Human Resource Management in a Business Context
3rd edition

by Alan Price

Human Resource Management in a Business Context provides an international focus on the theory and practice of people management. A thorough and comprehensive overview of all the key aspects of HRM, including case studies, articles from HRM Guide and other sources, key concepts, review questions and problems for discussion and analysis.
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HRM Guide Sections

HRM Guide Australia

HRM Guide Canada

HRM Guide NZ

HRM Guide UK

HRM Guide USA

Introduction Overview of HRM Guide

HRM Guide Updates Latest updates on the HRM Guide websites

Jobs and Careers Advice, job postings and leads

HRM Topics Hundreds of pages of information, updates and links to articles

HR Directory Links to HR service providers

HR News Releases Announcements, news, reports

  Government and supranational authorities such as the European Union influence human resource strategies through a variety of mechanisms.

Additional notes. The perspectives taken by different governments reflect underlying attitudes towards the role of the individual versus the corporation within those countries. For example, Brewster has pointed out that in the USA there is an implicit belief that business corporations can and should devise their HR strategies without much regard for the state or wider social implications. Guest puts this down to the historical concept of the US as a land of opportunity where anyone can achieve sucess through their own hard work and entrepreneurship.

Paradoxically, however, US employment legislation is some of the most stringent in the world with regard to individual rights. But (by European standards) state control and social protection are fairly minimal. This goes along with a much stronger belief in the rights of managers to manage (in the US) and a relatively widespread attitude of hostility towards trades unionism.

Within unionized companies in the US the 1930's New Deal model of employee relations lingers on with a frequently excessive emphasis on the separation of managerial and workers' rights and the control of who does what and how. This can place unionized companies at a disadvantage in economic circumstances that demand flexibility in order to compete. Such corporations need to particluar attention to the development of advanced employee involvement programmes to harness the goodwill, creativity and enthusiasm of their workers.

Correspondingly, in mainland Europe Brewster finds constraints deriving from:

• restriction of autonomy by European Union directives
• conditioning from national-level culture and legislation
• distinctive national patterns of business organizations
• considerably higher levels of trade union organization and consultative arrangements (e.g. works councils.

Countries in the Anglo-Celtic tradition (UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, New Zealand) adopt intermediate positions between the US and mainland Europe. Developing countries such as Malaysia and South Africa have the opportunity to set the pattern for their national-level strategies by observing (cherry-picking?) the successes and mistakes of the developed countries.

Visit the main site of the European Commission.

The U.S. Department of Labor has an extensive site detailing US Federal Government activities.

The events of September 11 2001 led to massive layoffs in some US industries. Back to Work Relief Package factsheet describes US Government measures to help the workforce.

Similarly. the South African Department of Labour site describes Government programmes.

 Market forces. Since the late 1970s the free market has been dominant in the predominantly English-speaking countries. The concept was raised to the status of a near-religion by governments and economists of the Thatcherite persuasion - the New Right.

In the 21st century most western governments pay homage to 'neo-liberalism', reinforced by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, who push developing countries into accepting free market ideals.

 

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