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Despite the interest in manpower planning which grew considerably during the sixties and seventies, there has been continuing doubt about the degree of commitment at organisational level and about the success of any government attempt at planning at national level. But the effective management, utilisation and planning of the human resource within the British economy remains a prime interest for all parties. Manpower planning may appear to be an ephemeral technique, but, if this is so, it is not because the problem it was directed towards has gone away.

The UK construction industry faces unprecedented skills demands which have been fuelled by sustained sectoral growth and a concurrent downturn in the number of young people entering the industry. However, patterns of supply and demand are not uniform across the country, with regional and local skills shortages being determined by the specific socio‐economic context of the area under consideration. Thus, developing effective labour market policy demands spatially‐oriented labour market information which can be reconciled against industry growth forecasts within a particular region or locality. This paper explores the potential of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in providing such a mechanism for enhancing the labour market planning process. The paper details how GIS can aid construction labour market planning through its ability to integrate disparate labour market information efficiently, thereby placing analysts in a better position to understand specific spatial patterns. A range of datasets were strategically combined in order to reveal regional nuances in labour demand and supply which would be difficult to discern without the use of such a tool. Although the GIS output would need to be considered in combination with a range of other forecasting techniques if robust projects of labour demand and shortage are to be generated, it nevertheless offers an effective decision‐support tool for informing labour market policy in the future.

It is quite clear that increasing interest and priority are being given to manpower and employment policy issues by governments of Arab countries. This is largely because of the social and political pressures arising from the emergence of a whole range of employment issues over the past decade or so. In the non‐oil‐endowed states unemployment has often been at levels which have caused public concern. In the oil‐exporting, capital‐rich states, however, the problems have been rather different with imports of non‐national labour at levels which have touched off discussions about the wisdom of development strategies which rely to such an extent upon imports of labour.

It is quite clear that increasing interest and priority are being given to manpower and employment policy issues by governments of African countries. This is mainly because of the political pressures arising from the apparent failure of governments to deal with a wide range of employment issues — especially unemployment over the past decade or so.

The growing interest of African governments in their manpower problems, a result of the new and more acute political and social pressures of the 1970s, has led to the hasty introduction of new labour market policy measures, intended to alleviate the problems. The impact of these measures are examined, and the potential for action assessed.

Recognising that strategic planning decisions hold important implications for the personnel function, practitioners, consultants and academics have begun to look for a way to relate the personnel function more closely to the strategic management of the business. One solution which has attracted a great deal of attention is the concept of strategic human resources planning.

A discussion is presented of the elements in Human Resource Planning and how they can be incorporated into a common denominator of costs. This is the framework for a report on a study of loss and recruitment of nurses in a typical district general hospital and analysis of the nurse labour market in the light of future developments proposed for the NHS.

Discusses the limitations of labour market analysis (LMA), which is widely advocated as a successor to conventional manpower planning. Argues the need for a more systematic approach within the framework of policy formulation and implementation. The proposed “policy‐focused” approach would overcome some of the problems associated with LMA, in particular its lack of a disciplinary framework and operational process.

Provides an evaluation of the reality of the German economy after unification, also answers to some of the questions that the post‐unification era has raised, analyzes aggregate and sectoral data of the former GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany over the period 1970‐1989. The results characterize the former GDR with a steeper supply curve. While the central plan assumed a steady growth of real output over time, it eliminated producers’ incentives to vary capacity utilization in response to demand pressures. Demand pressures proved inflationary without determining conditions in the labor market. In contrast, the market‐oriented plan in West Germany tied output expansion and contraction with demand fluctuations. Consequently, inflationary effects of demand fluctuations appeared moderate in West Germany and real output growth was not sustained at a high level over time. Demand fluctuations determined employment changes in West Germany. Implications of these differences are analyzed in light of the reality of the post‐unification in Germany.

This paper aims to examine the design and implementation of age-related human resource (HR) practices across organizations located in the institutional contexts of the under-researched emerging market economy of Thailand.

A cross-case analysis of five organizations is conducted across industries. The empirical evidence in this paper draws on semistructured interviews and focus groups with older workers of each organization, semistructured interviews with top managers and/or HR managers of each organization, field visits to each organization located in Bangkok and other provinces in Thailand and a review of archival documents and Web-based resources.

This paper proposes that firms design and implement various age-related HR practices, including the extension of the retirement age, financial planning facilitation, the bundling of maintenance and the bundling of utilization, to ensure that older workers in their firms maintain their current level of functioning to cope with the problem of skill shortage in the Thai labor market, have sufficient savings after retirement to respond to the “productivist informal security” welfare state regime and return to previous levels of functioning after facing losses in their careers.

Due to the fact that this research is based on case studies of age-related HR practices in five firms across industries in Thailand, the findings may not be generalizable to all other firms across countries. Rather, the aim of this paper is to enrich the discussion regarding the design and implementation of age-related HR practices in organizations. Another limitation of this research is that it does not include firms located in several industries, such as the financial services industry and the education industry. Future research may explore age-related HR practices in organizations located in these industries. Moreover, quantitative studies using large samples of firms across industries might also be useful for fostering an in-depth understanding of the design and implementation of age-related HR practices in organizations.

This paper provides practical implications for top managers and/or HR managers of firms in Thailand and other emerging market economies. That said, these top managers and/or HR managers can implement age-related HR practices to respond to the problem of skill shortage in the labor market, ensure that older workers have sufficient savings after retirement and help older workers return to previous levels of functioning after facing deterioration in health conditions and/or losses in their careers.

This paper provides policy implications for the government and/or relevant public agencies of Thailand and other emerging market economies that still face a severe skill shortage problem. Older workers who possess tacit knowledge and valuable experience and are still healthy can be considered excellent alternates for firms to help alleviate the skill shortage problem in the labor market. However, firms should implement age-related HR practices to retain this group of employees overtime.

This paper contributes to the literature on comparative institutionalism and human resource management, specifically regarding age-related HR practices, in the following ways. First, this paper examines how firms design and implement age-related HR practices to respond to the country’s macro-level institutions. Additionally, in this paper, the author triangulates the findings from older workers with those from employers to ensure that actual HR practices perceived by older workers are in line with HR practices perceived by top managers and/or HR managers. Moreover, the literature on age-related HR practices has likely overlooked emerging market economies, including the under-researched country of Thailand, because most studies in this area have focused on developed economies. Therefore, the findings in this paper provide an in-depth analysis of the design and implementation of age-related HR practices across firms located in the emerging market economy of Thailand to respond to the national institutional context.