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Human Resources articles


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Concise and practical management articles

In this section we have taken the latest in management thinking and condensed it into concise, easy-to-read articles, designed to help you turn theory into practice.

From our database of over 85,000 articles we handpick the most pertinent issues for today’s manager in order to provide an action-based insight into the world of business.

Does pay satisfaction affect motivation and job satisfaction?

No other incentive or motivational technique comes close to money. Such a quotation reflects the dominant view that pay-for-performance incentive systems have a motivational effect. In fact, many feel that the primary aim of incentives is to enhance extrinsic motivation by satisfying an individual employee's needs indirectly through means of pay and bonuses.

HR: building a reputation as a business partner

HR professionals are expected to be more skilled and effective partners to line managers in increasing organization performance. There are six competency domains that describe the most important areas of HR professional and leader contribution – as perceived by both HR and line managers.

Leading your new team: commentary with Richard Harris

Much of the advice about leading teams assumes that the team leader is in charge of putting the team together. But what happens if you inherit an existing team? Richard C. Harris is a former senior officer of the Forum Corporation, a Boston-based work-place learning company. He writes here about the pitfalls to avoid and best practices to follow if you inherit an existing team.

The dangers of implementing a merit pay practice

Merit pay refers to the process of distributing employee pay increases, based on how well each employee performs at work ? often determined by supervisory performance appraisal. Despite the overall popularity of merit pay practices and wide support for the principle of paying for individual performance, merit pay seems to often be ineffective in producing the desired outcomes, such as enhanced motivation and productivity.

Female executives in Fortune 500 firms

Although women remain substantially under-represented in the top echelons of large corporations, a non-trivial presence of female executives has emerged in recent years. Here, we focus on the firm characteristics that predict the sex of the executive office holder, classifying the plausible firm characteristics that could explain the presence of female executives into four explanations: sector, size, stability, and scandal.

OD and academic rhetoric

This article critically examines whether practice reflects Organizational Development (OD) as described in academic writing in the Human Resources (HR) profession in the UK.

Aspiring female leaders in France

Leadership styles have changed dramatically over the past 30 years. There is a definite male and female leadership style. Emotional intelligence has facilitated the emergence of women leaders, as have changing societal factors. A recent study looked into the situation in France, which has changed drastically since the milestone date and epoch of 1968.

The wages of absenteeism is low status

To what extent do absolute wage levels, relative wages compared with colleagues, and the position in a firm's hierarchy affect workers' absenteeism behaviour? A recent study used the personnel data of a large German company from January 1999 to December 2005 and analysed the attendance patterns of over 1,100 full-time white-collar workers.

Diversity as a competitive advantage

In today?s global and hyper-competitive world, most managers recognize that the new game of business requires speed, flexibility and continual self-reinvention. Executives understand that skilled and motivated people from diverse backgrounds and experiences can lead to a significant competitive advantage over other organizations.

Understanding your industry

Realistically reading new industry developments can help an executive plan effectively when a career change may be in order. Kathy Buckner is the founder and President of Forte Leadership Inc., a Provo, Utah-based management development and leadership training consultancy.