Search results

Describes the areas of human resource development that come under the administration of the Human Resources Development Bureau of the Ministry of Labour in Japan, and are administered through human resource development councils at the central and prefectural level. The recent rapid changes in industrial and demographic structures necessitated a systematic training for new skills and upgrading of the current ones for people who enter the labour market for the first time as well as those who are changing jobs. The Ministry’s role is to provide the integrated system of training opportunities, evaluation and certification, and the financial support to encourage participation of an increasing number of workers in vocational education, to improve their future prospects in employment. In particular, the establishment of the Business Career Development System is a reflection of a trend from generalist training of managers hitherto carried out in‐company to specialist development now offered outside the company.

Examines the relationships and problems that exist between the theory and practice of human resource development in the public sector. Aims at enhancing the capability of human resource management systems to adapt and respond proactively to a constantly changing environment in the 1990s and beyond. Identifies and analyses the evolution and development of human resource management systems in the Barbados public sector with special reference to the role of the personnel agencies, systemic as well as sectoral problems, policy/political constraints and the relationships between management capability and national development.

The purpose of this paper is to examine empirically the impact of human capital development in organizations. It is based on some conceptual aspects of human resource accounting and considers how investments in the development of human capital can be measured in order to investigate the financial returns for organizations.

The study is exploratory in nature as this is the first of its kind in the Pakistani manufacturing sector. The technique of convenience sampling was used to collect the data due to time and resource limitations. The sample comprises of 30 leading companies in the Pakistani textile sector. A self‐administered postal questionnaire was designed for the research survey. The results focus on the benefits derived by using the capital investment appraisal techniques of human resource accounting including: return on investment, benefit to cost ratio, weighted average cost of capital, and bottom line evaluations.

The results provide evidence of an association between investment in the development of human capital and the benefits, which organizations can reap from such investments. It further finds that the organizations investing in training and development programs provide high employee productivity that ultimately contributes towards high‐organizational performance.

Owing to the research design, the results may exhibit a lack of generalizability to other sectors. As the results cannot be applied to other organizations, further research can be done by using the same techniques.

This paper is a groundbreaking work in Pakistan and thereby an addition to the existing global literature on human resource accounting. This research provides new directions for the literature in this area, by encouraging a debate about the importance of investing in the development of human capital.

The study aims to explore the extent to which human resources development quantifies the economic growth of BRICS countries under the globalization era by controlling country differences.

The study used the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and Scheffe pairwise comparison tests to quantify the impact of the variables and the level of difference among the BRICS countries onto human Resources development.

The study observes that the impact of human resources development on economic growth of BRICS counties is significant but limited to few countries. The study reveals that countries such as India and South Africa are unable to utilize their human resources efficiently to promote economic growth, as compared with Russia, China and Brazil. The study further argues that there is urgent need of amalgam of various economic development theories keeping in mind the regional needs to extract the positive impact from human resource on economic development.

The single limitation of this research is that it was not possible to compare the results with other developing countries to unleash the capabilities of human resources development with regard to economic growth at the universal level.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first of its kind to analyze human resources development at a much deeper level. The paper has chosen variables which are important from the policy perspective of government rather than the working perspective, which is a great contribution. Further, for human index the variables chose covering major aspects of human development from spending perspective.

The emerging technological work culture calls for a massive re‐education of the existing workforce, especially for the new careers emerging as a result of the revolutions in microelectronics, biotechnology and communication. In this monograph the author argues that for management it demands a new attitude toward employees as human capital. For the average worker, especially those displaced by the new technologies, it will require re‐education focused on skill development for new careers and service activities.

Wonders whether companies actually have employees best interests at heart across physical, mental and spiritual spheres. Posits that most organizations ignore their workforce – not even, in many cases, describing workers as assets! Describes many studies to back up this claim in theis work based on the 2002 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference, in Cardiff, Wales.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

The paper investigates the effects of strategic human resource practices on intellectual capital and new product development performance in knowledge-based firms.

A quantitative approach was adopted to conduct the present study. The respondents were sampled from knowledge-based firms in Iran. Overall, 120 managers in 60 knowledge-based firms were selected using convenience sampling. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to ascertain the validity and reliability of the observed items, and a structural equation model was employed for testing the proposed hypotheses.

In the studied firms, strategic human resource practices have a positive and significant effect on intellectual capital. Moreover, the findings of this study indicate that those firms that use their intellectual capital have a higher new product development performance.

The study focuses on knowledge-based firms in Iran, which limits the generalizability of the research results. Therefore, future studies should be carried out with samples from other settings and countries. Moreover, as the study was cross-sectional, the causal relationships could not be inferred directly.

With regard to key areas of improvement identified in this study, knowledge-based firms should focus on increasing new product development performance by improving employees' training, involving them in their job-related decision-making process, empowering employees to innovate, developing intellectual capital and monitoring the customer's satisfaction level of new products.

The study extends the intellectual capital literature by linking strategic human resource practices to new product development performance in knowledge-based firms via intellectual capital as a mediator.

This paper records the research on human resources development associated with integrated manufacturing. The research is based on a survey in 18 countries. It is found that only parts of the human resources factors are significantly related to the level of computerised integration. It is also found that the level of integration and the development of human resources vary from country to country. However, the difference in human resources development is bigger than the differences in the level of integration. The country context may be another source for explaining the development of human resources. Future research on revealing the forces driving human resources development is suggested.

Senior managements possess considerable discretion in making choices on personnel policy. Practice indicates a broad range of choice on a continuum from high strategic integration of human resource issues in strategic planning to more piecemeal ad hoc approaches to managing human resources. The particular approach adopted in organisations will reflect the interplay of internal and external factors in the organisation′s environment and establish the context for human resource development (HRD). A key external factor is the product market which affects managerial discretion in personnel policy choice. Important internal factors include competitive strategy and managerial values. Three benchmark dimensions underpin personnel policy choice in organisations – strategic integration, collectivism and individualism. Management positions on these dimensions become manifested in key areas of personnel policy such as the work system, communications, rewards, recruitment/employee development and the role of the personnel function. Looking at the Irish context a number of factors both encouraging and mitigating a greater strategic role for HRD may be identified.