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The purpose of this paper is to draw from multiple theories of upper echelons, stakeholder, agency, resource-based view and stewardship to establish the extent to which human capital (other than that of the board itself) in service organisations affect board role performance in those service sector firms.

This study is cross-sectional and correlational. Analyses are conducted using SPSS and Analysis of Moment Structures software on a sample of 128 service firms in Uganda.

Findings reveal that dimensions of employee safety, entrepreneurial skills, entrepreneurial development, employee welfare and employee relations fit the model of human capital and predict up to 69.1 per cent of the variance in board role performance. The results of this study reveal that board role performance is affected by prior decisions, for example, to invest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, targeting employees that augment firm characteristics like existence of appropriate human capital. Essentially, an improvement in the quality of human capital explains positive variances in board role performance.

Cross-sectional data do not allow for testing of the process aspect of the models; however, they provide evidence that the models can stand empirical tests. Additional research should examine the process aspects of human capital and board role performance.

Most companies in developing nations have relied on normative guidelines in prescribing what boards need to enhance performance, probably explaining why some boards have not been successful in their role performance. This research confirms that appropriate human capital, which can be leveraged through CSR ideals of employee safety, recognition, welfare and training in entrepreneurship, consistent with the stakeholder theory, can facilitate the board in the performance of its roles. In the developing country context, organisations’ boards could use these findings as a guideline, that is, what to focus on in the context of human capital development in organisations because doing so improves their own role performance.

This study is one of the few that partly account for endogeneity in the study of boards, a methodological concern previously cited in literature (Bascle, 2008; Hamilton and Nickerson, 2003). Empirical associations between board role performance and organisational performance would not be useful unless we are able to grasp the causal mechanisms that lie behind those empirical associations (Hambrick, 2007). Thus, this study contributes to literature that tries to account for variances in board role performance and supports a multi-theoretical approach as a relevant framework in the study of human capital and board role performance.

This paper examines the experiences of welfare clients on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Indian immigrant information technology (IT) workers on the H-1B visa to analyze how public–private collaborations in the spirit and practice of outsourcing, i.e. systematic fragmentation and decentralization of both corporate and state activities, function as mechanisms for disciplining labor. Through an analysis of these groups’ parallel experiences with exploitative work and employers in the U.S., this paper identifies how outsourcing is not merely a business model for cross-border trade, but also a key principle, component, and outcome of policy-based neo-liberal economic restructuring.

Outlines the role of the PO Welfare Service, the wide range of casework handled, plus involvement with pre‐retirement education and coping with change. The Welfare Service provides an advisory counselling service to PO employees (over 200,000) and PO pensioners (over 180,000) throughout the UK. The importance of training and development plus the “customer first” focus are emphasised.

A recent study by Reimers et al. (2016) suggests that the attitude-behaviour gap, as it applies to ethical clothing, may be due to academics having defined it differently to the way that consumers do. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a direct follow-up to that study by employing their consumer-based definition in order to help identify the clothing attributes that influence the purchase of ethical clothing.

A consumer household sample in combination with a quantitative survey approach was used to collect the data, while structural equation modelling was used to analyse it.

In spite of the ethical clothing context, only two of the four ethical clothing dimensions were found to influence consumer attitudes. In contrast, all three conventional dimensions were found to be significant.

Ethical clothing has typically been operationalised using just two of these four dimensions. Ironically, one of the two dimensions often overlooked by academics, slow fashion, had one of the strongest influences on consumer attitudes. In addition, the cost of buying ethical clothing has often been defined in unidimensional terms; typically price. This study adopted a broader conceptualisation, defining it in terms of price, time and effort, and found it to serve as a salient influence over consumers’ attitudes to ethical clothing.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the behaviour of leaders that enhances employee engagement (EE) in organisations. It locates the importance of EE and the role leaders play within the public sector in a developing country and finds answer to the question on the behaviour of the leader that causes employees to be engaged.

The paper uses qualitative method to identify the behaviour of leaders that causes and enhances employees to be engaged. It proposes a framework outlining what the leader does to ensure EE.

Based on results of data analysed, six behaviours of leaders were identified: seeking employee welfare and caring; openness and information flow; conscientiousness; good and cordial relationship; fairness and trust and lastly involvement in decision making.

Limitation of the study was that it did not focus on the entire public sector but was carried out in only one company. It is therefore recommended that further studies could be carried out with focus on other public sector organisations to confirm the leader behaviour identified. Again, a comparative study between public and private sector organisations could be carried out to ascertain if there are differences in the behaviour of the leaders that cause employees to be engaged in these two different sectors.

The study develops a framework outlining behaviour which leaders within organisations could exhibit to enhance EE and thus organisational success.

The paper provides a framework that shows leader behaviour that causes EE in organisations in a developing country. This framework will be helpful to leaders in organisations to behave in specific ways to enhance EE and for researchers who want to conduct research in this field of study.

This paper aims to intend to ascertain whether corporate social responsibility (CSR) can serve as an effective promotional tool for the Malaysian halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. Starting from being nice to do, the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has brought CSR to the forefront of businesses, forcing them to rapidly shift from profit maximisation to business preservation. Thus, it is practically crucial to ascertain whether CSR could be effectively used to promote halal brands in this era.

To achieve the stated aim, a survey questionnaire was developed and used to collect data from 295 participants who are familiar with the concepts of CSR and halal in Malaysia. The data collected were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.

The findings reveal that the commitment to halal best practices, zakat and charitable donations, environmental responsibility, employee welfare and responsible dealings with clients are the most important CSR activities that can promote halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19. Whilst there is a positive relationship between halal economic responsibility and CSR as a promotional tool, such relationship is not significant. Nevertheless, the relationship between legal responsibility and CSR as a promotional tool is negative and insignificant.

Limitations are inevitable in any study where a convenient sampling technique is used. Respondents from Klang Valley in Malaysia make up a large proportion of the study’s sample. This may consequently limit the generalisability of the findings of this study. Hence, future research should adequately collect data from other cities in Malaysia. Moreover, this paper does not differentiate between perceptions of Muslims and non-Muslims or between male and female; this might have an effect, as Muslims are likely to favour most of the items in the questionnaire used to collect data for this study. Thus, future research may collect sufficient data to shed more light on this issue.

The researchers have revealed that CSR is an effective promotional tool for the Malaysian halal certified companies in the era of Covid-19 pandemic. Study of this nature is rare in academic literature.

Despite its persistence as a form of leadership, paternalism has received limited attention within organizational studies. In order to develop a construct definition of paternalism in a contemporary organizational context for this study, a literature review of paternalism is synthesized with qualitative field data collected in Mexican organizations and U.S. organizations that are owned and operated by Mexican immigrants. This analysis is conducted within a framework of leadership, and it suggests that paternalism combines paternalists’ benevolent acts with their subtle control over subordinates’ flexibility in meeting employment terms. Leaders express benevolence through their supportiveness and by providing for employees’ welfare both within the organization and their personal needs outside of the organization. Furthermore, both paternalistic leaders and subordinates frame their relationships in terms of social exchange, offering new insights into the dynamics within these exchange relationships.

The librarian and researcher have to be able to uncover specific articles in their areas of interest. This Bibliography is designed to help. Volume IV, like Volume III, contains features to help the reader to retrieve relevant literature from MCB University Press' considerable output. Each entry within has been indexed according to author(s) and the Fifth Edition of the SCIMP/SCAMP Thesaurus. The latter thus provides a full subject index to facilitate rapid retrieval. Each article or book is assigned its own unique number and this is used in both the subject and author index. This Volume indexes 29 journals indicating the depth, coverage and expansion of MCB's portfolio.

The employment practices of major American companies underwent a marked transformation in the fifteen-year period dating roughly from the beginning of World War I to the oncoming of the Great Depression in late 1929 (Jacoby, 1985; Lescohier, 1935). At the start of World War I, the practice of personnel management was unknown in American industry. Instead, employment practices were largely informal, unscientific and administered in a decentralized, often heavy-handed and capricious manner by foremen and gang bosses. Labor was typically viewed as a commodity to be bought for as little possible and used for only as long as needed, leading to an employment relationship that was short-term and insecure. The prevailing methods of management were also highly autocratic and arbitrary, with workers expected to obey whatever orders were given and at risk of being fired for any offense real or imagined.

Myths have been created about the value of Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP). An experienced practitioner examines seven: that to be independent or confidential the EAP must be provided by an external agency not answerable to Personnel; that EAPs usurp a manager′s responsibilities for staff; that stress is inescapable in modern life and the company has no right or wish to interfere in its employees′ personal lives; that admitting to stress‐related problems leaves an employee sidelined as a failure; that an EAP may permanently change management style and employee attitudes in a way that traditional means cannot; that EAP is just welfare under another name.