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The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employees’ perceptions of HRM practices and two outcomes, namely, employee commitment and turnover intention (TI), in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in mainland China.

This paper adopts a quantitative approach based on a sample of 227 employees working in 24 SMEs in eastern and western China.

Employees’ perceptions of HRM practices, such as training and development, reward management and performance management, are significant predictors of employee commitment. A negative direct relationship is found between employees’ perceptions about the use of HRM practices and TIs.

Although data were collected from two representative provinces of eastern and western China, the size of the sample may limit the generalisability of the findings to the wider region.

The relationship between employees’ perceptions of HRM practices and employee outcomes in Chinese SMEs provides an effective way for SME owners and HR practitioners to generate desirable employee attitudes and behaviours, which, ultimately contribute to improving organisational performance.

This is an original paper which makes a contribution by helping to address the dearth of studies which have explored aspects of the effectiveness of HRM in SMEs in China. In contrast to the majority of China-focussed studies on this topic, it highlights HRM outcomes at the individual level rather than the organisational level. Further, the study involves SMEs in western China which is an under-explored region.

In recognising the weakness of trade unions and the lack of an institutional framework designed to enforce employee rights in an African context, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which human resource (HR) practitioners are perceived to play the role of employee advocate.

The quantitative data set is derived from a sample of 305 respondents (95 HR practitioners, 121 line managers and 89 employees) from Malawi.

Despite the challenges of the context, HR practitioners are perceived by key stakeholders (including line managers and employees) to be playing the role of employee advocate. Standard multiple regression results indicate that the main factor contributing to the perception that HR practitioners are playing this role is their contribution to “motivating employees”.

The study was conducted in Malawi. Further research is necessary to explore the generalisability of the findings to other contexts.

The findings provide an empirical base for future studies which explore perceptions of the employee advocacy role undertaken by HR practitioners in Africa.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the nature and contents of Islamic management practices and their consequent implications for human resource management (HRM) in Arab countries. In addition, it aims to examine the implications for multinational companies (MNCs) operating in Islamic countries and the impact of globalisation before proceeding to an analysis of managerial problems in Arab countries and the need for understanding Islamic management principles by Arab (national) and international managers.

The paper takes the form of a qualitative approach based on an extensive review of relevant literature and the employment of examples from selected Arab countries.

The study reveals that a gap exists between the theory of Islamic management and the practice of management in Arab countries. Management in Arab countries is informed and heavily influenced by non‐Islamic traditional and national cultural values and norms of different countries and by Western management thinking rather than Islamic principles derived from the Holy Quran (words of God) and the Hadith (words of the Prophet Mohamed).

The paper argues that one of the main reasons for the lack of progress in most Arab and Islamic countries is the mismatch between global integration and local responsiveness because of an excess forward diffusion of Western management and business practices with little understanding and, hence, the implementation of Islamic management principles by both local and international managers in Arab countries. It adopts the view that there is a gap between the knowledge possessed by national and international managers in order to manage locally and what is required from the local workforce to be managed effectively. The main limitation of this study is the lack of empirical research evidence to support the points deducted from this review of literature.

Understanding Islamic management principles could help to develop a more appropriate type of management best practice in Arab and Islamic countries while still benefiting from the transfer of relevant Western management techniques and Western technology. The paper also argues that a reverse diffusion of management knowledge and skills by managers of MNCs is very important for the effective management of human resources in host countries. National cultural contexts and different views of work values have made a major impact on the ability of firms to address HRM issues in different cultural settings.

The paper contributes to the comparatively sparse literature on Islamic management and its applications by identifying key issues for HRM implementation and in developing Western understanding of Islamic management systems.

This article has been withdrawn as it was published elsewhere and accidentally duplicated. The original article can be seen here: 10.1108/09552069810196595. When citing the article, please cite: Mohamed Branine, (1998), “The logic of job-sharing in the provision and delivery of health care”, Health Manpower Management, Vol. 24 Iss: 1, pp. 20 - 25.

The review is based on "Employee advocacy in Africa: the role of HR practitioners in Malawi" by Aminu Mamman, Christopher J. Rees, Rhoda Bakuwa, Mohamed Branine, Ken Kamoche, (2019) published in Employee Relations. This paper aims to concentrate on the degree that HR practitioners are considered as employee advocates within an African context.

Data were gathered from a questionnaire survey given to 305 respondents (95 HR practitioners, 121 line managers and 89 employees) working in private sector companies Malawi.

The results suggest that HR practitioners in Malawi are viewed as carrying out an employee advocate role by line managers, HR managers, and employees. HR managers perceived themselves to be carrying out the role of employee advocate more than line managers and employees. In addition, the strongest perceived element was their contribution to motivating employees.

Therefore, analysis of the importance of the elements that make up the employee advocate role could inform decisions on which elements to include in in an HR model. This paper has contributed to the literature on HR roles in developing countries and supports the use of Ulrich’s model beyond the developed countries where it originated

This paper has contributed to the literature on HR roles in developing countries and supports the use of Ulrich’s model beyond the developed countries where it originated.

Gives an eye‐witness account of how training and management development policies are put into practice in Chinese state‐owned enterprises. Makes observations on how training is perceived and implemented in a period of rapid economic change. Also discusses the contribution that western countries could make and the obstacles that could be met, as a result. Draws evidence for these observations from the author’s involvement in a major United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the design and teaching of management strategy and human resource management courses to cohorts of managers from selected Chinese foreign trade corporations (FTCs). Asserts that, despite much effort being made to train and develop as many managers as possible, there is still an urgent need for appropriate management training programmes that could meet the quest for skilful and efficient managers who would be able to cope with the managerial demands of increasing economic reforms. Argues, therefore, that there is a gap between the abilities and the process of developing Chinese managers on the one hand and what is required from them for exploiting the economic reform on the other. The process of introducing and implementing training programmes in the People’s Republic of China is characterized by a clear emphasis on quantitative rather than qualitative knowledge and by a poor appreciation of training priorities, because of the way in which management is perceived and managers are controlled.

Offers a fairly general discussion of the significance of ageism in work and employment and then proceeds to suggest that labour process researchers might very usefully pay some attention to it. Writers about the labour process tend to emphasize the issue of labour exploitation and gender and race discrimination but, to some extent, seem to overlook the problem of ageism in work and employment. In this context, considers the character of links between a number of economic and social phenomena and ageism, namely life cycles, divisions of labour, managerialism and industrialization. Specific aspects of ageism in the UK are discussed and the need for debate and policy formulation about the issue of ageism is called for.

By definition the practice of job‐sharing starts from the premiss that there is a full‐time job to be shared by those who want to balance their work with other commitments. In a public sector institution, such as the National Health Service (NHS), where most employees are female, it seems logical to believe that a job‐sharing policy would be able to promote equal opportunities, to increase employee job satisfaction and to reduce labour costs. Hence, this paper attempts to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of having a job‐sharing policy, and to analyse the reasons for the limited number of job‐sharers in the NHS despite the apparent benefits of job‐sharing to both the employees and the employer. This study was carried out in 15 NHS Trusts in northern England and Scotland, by the use of questionnaires and interviews, and found that most NHS managers did not see the practice of job‐sharing as a major cost‐saving opportunity or as a working pattern that would enhance employee satisfaction and commitment. They saw job‐sharing as just a routine equal opportunities request which did not deserve such managerial attention or long‐term strategic thinking. It is argued in this paper that job‐sharing is a potentially useful option against a background of demographic and other social and economic changes which require the development and use of long‐term strategic policies. Therefore it is concluded that, in the NHS, there is a need for a more active and creative approach to job‐sharing rather than the reactive and passive approach that has dominated the practice so far.

This paper seeks to examine the changes in the methods of graduate recruitment and selection that have been used by UK‐based organisations and to establish the reasons for the main changes and developments in the process of attracting and recruiting graduates.

Data were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. Questionnaires were sent to 700 UK‐based employers selected from the Prospects Directory, the Graduate Employment and Training (GET) Directory and the Times Top 100 Graduate Recruiters. The response rate was just over 50 per cent and the data were analysed by using the statistical analysis software SPSS. The variables used were organisation size, recruitment methods, selection methods, cost, skills and reasons for the use of methods.

The analysis has shown that all employers, regardless of organisation size or activity type, tend to use more sophisticated, objective and cost‐effective methods of recruitment and selection than before. The process of graduate recruitment and selection in the UK has become more person‐related than job‐oriented because many employers are more interested in the attitudes, personality and transferable skills of applicants than the type or level of qualification acquired. Although some of the usual methods such as interviewing remain popular, there is a greater variety of ways by which graduates are attracted to and selected for their first jobs.

The findings of this study are expected to be useful for employers considering the introduction of new graduate recruitment programmes and for those wishing to improve their existing ones as well as for institutions of higher education to reconsider the type of knowledge and skills they provide in order to prepare their students for the real world of work.

This paper starts with the assumption that local authorities, under the new public management, may use job sharing as part of an equal opportunities policy in order to attract and retain experienced and professional employees. Data collected from 32 councils in England and Scotland have shown that although most of the female employees would possibly prefer to work flexibly through job sharing, there was little or no established policies for the implementation of job sharing as a means of providing equal opportunities. With the consolidation of the new public management in local authorities in the late 1990s, the approach to the use of job sharing and flexible working in general has changed from emphasising equality to meeting business objectives. The promotion of job sharing is very limited and its implementation often restricted. Job sharing is undermined by a culture of full‐time work and determined by economic motives.