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The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship of highly skilled work and (collective) power. It develops an institutional logics perspective and argues that highly skilled workers’ propensity to join trade unions varies by institutional order.

Data from two occupational fields in Austria, university professors and management consultants, representing two different institutional orders were collected via questionnaires. Stepwise logistic regression analysis was employed to test the hypotheses.

The results show that over and above organisational level variables, individual's background and employee power variables institutional logics significantly add to explaining trade union membership of highly skilled workers. Prevalence of a professional logic in a field makes collective action more likely than market logic.

Highly skilled workers are overall described as identifying themselves more with the goals of their employer or client and with their professional peers than with other corporate employees or organised labour. They are thus expected to develop consent rather than conflict orientation vis-á-vis their employers and clients. This paper supports a differentiated view and shows that within highly skilled work there are groups engaging in collective action. By developing an institutional logics perspective it provides a useful approach to explain heterogeneity within the world of highly skilled work.

Purpose – We analyze segregation between immigrants and natives at the firm level and explore the connection between segregation and wage inequality in Switzerland.

Methodology/Approach – Our approach accounts for the interaction between skill level and immigration status (work permit). First, we calculate exposure rates in order to analyze segregation at the firm level along these two dimensions. Second, we examine the role of segregation in the explanation of wage inequality between different skill–nationality groups. We use data from the Swiss Wage Structure Survey 2002, an employer–employee database that records individual wages among a very large sample of establishments in all industries, covering approximately 42,000 firms and 1 million workers.

Findings – Our results show that interfirm segregation is particularly pronounced for unskilled foreign workers and for recently arrived, highly skilled foreigners. The former earn lower wages than equally skilled Swiss workers, and the latter are paid higher wages than highly skilled Swiss workers. In both cases, interfirm segregation accounts for almost the entire wage differential.

Originality/Value of paper – This paper presents a generalization of the approach used by Groshen (1991) to the multigroup case by defining segregation with respect to the two dimensions of nationality and skill. The use of multigroup exposure rates is common in studies of neighborhood segregation (e.g., Bayer et al., 2004), but our paper shows that they can also be fruitfully applied in the analysis of interfirm segregation and wage inequality.

Wages have been spreading out across workers over time – or in other words, the 90th/50th wage ratio has risen over time. A key question is, has the productivity distribution also spread out across worker skill levels over time? Using our calculations of productivity by skill level for the United States, we show that the distributions of both wages and productivity have spread out over time, as the right tail lengthens for both. We add Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries, showing that the wage–productivity correlation exists, such that gains in aggregate productivity, or GDP per person, have resulted in higher wages for workers at the top and bottom of the wage distribution. However, across countries, those workers in the upper-income ranks have seen their wages rise the most over time. The most likely international factor explaining these wage increases is the skill-biased technological change of the digital revolution. The new artificial intelligence (AI) revolution that has just begun seems to be having similar skill-biased effects on wages. But this current AI, called “supervised learning,” is relatively similar to past technological change. The AI of the distant future will be “unsupervised learning,” and it could eventually have an effect on the jobs of the most highly skilled.

The global migration and movement of talent plays an important role in the economic growth and competitiveness of many nations. In coming decades, it is anticipated that there will be increased competition between countries to attract the best and brightest. The World Economic Forum (2011) has recommended using nation branding strategies to attract talent. In response to this recommendation, the purpose of this paper is to propose a strategic framework and terminology for branding nations to attract highly skilled workers. Based on a review of the literature, it recommends five strategic vision drivers that can help countries brand themselves in an appealing and compelling way to talented professionals. This paper also recommends the term “relocation branding” to describe the practice of branding nations, regions and cities to attract talent.

This paper examines the literature on nation branding and talent mobility to propose a conceptual framework of five vision drivers for branding destinations to attract talent. It also discusses how these vision drivers can be used in the context of an overall branding initiative and campaign.

This paper finds that the determinants of talent mobility are complex and overlapping. Highly skilled temporary and permanent migrants have a broad range of concerns and interests when they voluntarily choose a country to live and work in. This paper argues that, given these complexities, a more tailored and multidimensional understanding of talent mobility is necessary to effectively craft a branding strategy that will appeal to the highly skilled. A clear vision, demonstrating an understanding of the challenges of moving between countries, has to be integrated into the brand from the outset.

This paper is one of the only in-depth studies of nation branding for the purpose of attracting temporary and permanent skilled migrants. The value of this paper is significant as it provides a framework for strategically creating and positioning nation brands to attract highly skilled workers.

The spread of economic global integration in the last 50 years has resulted in the recent emergence of global labour markets. Ageing populations and skill shortages have placed significant pressure upon Australia's economic sustainability and survival in a global economy. The global race for talent has seen the emergence of skilled migration as a key element in Australia's strategy to address major human capital trends and issues and to source pools of talent considered highly skilled or in demand. This paper seeks to address these issues.

This paper draws together research on skilled migration in the Australian context and the factors that explain use of Australia's 457 visa scheme by organisations for attracting and recruiting talent. Data from a survey of members of the Australian Human Resources Institute (n=1,045) is analysed using logistic regression.

The results show that larger, goods producing, organisations with skills shortages are more likely to employ skilled migrants, while not‐for‐profit and regional organisations are less likely. Sponsorship of 457 visa workers for permanent residency is more likely in larger, regional organisations willing to pay above market rates to fill long‐term vacancies and seeking to attract international skills and knowledge but less likely in public organisations.

The study has limitations related to the fact that the sample is limited to Australian members of a human resource professional body.

There is very little literature on the use of temporary skilled migration by organisations from a HRM perspective. The findings shed light upon the extent of employer‐sponsored temporary skilled migration as a talent sourcing strategy in a range of industries and organisations across Australia.

Although skilled migrants have a high capacity for integration, many report experiences of exclusion which impacts their ability to contribute fully to the host country. This experience of exclusion, which can diminish their self-efficacy at work, is especially acute for skilled migrants from non-English speaking backgrounds when functioning in a new or exclusionary environment. In this paper, we explore the relationship between workplace inclusion and self-efficacy and identify factors that contribute to perceived inclusion for skilled migrant workers.

Participants were recruited through social network groups representing migrant workers via LinkedIn. Through snowball sampling, participants were asked to recommend recent (3–5 years) skilled migrants to participate. A total of 210 skilled migrant workers to Australia completed the survey. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is used to test our model on the relationship between inclusion and self-efficacy.

Migrants' perceptions of inclusion at work are related to their self-efficacy at work. We also find that some dimensions of inclusion are more important than others in enhancing self-efficacy for skilled migrants. Meaningful exchanges with supervisors, a sense of belonging at work and workgroup cohesion (being accepted by co-workers) are more important than senior management support or getting involved in organizational social activities as determinants of perceived inclusion.

Although skilled migrants are often assumed to be a self-select group of highly motivated, high achieving workers, many experience poor adjustment and feel excluded after arriving in the host country. Public policies have limited effects in promoting inclusion of skilled migrant workers in organizations. These policies may be supplemented with an inclusive organizational climate to improve migrant worker success. Organizations and employers are thus critical partners in fostering migrant workers' sense of inclusion and supporting the career outcomes of skilled migrant workers in the host country.

This study supports the link between perceived inclusion and self-efficacy among skilled migrant workers. It also sharpens the evidence of organizational-level factors that contribute to perceived inclusion for migrant workers.

While staffing agencies are gaining importance in work relationships with the highly skilled workforce, their work relations with highly skilled independent contractors have not been investigated yet. Staffing agencies as labor market intermediaries charge a fee to help independent contractors as well as client organizations to create contracts for services while independent contractors remain self-employed. Besides their growing relevance, their exact role remains unclear. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of staffing agencies in work relationships with highly skilled independent contractors.

The authors applied a mixed-methods design comprising a qualitative interview study with independent contractors and staffing agencies’ representatives (n=29) coupled with a quantitative survey of staffing agencies (n=81).

The analysis shows that staffing agencies are important actors in work relationships with highly skilled independent contractors. However, the relationships can be differentiated into rather standardized ones on the one hand and individualized relations on the other hand. This seems to correspond with differences between sectors.

First, the authors discuss staffing agencies as new intermediaries and highlight their relevance in the negotiation of working conditions. Second, the authors emphasize variations of the role of staffing agencies in triadic work relationships of highly skilled independent contractors in relation to specificities of sectors. Third, the study also adds on organizational support theory and related research.

The aim of this paper is to examine rent sharing under a heterogeneous workforce using Finnish linked employer‐employee data in 1987‐1998. Rent sharing is one component of the empirically estimated firm‐effect and depends on the sensitivity of firm‐level payments to quasi‐rents. It is shown that rent sharing moderates other forms of firm‐level wages. Thus, the lower the starting wages, the higher rent sharing will be. Alternatively, in many firms new workers are attracted to the job by paying high entry wages, while these new workers do not obtain the full level of rent sharing in the first years of service. Highly educated workers are the main targets of rent sharing and rent sharing is more common in R&D‐intensive firms. All this shows the importance of human capital accumulation and flexible technology in explaining rent sharing. This can also explain why rent sharing is targeted at experienced workers in R&D‐intensive firms. In non‐R&D‐intensive firms, job search is also of importance. Rent sharing is more common when highly educated workers have flexible labour supply.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the country-level drivers of managers' and executives' mobility. Both sub-groups play a fundamental role in entrepreneurship, innovation and ultimately on wealth creation in destination countries. The objective is to capture how the impact of economic, cultural and institutional factors differ for these sub-groups’ vis-a-vis the broad highly skilled group's mobility.

The paper investigates the country-level drivers of managers' and executives' bilateral migration from 190 countries to 32 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. It builds a model on four macro-contextual attractiveness factors of destination countries: economic conditions, cultural affinity, institutions and quality of life. The authors use fixed-effects regressions and carry several model specifications comparing the impact of different attractiveness factors on the migration of lower skilled, highly skilled, managers and executives.

The authors find that economic incentives do not motivate managers' or executives' mobility. The quality of life is more significant in driving executives' mobility than economic measures are. Cultural affinity, institutions and quality of life are more important for managers. Ethnic relations are significant for the overall highly skilled sample.

These results have implications for global companies interested in recruiting managers and executives and their recruitment strategies. International businesses attempting to maximize their access to international managers, for instance, can develop recruitment packages that capitalize on the particularities of the quality of life of the potential destination country. Such packages can contribute to streamlining the process and focusing on candidates' needs to increase the likelihood of relocation. The study’s results, in addition, have policy implications in terms of the “branding” of countries whose aim is to attract managers and other highly skilled talent. Officials can build an effective country-branding strategy on the existence of ethnic networks, effective institutions and quality of life to attract a particular segment of the talent pool. For instance, they can develop a strategy to attract executives by focusing on a specific cultural characteristic and elements of the quality of life such as the effectiveness of their country's healthcare and education systems.

The paper also points out to the issues that policymakers must resolve in the absence of an education system that guarantees the talent pool that the economy needs. For those countries that rely on foreign talent (such as Switzerland, Singapore and the USA), it is paramount to promote safety, quality of life and institutional development, in order to guarantee a sufficient inflow of talent.

Most global studies focus on the complete migrant stock or on highly skilled workers in particular. The authors disaggregate the sample further to capture the drivers of managers' and executives' migration. The authors find that latter sub-groups respond to different country-level attractiveness factors compared to the broader highly skilled sample. In doing so, the authors contextualize the study of mobility through a positively global lens and incorporate the impact of some of the factors generally overlooked.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate inter-industry labor mobility, paying special attention to workers who move into high-tech (HT) sectors or knowledge-intensive business services (KIBSs). This study inquires whether skilled workers are mobile and whether the characteristics of mobile workers support the effective transfer of knowledge across industries.

Census data representing 7 percent of Finnish residents were used. The micro-econometric estimation method with correction of sample selection bias was applied.

The results show that young workers are the most mobile, whereas mobility decreased for those with previous work experience, higher education and higher income level. These findings indicate that the highly skilled workers are not necessarily the most mobile, a trend that may weaken the effectiveness of knowledge spillover. However, on average, highly educated workers move into KIBS sectors more often than to other sectors, and HT sectors attract workers who have higher incomes, which may indicate that their skills are highly valued. As a result, knowledge spillovers may emerge. The knowledge spillovers resulting from job mobility are concentrated in large growth centers that have universities.

This study provides a new and topical viewpoint to the mobility literature by focussing on skilled workers and their movement toward the HT and KIBS sectors.