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Over the last decade, trust repair has become an important theoretical and practical concern in HRM. The purpose of this paper is to explain why organisations fail to repair their stakeholders’ trust following a series of trust breaches.

Archival data is used to investigate the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Using the analytical frame of the detective novel, the authors analyse reputational scandals in RBS, and in doing so, they explore the interweaving of two stories: the story of the “crime” (the bank's actions which led to breaches of trust) and the story of the “detectives” (parliamentary, regulatory and press investigators).

Based on their analysis, the authors argue that the organisation's failure to repair trust is associated with ineffective detection of what went wrong in the bank and why.

HR practitioners dealing with similar situations should understand the complicated and unfolding nature of repeated transgressions, and the reasons why previous trust repair efforts may have failed.

An organisation may be showing willingness to accept responsibility for the violation of trust, but while new transgressions happen, trust repair efforts may fail. Therefore, what is needed in organisations is a longitudinal analysis that takes into account organisational history, including earlier wrongdoings.

The paper is one of the few analysing trust repair from a process perspective and using the metaphor of the detective novel to provide insights into organizational reintegration.

Building on our earlier model of the links between HR strategy, e-HR goals, architectures, and outcomes, we illustrate the relationship between some of these elements with data from three global organizations. In doing so, we aim to help academics and practitioners understand this increasingly important area of HR theory and practice.

This study of a sample of firms based in a region of Scotland, examines the characteristics of organizations that are early adopters of management development methods. The survey results show that organizations that are early adopters of one or more of four fashionable management development techniques—open learning, computer‐assisted learning, action learning and outdoor management training—are also characterized by a sophisticated approach to human resource development and the use of other ‘high performance’ HRM practices. Such findings are consistent with the literature on innovation that points to rational‐technical factors influencing the decision‐making process of early adopter organizations in contrast to institutional factors such as social conformity that are more important in influencing late adopter organizations. However, the data also point to the limitations of using an early‐late stage adoption framework for the diffusion of techniques such as those used in management development.

A series of projects is reported which focus on various aspects of white‐collar trade unionism, and which had to confront the theoretical limitations of some of the conventional ways of studying white‐collar trade unions.

The purpose of this paper is to ask why some organizations might be better than others at continuous innovation in the field of e‐enablement of human resource (e‐HR).

To answer this question, the notion of absorptive capacity (ACAP) is applied to explain some of the problems faced in moving from face‐to‐face HR to a technology‐mediated model.

Dynamic ACAP models are adapted to produce a more realistic, iterative framework in which realized capacities for e‐HR innovations contribute to, and constrain, potential capacities for further innovations.

The model is used to offer some research propositions for academics operating in this newly emerging field of human resource management (HRM).

Some theory‐driven advice are also offered for HR practitioners.

The specific contribution is to introduce the concept of ACAP to HRM scholars and practitioners interested in the field of e‐HR and Web 2.0 social media.

The aim of this article is to bring together ideas from the authors' review of the Web 2.0 literature, the data and their insights from this and other technology‐related projects to produce a framework for strategies on Web 2.0 focusing on the implications for human resource professionals.

The authors discuss organisational design as a socio‐technical system, which depends on the interaction between people, work organisation and technical systems for its effectiveness.

The article sets out four scenarios on the use of traditional and new social technologies intended to enhance collaboration and give employees voice in matters that affect them at work. In doing so, it shows how Web 2.0 can alter the choices available to employees and organisations to collaborate and exercise their respective voices. It is in this sense the authors argue that these technologies have the potential to transform the business model.

There is a potential trend away from Web 2.0, which is potentially difficult for organisations to cope with towards Enterprise 2.0, which offers a social platform within companies. There is also a trend away from traditional media used to give employees a say in decisions, such as face‐to‐face representation in consultative committees, focus groups and online surveys towards Enterprise 2.0 read‐write media.

This article examines potential scenarios for the adoption of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 platforms in real business settings.

–The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate over people management rationales and how they relate to organizational effectiveness.

Drawing on the distinction between the “logic of consequences” and the “logic of appropriateness,” the paper explores one aspect of managing people – managers’ attempts to restore trust after an intra-organizational breach of trust. This is done on the basis of a systematic approach to a review of the literature on intra-organizational trust and organizational trust repair.

The paper argues that in their trust repair efforts managers socially construct and enact a narrow business agenda for the firm, which is typically justified by a logic of consequences. Instead, the authors suggest that managers may be better advised to follow a logic of appropriateness in restoring trust among employees, which acknowledges the importance of context and managers’ lack of control over employees’ reactions to trust repair strategies.

A key practical implication of the logic of appropriateness is that, in certain contexts, the most effective strategy for trust repair is inaction (rather than action), a strategy often neglected in people management practice.

The social implications of this paper highlight the social context in which people management strategies take place and the limitations of “one-size-fits-all” HRM prescriptions.

The value of the paper is bringing a much neglected stream of research on the strengths of inaction as a positive strategy in organizational theory to current HRM scholars as a way of balancing the typical agentive approaches to HRM and intra-organizational trust repair.

Addresses the question: will investment in HRD through company‐based programmes of lifelong learning pay dividends to companies in terms of knowledge transfer from courses and more positive psychological contracts? Develops a model of the relationship between HRD investment, the content of psychological contracts and key consequences such as satisfaction, continuance commitment and knowledge transfer. This model is tested empirically using data from a survey of a cohort of participants in a major Scottish electronics company. The results show that the programme paid off in terms of more positive psychological contracts and knowledge transfer. However, contrary to other research, the nature of the transfer climate (e.g. manager support, career and salary advancement, etc.) was not seen to be important in affecting knowledge transfer. This latter finding has important implications for HR policies in knowledge creating companies.

This article is concerned with a description of the way in which a small group of Civil Service trade unionists attempted to participate in the 1981 pay campaign by the British Civil Service trade unions. The problems faced by the group are analysed and the group members' experiences of their activity explored.