Knowledge that Transforms

This article describes in detail through a longitudinal case study the emerging nature of human resources (HR) practices at Aditya Birla Group and, more importantly, links it to the strategic redesign that the whole organization underwent from 1995 to 2006. The longitudinal case study provides a snapshot of the dynamic and turbulent nature of the new liberalized Indian economic environment and how an organization such as Aditya Birla Group needed to brace itself from competition through innovative HR practices. The article argues that in challenging liberalizing business environments like India, the nature of HR itself demands that organizations develop new capabilities and that HR's role is to reevaluate its competencies and develop new ones to help in the overall strategic redesign of organizations. The article elaborates on two critical issues: (1) the peculiarities and defining characteristics of HR models unique to India and (2) the main factors that shape people management policies and practices in the liberalized Indian environment.

This study investigates and defines the concept of service quality of a temporary work agency (TWA) from the perspective of temporary workers as the TWA's internal customers. Specifically, we conducted two surveys using two separate samples of temporary workers to (1) develop a measure of TWA service quality based on service literature and (2) test the newly developed measure's reliability, factor structure, and validity. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis results show that an effective temporary work agency is one that offers reliable placement services, appears interpersonally supportive in interacting with the temporary workers, provides individualized and customized service, is furnished with appealing tangible facilities and equipment, and offers services that are conveniently accessible before, during, and after the temporary job assignments. Structural equation modeling results further suggest that TWA service quality is directly related to temporary workers' customer satisfaction with the TWA and perceived TWA service value and is indirectly related to temporary workers' customer loyalty to the TWA. Research and practical implications of this research are discussed.

In his blunt and engaging manner, visionary entrepreneur Dwight Carlson has insightful and provocative things to say about leadership, communication and team development, and motivation. We argue that Carlson is an “entrepreneurial leader” who has learned how to create an environment that fosters innovation, hard work, a sense of fun, and “team spirit” and which results in highly motivated and productive staff. At the same time, we recognize that not all entrepreneurs necessarily share Carlson's “bravado.” Nevertheless, his example as founder and CEO of several high‐tech start‐up companies sheds light on the unique contours of entrepreneurial human resource leadership.

Much attention has been given to the explosion in business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in India. Little concern, however, has been paid to the performance of Indian service workers in these fast‐paced and sometimes turbulent environments. Using a sample of 160 service workers from a privately held BPO firm in India, we examine the relationship between Indian service workers' hope and their performance outcomes. Regression and structural equation model analyses indicated a significant positive relationship between Indian service workers' levels of hope and their performance. These promising results highlight the importance of measuring and managing employee hope to maximize employee productivity and performance. By effectively developing and managing levels of employee hope, Indian BPO firms can effectively combat employee problems such as attrition, stress, and burnout that have plagued the BPO industry. Hope may also help mitigate the influence of aspects of Indian culture on human resource management practices in Indian BPOs.

While there are several studies on human resource management (HRM) at the inter‐firm dyadic relationship level, the HR aspects of intra‐firm strategic supply relationships have been largely ignored. Yet interdependence requires coordination among functions, sites, and stages of the internal supply chain (SC). Drawing on a case study of a large European pharmaceutical company, which we call Tyrenco, we explore how HR practices evolve within the strategic intra‐firm supply relationship. Our findings illustrate the disruptive effects of HR practices when they are focused on site‐based objectives and the improved coordination that results from redesigning HR processes to achieve internal operational integration. We highlight the tension between site‐based, financial controls and an emergent SC logic. Drawing on recent interest in cooperative approaches to HR practices, this study seeks to operationalize the need to align HR practices with end‐to‐end objectives at different stages of the intra‐firm supply chain. Our findings have practical implications for designing HR practices within multinational corporations (MNCs) that are characterized by complex and fragmented internal environments.

This exploratory study evaluates the ethical considerations related to employees fired for their blogging activities. Specifically, subject evaluations of two employee‐related blogging scenarios were investigated with established ethical reasoning and moral intensity scales, and a measure of corporate ethical values was included to assess perceptions of organizational ethics. The first scenario involved an employee who was fired because of innocuous blogging, while the second vignette involved an employee who was fired because of work‐related blogging. Survey data were collected from employed college students and working practitioners. The findings indicated that the subjects' ethical judgments that firing an employee for blogging was unethical were negatively related to unethical intentions to fire an employee for blogging. Moral intensity was positively related to ethical judgments and negatively related to unethical intentions to fire an employee for blogging, while individual perceptions of ethical values were negatively associated with unethical intentions. Finally, subjects perceived that terminating an employee for innocuous blogging that did not target an employer was more ethically intense than was firing an employee for work‐related blogging. The implications of the findings for human resource professionals are discussed, as are the study's limitations and suggestions for future research.