Jelena Petrovic

Unlocking the role of a board director: a review of the literature

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the current debate regarding the role of a board director.Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive review of the corporate governance (CG) literature is undertaken, with a particular focus on director contribution to board effectiveness.Findings – The literature review revealed a number of issues in the CG literature that highlight the need to clarify board director role and pay closer attention to the processes needed for directors to perform their role effectively. These issues have broadly been classified into: conceptual issues regarding board effectiveness and director contribution; a methodological issue of level of analysis (board as a group and a director as individual); failure of much of the literature to account for the external context in which the board directors operate; and prescriptive nature of the literature.Originality/value – Issues pertinent to the CG literature identified in this paper hold theoretical and practical implications.

Strategic staffing of international joint ventures (IJVs): an integrative perspective for future research

Drawing on the literature on international joint ventures (IJVs) and strategic international human resource management, the paper proposes a model for strategic staffing of IJVs based on an integrative (strategic intent and negotiations) perspective. Building on the results of previous studies that indicate, directly or indirectly, the importance of control in staffing, the paper proposes that strategic control may be a critical driver that underpins IJV staffing. In conclusion, the paper outlines an agenda for future research that can test the model and explore possible implications.

Somewhere In-Between Narratives of Place, Identity, and Translocal Work

This article discusses the de/construction of liminal identities in relation to translocal patterns of work. Through a phenomenological analysis of three autobiographical narratives, it informs management and organization studies, discussing liminality and translocality as embedded and embodied phenomena experienced in relational, spatio-temporal, and inter-corporeal levels. In particular, the article proposes that a post-dichotomous conceptualization of place and non-place, self and other, and fixity and mobility unveils the complexities of studying identity, liminality, and translocality as interrelated phenomena. Liminal identities are explored as socio-spatial, temporary crystallizations of translocal bodily experiences, disrupted by differentially embodying displacements and emplacements across space–time. Finally, we suggest that translocal socio-spatial scales are inter-corporeal performances that challenge both material and immaterial boundaries. The article concludes with the contributions of this work to identity, liminality, and translocality studies and a discussion of future research directions.

How do International Joint Venture (IJV) Directors Contribute to Board Effectiveness Evidence from Practice

Despite the acknowledged importance of international joint venture (IJV) board directors for IJV success (Child, 1998; Bamford and Ernst, 2005) and the impressive amount of research into different aspects of IJV operations, such as motives for IJV formation, performance/instability, control, human resource management, inter-partner relationships and trust (Parkhe, 1998; Schuler, 2001; Yan and Luo, 2001; Werner, 2002; Reus and Ritchie, 2004), a review of the literature shows that insufficient attention has been given to examining IJV board functioning and the roles played by individual IJV directors in contributing to board effectiveness. Apart from certain insights concerning what IJV board directors are expected to do, what qualities they should display in their role and the issues they are likely to encounter, little is known about the nature of their behaviour and their contribution to board effectiveness. Consequently, our understanding of how directors of IJV boards contribute to board effectiveness is incomplete.

An integrative approach to HRM–firm performance relationship: a missing link to corporate governance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to ongoing debates regarding the human resource management (HRM)-firm performance relationship. In seeking to provide a more complete picture of the relationship, the paper discusses the existing literature and proposes an integrative framework that draws upon different literatures and multiple theoretical perspectives. Design/methodology/approach This review includes nearly 100 research studies published in this field. The review includes papers published in mainstream HRM journals and broader management journals with strong ties to HRM literature. Importantly, the paper also identifies a gap – a missing link – that concerns the importance of incorporating insights from corporate governance (CG) literature when considering strategic HR decision-making. Findings A significant contribution of this paper to theory is to propose an integrative framework that conceptualises the elusive relationship between HRM and firm performance, and which draws on different literatures and multiple theoretical perspectives in to offer more holistic insights into the relationship. The paper discusses the implications of the integrative perspective for theory and practice. Originality value This paper argues that one of the main stumbling blocks for developing a better understanding of the mechanisms through which HRM creates value in an organisation is the fragmentation of the HRM literature between “HR as practices” and “HR as the department/profession”, as well as a tendency to neglect insights from the CG literature.

Board Directors as Elites in the Context of International Joint Ventures

Forbes and Milliken (1999: 493) characterise boards of directors as ‘large, elite and episodic decision making groups that face complex tasks pertaining to strategic-issue processing’. From an individual director perspective some scholars have argued that individuals join boards for financial remuneration, prestige and contacts that may prove useful in the future and to promote upper-class cohesion creating a business elite (Useem, 1984; Zajac 1988). For example, according to the reputation hypothesis, entering in the corporate elite has a positive impact on firms’ value (Phan et al., 2003). As a group, it is up to the corporate elite to ensure good corporate governance. At the same time, the concentration of corporate control in the hands of relatively small, often homogeneous and closed corporate elites has long been recognised as a democratic difficulty for capitalism.