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Table of contents follows:-
Title: Linking human resource management and knowledge management via
commitment: A review and research agenda
Author: Donald Hislop
d.hislop@shef.ac.uk
Pages: 182-202
Keywords: Human Resource Management; Knowledge Management; Employee
Attitudes; Commitment
EXCERPT (the introduction): It is a paradox that, while so many authorities
and commentators on knowledge management (KM) have come to the conclusion
that KM ultimately depends upon people, it is precisely the people (or HR)
aspect that has been the most neglected in studies in this field. Moreover,
HR practitioners and HR analysts have been slow in making their mark in this
emerging field (Storey and Quintas, 2001, p. 344).
Since the mid-1990s KM has emerged as a subject of great interest to
both academics and organizational practitioners. This is witnessed both by
the enormous number of articles that have been published on the topic in
academic and practitioner journals (Scarbrough et al., 1999) and also from
the vast number of organizations which have attempted to implement KM
systems/strategies (Beaumont and Hunter, 2002; Kluge et al., 2001; Ruggles,
1998). While much of the early KM literature was heavily focused on
technological issues, this has changed, such that the importance of human
and social factors has been increasingly recognized.
Paradoxically, however, while the importance of these issues has
been widely articulated, people management perspectives have yet to be fully
developed, and the KM literature has made only partial and limited use of
human resource management (HRM) concepts and frameworks. Further, as
suggested by Storey and Quintas (2001), the weakness of the linkages between
HRM and KM is to some extent because HRM academics have been loath to enter
this debate[1]. One objective of the paper is therefore to contribute to the
development of both the KM and HRM literatures through building a bridge
between the subjects.
Currently the KM literature has reached the point of acknowledging
the importance of people management themes, but has not made the next step
of investigating, and theorizing these issues in detail. As personnel issues
are now arguably regarded as the key factor most likely to affect the
outcome of KM initiatives, this represents an important task.
Two important pieces of work have engaged with this task by mapping
out an agenda of the most important linkages (Scarbrough and Carter, 2000;
Storey and Quintas, 2001). This paper has a similar purpose, but utilizes a
different method by instead examining in depth one key issue which emerged
from both of these review articles: organizational commitment.
There is an enormous literature which illustrates that the level of
commitment workers feel for their organizations is closely linked to their
attitudes to, and behaviour within, the workplace. For example, levels of
commitment have been shown to influence turnover intentions (Chen and
Francesco, 2000; Iverson and Buttigieg, 1999), and levels of "citizenship
behaviour" (Coyle-Shapiro and Kessler, 2000). However, whether commitment
levels affect attitudes towards, or participation in, KM initiatives is an
open question, as no research has been done on this area.
The second, narrower objective of the paper is to address this gap
by making a theoretical case which suggests there may be interesting
linkages between the levels of commitment workers feel for their
organizations and their attitudes and behaviour towards KM initiatives, and
thus contribute to an improved understanding of what encourages or
discourages people with regard to sharing their knowledge. This is an
exploratory theoretical paper which sketches out the potential links between
these two factors and discusses how research in this area can be progressed.
The starting-point for this paper is the idea that the success of
any KM initiative is likely to be critically dependent on having suitably
motivated people taking an active role in the process (Robertson and
O'Malley Hammersley, 2000). Thus the paper begins by showing how both the
nature of knowledge and the character of the employment relationship make
this the case. The paper then moves on to consider what specific factors
within organizations have been found to affect people's willingness (or lack
of it) to share their knowledge, including the general culture of
organizations (McDermott and O'Dell, 2001), as well as the type of HRM
policies and practices that are adopted.
The paper then shifts focus, to examine the concept of commitment,
and illustrate the evidence which shows how levels of commitment
significantly affect a wide range of attitudes towards, and behaviours
within, the workplace. The paper utilizes Guest and Conway's (1997, 1999,
2001) model of the psychological contract as this provides a useful
framework for linking commitment to other related concepts. The emergence of
commitment as an important topic of research is related to contemporary
changes in the nature of the employment relationship. In terms of rhetoric,
if not reality, there has been a significant shift towards the utilization
of employment practices aimed at inducing high levels of commitment (Gallie
et al., 2001; Shepard and Mathews, 2000). However, findings from recent
surveys suggest that commitment levels among UK workers are relatively low
(Gallie et al., 1998; Scase, 2001). Therefore, if there is a link between
commitment and attitudes to knowledge sharing, these findings suggest that
this may be a possible barrier to the effectiveness of any KM initiative.
The penultimate section of the paper develops a framework for
linking commitment to knowledge-sharing attitudes and behaviour through
suggesting that Guest and Conway's model of the psychological contract can
be adapted to incorporate attitudes towards knowledge sharing. The main body
of the paper then closes by briefly outlining a tentative list of issues
which require to be addressed in order to increase our understanding of the
links between organizational commitment and attitudes to knowledge
sharing[2]."
Title: "On the shopfloor" with clothing workers in the 1990s
Author: Jean Jenkins Boggis
Pages: 168-181
Keywords: Clothing Industry; Working Conditions; Industrial Relations;
Operational Research; United Kingdom
Article Type: Case Study; Theoretical with Application in Practice
Content Indicators: Research - *** Practice - ** Originality - **
Readability - ***
Title: The experience of work: Is working for an overseas-owned
multinational so different?
Author: John Sutherland
Pages: 149-167
Keywords: Employees; Multinationals; Employee Surveys; Human Resource
Management
Article Type: Survey; Theoretical with Application in Practice
Content Indicators: Research - *** Practice - ** Originality - **
Readability - ***
Title: Employment relations in India
Author: Pawan S Budhwar
Pages: 132-148
Keywords: Employee Relations; Human Resource Management; Developing
Countries; Internal Labour Market; India
Article Type: Survey; Theoretical with Application in Practice
Content Indicators: Research - ** Practice - ** Originality - **
Readability - ***
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