Search results

Purpose: Students’ transition from education to employment is influenced by factors like the length and calibre of their education, demography, labour market conditions, and the general state of the economy. Regardless of the economy, education systems should seek to ensure that students have the skills required for the labour market. This will help them better transition from school to work. This study examines the work skills that companies require for entry-level positions in Romania.

Need for Study: Previously, text analysis studies treated the job market only for the IT industry in Romania. To understand the demand-side opportunities and restrictions, assessing the employment opportunities for young people in the Romanian labour market is necessary.

Methodology: A text mining approach from 842 unstructured data of the existing job positions in October 2022 for fresh graduates or students is used in this chapter. The study uses data from LinkedIn job descriptions in the Romanian job market. The methodology involved is focused on text retrieval, text-pre-processing, word cloud analysis, network analysis, and topic modelling.

Findings: The empirical findings revealed that the most common words in job descriptions are experience, team, work, skills, development, knowledge, support, data, business, and software. The correlation network revealed that the most correlated pairs of words are gender–sexual–race–religion–origin–diversity–age–identity–orientation–colour–equal–marital.

Practical Implications: This study looked at the job market and used text analytics to extract a space of skill and qualification dimensions from job announcements relevant to the Romanian employment market instead of depending on subjective knowledge.

Various scholars suggest that there is a lack of research on the recruitment in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and also a scarcity of theoretical basis for the recruitment procedures used by these companies. As the vast majority of studies concentrate on larger organizations, they may not accurately reflect the challenges faced by smaller-sized entities to profoundly and accurately comprehend their recruitment procedures. In addition, the use of technology in recruitment has grown in importance in today’s quickly evolving business environment, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic footprint. This study aims to examine the recruitment procedures used by SMEs and how they have been compelled to adjust to different extents to these technological improvements by the effects of the aforementioned epidemic.

With the aim to investigate the current recruitment practices in SMEs and the extent to which digital technologies are embraced by these companies within human resources (HR) procedures, this research relied on interviews with SMEs representatives. The qualitative methods used provided access to relevant data and insights, as they allowed close interactions with top managers and CEOs of ten companies from various sectors. Thus, the research results draw a vivid and reliable image of the procedures and practices used by small and medium-sized companies to attract, select and retain their staff.

This study’s findings are of increased interest to HR professionals, recruiters and managers in SMEs, who aim to attract and retain the best talent and optimize their recruitment strategies in a rapidly changing business environment, enabled by technological advancements. Effective HR recruitment procedures adapted to the specific needs of small and medium-sized companies can lead to several benefits for the organization, including improved employee selection, reduced turnover and increased organizational productivity.

Although the interviews examined here encompass recruitment techniques from SMEs in a variety of industries, the results’ generalizability is limited by the sample size and geography. Furthermore, the findings’ dependability is dependent on the accuracy of the data provided by the respondents.

This investigation confirms some of the theoretical underpinnings which point to the lack of formalized structures and procedures in the recruitment process in SMEs, which enjoy more flexibility in managing HR processes. In addition, the results reinforce the arguments indicating an adjustment between HR strategies or policies and organizational goals in smaller enterprises which adapt faster to changes in the market. Moreover, it becomes apparent that there is a relationship between the quality of job descriptions and the successful fit in attracting the right candidates for the open positions. Furthermore, digital technologies offer opportunities for expanding the recruiters’ reach to a wider audience and also support the selection stage, thus increasing the chances of finding suitable staff. As the need to shift from traditional recruitment to e-recruitment in SMEs has been highlighted in the literature, the qualitative research revealed that this need was driven on the one hand by the COVID-19 pandemic when these companies successfully adapted and implemented new online methods of recruiting, but also by the lack of skilled labor, leading to the expansion of recruitment to other parts of the country or even to other countries.

With regard to the proportion of men and women used in small and medium-sized companies, there is a clear need to involve and train more women in the predominantly male-dominated industrial and IT sectors. From this point of view, companies tend to devote more interest to integrating communities of women in these industries, as well as in key management positions. Another point of interest that the study highlights is the fact that SMEs have started to get creative with the benefits package they propose to candidates and focus on remote work, hybrid office–home working, or seasonal work to offer future employees a better work–life balance.

The added value of this investigation is filling the gaps in the current literature concerning recruitment procedures currently used by SMEs, the challenges they face and the solutions they advanced to solve them. Furthermore, SMEs often drive innovation and competition in the market and play a crucial role in the supply chain of larger companies, providing them with the goods and services they need to operate and supporting the availability and reliability of products from larger companies. They are often the driving force behind revitalizing local economies and creating new employment opportunities. Consequently, the underlying significance of this study is rooted in the need to modernize and simultaneously improve HR recruitment procedures through the integration of technology and a focus on innovation.

This research aims to investigate the influence of green human resource management (HRM), with analysis and description of job position, recruitment, selection, training, performance assessment and rewards on sustainability with the resource-based view (RBV) theory as underlying theory. The extent to which absorptive capacity strengthened the “green HRM-sustainability” link as a buffering mechanism was also examined.

The study model was tested with empirical data gathered from 253 Indonesian oil and gas firms. The elicited data were analysed using structural equation modelling using partial least squares (PLS).

Resultantly, the (i) analysis and description of job position and (ii) recruitment positively influenced sustainability. Absorptive capacity also influenced the strength of the moderated relationship between (i) recruitment and (ii) training and sustainability.

As far as we know, this is the first study which assigned the moderator role of absorptive capacity in a relationship between green HRM and sustainability in oil and gas firms in Indonesia. Notably, the theoretical and practical implications of applying the empirical outcomes to the oil and gas sector were extensively discussed.

The purpose of the study is to identify the soft skills and abilities that are crucial to success in the fields of operations management (OM) and supply chain management (SCM), using the O*NET database and the classification of a set of professional figures integrating values for task skills and abilities needed to operate successfully in these professions.

The study used the O*NET database to identify the soft skills and abilities required for success in OM and SCM industries. Correlation analysis was conducted to determine the tasks required for the job roles and their characteristics in terms of abilities and soft skills. ANOVA analysis was used to validate the findings. The study aims to help companies define specific assessments and tests for OM and SCM roles to measure individual attitudes and correlate them with the job position.

As a result of the work, a set of soft skills and abilities was defined that allow, through correlation analysis, to explain a large number of activities required to work in the operations and SCM (OSCM) environment.

The work is inherently affected by the database used for the professional figures mapped and the scores that are attributed within O*NET to the analyzed elements.

The information resulting from this study can help companies develop specific assessments and tests for the roles of OM and SCM to measure individual attitudes and correlate them with the requirements of the job position. The study aims to address the need to identify soft skills in the human sphere and determine which of them have the most significant impact on the OM and SCM professions.

The originality of this study lies in its approach to identify the set of soft skills and abilities that determine success in the OM and SCM industries. The study used the O*NET database to correlate the tasks required for specific job roles with their corresponding soft skills and abilities. Furthermore, the study used ANOVA analysis to validate the findings in other sectors mapped by the same database. The identified soft skills and abilities can help companies develop specific assessments and tests for OM and SCM roles to measure individual attitudes and correlate them with the requirements of the job position. In addressing the necessity for enhanced clarity in the domain of human factor, this study contributes to identifying key success factors. Subsequent research can further investigate their practical application within companies to formulate targeted growth strategies and make appropriate resource selections for vacant positions.

To propound a broadened perspective on emotional labor management by exploring mitigatory approaches that could be pre-emptively deployed prior to actual episodic experiences of emotional dissonance and their associated negative consequences (e.g. burnout). At present, the management of emotional labor appears to skew toward reactive measures, such as deploying employee assistance programs (EAPs) to assist overwhelmed employees in coping better with their emotional demands, reducing job-related emotional demands or a combination of both.

Intricate processes of emotion emergence and established literature on emotion regulation are considered. By conceptualizing emotion emergence as a process entailing situation, attention, appraisal and response, current efforts can be seen as primarily acting upon the late stages of this process. General emotion regulation strategies that act upon more upstream processes are then considered and applied to the specific context of emotional labor.

Pre-emptive steps could be taken from the early stages of job selection as well as personnel selection and assessment through systematic and concerted efforts in identifying job-related emotional demands (e.g. specific display rules, frequency and intensity). Formal job descriptions could then reflect these demands to better facilitate self-selection processes. Additionally, considering these identified parameters as personnel selection and assessment criteria could further enhance person-job fit in terms of emotional congruency. For current hires, pre-emptive steps could also be taken to subliminally modulate their emotional emergence trajectory toward more job-congruent emotions. Collectively, these steps may facilitate the pre-emptive reduction of emotionally dissonant work episodes and bear substantive potential to be deployed synergistically with current, more reactive measures.

This paper offers a broadened perspective on emotional labor management. Through considering intricate processes of emotion emergence and established literature on emotion regulation, a pre-emptive perspective toward managing work emotions and emotional labor is propounded. It is believed that the synergistic incorporation of these pre-emptive management approaches with current strategies (e.g. reducing emotional demands, EAPs, etc.) would holistically allow for greater amelioration of this debilitating issue. Finally, it is hoped that this paper could serve as a primer for future research and discourses to be conducted, such that our arsenal available for combating emotional labor could be substantively expanded to holistically target all stages of the emotion emergence process.

The a priori identification and development of army personnel competencies are necessary to enable effective and efficient responses to rapidly changing climate conditions. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the performance requirements of a military flood responder and the competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) required to perform it.

Using an abductive approach, the authors conducted both secondary and primary research to generate a validated framework of performance criteria and competencies for army personnel responding to floods. This literature review integrated both the peer-reviewed academic literature and public sector grey literature. Using the critical incident technique, the authors then conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) who had previously been tasked with flood response operations. Participants were asked about the tasks required while conducting flood response operations. Interview transcripts were then content analysed to identify themes regarding those tasks, and the competencies needed to perform those tasks were then extracted and contrasted with the literature review findings. Inter-rater reliability for the analysis was established via iterative discussion between the two co-authors.

The primary data reinforced and expanded the list of performance expectations that the authors deductively identified from the integrated literature review, adding granularity to each. It also identified competencies (including both hard and soft skills) and highlighted previously neglected contextual antecedents of military flood response effectiveness.

though knowledge saturation was achieved from the 15 interviews conducted, further research with larger samples could more deeply ground the evidence discovered in this study. Nevertheless, the competencies identified in this paper could serve as a starting guide to staffing and/or training interventions targeted at improving these competencies for personnel responding to flood scenarios.

The theoretical findings also have immediate practical relevance to training for flood response operations. In particular, the subtle challenges in competency crossover from military operations to flood response operations may facilitate not only more efficient, targeted training (that could improve the effectiveness of army personnel involved in humanitarian roles), but could be applied to the selection of army personnel as well. This study may also help provincial/municipal operators and emergency planners by better communicating the strengths and limitations of army personnel in addressing civilian military cooperation for humanitarian operations. Thus, the findings of this research study represent an important first step in prompting attention to the strategic human resource planning studies required to make all responders more efficient and effective in their respective division of labour within the humanitarian domain.

Peering a little beyond these research findings, human-induced climate change is expected to continue increasing the frequency of such events (IPCC, 2021), and a timely, national force is likely to be increasingly required for Canadians impacted by major disasters stemming from natural hazards when local resources become overwhelmed. Yet, there is some concern from the CAF that increasing responsiveness to disaster operations will affect their military readiness (Leuprecht and Kasurak, 2020). One can indeed envision a paradox whereby the CAF is both a “force of last resort” while increasingly becoming a “first choice for domestic disaster and emergency assistance”. The practical implications from this research also suggest that military personnel, while fully capable of successfully conducting flood response operations, may become overburdened and less able to adopt yet greater capacity and training for other additional humanitarian work. Nevertheless, the competencies highlighted by participants can help inform the next flood response operation in Canada.

Most literature in the field of emergency response focuses on cooperation between civilian and military resources and other strategic-level themes. The findings address critical granularity missing at the operational and tactical levels of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief research. The authors also draw implications beyond the military context, including for local/regional governmental players (operators and emergency planners) as well as for volunteers in flood response roles.

Previous literature has identified human resources as a key source of competitive advantage in organizations of all sizes. However, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) face difficulty in comprehensively implementing all recommended Human Resource Management (HRM) functions. In this study, we shed light on the field of HRM in SMEs by focusing on the context of Greek Small and Medium-sized Hotels (SMHs), which represent a dominant private sector employer across the country.

Using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and 34 in-depth interviews with SMHs' owners/managers, we explore the HRM conditions leading to high levels of performance, while taking into consideration the influence of internal key determinants.

We uncover three alternative successful HRM strategies that maximize business performance, namely the Compensation-based performers, the HRM developers and the HRM investors. Each strategy fits discreet organizational characteristics related to company size, ownership type and organizational structure.

To the best of the authors' knowledge this is among the first empirical studies that examine different and equifinal performance-enhancing configurations of HRM practices in SMHs.

This study explores the under-researched phenomenon of workplace bullying against women in male-dominated Pakistani society, highlighting its severe impacts and bridging the research gap on intersectional effects of gender and cultural dynamics in developing countries.

Using a mixed-method research approach, we conducted two-wave surveys with 308 female workers in Pakistan's educational and health sectors. Data analysis examined relationships between workplace bullying and job outcomes like productivity and satisfaction, complemented by insights from in-depth interviews with 18 female workers.

The study reveals that workplace bullying significantly undermines job productivity, increases emotional exhaustion mediated by job anxiety and decreases job satisfaction among female workers. Bullying persists due to weak institutions and inadequate law enforcement, with perceived social support found to be an insignificant moderator.

The study findings underscore the economic implications of workplace bullying, as it drives female workforce attrition, hindering economic development. The study recommends conflict resolution strategies, effective HR policies, national law enforcement and supportive social networks to combat bullying and create a conducive work environment.

This study aligns with the UN's SDG goals #5 (gender equality) and #8 (decent work and economic growth), addressing pertinent issues related to workplace bullying in pursuit of these global objectives.

This study represents a unique attempt to address the intersectional dynamics of gender and culture concerning workplace bullying in Pakistan.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the connection between green human resource management (GHRM) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). In addition, this study also investigates how the impact of GHRM varies depending on the extent of transformational leadership.

Adopting a quantitative approach, the sample consists of 376 employees who hold leadership positions in the academic body and those who work in human resources units at universities who won the Web Metric Award.

Results have shown that all GHRM practices were found to have a significant and positive effect on CSR. In addition, the findings revealed that transformational leadership positively moderates the relationship between GHRM and CSR.

The findings of this study contribute to the existing body of knowledge by providing empirical evidence of the positive relationship between GHRM practices, transformational leadership and CSR performance. In addition, the study highlights the moderating influence of transformational leadership on the relationship between GHRM and CSR, suggesting that transformational leadership can increase the efficacy of GHRM practices in promoting CSR outcomes.