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The purpose of this paper is to review the roles of human resource management (HRM) specialists in the contemplation and implementation of innovation in employing organisations and workplaces.

The authors review some of the literature and practice in this field as well as 11 other articles that are included in this special issue.

The authors propose six research questions. First, are HRM specialists analysing relevant trends and their implications for the future of work and the workforce? Second, are HRM specialists enabling employing organisations to identify and enable innovative ideas? Third, to what extent are HRM specialists leading partnership arrangements with organised labour? Fourth, what is the role of HRM specialists in creating inclusive work environments? Fifth, how should HRM specialists change to foster enterprise performance, intrapreneurship, agility, creativity and innovation? Sixth, to what extent is there an HRM function for line managers in coordination with HRM specialists in engendering innovation around “change agent” roles?

The authors argue that HRM specialists should embrace and enable innovation. The authors challenge HRM specialists to consider how they can contribute to facilitating innovation. The paper proposes further research on HRM and range of associated stakeholders who, together, have responsibility for innovating in the design and delivery of HRM to enrich our knowledge of HRM and workplace innovations.

The purpose of the research is to examine the antecedent and employee well-being outcomes of employees' perceptions of benefits schemes.

Data were collected using both paper-based and web-based questionnaires over two time points (one month apart). The sample included 281 participants in eight companies in China. Structural equation modelling was employed to investigate the relationship between Chinese traditionality, perceived benefits schemes, job involvement and emotional exhaustion.

Chinese traditionality is an antecedent of employees' perceptions of benefits schemes. Perceived benefits schemes are negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Moreover, job involvement mediates the relationship between perceived benefits schemes and emotional exhaustion.

The data were collected in eight manufacturing companies in China, which may raise concerns about the generalisability of findings across industries, nations and cultures. Larger, more representative and cross-contextual samples are needed for future research to test the results further.

Managers should anticipate that employees with different cultural values may develop dissimilar perceptions of the same benefits schemes. Hence, managers need to communicate the benefits schemes to distinct employee groups in different ways.

Based on the conservation of resources model, this research offers theoretical insights into the mechanisms through which perceived benefits schemes influence employee health well-being. In addition, this research tests an antecedent of perceived benefits schemes.

There is an increasing realisation that managerial and professional staff play a crucial role in determining the success of the organisations which employ them, whether in the private or the public sector. Hence there is a growing concern with the quality and development of such staff. A detailed study of these important occupational groups, which was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC reference F/00/23/00 98) was recently conducted by the authors. Although focused on Britain, the research is linked with parallel studies being undertaken in the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and several other European countries. The broader international study will be published within the next year as Roomkin, M. (Ed.), The Changing Character of Managerial Employment: A Comparative View Oxford, University Press, New York and Oxford. The demographic and educational trends which relate to managerial and professional employees, their careers and other aspects of the management of such human resources are discussed. The remuneration of managerial and professional staff, their unionisation and their role in the wider society are then considered.

Discusses feasibility, desirability and value of Japanese management strategies in a Western context. Major Japanese companies are at the leading edge in refining management strategies, techniques and styles, for example, with regard to having a long‐term perspective and the continuous improvement of quality, stock control, skill formation, communications, training and employee development. As possible models can these approaches be transferred to different cultures?

Hospitals have used process redesign to increase the efficiency of the emergency department (ED) to cope with increasing demand. While there are published studies suggesting a positive outcome, recent reviews have reported that it is difficult to conclude that these approaches are effective as a result of substandard research methodology. The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of hospital staff on the impact of a process redesign initiative on quality of care.

A retrospective qualitative case study examining a Lean Six Sigma (LSS) initiative in a large metropolitan hospital from 2009 to 2010. Non-probability sampling identified interview subjects who, through their participation in the redesign initiative, had a detailed understanding of the implementation and outcomes of the initiative. Between April 2012 and January 2013 26 in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysed with thematic content analysis.

There were four important findings. First, when asked to comment on the impact of the LSS implementation, without prompting the staff spoke of quality of care. Second, there was little agreement among the participants as to whether the project had been successful. Third, despite the recognition of the need for a coordinated effort across the hospital to improve ED access, the redesign process was not successful in reducing existing divides among clinicians and among managers and clinicians. Finally, staff expressed tension between production processes to move patients more quickly and their duty of care to their patients as individuals.

One of the first studies to explore the impact of process redesign through in-depth interviews with participating staff, this study adds further evidence that organisations implementing process redesign must ensure the supporting management practices are in place.

Based on the JD-R model and process-focused HRM perspective, this research paper aims to investigate the processes underlying the relationship between AI-enabled HR analytics and employee well-being outcomes (resilience) that received less attention in the AI-driven HRM literature. Specifically, this study aims to examine the indirect effect between AI-enabled HR analytics and employee resilience via job crafting, moderated by HRM system strength to highlight the contextual stimulus of AI-enabled HR analytics.

The authors adopted a time-lagged research design (one-month interval) to test the proposed hypotheses. The authors used two-wave surveys to collect data from 175 full-time hotel employees in China.

The findings indicated that employees' perceptions of AI-enabled HR analytics enhance their resilience. This study also found the mediation role of job crafting in the mentioned relationship. Moreover, the positive effects of AI-enabled HR analytics on employee resilience amplify in the presence of a strong HRM system.

Organizations that aim to utilize AI-enabled HR analytics to achieve organizational missions should also dedicate attention to its associated employee well-being outcomes.

This study enriched the literature with regard to AI-driven HRM in that it identifies the mediating role of job crafting and the moderating role of HRM system strength in the relationship between AI-enabled HR analytics and employee resilience.

Discusses the employment relations (ER) of seven countries: Australia, New Zealand and Japan have in different ways been restructuring their ER for increased flexibility. The South Korean process of democratisation has included a reduction in state regulation of unions. Taiwan’s democratisation has led its government to become more active in ER. The People’s Republic of China’s transition from a highly regulated to a “socialist market” economy has had significant implications for ER. In Indonesia, the end of the Soharto regime offered opportunities for greater recognition of workers’ interests, but these were checked initially by political instabilities and the 1997 Asian economic crisis.

McJobs in the fast‐food sector are a major area of youth employment. This paper explores young people's perceptions of work in this industry.

The paper discusses the results of a survey of students' experiences of McJobs in Australia.

Fast‐food workers were generally dissatisfied with the industrial relations and work organisation aspects of their jobs. Nonetheless, they were generally much more satisfied with the human resource management and social relations aspects of their jobs.

Our research has implications for understanding the human capital development practices adopted by employers in the fast‐food industry and in other sectors, especially those that employ young people. Much of the context for work and employment relations in Australia is comparable with those in most English‐speaking countries. Therefore, our findings have implications for work in similar sectors in other countries, in particular, other English‐speaking countries.

This paper has implications for people who devise recruitment policies and design of jobs. It is a useful reminder that it is no longer appropriate for people to talk in simple terms of satisfaction at work per se; it is vital to differentiate between various aspects and contexts of job satisfaction, or the of the lack of it.

Earlier studies of fast‐food work have tended to be polemical and polarized: either apologias or very critical. This paper adopts a more balanced approach and it puts the findings into context.