Search results

Research into manpower policies and practices developed by management in newly‐privatised industries.

The growing use of employee assistance programmes (EAPs) from the US and Britain is reported. There often include employee counselling. Welfare officers, occupational health staff and even managers have been counselling for many years, usually intuitively but increasing demands for higher performance at work, coupled with complex social and personal problems now require more expert counselling. This article assesses which problems are most suited for which types of counsellor, and evaluates the role of counselling within an EAP. Creation of a counselling culture in a firm is related to corporate performance.

Childcare facilities and assistance for working parents are widely advocated on demographic, economic, political and socio‐psychological grounds – which are all scrutinised. Yet the provision in Britain, as documented in this article, remains unsystematic, uneven and ill‐adapted to the criteria on which it is advocated. The relationship is examined between the provision in the not‐for‐profit sector with that in the private sector, financed by employees and/or employers. Recent political pronouncements and manifestos on the topic are critically compared. Future likely patterns of childcare provision in Britain are assessed, in particular the potential industrial concentration among commercial childcare providers, the questions of standards and financing, and international comparisons. The concluding theme is the implications for human resource management policy makers of childcare as an employee benefit in changing labour markets.

Explores three themes: quality in EAPs; the regulation of the EAP profession; and integration between the EAP and the organization. Sounds a note of qualified optimism for the future.

Traces the development of personnel management in Britain over four distinct periods from the late nineteenth century onwards, and identifies the economic, political, social and institutional forces in the growth of the function. Builds up a detailed profile of the personnel practitioner, covering demographic and remunerative data, qualifications, time spending and status in the enterprise. Critically discusses the role of the professional association and its occupational models. Finally examines the conceptual and operational distinctions between personnel management and human resource management in the British context.

An introductory article to a monograph on HRM philosophies and practices in the three new states acceding to the EU in 1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden. Highlights distinctive features of the employment systems and labour market practices in each country, and outlines the kinds of social issue which may be brought more into prominence within the EU as a result of the membership of the three countries.

Reviews the differences between employee assistance programmes (EAPs) in the USA and the UK, but also identifies convergent trends in the employment environment in both countries. Discusses recent developments for professional EAPs in the USA to be driven by occupational social work models, and for the interests of the employer to be taken more fully into account. Evaluates the extent to which these models represent a source of complexity and friction with the personnel management and trade union interests: in this respect, considers especially issues of confidentiality in the counselling relationship and potential conflict with the management advisory and consultancy role being advocated for EAPs. Concludes by suggesting that EAPs in the UK should reaffirm their basic values of individual confidential counselling, even if this stance does not always assure for them a high status or harmonious role.

Defines the employee assistance programme (EAP) and describes its potential and impact on organizations. Provides details of how EAPs operate at each step. Evaluates their use and value in the context of the need for organizational performance.

EVEN if rates and rents tend to equal one another nowadays the general impression we receive is that libraries have fared not badly in the annual estimates this year of library authorities. In fairly large towns average library rates are about sixpence in the pound although some are more or less. That in itself does not give the actual amount spent by individual towns as in not a few cases towns which appear to be very highly rated have very low assessments. Some have increased their book funds and if, as is inevitable, few of us have got all we want, indeed need to realize an adequate service as we see it, there has been little sign of the panic about rates which was common only a few years ago, except at Stepney where, as recorded by Mr. Enser in his columns last month, the book fund was halved.

This paper examines the leading trends for the journal Employee Relations from 1979 to 2018 upon its completion of 40 years of publication. Through conducting a bibliometric analysis, the article presents the journal's publication and citation structure, prominent themes, significant author keywords and leading articles, authors, institutions and countries since its formation.

The article focuses on the journal's evolution and subsequent growth patterns during this period. Using the Scopus database, the leading trends in authorship, institutions, countries as well as cited documents along with the articles citing it were analysed to provide an analytic overview of the journal over the period of 1979–2018. The paper presents a graphical visualization of the bibliographic data with bibliographic coupling and co-citation analysis using the visualization tools of similarity viewer software as well.

The results indicate that the journal is on a progressive trend both in terms of productivity as well as the level of influence in the areas for which it is indexed. The journal receives the maximum influence from the UK, including its most productive authors and institutions. The journal has published research on prominent topics in human resource management, employee relations and the field of industrial relations. It has also published 25 special issues on recent trends in the domain of Human Resource (HR).

This article offers the first comprehensive evaluation of the intellectual structure and research contributions of the journal over its lifespan. The findings of the article are useful for researchers and HR practitioners.