientation of Japan and UK plants with respect to organisational structures and practices implemented in them. Thirdly, the research investigates the gap between Japanese managers' and Japan plants' organisation/market orientation, and British managers' and UK plants' organisation/market orientation, since recent environmental changes observed in Japan and the UK may create a gap between them British managers showed slight market orientation. In general UK plants also showed slight market orientation. There was little discrepancy between managers' and firms' market orientation in the UK. In contrast, Japanese managers showed very slight organisation orientation whereas Japan plants generally showed high organisation orientation. There was therefore a large discrepancy between firms' and managers' organisation orientation in Japan. This indicated that the speed of change occurring in Japanese managers' attitudes towards their tasks and company was much faster than Japanese firms' attempts to modify organisational structures/practices as a result of environmental changes. The internal pressures for change are pervasive since they directly impact on a key asset of an organisation, namely its human resources. Accordingly, firms will have to more promptly modify their structures/practices in accordance with changes in managers' conceptions and values. In today's globalised economy we are being constantly exposed to, and influenced by the prevailing cultural values and lifestyles. As a result, cultural differences are gradually and almost imperceptibly absorbed and assimilated. Eventually managers' attitudes towards their tasks and companies may not much differ across societies. The universal approach claims that the driving force towards conversion to the same structures/practices is an economic rationale. The current research, instead, suggests that the driving force towards similar structures/practices is the assimilated conceptions and values of managers and other employees.

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This thesis seeks to address not only <i>what </i>and <i>how </i>but also the <i>why</i> issues that accounts for the HR practices with Chinese characteristics through both inside-out and outside-in approaches.  This thesis also aim to find out whether there are any lessons western firms can learn from the Chinese approach to people management which is deeply embedded in Chinese traditional thinking and its core values. Semi-structured personal interviews were conducted with 21 senior and middle/top-level Chinese male and female managers.  Findings are presented in narrative form through in-depth direct statements of interviewees to provide authentic examples of how Chinese managers conceptualize and practice Chinese traditional thinking and core values in HR management.  Results demonstrate that Chinese traditional thinking comprise unique features that might be described as <i>holistic </i>and <i>naïve, fuzzy </i>and <i>processual, indirect </i>and <i>long-term, </i>and that this approach translates into an adherence to five core values, which are <i>He </i>(harmony «!»), <i>Zhong Yong </i>(the Doctrine of Mean «!»), Hierarchy, Superiority and Loyalty («!»), <i>Guanxi </i>and <i>Renqing </i>(personal connections, relationship and human sympathy/favour «!») and <i>Face </i>(<i>Mianzi </i>and <i>Lian </i>«!») which have significantly affected contemporary Chinese HR practices. The research shows that the penchant for harmony is responsible for the steady and smooth development strategies of Chinese organisations; a relatively mild approach to personnel reforms; harmonious interpersonal relationships; nominal performance appraisal systems; and the importance of leaders as the role model.  The principle of <i>Zhongyong </i>accounts for the preference for modest and reserved people in recruitment and selection; the harmonious and balanced relationships between superiors and subordinates; a relatively mild, lenient and gentle leadership style; and the soft, flexible and conflict-free way of communication and negotiation in Chinese HRM practices.

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Thesis (DTech (Philosophy (Human Resources Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2007 / With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1998 and the fall of the famous Berlin Wall, the final victory or triumph of capitalism over its alternatives, heralded a neoliberal economic system known as globalisation, which was postulated to address the problem. of humankind, including workers, on a global scale. This postulation· led many nations to rush to infuse themselves into the capitalist global system, which is reflected by the opening up of borders to the transnational juggernauts of globalisation. However, a few years into the euphoric global capitalist triumphalism, globalisation and internationalisation seems to have produced some negative consequences for human resources and industrial democracy, both in the North and South. As capital proceeds with its accumulation, expansion and profitability, unemployment has burgeoned, as the government's power to create lasting employment has been supIne owing to the privatisation of the public sector, retrenchment in the private sector, as a direct result of automation, re-engineering, outsourcing and the disastrous effect of global competition, which has eroded labour unionism. In the present state of affairs, labour has been requested to bear the burden of global capitalist hegemony, and the pro-globalist argument, that in the long-run the benefit of globalisation would yield a trickle-down effect to the worst affected workers, has turned a mirage, while the discontentment of the average working class and the majority who have lost out In the global economy, is the cause of renewed widespread global tensions. The current state of affairs has had a polarising effect on people's view, and has resulted in the development of two schools, namelythe pro-globalist and the anti-globalist camps. With the former persistently asserting that globalisation and internationalisation have positive repercussions for workers and industrial democracy, the latter strongly opposes the above assertion. The author of this study aligns more with the latter's view. Therefore, the aim of this research is to prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that there is actually a negative functional relationship between globalisation, internationalisation, human resources and industrial democracy, and to postulate some ameliorating mechanisms, which could enhance· the putative negative relationship, so that a higher human, social and economic order is realised

This thesis addresses an existing gap in the workplace bullying literature: how Human Resource Practitioners (HRPs) construct, interpret and respond to workplace bullying. Semistructured interviews were conducted with individual HRPs and a small focus group using two forms of data collection: HRPs’ unprompted interpretations of a vignette depicting a bullying situation and HRPs’ own experiential accounts of handling bullying claims. The HRPs were from private and public sector organisations, and all occupied roles that involved dealing with bullying claims. The interviews were analysed using Critical Discourse Analysis, and Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice provided the framework for interpreting the multilevel individual, organisational and social factors influencing HRPs’ bullying-related practice. The findings suggest that bullying is a complex and difficult issue for HRPs due to a combination of organisational pressure to protect managers, management-centric antibullying policies and the relative powerlessness of Human Resource Management and HRPs in organisations. HRPs applied a range of interpretive mechanisms that served to attribute blame to the target and legitimise the manager’s behaviour, even when the behaviour described met academic definitions of bullying. The way the HRPs constructed, interpreted and responded to bullying claims depended on whether the alleged bully was the target’s peer or manager. The HRPs consistently constructed peer-to-peer claims as interpersonal conflict and manager-to-employee claims as the target’s reaction to performance-management practices. The HRPs’ construct of ‘genuine bullying’ appeared to comprise four essential criteria: intentional and person-related behaviour between peers, which has significant negative impact on a trustworthy target. These findings have significant implications for research and practice. Firstly, HRPs’ construct of ‘genuine bullying’ is fundamentally different to academic and organisational definitions of bullying. Secondly, as a result of these constructs and interpretive mechanisms it appears very unlikely that any management behaviour in manager-to-employee claims would be constructed as bullying by HRPs.

Facial expressions appear to have a powerful influence on the perception of leadership. The aim of the five studies presented here was to add to our knowledge about the contribution of facial expression to the perception of leadership. In particular, these five studies were used to explore which facial expressions influence perceptions of leadership and how these facial expressions influence leadership perceptions. Participants’ prototypes of leadership were examined by assessing implicit leadership theories. Furthermore, facial expression stimuli (videos and pictures) were used in two research phases. Phase 1 (studies 1 and 2) used different research designs applied to different populations, to pilot the design and also to examine how leadership perceptions are formed from facial expression. Participants’ prototypes of leadership were assessed. Additionally, the participants were asked to evaluate pictures of different facial expressions. In Study 1, leadership perceptions were investigated based on basic facial actions. Study 2, extended this approach by using context activation in a facial expression scenario. Perceived leadership from the facial expressions was compared to the participants’ prototypes. The results indicated that the participants used all available information, including facial appearance, expression, context of communication, appropriateness, and authenticity of expression to form complex prototypes. When the facial expressions in the studies matched the participants’ prototypes, perception of leadership tended to be higher. In phase 2 (studies 3, 4, and 5), the feedback from phase 1 was used to refine the instruments, and applied to different research designs on a large, culturally and organisationally homogenous sample. The aim of the three studies of the second phase was to further add to our knowledge about the contribution of facial expression to the perception of leadership. Similarly to phase 1, participants’ prototypes of leadership were assessed. In addition, participants were shown photo sequences or videos of different facial expressions. Study 3 used manipulations of static facial expression sequences, transferring some well known impression formation tests (see Asch, 1946) to the research of leadership perception from facial expression. Study 4 used videos of a leader’s/actor’s facial expressions in an organisational context. Finally, study 5 used photos extracted from the videos of study 4 with some additional manipulations. Perceived leadership from the facial expressions was compared to the participants’ prototypes. The results revealed that when the facial expressions in the studies matched the participants’ prototypes, perception of leadership was higher for the majority of the cases examined. Furthermore, the facial expression manipulations appeared to cause significant changes in perceptions of leadership. Particularly, participants considered those facial expressions that transmitted negativity as less leader-like than the ones transmitting positive emotions. Moreover, static facial expressions were perceived differently from dynamic facial expressions in terms of leadership perceptions. Changing the order of the sequence of specific facial expressions did not yield significant differences for the photo-sequences investigated. Finally, although gender differences were found in almost all participants ILTs dimensions, when they had to evaluate the facial expressions, men and women showed much more agreement. In conclusion, the evidence from the current research suggests that facial expressions significantly influence the perception of leadership. However, making sense of that influence was a matter of understanding what is inside the perceiver’s mind. On the basis of the studies included in this thesis, it is recommented for leaders and organisations to shift attention from developing certain leadership skills to increasing perceptual awareness.

This research is concerned with the Human Resource contribution to High Performance Work Systems in High Performing Human Resource Offshoring and Business Process Offshoring organisations in India. Indian Business Process Offshoring organisations offer knowledge intensive services dependent on human resources for delivery. Technology underpins the delivery of services and processes; however, the employees of Human Resource Offshoring Business Process Offshoring are central to organisational resources and represent a cornerstone for value creation. The management of Human Resources is therefore central to overall performance and success. There is a lack of research on High Performance Work Systems strategies adopted and adapted by successful Indian firms in this sector. This study bridges this gap through an empirical longitudinal study. Methodologically, longitudinal qualitative reflexive case study examinations have been rare in management and organisation research. Previous studies have concentrated on being ‘snap-shot’ whereas this study’s longitudinal nature enabled a more holistic and contextualised view of the Human Resources processes. Fieldwork was conducted in three phases, (ten visits) over five years. Data gathering methods included interviews and focus groups. A longitudinal reflexive research methodology using inductive and deductive approaches was utilised via an innovative and robust combination of ‘template’ ‘processual’ and ‘systematic’ analysis. Findings suggest a complex, global, networked and dynamic business context, wherein Human Resource Management is understood and enacted in different forms, characterised by 'shape-shifting', a dynamic 'entanglement' of problem solving and strategic adoptive and adaptive approaches to attrition and performance. Phase 1 of the research witnessed attrition anxiety drive both a focus on employer branding and perceived sophisticated Human Resources. In Phase 2, an 'attritioncentric' approach that integrated both employer branding and other Human Resources practices took hold and in Phase 3 a distinctive blend/bundles of attrition-centric Human Resources and employer branding emerged. Influences were seen to include the complexities of life cycle, leadership ambitions, economic and market fluctuations, cultural, social, socio-cultural, national, sub-national and institutional contexts. Theoretically, this phenomenon suggested a unique Human Resource Management-performance link in the Indian Business Process Offshoring industry and was grounded and premised on the ‘evolutionary resource-based view’, as an alternative to the traditional human capital versus resource-based view. This idiosyncratic theoretical form is supported by six identified dimensions including tacit knowledge, the knowledge based view, resource dependency, core competencies and core- related specificity, casual ambiguity, and social complexity, thus contributing to academic knowledge.