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Based on the human resources (HR) role framework (Conner and Ulrich, 1996), the purpose of this paper is to empirically explore why HR practitioners differ in their strategic partner role positioning. The present study suggests and tests a descriptive model regarding occupational and organizational characteristics associated with strategic HR role positioning.

In all, 100 questionnaires were collected from Israeli HR practitioners. Hierarchical regressions were used to test the association between occupational and organizational characteristics and the strategic role perception among HR practitioners.

Although the findings only partially supported the suggested model, significant associations between occupational and organizational characteristics and HR strategic positioning were found. HR practitioners in volatile organizational environments adopt a strategic role perception. Moreover, years of experience are also associated with an HR strategic role perception. Specifically, the major predictors of attaining a strategic partner role amongst HR practitioners are location of organizational activities mainly in the metropolitan area, and involvement in major organizational changes.

The sample had a positive bias of respondents. Questionnaires were delivered mainly to highly educated HR practitioners in notably professional HR departments. Data were based on self-reported one-time questionnaires.

The research has implications for the processes of academic education and professional training of HR practitioners and also their recruitment in organizations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, recent studies aimed at exploring sources of variance in the strategic role perception amongst HR practitioners are rather scarce. This research helps to address this gap, while also broadening the literature regarding HR communities in the Middle East.

Understanding occupational boundaries is vital in the contemporary economy, in which knowledge-based work is a central feature. The purpose of this paper is to identify and decipher boundary work which affects the cooperation and demarcation between human resource (HR) managers and external organization development (OD) practitioners during organization change processes.

Data are based on in-depth interviews with HR managers and external OD practitioners in the Israeli business sector.

Encounters between HR managers and external OD practitioners are potentially volatile given mutual experiences of occupational threat. Three distinct patterns of boundary work for negotiating OD-HR jurisdiction are identified. These yield differential occupational and organizational outcomes.

This study is based on a medium-sized sample of practitioners of HRM and OD in the Israeli business sector. The data focused on one-sided descriptions of occupational relations.

The findings shed light on boundary work associated with fruitful HRM-OD partnerships. This may greatly advance the success of costly organization change and development interventions which demand the collaboration of both parties. Implications are offered regarding the academic education and practical daily management of both groups of practitioners.

Despite their growing relevance, empirical investigations of daily HRM-OD interfaces are scarce. This exploratory research addresses this gap in the literature and offers theoretical and practical insights.

This study extends the understanding of the context of IHRM headquarters as one of the top management groups (TMGs) through the application of both upper echelons theory and contextual theory.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior Israeli HR managers from international advanced-technology companies.

This study expands on theory by explaining how contexts act as constraints or opportunities for IHRM headquarter professionals as TMGs. The organizational context in which the IHRM headquarters take part is based on two themes: organizational structure and shared values. This is followed by the context of IHRM headquarters that includes two foundations for integration: strategic IHRM and trust. Finally, integration is derived from two themes: collaborative behaviors and electronic HRM.

This research has yielded a theoretical framework, which makes progress toward developing an integrative paradigm between IHRM headquarters' behavioral integration and organizational features. The paper presents a valuable “toolkit” for facilitating internal integration in IHRM headquarters.

Reports that the evaluation of organizational units is of great importance for the organization. However, we face severe difficulties when conducting such processes, especially with regard to the human resource management (HRM) department. Discusses conventional approaches to such evaluation, focuses on their limitations, and suggests a new method for such an evaluation. The suggested method is based on an additive measure comprising HRM practices carried out in the organization. It was applied in an empirical study in which the HRM quality of 51 organizations was evaluated by four different sources: the organization’s top management, the organization’s employees, the environment (assessment of reputation), and an objective measure that was established based on the suggested approach. Concludes that, among the set of intercorrelations between the sources, the last one had the highest correlation with the others, which may indicate the value of the suggested method.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to cross culture training (CCT) literature by exploring the HR managers roles in CCT provision and the reasons affecting the given role enactment.

This exploratory study is based on in-depth interviews with 15 Israeli HR managers in charge of the provision of CCT in their respective companies and five interviews with CCT professionals who provide CCT training for a wide range of companies operating in Israel.

The study highlights the significant impact of HR managers’ awareness and perceptions of CCT on its provision and discusses a related self-perpetuating cycle of current practice reinforcement that limits the likelihood of practice improvement.

The limitations of the exploratory design of the study call for further research on HR roles in CCT provision.

The findings suggest that HR managers partly design and implement practice according to what they believe are unmet expatriate needs and what they perceive as effective HR tools. The authors discuss the practical value of raising their awareness not only of CCT designs and methodologies, but also of the complexities of expatriate adjustment and the opportunities offered by rigorous evaluation of current practice.

The study departs from the dominant focus in the literature on the content and methodologies of CCT and instead explores the neglected role of HR managers in CCT provision.

The purpose of this paper is to present a scale for measuring internal integration within human resource management (HRM) departments, which is developed and validated in this paper. Thus far, no valid, comprehensive operational instrument for measuring HRM internal integration has been introduced in the literature.

The scale items were developed on the basis of a qualitative analysis. The authors recruited 233 HRM professionals from 29 organizations to participate in the survey. In this paper, the authors present evidence of content validity, internal consistency reliability and construct validity that provides support for the use of an HRM internal integration scale. Exploratory factor analysis was conducted to determine the underlying factors that comprise HRM internal integration, while confirmatory factor analysis was used as a confirmatory test of the scale.

The results of this study led to the development of a standardized 34-item instrument that can be used for measuring HRM internal integration.

The use of the scale opens up a new research avenue by focusing on the nature of integration processes, particularly within HRM systems. The scale will allow studies to be compared across various contexts.

The purpose of the study is to develop a deeper understanding of the construct “integration within the HRM subsystem”. The study attempts to shed light on the conceptual perspective, the characteristics of this construct as well as the meaning and the mechanisms of internal integration within a HRM subsystem.

The procedure involves three main steps: first data reduction followed by data display and conclusion drawing/verification. Semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interviews with 21 vice‐president HRM managers and senior managers were conducted. The average time of the interviews was 60 minutes.

The findings revealed a model composed of HRM infrastructure (HRM cooperative policy, integrative core competence, and integrative technological infrastructure), internal communication process (formal and informal) and integrating process (consistency of HRM practices at the subsystem and individual levels). The first two categories are related with the dependent category‐integrating process.

HRM subsystems should develop their integrative technological infrastructure so that they can have a wide‐ranging view about their activities. Also, informal mechanisms may enhance the integrating process, as well as the formal mechanisms. Thus, managers should support and encourage the informal climate, and facilitate especially on informal communication.

The findings suggest a new approach for analyzing the integration process within an organizational HR sub‐system. On the one hand, the continuity of integration demonstrates how each category may contribute to the integration process on a high level. On the other, the low level of each category illustrates the opposite side of integration.

The transition from a Socialist approach to a free market approach and the rise of a new high‐tech sector are two remarkable shifts that have occurred in the last two decades in Israel. In the face of these changes, human resource (HR) practitioners are currently expected to assume new roles, adopt different work values, and apply appropriate strategies. HR managers in the low‐tech industry still adhere to traditional values and strategies, including a reliance on trade unions and an emphasis on job security and the employees’ years of work experience and seniority as key criteria for promotion. In the emerging high‐tech sector, HR managers have adopted new values and developed new strategies, including human resource management programs, employee empowerment, higher salaries and better benefits, while placing an emphasis on employees’ talents and qualifications.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyse the formation of CoPs (communities of practice) in three call centres of cellular communication operating companies in Israel.

This study is based on a qualitative methodology including observations, interviews and textual analysis.

In all three call centres, customer service representatives (CSRs) turned to each other in order to produce situated knowledge that combined compliance with organisational procedures alongside subversion so as to increase individual availability while compromising professional goals. These CoPs were formed during training, on‐the‐job learning, and off‐the‐job informal social activities. The resentment expressed in these CoPs was found to be related to standard HRM policies (low pay, stringent control, lack of career prospects) as well as to cultural contradictions involving efficiency and service quality, which CSRs had to handle and absorb.

The research provides ethnographic evidence regarding the formation of subversive CoPs in call centres but, as with all case study research, the findings cannot be reliably generalised to other companies. Similarly, the case generates grounded theory that needs to be tested in other organisational contexts.

The study raises the issue of how CoPs can become both enablers and barriers to knowledge flow in the organisation. To increase the potential of such CoPs to improve rather than inhibit service performance in call centres, practical implications are suggested in terms of HRM practices (e.g. strategic segmentation, the modification of monitoring), and in openly confronting cultural contradictions.

The article offers an ethnographic analysis of CoPs in call centres, focusing on their formation in the context of HRM practices and cultural contradictions, and highlighting their potential to constitute subversive workgroup cultures, rather than their conventionally perceived functional role in the organisation. As an inductive research using covert methods the article offers fresh insights in relation to CoPs and counter cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to present the influence of the human resource (HR) manager on the quality of service in an academic college, and the human resource management (HRM) outcomes of the process.

The paper relates to a customer satisfaction survey. More than 120 questionnaires were completed by the customers (Israeli college students) for each service provider (e.g. academic departments, the students' dean, the maintenance and the logistics departments) measuring customer satisfaction via different dimensions of quality.

By getting involved in the service quality improvement process, the HR manager was exposed to HRM problems such as non‐balanced workload, faulty work planning, lack of knowledge and skills, wrong placements, unclear job descriptions, etc. This information led to meaningful improvement in HRM processes (e.g. training programs, job descriptions, selection and placement and manpower planning).

The paper discusses the HRM practical outcomes of processes carried out to improve the quality of the organizational services. The suggested process and the implications are relevant for every HRM system.

The paper reflects the great affect that a HR manager (as part of the top management) has on the quality of service through HRM processes and practices.