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The objective of the current study was to determine if stereotypical perceptions of women as managers existed among men and women in two different cultural settings, the U.S. and Chile. Using the Women as Managers Scale (WAMS), 412 participants from the U.S. and Chile responded to questions about their perceptions of women performing managerial roles and tasks. Gender and culture effects were identified at both the multivariate and univariate levels.1 The results showed that male subjects in both cultures had more stereotypical and negative perceptions of women as managers than did female subjects, and the U.S. participants (both male and female) had more positive and less stereotypical perceptions of women as managers than the Chilean participants. Implications for research and practice in cross‐cultural and international management are discussed.

Labor contracts are built on the basis of different latent premises about expectations of the organizations and the workers. Paternalism is widespread in Latin America, and its diverse forms should be taken into account in the design of HR policies and management practices. The paper seeks to compare two Chilean banks and show that different forms of paternalism exist. As long as the organization is consistent with the premises it works with, productivity is not hindered by either form.

By means of a case study two banks's contractual premises are compared. Each one represents a different set of cultural expectations for the labor contracts.

Paternalistic and non paternalistic premises for labor contracts differ widely, but as long as the organization is coherent with them in its human resources policies and practices, productivity can be achieved indistinctively.

The cases are representative of main types of organization's labor contracts, but not statistically representative. Generalizations are possible insofar as other organizations show similar cultural pre‐contractual premises.

Human resource management policies and practices need to be consistent with the premises underlying the labor contract and the social bond in order to allow for productivity increases.

Paternalism is still present in Latin American organizations, instead of dismissing it as traditional or premodern, acknowledging it will allow for organizations to act more realistically towards its labor force.

The purpose of this paper is to use an institutional theory (IT) approach to analyse the institutional context for diversity management (DM) in Chile, El Salvador and Guatemala, the influence of such a context on the DM issues that organisations’ face, and the DM practices that firms implement.

Focus groups and a survey are used to assess managers and workers’ perceptions about DM in their countries, while an analysis of the content of firms’ web pages is used to assess the formal public information about DM provided by firms.

Results suggest prevalence of perceptions, among both managers and employees, of discrimination at the workplace, facilitated by cultural forces that undervalue human diversity. Firms’ DM responses seem to be led by multinational companies, and focussed on fighting discrimination, facilitating inclusion and pursuing external legitimacy.

This study is among the first to analyse DM in Latin American organisations. Furthermore, three studies, with different methodologies, support several IT propositions that emphasise the role of institutional forces in explaining organisations’ implementation of DM practices. The relevance and challenges of developing DM programmes in Latin America are discussed.

Este artículo utiliza la Teoría Institucional para analizar el contexto que rodea la Gestión de la Diversidad (GD) en empresas operando en Chile, El Salvador y Guatemala, y la influencia de este contexto en los temas de GD que enfrentan las organizaciones, y en las prácticas de GD que éstas implementan.

Se utilizan grupos focales y una encuesta para evaluar la percepción de administradores y trabajadores sobre la GD en sus países, y se utiliza un análisis del contenido de las páginas web de las empresas para evaluar la información pública y formal proporcionada por las empresas sobre la GD.

Los resultados sugieren la prevalencia, tanto entre los directivos como empleados, de percepciones de discriminación en el lugar de trabajo, facilitadas por fuerzas culturales que desvalorizan la diversidad humana. Las intervenciones de las empresas en GD aparecen lideradas por compañías multinacionales, y se enfocan en combatir la discriminación, facilitar la inclusión y buscar legitimidad externa.

Este artículo es uno de los primeros en analizar la GD en organizaciones latinoamericanas. Además, se presentan tres estudios que, con diferentes metodologías, apoyan varias proposiciones de la Teoría Institucional, las que enfatizan el rol de las fuerzas institucionales en explicar la implementación de prácticas de GD por parte de las organizaciones. Se discute la relevancia y desafíos del desarrollo de programas de GD en América Latina.

This paper aims to provide insight on the influence of organisational culture on human resource management (HRM) practices in Chile by exploring shared meanings (basic assumptions and beliefs) and organisational models that can be identified from activities, dynamics, social relationships and behaviours.

The paper is based on research conducted in Chile where a combination of self‐completion questionnaires, semi‐structured interviews and non‐participant observation was carried out in a non‐probabilistic sample of 46 organisations.

Findings suggest that there is a shared definition of work characterised by five elements; namely, the existence of great work pressure exerted by managers; a sustained focus of upper levels on organisational efficiency as an isolated element that does not include HRM; the inexistence of worker autonomy and empowerment; the use of administrative jargon and understandings of loyalty, dedication, compliance and professionalism as desired qualities in workers. The paper argues that there are three distinct categories of cultural discourse in Chilean organisations: pessimistic/fatalistic, optimistic/maniac and pragmatic/bureaucratic.

Owing to the type of sampling used, findings cannot be taken to represent the whole of Chilean organisations.

Data presented in this paper help in understanding many of the behaviours observed in Chilean organisations, which provides HR policy‐makers and practitioners with sounder foundations for designing organisational programs, policies and action plans.

The paper presents new evidence to increase the empirical body of work addressing the relationship between organisational culture and HRM in developing countries, particularly in Latin America.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into the characteristics of working practices, in particular HRM practices in work settings in Chile, specifically the regulatory strength of organisational culture.

The paper is based on data gathered from a non-probabilistic sample of 1299 workers in the Metropolitan Region of Chile.

Findings suggest that HRM practices sustain, while restructuring, dynamics of worker monitoring and control, consistent with historical and social patterns of relationships in Chile. These relationships are sustained via status differences and operate through the development of paternalistic relationships between managers and workers.

The paper provides insight into the character of human resource management in Latin America from the perspective of workers. In addition, it highlights the impact of organisational culture on regulating workplaces and shaping HRM practices that do not challenge the socio-cultural order.

In 1975, private and social housing production in Chile started to become increasingly privatized, in parallel with capital switching into the secondary circuit due to severe deindustrialization of the country. Since then, housing demand has largely drawn on state housing subsidies aimed at middle- to low-income demand, but more recently, a growing financialized mortgage market has increased demand even further, enlarging the mortgage debt burden on Chilean households. Private housing producers achieve higher profits by increasing sales prices, whilst production costs are kept relatively stable by purchasing and developing the cheapest land available, both on the fringes and within the inner sectors of the main metropolitan areas, as a form of accumulation by dispossession in hitherto underexploited, non-commodified land. However, low purchase prices of land create housing unaffordability for numbers of original owner-residents who sell land to redevelopers but cannot then afford replacement accommodation given the soaring housing prices in the main metropolises. It is for this reason that some central areas become gentrified. Focusing on the case of high-rise redevelopment of inner-city areas in Santiago, Chile, this paper addresses the extent to which demand and private developers’ profits increase alongside the risks of a generalized growing level of household debt and the displacement of low-income communities from inner areas. The continuous expansion of the extremely privatized housing market of Santiago responds to the needs of capital expansion rather than to the people’s needs.

Paternalism in labour relationships is characteristic of Chilean and Latin American firms. Despite its empirical and practical relevance it lacks adequate conceptual elaboration so that it remains an opaque real drive that cannot be managed. This paper seeks to propose some conceptual distinctions to help clarify its meaning.

Using the social systems theory of Niklas Luhmann, paternalism is analysed as semantics which makes three main aspects visible: interests, autonomous decisions and responsibility that are seen as different sources of risk and danger for the workers. Paternalism is allegedly a protective device.

Paternalism is reinforced and reproduced by distrust in the workers' capacities to make decisions on their own and it becomes a justification to keep wages low, hinder delegation and becomes an ideology that justifies gaps between productivity and compensation.

Paternalism is difficult to operationalize in order to make empirical observations, but through qualitative analysis we were able to characterize it with two examples. This will help empirical research to continue on a more appropriate conceptual basis.

HRM practices should consider that paternalism is present as an expectation and that management should know that it can also pervade administration despite its modernized appearance.

Since paternalism pervades expectations in opaque ways, it sets limits to management's capacities to administer human resources in a modern way. Awareness of this fact allows its comprehension and the ability to properly deal with it.

This study aims to explore the institutional complexities associated with the design and implementation of a natural resource fund for innovation.

This study examines the case of Chile's Innovation Fund for Competitiveness by means of a historical approach building on interviews with key informants.

The proper functioning of a natural resource fund for innovation requires efficient institutional and operational structures, as well as strong coordination with innovation system actors. In particular, the case of Chile highlights the challenges inherent in adopting a regional approach when implementing this type of strategy, due to the institutional voids that hamper the role of regional governments in emerging countries.

Natural resource funds for innovation constitute a strategic mechanism for developing the innovative capabilities necessary to enhance the competitiveness of resource-rich emerging countries. This is one of the first studies addressing the institutional challenges involved in setting up this kind of fund in practice, focusing on one of the most relevant and longstanding examples from Latin America.

Given the proliferation of United Kingdom (UK) media headlines around the recent financial meltdown and the subsequent allocation of blame to government, bankers, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority, it is clear that there is disquiet amongst the public as to how the crisis has been handled. Business schools, both in the UK and worldwide, have been accused of failing to address issues of governance in their curricula. Can the assumption be made that current curricula will have prepared students to evaluate this key concept critically? This paper seeks to address these issues.

Taking a case study approach, this work sets out to explore the attitudes of a cohort of 43 final‐year undergraduate students studying in a UK business school. It focuses on an analysis of their written work on the sourcing of copper from Chile and its procurement by the UK Royal Mint for coinage.

The findings indicate that students valued the inclusion of corporate social responsibility in its widest context, and would welcome earlier inclusion within their curricula.

This is a timely point in their academic studies, as the students are preparing for study at Master's level or for the job market. The coursework required research into the production process of raw material at the copper mines in Chile, as well as the ethical decision‐making process of a UK governmental agency. Although this is a small‐scale study, it does offer some interesting insights into student perspectives. The paper concludes with recommendations for future curriculum development.

The paper aims to present a very personal view of some of the socio‐economic problems and challenges faced by workers, managers and organisations in South America. It also aims to stimulate further dialogue, research and exchange of ideas with South American academics that are exploring alternative ways of representing organisation (studies) on the Continent.

The paper is a personal narrative account of the author's experience of doing research in South America and the conversations he had with different individuals about working, managing and organising in this part of the globe.

The author's experience here shows more than ever the need to enhance our understanding of what others around the world are experiencing in order to inform better our theories and to appreciate the consequences of our business practices. Especially, it gives an idea of the effects economic globalisation is having in the region and how it is affecting local communities.

This paper is not about research per se but a researcher's journey and, as such, is a very personal and rich account of what was experienced in the field, i.e. South America.

The paper conveys some provocative thoughts upon which to generate more debate on global business practices and its consequences in the “periphery” of the world. Equally, it reveals the need for a more continuous dialogue among academics in both hemispheres to tackle some of these pressing environmental, economic and social problems that affect us all.