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The purpose of this study is to extend the findings from a very limited number of studies that have focused on the potential antecedents of firm diversity. Specifically, the authors examined the extent to which a set of firm-level diversity management initiatives, which included diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) policies and oversight structures, senior leader values and utility perceptions about DE&I and DE&I dissemination strategies, may be related to firm-level reported diversity – overall, and that which is specific to gender, ethnicity, race and disability.

The data for this study were gathered from a national sample of 200 US restaurant and foodservice companies during the third quarter of 2021 by an independent data collection firm.

After controlling for firm size, age, ownership structure and chain affiliation, the results from a series of regression analyses showed that formal diversity management policies and procedures (e.g. policies beyond those legally mandated), structural oversight of diversity management initiatives (e.g. designated diversity leader) and beliefs among senior leaders regarding the utility of diversity management initiatives, were positively related to firm-level diversity. There were also several notable differences in the significance of the findings across the four diversity groups, indicating support for a contingency explanation.

There are two unique contributions to this study. First, by considering a more support-based (vs compliance and control) approach to managing DE&I that is authenticated by senior leadership’s beliefs about the utility of DE&I, the findings advance the understanding of the nature and scope of diversity management initiatives that may influence firm-level diversity – in general, as well as that which may be specific to restaurant and foodservice settings. Additionally, the findings offer industry-specific insights regarding the extent and relevance of DE&I policies and practices that have been adopted by restaurants and foodservice organizations and prescriptive guidance for future inquiry on this topic.

This case study attempts to sensitize the impact of restructuring on the organization’s employer brand. The students shall learn to appreciate the criticality of maintaining a balance between being an employee-centric organization and building a sustainable business model, to analyze the alternative people management strategies in emerging start-ups.

This case study illustrates the innovative human resource (HR) policies adopted by the start-up Meesho. Meesho was started as “Fashnear” by two Indian Institute of Technology graduates Sanjeev Barnwal and Vidit Aatrey in the year 2015, with the headquarters located in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. It was a social commerce platform wherein the local apparel sellers or manufacturers could register themselves on the app and sell their products online to nearby consumers and the product would be delivered to their homes. Later, it was renamed Meesho (Meri E-Shop) with an improved business model. The innovative people-centric policies got Meesho recognition as one of the most employee-friendly start-ups and an innovative employer. However, later as part of the restructuring exercise, it had to lay off employees, which had a counter impact on its reputation and image as a desirable employer. This case study captures the dilemma faced by start-ups like Meesho who were in the process of sustaining their growth and optimizing their workforce and, at the same time, have to manage their employer brand in the process.

This case study can be used at the postgraduate level of management and in executive management programs.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS6: Human resource management.

Aster Retail (AR) is the retail pharmacy division of the Aster Dr Moopen's Healthcare (ADMH) Group. The group delivers healthcare services across the Middle East, India and the Far East, with a portfolio of hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centres and retail pharmacies. AR, under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jobilal Vavachan, is well known for its people-centric approach, unique culture and innovative human resource (HR) practices. AR has won multiple awards for HR practices, service quality and business performance. In a recent corporate restructuring (2018), “Aster Primary Care” was carved out by combining the group's Clinics and Retail businesses. This case discusses the evolution of AR's HR journey and the challenges associated with integrating culturally diverse businesses without compromising the values of ADMH and its promise, “We'll Treat You Well.”

The purpose of this study is to explore how Industry 4.0 (I40) technologies support workers' engagement in soft total quality management (TQM) practices for organisational performance.

The authors conducted a multiple case study of six Italian manufacturing organisations that operate with I40 production and implement TQM practices. The authors concentrated on the relationship between I40 technologies and soft TQM aspects.

I40 technologies provide two forms of engagement with workers. Workers can act as machine supervisors and expert assembly operators. Organisations use five soft TQM practices to involve and develop workers for TQM that vary according to automation levels. The five soft TQM practices are top management design around workers, incremental trials with I40 technologies, worker empowerment, I40 sociotechnical collaboration and individual feedback systems.

In the literature that focusses primarily on how I40 technologies support the hard side of TQM by creating a data-driven and automated quality management system, the authors illustrate how the workforce can be engaged in I40 with five soft TQM practices to improve organisational performance. Thus, the authors complement the theory of hard and soft TQM aspects for I40 production systems.

This paper aims to apply a mixed-methods approach to redefine essential work skill sets, propose components of these skill sets that are necessary for workers in the contexts of emerging market economies (EMEs), examine potential selection tools that should be applied across firms and explain implications for the labour process theory (LPT) of work.

During the first phase of this study, qualitative data was collected from methods, including semi-structured interviews with human resources (HR) experts from the Personnel Management Association of Thailand, top and HR executives and managers of firms across industries in Thailand. Non-participant observations were made during the pre-interview, interview and post-interview stages. Analysis of archival documents and Web-based resources was then conducted. The authors used the qualitative data obtained from the first phase to develop survey instruments for conducting quantitative research during the second phase of this study.

The empirical findings demonstrate that essential work skill sets are “soft skills” that help workers survive and thrive in the business arena in EMEs. These essential work skill sets have implications for the LPT of work in that they play an important role in transferring the power of negotiation from employers to workers in the labour market. Essential work skill sets here can be divided into eight skill domains: (1) ideation and system thinking, (2) information and digital literacy, (3) social skills with appreciation for diversity and inclusion, (4) communication and language, (5) creativity and innovation, (6) emotional quotient (EQ) for self-management and development, (7) growth/outward mindset and (8) cognitive skills for the job role. Within each essential work skill set, there are several skills that workers in the current world of work need to possess (42 skills in total). Additionally, potential selection tools include behavioural observation, behavioural-based interviews, STAR (Situation, Task, Action and Results) interviews, role plays, case studies and simulations, high-pressure interview questions, project assignments, assessment centres, in-depth interview questions and special methods, such as face reading and fingerprint reading. Top and HR managers across industries strongly agree that the eight essential work skill sets and 42 skills are necessary for workers to survive in the business arena in EMEs. They also strongly agree that talent selection tools, especially behavioural-based interviews, are used by their firms to select high-skilled job candidates in the labour market.

Because the eight essential skill sets proposed in this paper are based primarily on the qualitative data obtained from top/HR managers in firms across some industries, generalization to respondents across other industries or across other EMEs may be limited. It is possible that the context of other EMEs may be different from that of Thailand. In this regard, some of the essential work skill sets that are suitable in the case of Thailand may not be suitable in the case of other EMEs. Future studies should thus explore how institutional contexts of other countries/economies shape the definition of essential skill sets and their components, as well as potential selection tools that shall be applied to select high-skilled labour in those contexts.

This paper provides practical implications for top managers and/or HR managers of firms across various industries in EMEs. In particular, managers should internally train and develop their employees/workers to possess the eight essential skill sets: (1) ideation and system thinking, (2) information and digital literacy, (3) social skills with appreciation for diversity and inclusion, (4) communication and language, (5) creativity and innovation, (6) EQ for self-management and development, (7) growth/outward mindset and (8) cognitive skills for the specific job role so that their employees/workers can survive and thrive in the era of the brittleness, anxiety, non-linearity and incomprehensibility of the business world under pandemic conditions. Additionally, top managers and/or HR managers of these firms should apply the potential selection tools proposed in this paper to probe into job candidates’ past experience and behaviours to better predict such candidates’ success at work. In this regard, job candidates/workers should prepare themselves to possess these essential work skill sets so that they can be successful in the business arena and should understand potential selection tools that firms may apply to recruit and select them.

This paper provides social/policy implications for the government and/or relevant public agencies of Thailand and of other EMEs. These governments should encourage firms across industries to invest resources in training and developing their employees/workers to possess those essential work skill sets so that these employees/workers are industry-ready, leading to the alleviation of the problems of skill and mismatch in the labour market.

This paper contributes to the prior literature on human resource management (HRM), the comparative institutional perspective on employment systems based on the varieties of capitalism (VoC) framework and the LPT of work in the following ways: first, this paper fills in the research gap in the field of HRM that calls for studies that explore how the COVID-19 pandemic shapes essential skill sets and skills development among workers within firms (Cooke et al., 2021). Second, this paper provides implications for the LPT of work regarding how essential work skill sets are likely to return the power of negotiation from employers to workers in EMEs during the current situation. Third, the VoC framework tends to focus on only two types of economies, liberal market economies and coordinated market economies. However, this paper examines essential work skill sets and potential screening tools in the context of the underresearched country of Thailand, an EME. In fact, the Thai labour market is quite different from that of other EMEs labour markets, as it is impacted by an aging workforce. This paper contributes to the literature on comparative institutional perspectives on employment systems as it redefines essential work skill sets, proposes various components of these skill sets among workers and examines potential selection tools that are applied across firms located in EMEs.

Leaders face a unique opportunity to rethink the workplace in a post-pandemic environment. Virtual work demands and unclear messaging from senior leadership has created burnout and frustration. Reverting to traditional organizational structures and policies fails to recognize and leverage the potential to capitalizing on the momentum to change the nature of work. Creating a hybrid work environment by delegating the design process to teams and giving team leaders the tools and skills necessary to be successful leverages the transition to the future workplace.

We worked with a knowledge-based organization to transition employees to a hybrid team environment.

We offer the diverse approaches organizations are taking in a post-pandemic workplace and the challenges facing leaders reverting to the traditional work environment. Focusing on the future of work in a hybrid environment, we provide an approach enabling team leaders and team members to be the arbiters of their work environment.

Our multistep process allows team leaders to quickly adapt and implement effective hybrid teamwork.

We propose a multistep process for team leaders to leverage the transition to improve high-performing teams in a hybrid workplace.

The case describes the internal growth workshop initiative at Vedanta Group. Anil Agarwal in 1976 founded Vedanta as a scrap-metal dealership in Mumbai (then Bombay). Over the years, Anil pursued a very aggressive growth journey with a vision to create a leading global natural resource company. The principal objective of discussing this case is to understand how Vedanta introduced this initiative and how it fits within the strategic human resource management at the group.

The importance of mental wellbeing and the need for organizations to address it is increasing in the post-pandemic context. Although Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being adopted in HRM functions, its adoption and utility for enabling mental wellbeing is limited. Building on the Open System Theory (OST) and adopting the technology-in-practice lens, the authors examined the roles of human and technology agencies in enabling mental wellbeing.

The study was conducted in two stages; in Stage 1, the authors adopted a case methodology approach to examine the feasibility of a technology company's offerings to assess mental wellbeing. In Stage 2, the authors followed the grounded theory approach and interviewed 22 key stakeholders and HR leaders of diverse organizations. The authors used Gioia's approach to analyze the data.

The study demonstrates the interdependence and inseparability of human activity, technological capability and structured context. Specifically, the authors observe that AI adoption is pushing the boundaries of how organizations could support employees' mental health and wellbeing. These technological advancements and adoption are likely to facilitate the evolution of agentic practices, routines and structures.

This study carries two important implications. While the advent of cutting-edge technologies appears to affect employees' mental wellbeing, the study findings indicate the assistive role of technology in supporting mental wellbeing and facilitating changes in organizational practices. Second, the ontology of technology-in-practice shows how human–machine agencies gain newer relevance from the interactions that unite them. Specifically, per OST, technology (from an external context) can potentially change how mental wellbeing practices in organizations are managed. The authors extend the existing literature by suggesting that both human agents and internal contexts effectively limit the potential of technology agents to change existing structures significantly.

The authors address the need for more research on the technology-management interface, and the boundaries of technology-enabled wellbeing at work. While AI-HRM scholarship has primarily relied on micro-level psychological theories to examine impact and outcomes, the authors borrow from the macro-level theories, such as the OST and the technology-in-practice to explain how AI is shifting the boundaries of human and machine agencies for enabling mental wellbeing.

This paper aims to explore the stages and processes of work identity reconstruction following a major health-related career shock.

In-depth case study and interpretive phenomenological methods are used to allow for deep reflective self-analysis of post-career shock stages. The paper explores the identity processes and stages a Chief of Human Resources of a multinational firm experienced after being deprived from his main working abilities as a result of a brain stroke.

Post-shock work identity stages and processes are identified, as long as the importance of identity threat, liminality, identity internalization and relational recognition in the reconstruction process. The findings propose new coping responses that may allow individuals to escape a diminished work identity: identity shedding and identity implanting.

While career shocks play a significant role in career development, there is currently little understanding of how career shocks may affect individuals' work identity or sense of self, particularly over time. The paper provides a nuanced understanding of this phenomenon, through process data collected at several points in time over a period of 14 years.