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The purpose of this paper is to review the existing literature linked to the emerging field of employer branding, with a view to adding insight from the perspective of the management of human resources.

The approach taken entails reviewing books and academic journals from the area of marketing, organisational behaviour (OB) and business management. The review shows that research and theory from a range of fields can help add to one's knowledge of employer branding; these include areas of research that investigate organisational attractiveness to potential new recruits, research and writing linked to the psychological contract literature as well as work that examines organisational identity, organisational identification and organisational personality characteristics.

The main limitation of the review is that, while different areas and fields of research are being drawn on to help identify useful knowledge that can improve one's understanding of what effective employer branding might involve, the literature and research in each area will be (necessarily) selective.

The review has a number of general practical implications; many of these are highlighted in the propositions set out within each section.

The originality of the review is that it is unique in showing how different areas of literature can be linked to employer branding. The review helps to integrate the existing literature in a way which can help personnel practitioners to immediately see the relevance of theories and research from a range of key academic fields.

This study aims to examine configurations of person-centered psychological change during organizational restructuring and downsizing in a public sector setting. Drawing on a social cognitive framework of organizational change the authors explore and identify the existence of different groups of employees who demonstrate varied responses (on commitment, engagement and anxiety) to restructuring and downsizing.

Surveys were collected from employees in three longitudinal waves (Time 1 N = 253; Time 2 N = 107; Time 3 N = 93, twelve months apart) at a UK public sector organization shortly before, during and after restructuring and downsizing.

Three classes of response emerged based on levels of and change in anxiety, organizational commitment and work engagement: a positive “Flourishers” profile was identified along with two relatively negative response profiles, labeled as “Recoverers” and “Ambivalents”. Higher levels of job control accounted for membership of the more positive response profile; higher structural uncertainty predicted membership of the most negative response group.

Using a person-centered approach, the authors form an understanding of different types of employee responses to downsizing; along with potential factors that help explain why groups of employees may exhibit certain psychological response patterns and may need to be managed differently during change. Thus, this approach provides greater understanding to researchers and managers of the varied impact that restructuring/downsizing has on the workforce.

To date there has been little research exploring employee responses to organizational restructuring and downsizing that has attempted to take a person-centered approach, which assumes population heterogeneity. Unlike variable centered approaches, this unique approach helps identify different patterns of employee responses to restructuring and downsizing.

Surveys based on standard questionnaires have long been a major research tool of the social scientist. The great majority have focused on one type of respondent — the workers of a given firm, the voters in a particular constituency, or whatever. For one sort of survey, namely, those that seek to know about the individuals in question, this is plainly sensible. But another sort of survey uses a respondent to provide information about the organisation for which he/she can be taken to be an authoritative informant. Questionnaires sent to the head offices of companies or unions and asking about the organisation's policy are a good example. How do we know whether the replies are in some sense representative of the organisation or are just the views of the respondent chosen?

Discussions about the position of British trade unions under Thatcherism continue to interest scholars and practitioners in the UK, and a variety of theories have been put forward which suggest that unions are becoming increasingly marginal to workplace employee relations. Three of these are focused on, namely, the roll‐back of union organisation, the separation of collective bargaining from strategic decision making, and the impact of employee involvement on union activity. These ideas are evaluated against data from a longitudinal study of four multi‐plant private sector organisations, each of which has high levels of union density and some forms of employee involvement. The data, which were collected in the late 1980s, suggest that simple monocausal correlations – such as employee involvement is directly undermining trade unions – are not robust enough to cope with the reality of organisational life. Much more credence needs to be given to the environmental and more broader managerial context within which employee relations takes place.

This paper examines the use of “double breasting” as a means of union avoidance among multinational companies (MNCs). Double breasting refers to the practice whereby multi-establishment organizations simultaneously operate establishments on both union and non-union bases. Using survey data from the largest and most representative empirical investigation of employment practice in MNCs in Ireland, supplemented by qualitative data gathered from case-based investigations in the subsidiary operations of American-owned MNCs, we profile the incidence and pattern of this particular form of union avoidance as well as providing insights on management's rationale for so doing. Our findings suggest that a substantial and increasing number of unionized MNCs in Ireland are engaging in double breasting. This phenomenon is most evident among U.S. MNCs. We also find that employers, at both local and global levels, have proactively initiated double breasting as a strategic ploy to increase management prerogative and better position subsidiary operations to attract new investment from corporate levels.

After a degree of retrenchment in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the late 1980s has brought a burst of enthusiasm and almost frenzied activity on the management education and development front. Consultants specialising in management development activities appear to be flourishing. The private sector management colleges offering “executive programmes” are enjoying a boom period. The MBA, having survived a period of intense scrutiny and criticisms earlier in the decade, appears to be going from strength to strength; scarcely a day goes by without an announcement by a university or polytechnic that it is launching a new MBA or a variant of an existing programme.

Decentralisation of pay bargaining in the UK is well known. Other countries in Europe have not gone so far but a clear trend towards decentralisation is perceptible, although national or industry‐wide bargaining is still widely used. There is an accompanying increase in the devolvement of responsibility for pay issues from personnel specialists to line management. These trends have been accompanied by a steady rise in variable pay across Europe. Proportionate growth varies between the public and private sectors.

Decentralization of pay bargaining in the UK is well known. Other countries in Europe have not gone so far but a clear trend towards decentralization is perceptible, although national or industry‐wide bargaining is still widely used. There is an accompanying increase in the devolvement of responsibility for pay issues from personnel specialists to line management. These trends have been accompanied by a steady rise in variable pay across Europe. Proportionate growth varies between the public and private sectors.

Since the late 1970s, the study of the role, structure and functions of personnel management in the United Kingdom has been greatly facilitated by surveys emerging from a number of large‐scale surveys. A major interest in interpreting the data from these surveys has been to evaluate the impact of recession, and, latterly, recovery on the power, structure and roles of personnel departments and personnel specialists in recent years. The survey data are used comparatively to evaluate the empirical plausibility of the different scenarios which have arisen, and to account for the results that emerge.