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We draw on first-hand experience and empirical evidence to address current concerns that the mission approach carries too much emphasis on technological innovation and top-down state-led action. We identify the concept of smaller scale 'micro-missions' that address place-based challenges. In so doing, we show a role for universities that extends beyond the entrepreneurial triple helix and demonstrate how a mission approach can be effective beyond an emphasis exclusively on science and technology and economic outcomes. We highlight universities as safe, convening spaces and their role in bringing together local actors in designing and delivering a micro-missions approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates how meso-level actors (MeLAs) contribute to HR practice transfer in diffusion and adaptation processes, drawing on the System-Society-Dominance-Corporate Effects (SSDC) framework to interpret the role of MeLAs in the transfer of the Japanese management model to the Indonesian automotive industry. We focus on two issues: i) the way Japanese MeLAs' training regimes in Japan affect the diffusion of the model and ii) the coordinated Japanese and Indonesian MeLAs strategy in seeking procedural influence through knowledge-sharing and in facilitating transfer activities over how the Japanese model is adapted in Indonesia. Our research adds to our limited understanding of the significance of MeLAs in processes of diffusion-adaptation in emerging market economies characterized by weak regulatory regimes and asymmetric socioeconomic power relations. Drawing on interviews with 75 key informants across Japan and Indonesia, we explore the significance of MeLAs from corporate and labor spheres alongside those of non-corporate MeLAs. Theoretically, this study extends the SSDC framework by highlighting MeLAs' influence in both diffusing conceptions of dominant management 'best practice' (dominance effects) and their role – and that of dominance effects – in shaping societal effects that inform how the model is adapted. We theorize the complex processes through which the effects identified in the SSDC framework are experienced by local actors, showing that they are neither monolithic nor mechanical in nature and thereby elaborating the inter-relationship in how dominance effects inform societal effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Japanese motor industry is held up as an exemplar of world class manufacturing, setting the standards by which Western manufacturers measure themselves Just-in-time or lean manufacturing is receiving particular attention. This paper analyses stock turnover data on eight Japanese vehicle assemblers and 33 major components suppliers over the period 1975-1988, and that of 15 Western assemblers and 41 suppliers over a similar period. This analysis reveals that Japanese manufacturers are not uniformly 'lean' but exhibit a wide range of performance, with Toyota standing out as the best. Although improving, Western assembler performance falls far short of the Japanese, and there is no sign of the gap narrowing. The gap between Western suppliers and their Japanese counterparts actually widened during the 1980's. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper assesses developments in Japanese human resource management (HRM) practices and employment relations since the country's ‘post-bubble’ economic decline and in particular following the global financial downturn of 2008. Our research findings are broadly consistent with others that have provided a mixed picture of continuity, change and diversification but the most recent financial crisis has made the negotiated nature of workplace relations more apparent. These characteristics are not readily explained by conventional understandings of Japanese HRM as a culturally or institutionally determined phenomenon. We present new empirical evidence of developments in eight automotive plants and interpret these through the application of a conceptual framework that distinguishes between the actors' orientations to action and social relations in specific exchange relations. This framing allows a better assessment of the agency involved in the emergence of a more differentiated articulation and manifestation of ‘Japanese HRM’. We explain these dynamics through reference to strategic choice and the negotiations both between local and corporate managers, and between managers and trade unions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The development of mainstream human resource management (HRM) theory has long been concerned with how people management can enhance performance outcomes. It is only very recently that interest has been shown in the parallel stream of research on the link between employee engagement and performance, bringing the two together to suggest that engagement may constitute the mechanism through which HRM practices impact individual and organisational performance. However, engagement has emerged as a contested construct, whose meaning is susceptible to ‘fixing, shrinking, stretching and bending’. It has furthermore not yet been scrutinised from a critical HRM perspective, nor have the societal and contextual implications of engagement within the domain of HRM been considered. We review the contribution of the seven articles in this special issue to the advancement of theory and evidence on employee engagement, and highlight areas where further research is needed to answer important questions in the emergent field that links HRM and engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reports different managerial approaches to engaging employees in two contrasting organizations. We categorize these approaches to employee engagement as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, and examine how these reflect the different external contexts in which management operate and, in particular, their influence on management's ability to promote a supportive internal context. The paper extends the existing literature on the antecedents of engagement by illustrating the importance of combining practitioner concerns about the role and practice of managers with the insights derived from the psychological literature relating to job features. We build from these two approaches to include important features of organizational context to examine the tensions and constraints management encounter in promoting engagement. Our analysis draws on the critical organizational and HRM literature to make a contribution to understanding different applications of employee engagement within organizations. In so doing, we outline a situated and critical reading of organizations to better appreciate that management practices are complex, contested, emergent, locally enacted and context specific, and thereby provide new insights into the inherent challenges of delivering engaged employees. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article addresses the question of what might constitute Critical Human Resource Management (CHRM). Consideration is given to ideas from critics of HRM, both from within the field and those external to it, in particular Critical Management Studies, and to mainstream scholars who have voiced concerns regarding the moribund and limited nature of mainstream HRM. CHRM is advanced in order that HRM might be better contextualized within the prevailing socio-economic order of capitalism; managerialist assumptions and language may be denaturalized and challenged; and that voices excluded in mainstream HRM, such as workers (especially minorities and those in non-standard employment), trade unions and those involved outside large Western corporations, may be heard. The analytical coherence of CHRM builds from a theorization of the employment relationship and requires acknowledgement of the sociological, psychological, economic, political and ethical aspects of working, managing and organizing. In our view, HRM research will be enriched by the variety of methodological and theoretical approaches of CHRM and by the inclusion of a wider range of different research settings and research questions. However, a fruitful and reflexive engagement between CHRM and mainstream HRM seems unlikely until the latter critically assesses rather than assumes the managerial perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws upon a survey of the life science and biotechnology regions of Oxford, Central Scotland and South West England to examine the innovation and embeddedness traits of the regions. The insights into the compositional weaknesses and strengths of the regions suggest opportunities and threats for the future development of the UK's life sciences and biotechnology. The discussion moves forward debates on biotechnology, regional innovation, regional economic development and policy by posing research questions relating to the gap of knowledge of two under-researched regions, the need for a differentiated view of regions and a public policy approach tailored towards them, as well as the prospects of 'engineering' high-tech regions. Some of the highlighted policy challenges are common to the three regions, while others are region-specific and reflect the variations of regional make-up and stage of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the use of the British Workplace Employment Relations (WERS) survey data in HRM research. While the WERS surveys contain much material of relevance to key debates in the HRM area, there is a prima facie case that there has not been as much WERS-based research in the HRM area as might have been consequently expected. This paper examines why this might be the case, and considers the prospects for the further use of WERS data by HRM researchers. While noting the limits of survey data to address key questions in the area, it suggests that there is a need for a programme of research that builds upon the valuable insights that can be obtained from WERS-based research by the complementary generation of more context-rich information via focused case studies and associated qualitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the EU Structural Fund intervention framework is critically assessed in an effort to reflect on the problems faced by policy-makers when trying to make sense of the complexity associated with innovation. An assessment is made of the 'evidence-based' approach for reporting on EU Structural Fund interventions in the Welsh economy. It is argued that the measurement of quantifiable inputs and outputs fails to engage sufficiently with the process qualities of innovation. Building on this critique, the paper reports on a study of innovation practice and performance in a sample of Welsh manufacturing SMEs to demonstrate empirically the problems of assuming universal best practices and linear models of innovation. The evidence leads to recommendations for policy improvements in two areas: the need to improve the identification and support of innovative practice in SMEs; and the need to improve the monitoring and evaluation of innovation effects from policy interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates HRM practices in eighteen automotive component plants in the US and UK and is based on data obtained from interviews and a questionnaire survey of the plants. HR practices are reviewed and consideration is given to whether the firms in the study display evidence of a 'human capital' approach. This is important given that there is growing evidence to suggest that high-performance workplaces depend on 'high skill' strategies that make better use of, and continuously develop, human capital. In particular, we consider practice in areas of recruitment, reward systems, training and development. In addition, we briefly review the relationship between HR practices and the continuous improvement activities that have increasingly come to be associated with manufacturing 'best practice' under the learning factory model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of the reasons for trade union decline in developed economies has pointed to their failure to invest in effective methods of recruitment as a contributory factor. This article presents survey and case research to examine the extent to which union failure in recruitment and organizing has been rectified in the United Kingdom. The evidence indicates a varied but nevertheless substantial re-direction of union effort towards recruitment since the mid-1990s and is used to identify the characteristics of 'recruiting unions' which have invested more heavily and adopted more ambitious recruitment targets. Recruiting unions are found to be those which are receptive to learning new approaches to recruitment from overseas and which have relatively advanced arrangements for the representation of women and minorities in their internal systems of government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a relative dearth of comparative, cross-national research which has followed a survey-based approach. This partly reflects the difficulty that researchers encounter in collecting such information, either via primary collection or the secondary matching of existing survey material. This paper addresses these difficulties and suggests ways in which their impact can be minimized. It notes that such difficulties are much more severe in the case of secondary matching and are thereby likely to constrain the scope of this approach. They are not totally absent in primary collection and it is suggested that there are limits to what can be achieved during data collection to promote the development of like data-sets across countries. This indicates that great care must be taken in interpreting data so obtained. Despite such limits and cautions, it is nevertheless concluded that the survey approach can be an important adjunct to the process of understanding why the world of work varies across frontiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A call for papers on employee engagement to be featured in a special issue of "The International Journal of Human Resource Management" is presented.