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Until recently UK universities have paid little attention to managing the personnel function. However, matters changed in the 1980s, and surveys at the beginning of the 1990s suggested that all institutions had established personnel departments. Discusses research recently completed in 14 universities. Finds that there is still considerable variation in the conduct of the personnel function, and that the boundaries of the personnel department and the roles played by personnel differ from one institution to the next. Suggests that much more thought remains to be given to the way that responsibility for human resource functions is devolved to heads of departments. Further, it suggests that while greater recognition may have been given to the importance of the human resource function within universities (and that it may be seen to have a more important role in strategic planning) this has not led necessarily to an increasing role for the personnel department as such.

Considering the human factor, the quality of the personnel is vital to ensure especially the value creation in the ports. Therefore, employee quality stands out for withstanding the pressures that stem from global trade on its operational speed felt by ports in recent years. Accordingly, the selection of the qualified personnel at the ports is very critical and a tool based on dynamic capabilities is needed to manage this process well. The aim of this study is to develop a model based on dynamic capabilities for recruitment process of ports.

Port personnel should have dynamic capabilities detected from the literature. These capabilities were approached as criteria. In this study, Buckley's proposed fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method was employed for weighting the whole criteria. After that, weights of the criteria were used to prioritize alternatives with the fuzzy TOPSIS method.

This model reflects port managers' priorities and port customers' evaluations. Thus, the model can also reflect the level of integration of ports' related department managers into the recruitment process. The analyses allow the evaluation of the attitudes of the human resources department in the related port while fulfilling the personnel recruitment function. As a result of analyses, differences between perceptions of port managers and customers served as a feedback to the human resource management department of the ports.

One of the originalities of this study was derived from its customer-oriented perspective. This is a unique study that gathers common personnel capabilities related to the operation, planning and customer relationship departments and evaluates the success of these capabilities from the customer perspective.

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.

On the basis of studies of 35 personnel managers who had introduced computerisation and a detailed comprehensive case study of the introduction of computerisation into the personnel function, the factors that differentiate adoptors into the categories of “Stars”, “Radicals”, “Plodders” and “Beginners” are analysed. The critical role of the personnel manager in facilitating successful adoption, the role of the computer in changing the shape of the personnel function, its power and professionalisation are considered, and finally the challenges it will present for the personnel department in the future.

This research investigates the relationship between personnel managers and other managers in the organisation. The evidence reported in this study demonstrates that personnel managers, in the main, perceived themselves to be in the forefront with other professionals in contributing to corporate success, whereas managers in sales, finance and production departments have a less impressive view of personnel managers' influence in achieving corporate goals. However, they recognised the importance of personnel managers and their functions in the organisation per se.

The computer systems developed during the 1960s and 1970s made very little impact on management decision. Management Information System design was constrained by three factors — the technology was large‐scale and inevitably centralised and controlled by data processing staff; the systems were designed by specialist staff who rarely understood the business requirements; and managers themselves had little knowledge or “hands‐on” experience of computers. In the 1980s a greater awareness of the need for planning and better use of personnel information, coupled with the development of distributed processing systems, has presented personnel management with opportunities to use computing technology as a means of increasing the professionalism of practising personnel managers. Effective use will only occur if the implementation of technology is matched by appraisal of skills and organisation within personnel departments. Staff will need a minimum level of computing expertise and some managers will need skills in modelling, particularly financial modelling. The relationship between personnel and data processing needs careful redefining to build a link between the two and data processing staff need to design and communicate an end‐user strategy.

This article reports and evaluates how a traditional approach to recruitment and selection in the Social Services Department of West Sussex County Council was superseded by a competency‐based approach. The authors discuss the impacts of external and internal changes on the local authority and the need to develop less subjective and more effective methods of recruitment and selection, at all levels. After describing and reviewing existing practices, they outline the results of an internal research investigation involving managers and personnel and training specialists. The research participants acknowledged the limitations of the existing recruitment and selection practices and recognised the need for a more competence‐based approach. This was clearly an important stage in the change process which the authors proceed to describe. Here, they highlight the key role of training and relationship‐building between line managers and personnel specialists. Examples are provided of traditional and competence‐based job descriptions, person specifications and forms of assessment. The authors conclude that the new system fits well into the department’s overall human resources strategy for improving workplace performance and reducing workplace conflict.

The monograph analyses (a) the potential impact of information technology (IT) on organisational issues that directly concern the personnel function; (b) the nature of personnel’s involvement in the decision making and activities surrounding the choice and implementation of advanced technologies, and (c) their own use of IT in developing and carrying out their own range of specialist activities. The monograph attempts to explain why personnel’s involvement is often late, peripheral and reactive. Finally, an analysis is made of whether personnel specialists – or the Human Resource Management function more generally – will play a more proactive role in relation to such technologies in the future.

To discuss the scope and limits of the compliance department's responsibilities in securities firms.

Describes the background to establishing stand‐alone compliance departments; the organizational structure of compliance departments; typical compliance functions; how the compliance department coordinates with business units, senior management, internal audit, and risk management; the distinction between a firm's responsibility to comply with applicable laws and regulations and the role of the compliance department; the distinctions between responsibilities of the compliance department and those of supervisors and senior management; and emerging regulatory trends impacting the compliance department.

New business activities and new regulations have placed increased demands on, and scrutiny of, compliance activities over the past few years. Regulators are looking to compliance departments to play an increasingly important role in identifying proactively and responding to potential wrongdoing.

Explains the critical importance of a well staffed, experienced, and adequately funded compliance department.

The trend is towards a gradual increase in emphasis on manpower control, and a high commitment to employee relations. The ideal of the 1970s, that of developing and maintaining agreeable working relationships, is still professed by many personnel managers. Research arising from detailed questionnaires distributed to 350 establishments as part of a Leverhulme Trust/IPM‐funded project has identified six broad tendencies in personnel departments. These cover the enabling function (action as a service to managers and department); the “odds and ends” function (being given “bits” of responsibility); the attenuated function (having rank and responsibility but little professional support); the symbolic function (developing a symbiosis between personnel departments and consultants); the futuristic function (moving towards adopting information technology); and the professional function (being technically skilful, using consultants sparingly but effectively).