What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

The legitimacy of HRM is threatened by challenges to the impact of its core research programme and the centrality of its practices and function. If HRM is in crisis, what are the sources and perceived solutions? This article addresses the question of what a critical approach to HRM can contribute to the discussion of its troubles. That territory has often been occupied by adherents of critical management studies. However, such perspectives have shared with normative models the mistaken assertion that HRM is primarily a cultural construct that focuses on the creation of employee commitment. This article makes a case for a political economy approach that situates HR troubles within the constraints of the accumulation regimes of financialised capitalism. Among the outcomes is a strengthening of market discipline rather than commitment as a driver of high performance. While challenging the assumption that HRM is a distinctive mode of managing the employment relationship, it seeks to identify some common grounds for dialogue between mainstream and critical approaches.

The trouble with HRM

The effective management of work/life balance (WLB) is an issue increasingly recognized as of strategic importance to organizations and of significance to employees. We argue that an organization's need to attract and retain valued employees in a highly competitive labour market is a strong motivating factor for increased organizational awareness and action with regard to implementation and management of WLB strategies. In this paper, we report the findings of three surveys conducted annually from 1997 to 2000 with organizations in Australia. We explore the range and usage of WLB strategies in Australian organizations and identify the barriers to those strategies. It is evident that, while some achievements have been made over the years, there remain substantial challenges for the uptake and management of WLB strategies.

Achievements and challenges for work/life balance strategies in Australian organizations

https://isiarticles.com/bundles/Article/pre/pdf/43968.pdf

What is the value of talent management? Building value-driven processes within a talent management architecture

Over the past two decades, scholarly interest in employer branding has strongly increased. Simultaneously, however, employer branding research has developed into a fragmented field with heterogeneous interpretations of the employer branding concept and its scope, which has impeded further theoretical and empirical advancement. To strengthen the foundation for future work, this paper takes a brand equity perspective to review the extant literature and create an integrative model of employer branding. Using an analytical approach, the authors identify 187 articles, which they integrate along different employer brand dimensions and branding strategies: (i) conceptual; (ii) employer knowledge dimensions; (iii) employer branding activities and strategies. On the basis of this review, the authors develop an employer branding value chain model and derive future research avenues as well as practical implications.

https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6773&context=lkcsb_research

Employer branding: A brand equity-based literature review and research agenda

Employer branding is becoming an increasingly important topic for research and practice in multinational enterprises (MNEs) because it plays directly into their corporate reputation, talent management and employee engagement agendas. In this paper, we argue that the potential effects of employer branding have yet to be fully understood because current theory and practice have failed to connect this internal application of marketing and branding to the key reputational and innovation agendas of MNEs, both of which are at the heart of another strategic agenda – effective corporate governance. However, these agendas are characterised by ‘wicked problems’ in MNEs, which have their origins in competing logics in strategic human resource management (SHRM). These problems need to be articulated and understood before they can be addressed. This paper proceeds by (1) setting out a definition and model of employer branding and how it potentially articulates with corporate governance, innovation and organisational r...

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Is there a bigger and better future for employer branding? Facing up to innovation, corporate reputations and wicked problems in SHRM

In the current Australian business climate a combination of demographic, labour market and competitive pressures has refocussed attention on the Human Resource Management (HRM) strategies used by organisations to recruit and retain employees. At the same time a range of social, cultural and business factors have placed work-life balance on the national agenda. In response, some organisations are developing employer branding strategies around their worklife balance (WLB) programs, largely in an attempt to attract and retain the best employees. For these organisations the focus of their external and internal communication messages to their existing and potential employees is around the promise of WLB policies and a supportive work-life culture. However very little is known about how employee’s receive and interpret these messages. We argue that the psychological contract concept provides a useful framework to examine employees’ perceptions of the promises and commitments made by organisations and their agents. In order to provide a theoretical framework to examine this, signalling and sensemaking theory will be used to develop a set of research propositions to examine the formation of the employee’s work-life balance psychological contract to stimulate future research directions.

Kerry Grigg

Papers

Is there a bigger and better future for employer branding? Facing up to innovation, corporate reputations and wicked problems in SHRM

The work-life balance psychological contract: Making sense of organisational signals

Managing corporate reputations, strategic human resource management and negative capabilities