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This paper analyses the opinions of the Botswana National Library Service's (BNLS) Headquarters (HQ) staff and staff of the Botswana public libraries on strategic human resource management issues, which were tested by six hypotheses.

The analysis was carried out by statistical means. The t‐test was the method used for comparing the two groups' mean scores. Analyses were repeated using the Chi‐squared test.

The study identified a number of issues where staff had differences of opinion: changing employees' expectations about work, transformational leadership, job satisfaction, performance feedback and delegation of responsibility. The paper briefly discusses the issues where the status of the library influenced staff opinions.

It is to be noted that the data collected from HQ has to be used with caution because the number of respondents there was smaller than the respondents from public libraries.

The author throws light on human resource management techniques in the everyday library environment. This paper may help policy makers to identify ways in which they can motivate their employees; it may help policy planners to identify their staff's different requirements.

This paper provides a useful and insightful application of a general human resource management tool to the specific organizational context of public libraries.

Argues that a human resource development (HRD) strategy, in alliance with a global‐arching human resource management (HRM) strategy, is the most effective way to link training policy and practice to organizational goals. Both manufacturing and service organizations require a critical mass of positive factors related to the effective management of human resources to successfully accomplish organizational goals. This involves the analysis of a myriad internal and external environmental factors contingent to the organization, followed by a strategic approach to influencing key stakeholders, and the formulation of strategic HRD policies and plans in parallel with and sometimes influencing business strategy. This links to a broad range of systems covering all areas of the human resource cycle ‐ selection, appraisal, rewards and development ‐ related to individual/team and organizational performance. Concludes that the HRD function must become more strategic in focus.

There is a major lacuna in sustainable human resource management (HRM) research regarding the theoretical context of its adoption or implementation. Consequently, the purpose of this study is to examine the relative influence and interactive effects of different levels of institutional isomorphisms on sustainable HRM adoption.

This study applies the conceptual method and anchors the discussions on the institutional theory and the extant literature on the antecedents of sustainable HRM implementation.

Internal and external institutional isomorphisms will have complementary (synergies) or substitution (trade-offs) effects on sustainable HRM adoption. Furthermore, external institutional isomorphic pressures related to societal values and culture and stakeholders’ sustainability demands are likely to have greater influence on sustainable HRM implementation relative to the internal institutional isomorphic pressures related to managerial sustainability values and attitudes; sustainability-related HRM competencies; resource availability; and perceived sustainability benefits.

This study proposes a novel multi-level conceptual model on the implementation context of sustainable HRM for testing empirically. Furthermore, this study generates insight on how different levels of institutional isomorphic pressures relatively and interactively (synergies versus trade-offs) affect sustainable HRM adoption. This is significant because there is a view that HRM as a discipline is theoretically weak. Although the field has advanced theoretically, one of the areas that need more theorisation is the context of HRM. Hence, this study advances the theoretical context of sustainable HRM implementation through the perspectives of the institutional theory.

The aim of the study was to measure employees' perception of human resource development (HRD) practices, to explore whether ISO certification leads to any improvements in HRD system, and to examine the role of HRD practices on employees' development climate and quality orientation in the organization.

A total of 239 employees belonging to eight organizations (four of them ISO certified) responded to a questionnaire which measured the following variables: career system, work planning system, development system, self renewal system, and HRD system.

Results indicated large inter‐organizational differences in HRD practices. In general, however, employees' ratings were moderate. ISO certified companies, compared to others, obtained higher means on some HRD variables. Organizations with better learning, training and development systems, reward and recognition, and information systems promoted human resource development climate. Quality orientation was predicted by career planning, performance guidance and development, role efficacy, and reward and recognition systems.

Comparison between ISO and non‐ISO certified companies did yield some significant differences, yet it was difficult to conclude that the differences were due to ISO certification alone as organizations in the sample were not matched.

The findings can be used by HR practitioners and scholars in building management concerns and advocacy for better HRD systems and practices.

Very little empirical knowledge is available on this subject from transitional economies like Malaysia. The study makes a modest attempt in that direction.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how resource recombination (RR) may be conceptualized with special reference to the competitiveness of Higher Education Institutions (HEI).

The paper consists of two main studies. Building on pertinent available literature on the subject area, a qualitative investigation was conducted with the help of a semi-structured interview guide. Findings of study one were systematically analysed against a literature derived template. Study two presents a quantitative survey investigation that follows from the codes and themes derived from study one. In study two, findings were validated and analysed with the help of structural equation modelling.

Study one findings identified a total of 64 individual themes representing resources (21 themes), business processes (29 themes) and complementary factors (14 themes), as elements of RR in HEI competitiveness. In study two, the measurement model for RR was found to contain five main factors, namely, asset, research and affiliation processes, automated technology management, financial support for HR and departmental initiatives mainstream staff rewards and retention and institutional brand image appeal.

A significant contribution is made to theory development in the area of RR. Other implications to HEI competitiveness in contribution to national development were offered.

The area of RR remains largely uncovered in strategic management. Conceptualizing RR in the context of HEI competitiveness is new and in the right direction to jumpstart interest in this area by proposing a validated measurement model of HEI.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impact of falling rolls on human resource management in local preschools in Hong Kong. It aims to argue that the developing role of leadership in creating a culture and procedures for collective participation in staff appraisal is important for human resource management in preschool settings.

With the aid of a case study, the paper illustrates and analyzes the policies and practices presently adopted by many preschool heads in the process of personnel management that may potentially affect the quality of education service.

This paper focuses on discussing the common practices used by many preschool heads in the field to handle staffing reduction. In particular, voluntary redundancy is perceived as an effective strategy to solve the problems of budget deficit. From the quality perspective, the strategy is based on individual decision but not on the teaching performance of staff members. This may have a negative impact on the quality of teaching and service.

Relatively little research on human resource management in preschools has been conducted in Hong Kong. The illustration of this case study follows other studies in the literature in revealing the important links between human resource management and school development. It is proposed that the management of professional knowledge embedded in teaching practices should be connected to the policy of staff appraisal in order to achieve better quality of service. Thus, the introduction of staff appraisal and collective participation in such processes is, by its nature, a political process. This paradigm shift creates a new agenda for leadership roles and requires a cultural change in preschool settings.

The advent of information technology has generated not only interest in how to acquire, store and “mine” data, but also how to manage knowledge. Yet, there is still considerable confusion and a lack of understanding of what today’s knowledge managers really do. Continuing a stream of previous research on the behavior activities of traditional managers, this study investigated the relative amount of time today’s knowledge managers (N=307) spend on traditional management functions, communications, human resources and networking. Besides identifying what knowledge managers really do, this study examined what successful knowledge managers do. Comparisons are then made with managers in the 1980s. Finally, the role that information technology plays in knowledge managers carrying out their managerial activities was assessed. The implications of some surprising findings and conclusions end the paper.

The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and innovative performance in the Spanish industry. Specifically, the authors will focus on innovativeness, analysing the extent to which this capability is favoured by some human resource management (HRM) practices as investments on training and whether it is also affected by the use of full time and/or temporary workers.

The authors propose the assessment of these relationships by means of the Spanish Survey of Industrial Strategic Behaviour. The authors focus the longitudinal analysis on the period 2001-2008, years of the highest economic growth in Spain during the last decades.

The findings show that the most innovative firms are also the most competitive ones in terms of added value. Moreover, while a significant and positive relationship between the use of full-time workers and innovativeness is demonstrated, the role of temporary workers employees remains unclear. Finally, and surprisingly, training investments on new technologies, languages and data processes do not have any impact on innovativeness. The paper is closed with a discussion about some lessons the authors may learn from these wealthy years and the role played by HRM investments on firms.

This study demonstrates the existence of two objectives that managers should seek to achieve. On one side, they should focus on innovation as a way of increasing firm performance. And, on the other side, managers should invest on specific training, in order to develop more innovative and profitable organizations.

This paper proposes and tests a model where innovation mediates the relationships between HRM practices and performance. Such mediation would be a contribution to the strategic HRM field as very recent research call for the study of new mediators. Also, this paper employs panel data (2001-2008) for assessing these relationships. This is worthy because it is coherent with the idea of internal development of capabilities, instead of cross-sectional analyses and because the authors may infer causality with the study design, as it is demanded by researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of one of the more widespread techniques for personnel development and training: coaching. This technique in the business context entails boosting of a manager's capabilities so as to improve business results through a combination of experience, knowledge, support and the motivation provided by advisers who specialize in business management.

To analyze the effectiveness of this innovative technique, the authors examined a sample of 40 small companies located in Ceuta (an autonomous Spanish city in North Africa) using a Wilcoxon‐Mann‐Whitney test. Participants were divided into two groups; in one group, an individualized audit process was conducted to obtain an actual picture of managerial practices (focusing on needs and corrective measures). In the other group, an advising process also complemented a coaching phase that was implemented to facilitate employee adoption of the proposed measures. Ultimately, differences between these two groups were found.

Results indicate that coaching substantially increases the level to which processes of improvement are established within organizations, consequently increasing the competitive capability.

The findings highlight the potential benefits of the use of coaching in the business context. Coaching facilitates the implementation of a set of improvement measures designed to increase business competitiveness, suggesting that this type of advising stands to be very beneficial for companies.

Practices that lead to the development of human capital in organizations are basic tools for managers that are becoming increasingly essential for achieving business efficiency and strategic change. The paper analyzes the implementation of coaching in the business arena, specifically in the case of managers, which is a novelty given the dearth of empirical research on coaching. Thus, the results of the paper provide the wider academic community with empirical evidence on how coaching is a profitable practice for improving human resource management.

Within the general human resource management (HRM) literature, the devolution of HR tasks to line managers is often seen as a core element of an HR approach with a series of costs and benefits arising. However, concerns have arisen on the ability and willingness of line managers to carry out HR tasks properly including developing employees in their careers, the demands such changes make on line managers themselves, and how such changes alter their own career patterns. This article maps out a consideration of aspects of career development given the trend to line manager involvement in careers. The implications for employee career development are explored, as are those for line managers and HR professionals.