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The transformational changes to business environments brought about by the fourth industrial revolution create a perfect storm for strategic human resource management, prompting a need to explore the implications of this context for talent management theory and practice. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In-depth interviews were conducted with HR directors and senior leaders within engineering-led organisations to explore current challenges experienced across each stage of the talent pipeline: attraction and recruitment, training and development, career development, talent mobility and succession planning.

The speed of technological change brought about by Industry 4.0 had created a significant gap between current capability of employees and the rapidly evolving requirements of their roles, prompting a need to consider new and more effective approaches to talent development. Middle managers are increasingly recognised as overlooked critical talent within this context of unprecedented change, given their essential role in change management. In addition, whilst lateral hiring remains a common talent management practice, in the case of Industry 4.0 this equates to fighting a war for talent that does not exist.

This study suggests that there is a need for evolution of talent management theory and practice towards a more dynamic, systems-thinking orientation, acknowledging the interrelated nature of different talent management activities.

This paper provides an in-depth insight into the impact of the unprecedented change brought about by Industry 4.0 on contemporary talent management practice, considering how theory and practice might need to evolve to enable individuals and organisations to keep up with the rate of technological change.

Complex and sudden change that healthcare organizations often have to respond to, such as during the recent pandemic, can create major disruptions and a prolonged state of alert. Although the impact of such crises can be predominantly negative, rapid adjustments during this time can also yield positive change that can support organizational response to crisis, if managed well. Using insights from organizational learning and organizational change theory, the aim of this study was to understand organizational learning during sudden change. Specifically, the authors aimed to understand the experiences and types of gains and losses in the processes of complex and disruptive change in one large healthcare organization in the UK.

Focus group data were used from 23 focus group discussions with 575 participants representing all functions and departments in one Healthcare Trust.

The participants revealed the rich gains, losses, and lessons experienced in response to sudden change that can promote organizational learning. Perceived losses are more likely to drive a desire to refreeze “back to normal” and perceived gains more likely to lead to an emphasis on embedding gains and changing to better. Therefore, on balance, the substantial, in number and variety, gains and learnings point to a learning organization. This is an essential attribute for responding to disruptive change successfully and facilitating organizational recovery in a post-pandemic world.

The findings highlight the importance of timely harnessing of the organizational learning emerging from crises and how this can inform a more resilient organization, as well as supporting sustainable organizational cross-learning.

By extending these insights on workers’ adaptation to sudden change, the findings can help to advance the science and practice of organizational learning and support organizational recovery, especially as they describe the new status in UK healthcare organizations.

This study examines the decision-making processes surrounding C-suite changes, to help understand the extent to which these processes may help or hinder progress towards greater diversity and equality at board and senior leadership levels.

Since acquisition of corporate entities by private equity (PE) investors is known to trigger more frequent changes in leadership than in other corporate situations and its influence on global corporate structures continues to expand, it was targeted as a critical context for exploring the issue. In-depth semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 23 senior investors from 19 different PE firms, examining how incumbent leadership capability is assessed, how decisions regarding changes to incumbent leaders are made, and how existing approaches might influence leadership equality and diversity.

The findings reveal a common reliance on informal approaches for informing decisions regarding C-suite changes, on subjective and/or anecdotal opinions of leaders' suitability, and an over-reliance on past experience rather than capability or potential when identifying suitable replacements. Evidence of heuristics and biases emerged, including a bias for maintaining incumbent leaders, even in light of concerns regarding their capability or suitability, thereby inhibiting efforts to improve diversity and perpetuating inequality.

This paper explores the decision-making processes undertaken within organisations to determine C-suite changes, a relatively unexplored area, which plays a key role in the upward mobility of a diverse workforce. The study engages directly with decision-makers to examine real-life decision-making situations and explores the findings with reference to theory from occupational psychology and behavioural economics, providing a rich exploration of potential limitations and consequences of current practices for equality and diversity.

In this chapter, the authors build on the voluntary turnover model posited by Allen, Bryant, and Vardaman (2010) with reference to turnover and retention within the United Kingdom. After providing important contextual material about the United Kingdom, the authors explore turnover drivers such as work precarity, as well as the effect of Brexit, which compounds the political and economic uncertainty engendered by the pandemic. Reflecting on the role of external shocks in precipitating withdrawal processes, the authors go on to examine the extent to which job embeddedness impacts on employee turnover, and how alternative opportunities in a UK context may shape the decisions people make to stay with or leave their organizations. Central to our argument is that human resource (HR) practices as perceived by employees play a critical role in shaping attitudes such that people wish to stay in the organization. Cultural values posited by Hofstede and others are likely to significantly impact the way in which employees respond to the HR practices they perceive. Hence, leaders and HR specialists in the United Kingdom need to deploy HR practices which speak to cultural values that stand out in that context, considering that the United Kingdom is characterized by relatively low levels of power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, high individualism and higher than average indulgence.

Taken together, the model provides an overview of key internal and external factors that influence employees’ attitudes at work, their withdrawal behaviors and the ensuing turnover at the organizational-level. The authors conclude by highlighting key research questions raised by the analysis of the model within a UK context, considering where empirical research will add to understanding about turnover and retention in the United Kingdom.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Organizations that respond proactively to disruptions caused by major crises can emerge stronger moving forward. Using adversity as a vehicle for positive change can be successful if losses and gains from the change are accurately perceived. This can then be used to transform attitudes and behaviors and advance organizational learning.

The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This paper investigates purchasing ethics within the UK clothing retail sector in the context of structural changes in the sector and the growth of international sourcing as a necessary strategic tool to maintain competitive advantage.

The paper discusses the background to retailer interest in sourcing ethics and the development of codes of conduct to guide retail purchasing professionals. The primary research is an exploratory examination of the experiences of UK retail buying personnel working in the global market for garments, who are required to make decisions “on the ground” that reflect the ethical codes of their companies, yet who are also constrained by the need to make profitable sourcing decisions.

The conclusions assess what can be learnt from these experiences and offer suggestions for future research.

The paper is of interest to any retail academics, personnel and employees.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the development of research in international retailing over the last 20 years and propose a future research agenda within a conceptual framework.

The paper reviews the development of the retail internationalisation literature.

Explains how different research topics have emerged over the years and how researchers have responded methodologically to the different research challenges encountered.

The paper emphasises the importance of journals such as the International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management in the development of the international retailing research domain and discusses the challenge researchers currently have in developing the subject area.

Explores current understanding of the internationalisation process and through the consideration of different activities and processes within the international retail firm proposes a future research agenda.

The paper addresses the achievements of researchers in the area of international retailing over the last 20 years and, within a conceptual framework, explores those lacunae in the knowledge base that require further research.

In the UK, while fashion apparel purchasing is available to the majority of consumers, the main supermarkets seem – rather against the odds and market conventions – to have created a new, socially‐acceptable and legitimate, apparel market offer for young children. This study aims to explore parental purchasing decisions on apparel for young children (below ten years old) focusing on supermarket diversification into apparel and consumer resistance against other traditional brands.

Data collection adopted a qualitative research mode: using semi‐structured interviews in two locations (Cornwall Please correct and check againand Glasgow), each with a Tesco and ASDA located outside towns. A total of 59 parents participated in the study. Interviews took place in the stores, with parents seen buying children fashion apparel.

The findings suggest that decisions are based not only on functionality (e.g. convenience, value for money, refund policy), but also on intuitive factors (e.g. style, image, quality) as well as broader processes of consumption from parental boundary setting (e.g. curbing premature adultness). Positive consumer resistance is leading to a re‐drawing of the cultural boundaries of fashion. In some cases, concerns are expressed regarding items that seem too adult‐like or otherwise not as children's apparel should be.

The paper highlights the increasing importance of browsing as a modern choice practice (e.g. planned impulse buying, sanctuary of social activity). Particular attention is given to explaining why consumers positively resist buying from traditional label providers and voluntarily choose supermarket clothing ranges without any concerns over their children wearing such garments.

The paper shows that supermarket shopping for children's apparel is now firmly part of UK consumption habits and choice. The findings provide theoretical insights into the significance of challenging market conventions, parental cultural boundary setting and positive resistance behaviour.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the drivers and barriers to omni-channel retailing in China, and attempts to understand how companies formulate their business strategies during their transformations to omni-channel retailing.

This study adopts an exploratory case study approach to investigate the omni-channel retailing transformations of two well-established Chinese fashion apparel retailers. The study draws on multiple sources of evidence, comprising: interviews with eight business executives from three major operational departments; on-site observations in firm’s retail stores, factories and distribution centres; and secondary data review of firm business reports, news, whitepapers and archival records. The findings are established through a consistent within-case data analysis and cross-case comparison.

The study reveals that the two retailers formulated different strategies in developing their omni-channels, and exhibited different degrees of success. The similarities and differences in the drivers, as well as the barriers, were analyzed and compared in this study. Operational variations (i.e. enablers and inhibitors) due to the unique context of the Chinese market were also explored. The findings reveal that coherent leveraging firm resources and capabilities from the three perspectives – marketing, logistics and supply chain, and organizational management – is critical to the full implementation of omni-channel retailing. They provide relevant managerial insights that can assist firms in formulating appropriate strategic action plans during the transformations.

As a theoretical contribution, this paper identifies a set of drivers and barriers for omni-channel retailing in the developed market, and classifies them into three categories: marketing; logistics and supply chain; and organizational management. The empirical-based qualitative analysis reveals the key factors impacting on omni-channel retailing within the Chinese market, and suggests a series of practical implications for local retailers planning to embark on omni-channel retailing.