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The paper's aims are to ascertain whether there is evidence of Egyptian organisations using recruitment and selection practices which are context specific and whether different practices are used for different job types; whether responsibility for recruitment and selection is shared between HRM specialists and line management; and whether there is evidence of increasing devolution of this responsibility to line managers.

Data were collected between May and July 2007 and produced 108 usable questionnaires. The questionnaire was adapted from the Price Waterhouse Cranfield project on HRM in Europe.

There is some evidential support for the influence of the Egyptian national context upon the practices used, with different practices, including the number of techniques being used for the recruitment and selection of different job types. There is evidence of substantial sharing of this responsibility with line management through consultation and of an increased devolution of responsibility to line management.

Investigating recruitment and selection practices with the influence of ownership and by organisational size is needed to pursue whether there are significant associations between these variables.

Organisations moving into Egypt would not appear to be confronted with substantial resistance to the adoption of new methods and techniques for recruiting and selecting staff or the adoption of different methods for different job types, neither with resistance if they wish to involve line management in the decision‐making process.

The influence of the Egyptian national context upon the recruitment and selection practices used is an important issue for organisations to know the best recruitment and selection methods.

Recruitment and selection in the construction industry is ad hoc – the search for workers to match immediate employment needs is unsystematic, usually conducted in a short‐termist manner, and often contributes to, rather than overcomes, persistent recruitment difficulties and skill shortages. The purpose of this paper is to explore the recruitment context and selection practice in the Scottish construction sector, and proposes a model of the selection decision process which may provide an explanation for this apparently unsystematic approach.

A survey based on a sample from the 1998 Scottish Chambers of Commerce Business Survey database was used to examine the pattern of recruitment, contextual influences on recruitment, the qualities sought by employers, and the extent of use of various recruitment and selection methods. Further qualitative data was gathered from a subset of construction and surveyors firms to explore the nature of selection processes.

The data highlighted the lack of rigour in recruitment and selection and the presence of formalised procedures only in the larger firms. Qualitative evidence shows an emphasis on the visual assessment of work, the importance of site managers in making decisions, and the presence of local industry networks.

The survey could provide only an indicative description of practice amongst Scottish firms and larger scale accounts of practice would be useful. Nevertheless, the contribution of the qualitative research was to explore the dynamics of selection for a rarely studied work context.

Construction firms are found to share many of the constraints in adopting formal HRM practices already identified in small firms in unpredictable environments.

Reviews contemporary thinking on recruitment and selection in organisations. Draws upon data from a 1992 and a 1995 survey to explore the nature of current recruitment and selection practices in Ireland with particular reference to managerial jobs. Policy decisions on recruitment are examined, recruitment methods are reviewed, and the influence of ownership, size, unionisation and sector on the methods chosen is presented. Selection techniques employed are identified and the situations in which they are most likely to be utilised are highlighted.

The existing literature on the recruitment and selection process in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) context has not sufficiently revealed inherent challenges. The purpose of this paper is to examine managers’ perceptions of employee resourcing in Nigeria.

This paper uses qualitative data which were generated from the semi-structured interviews of 61 managers across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria.

The paper finds that in addition to the Federal Character Principle and the Quota System Policy, favouritism, ethnicity, age and gender discrimination, as well as corruption significantly inhibit the recruitment and selection process in Nigeria. Consequently, the ability to hire the best workers to improve competitiveness is also inadvertently hampered.

The paper shows that the institutional and cultural variations in SSA require a nuanced approach in the recruitment and selection process in order to enhance organisational competitiveness.

The institutional and cultural variations in SSA require a nuanced approach in the recruitment and selection process in order to enhanced organisational competitiveness.

This paper seeks to provide an insight into the recruitment and selection of volunteers in the heritage sector, drawing comparisons between paid and unpaid workers to assess the implications of the findings for volunteer management.

A multi‐method research design was adopted involving qualitative interviews with managers and volunteers, in conjunction with a postal survey of volunteers across 12 study sites, which were all visitor attractions in the heritage sector.

The findings show that the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process can be undermined by a lack of formality and supporting resources. This raises questions about the effectiveness of human resource management for volunteers, both specifically in the heritage sector and in the wider context of volunteer management.

The research was of an exploratory nature and so further investigation is needed to consider the impact of these findings on the effectiveness of volunteer recruitment and selection across a range of sectors.

The research highlights the existing practices in place for volunteer management in the heritage sector so raising issues for managers regarding the challenge of achieving a balance between formality and informality of human resource management practices.

The research takes a micro‐level approach to examining the recruitment and selection of volunteer workers. It provides a link in the literature between the management of volunteers and human resource management practices.

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.

This paper considers the nature of “best practice” recruitment and selection in the hotel sector. Data from a sample of Scottish hotels indicate a reliance on informal methods, particularly in smaller hotels. In larger and chain hotels, structured procedures, including references, application forms and panel interviews, are evident, but, here too, these methods seem inadequate for dealing with recruitment and quality problems, especially in meeting temporary staffing needs. Case study evidence contrasts two alternative strategies: a successful holistic strategy based on management of social processes important for selection, and a more conventional bureaucratic strategy. Each strategy depends on a complex interrelationship between business and labour market considerations, the ownership and management structure of the hotel, and the tenure and experience of those responsible for selection. This evidence indicates that, for the hotel industry, the holistic strategy is an alternative to conventional notions

This paper seeks to present and discuss the findings of a study of staffing practices in the Sri Lankan private sector with particular reference to junior level managerial jobs. The scope of staffing practices consisted of six major areas, namely the usage of information from job analysis in staffing, the sources of labour, selection criteria and selection methods in use, the validation of staffing practices and the involvement of HR managers and line managers in staffing.

Sixty‐two companies were selected based on a stratified random sample method from two major types of companies – those listed on the stock exchange and those not listed. A self‐administered questionnaire was chosen as the main mode for data collection. For the study, a combination of quantitative and qualitative inquiries was adopted.

Sri Lankan companies placed higher weighting on the external labour market in recruitment and the use of objective criteria in selection. The common ground for the companies is the heavy role that interviews, written examinations, psychometric tests and assessment centres play as selection methods.

The credibility of management concepts is partly determined by their diffusion across the world. Also, such credibility will be enhanced if the concepts are viewed to be applicable in different country contexts. However, staffing practices remain dubious due to the lack of empirical studies in the context of Asian developing countries. Specifically, no such studies have been conducted in the context of Sri Lanka.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interplay of skill-enhancing human resources practices, customer orientation (CO) and tourism small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) performance indicators.

Data for 194 valid cases are gathered through face-to-face techniques in Albanian tourism SMEs. Structural equation modeling is implemented to analyze data and test the hypothesis proposed.

Overall, both skill-enhancing human resources (HR) practices (i.e. recruitment/selection and training) are not associated with SMEs performance. Results suggest that using HR selection/recruitment practices are not associated to SME’s CO. Contrary, implementing skill-enhancing HR training practices is significant for SMEs strategy to focus and address customers’ wants and needs. Finally, it was found that the CO mediates the relationship between skill-enhancing HR training practices and performance, but this was not true on the skill-enhancing HR recruitment/selection practices-performance relationship.

This study makes contributions by further informing the debate about the direct and indirect link between skill-enhancing HR practices and performance. Additionally, it examines the precise role of the skill-enhancing HR practice on SMEs’ culture and or strategy to create value for customers.

The aims of this research are to present a comprehensive and holistic view of talent management (TM) at universities by exploring the current practices of TM among private and public universities in Jordan and make a comparison between the two sectors in regard to how they recruit, retain, train and develop, and measure the performance of talented people. Moreover, the practice of recruitment and selection, or so-called reflective or process-oriented practices, has given special attention to see how both public and private universities differ in regard to this process in particular.

A structured questionnaire was utilized to elicit responses from participants on five selected constructs, recruitment and selection reflective or process-oriented practices, retention, training and development, and performance management. A convenient sampling approach was used to source participants for the study. The data has been analyzed, structured and organized utilizing SPSS software to analyze the results. Frequency tests have been used to test the demographic variables. Descriptive analysis was used to check the standard deviation and mean for total items. The reliability, discriminate validity, convergent validity and correlation matrix of all the questions have been tested using various methods. Moreover, exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) tests were performed. For testing the hypothesis and to examine whether or not there is a significant difference in TM practices between public and private universities in Jordan, independent sample t-tests have been employed.

The results show that the means of TM practices differ slightly between public and private universities. The public universities demonstrate a higher level of TM practices compared to private universities in all practices except that of performance management. However, while there are visible differences in TM practices between public and private universities, these differences were not statistically significant. On the other hand, we revealed a significant difference in the reflective or process-oriented practices between public and private universities. The results show that HR departments in public universities are more likely to have less power in performing the recruitment and selection processes as compared to private universities. We also compared the extent to which elite academics in public universities select candidates congruent with their own personal and scientific preferences to the extent their counterparts do so in private universities and the results indicate that this practice differs significantly between public and private universities being far more common in private universities. Finally, we compared the practice of academic talents being recruited through informal networks of scouts between private and public universities. The results show a slight and insignificant difference between private and public universities concerning this practice.

This study is built on the concept of “new managerialism” in higher education, which supports collaboration between HRM professionals and academics to enhance TM practices. This research contributes to the body of knowledge by combining “reflective or process-oriented practices” with other TM practices in an attempt to make a comparison of public and private institutions’ practices and provide a more comprehensive view of the TM process. However, the overwhelming majority of study on TM has been carried out in Western countries, with limited attention paid to non-Western contexts. Even though this growing body of research has advanced our theoretical and empirical knowledge of TM, there is still a need to comprehend TM practices in the rest of the globe, particularly when one considers the cultural and institutional disparities that exist between countries. Moreover, according to the researcher’s best knowledge, no previous studies have compared public and private universities regarding talent management, and it would be of great importance to investigate the implementation of TM practices in this vital sector.