Patrick Gunnigle

Human capital accumulation: the role of human resource development

Introduces the special issue “Human resource development: sectoral and invention‐level evidence of human capital accumulation”. Reviews the concepts and definitions of intellectual and human capital. Considers human capital from individual (employability, performance and career development) and organization (investment, ownership, skills and knowledge management) perspectives. Looks at each of the papers in the special issue, relating them to its theme. Highlights the implications for human resource development, both at individual and organizational levels.

Contemporary HRD research: a triarchy of theoretical perspectives and their prescriptions for HRD

Addresses some of the key debates within the HRD literature and considers the extent to which HRD can be described as a field of study. The paper addresses the issues raised in the contributions that make up this special issue and identifies a broad range of methodologies and use of research methods. It argues that all of the contributions fit into at least one theoretical perspective: capabilities, psychological contacts and the learning organization/organizational learning. The paper concludes with a consideration of the prescriptions which the perspectives advocate for HRD in organizations.

Human resource development and workplace learning: emerging theoretical perspectives and organisational practices

Workplace learning and HRD are considered legitimate topics for study and investigation alongside organisational strategies and practices. Considers key themes in the workplace earning literature in addition to its relationship with HRD. Identifies a paradigm shift from formalised, intermittent and discontinuous learning to increasingly informal, experiential, asynchronous and real‐time situated learning. Highlights three contemporary themes in both the workplace learning and HRD literatures, namely: knowledge, expertise, competence and capability; organisational learning; and employability and career issues.

Part‐time work in Europe

Seeks to contribute to the flexibility debate by addressing the following research questions: What are the European trends pertaining to the use of part‐time workers? How has the situation changed over the past three years? To what extent do organizational characteristics, such as size, unionization and sector, impact on the nature and extent of part‐time employment? Despite recent attempts by the European Union to bring to the fore the issue of working time, it has a rather long pedigree in labour management literature. The main arguments dictating the direction of change in working time arrangements are associated with discretion/choice debates, labour force changes, equality issues, technology and organiza‐tional efficiency and the unemployment/work‐sharing argument. Focuses specifically on one workforce variable, namely part‐time work. Believes that the classification of the labour market into the core (typical) and periphery (atypical), in the context of labour flexibility, is far too simplistic. Refers to how it has been argued in the literature that the components of the peripheral workforce possess different characteristics and cannot be lumped together.

Patterning employee voice in multinational companies

Employee voice has been an enduring theme within the employment relations literature.This article profiles the incidence of a range of direct and indirect employee voice mechanisms within multinational companies (MNCs) and, using an analytical framework, identifies a number of different approaches to employee voice. Drawing from a highly representative sample of MNCs in Ireland, we point to quite a significant level of engagement with all types of employee voice, both direct and indirect. Using the analytical framework, we find that the most common approach to employee voice was an indirect voice approach (i.e. the use of trade unions and/or non-union structures of collective employee representation). The regression analysis identifies factors such as country of origin, sector, the European Union Directive on Information and Consultation and date of establishment as having varying impacts on the approaches adopted by MNCs to employee voice.

Can Voluntary Workplace Partnership Deliver Sustainable Mutual Gains

This article draws on two Irish case studies to examine the nature and outcomes of voluntary workplace partnership (WP), and the conditions affecting its durability. We found that WP delivered mutual gains for all stakeholders at Aughinish Alumina (AAL), which were quite equally divided. While WP delivered most gains for management at Waterford Crystal (WC), and some for the union, worker gains were less. The WC partnership broke down after 10 years, but the AAL partnership continues. Voluntarist mutual gains partnership is feasible, but success and durability depends on specific clusters of contextual conditions, notably management support, a quality-focused competitive strategy, insulation from market pressures, union postures, vertically aligned bundles of mutual gains practices, institutional supports, emphasis on fairness, all party commitment to performance enhancement and capital-intensive technology. Conditions supporting WP were stronger at AAL than WC. More generally, as supports for WP in Ireland are weaker than retardants, we conclude that few mutual gains partnerships will take root, and even fewer will endure.

Counterpoising Collectivism, Performance-Related Pay and Industrial Relations in 'Greenfield' Sites

This paper addresses some of the industrial relations ramifications of performance-related pay (PRP) using empirical data from both new and longer established firms in the Republic of Ireland. Particular emphasis is placed on the adoption of PRP systems based on performance appraisal and the implications of such systems for collectivism in industrial relations. The paper concludes that the diffusion of such systems is indicative of increasing employer attempts to individualize the employment relationship and exclude union penetration. It is further argued that such PRP systems, irrespective of the motivation for their establishment, undermine the essence of collectivism and solidarity in industrial relations.

Between home and host country: multinationals and employment relations in Europe

Foreign-owned firms employ a significant proportion of the European workforce. This varies considerably between countries but in manufacturing, where the figures are highest, it generally represents more than 10 per cent of employment (see Table 1). Furthermore, it increased strongly between 1985 and 1995. Foreign-owned transplants are likely to provide a challenge for national systems of employment relations (ER) in Europe. They represent the most visible manifestation of the influence of global pressures on national economies and societies. However there is only limited empirical evidence to support such an assessment. Existing research has largely concentrated on the behaviour of US and Japanese multinational companies (MNCs). This suggests that US firms in Europe have transferred practices from their home country and thereby challenged national systems of collective representation and bargaining and acted as HR innovators in areas such as pay and work organisation (Almond, Edwards and Muller, 2001; Ferner, forthcoming). Innovations by Japanese firms have mainly been in the area of work organisation (Elger and Smith, 1998; Morris, Wilkinson and Munday 2000). The more limited research about ER practices of firms from other countries suggests that they also transfer home country practices, but in a way that is less challenging to their

Between Boston and Berlin: American MNCs and the shifting contours of industrial relations in Ireland

Drawing on detailed qualitative case studies and utilizing a national business system lens, we explore a largely underrepresented debate in the literature, namely the nature of change in a specific but critical element of business systems, that is the industrial relations (IR) institutions of the State and the impact of MNCs thereon. Given the critical mass of US investment in Ireland, we examine how US MNCs manage IR in their Irish subsidiaries, how the policies and practices they pursue have impacted on the Irish IR system, and more broadly their role in shaping the host institutional environment. Overall, we conclude that there is some evidence of change in the IR system, change that we trace indirectly to the US MNC sector. Further, the US MNC sector displays evidence of elements of the management of IR that is clearly at odds with Irish traditions. Thus, in these firms we point to the emergence of a hybrid system of the management of IR and the establishment of new traditions more reflective of US business system.

Pluralism in retreat? A comparison of Irish and multinational manufacturing companies

Traditionally it has been argued that the industrial relations practices of multinational corporations tended to conform with the prevailing industrial relations practices of the host country. Recent arguments claim that this trend has now been reversed and a new orthodoxy prevails which originates in the multinational corporations country of origin. Drawing on a sample of companies in the Irish manufacturing sector, this paper examines the extent of these changes through a comparison of indigenous and foreign companies. The evidence of change emerging from this survey does not fully support the hypothesis that the practices of multinationals are significantly different or that there is a new orthodoxy in industrial relations originating in the multinational sector. We suggest that the impetus for change in employment practices is not to be found in the multinational sector but in the dynamic nature of competitive markets and the increasingly international mobility of capital.