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The article considers the utility of a pluralist perspective in the context of current debates around UK corporate governance reform. Oxford School pluralism advanced both a description of how industrial relations (IR) operated in practice plus a prescription for how it should operate. Whilst economic conditions are different today, a pluralist framing provides not only a useful way of understanding interests in firm governance (description) but also a solid grounding for a pragmatic reform agenda (prescription).

Drawing from key texts in the field, the article considers core concepts within pluralist discourse and discusses their relevance to contemporary policy debates.

The article provides a short outline of recent economic and political developments and considers how a pluralist framing helps explain firm-level interests, challenging the dominant narrative of shareholder primacy. It then asks what policy interventions might flow from this analysis of capital and labour investments, and how feasible they are in the current UK context. This allows a discussion of levels of analysis (evident in materialist theories such as “radical pluralism” and the “disconnected capitalism thesis”). Finally, it reflects briefly on the links between corporate governance and wider patterns of inequality, suggesting the pluralist position is consistent with a Durkheimian sociology focusing on the potential in state-led regulatory interventions to tackle anomie and strengthen social solidarity.

The article brings together literature from what are often treated as relatively discrete areas of enquiry (employment relations and corporate governance) and also considers the public policy implications of these connections.

This paper aims to explore how one industry leader in Indonesia addressed its hiring and training problems while simultaneously contributing to society through an human resource management (HRM)-led corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative involving a vocational education training (VET) intervention.

The VET case study, which is central to the paper, followed a four-stage action research design. Data were collected through series of consultations with the company’s top management, benchmarking companies, the vocational school, local community and government bodies.

The intervention reduced the company’s hiring and training problems and provided jobs for graduates which addressed local youth unemployment. This experience generated lessons on CSR strategic interventions which should be considered when HRM professionals are seeking to address simultaneously organisational and social objectives.

The study is based on a single case in a local setting in one country.

The study offers insights to HRM practitioners who face similar problems relating to upskilling, local talent supply and employee recruitment. The proposed framework is likely to be relevant to HRM practitioners who play a lead role in their organisations’ CSR initiatives.

The case provides a realistic example of how a company, through its HRM function, can play a meaningful role in addressing societal issues and strategic business objectives.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is an original case study based on primary data, conducted as action research.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the evolving perceptions and human resource (HR) responses of owners and HR managers of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) towards local labour markets in the context of the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

This study adopts a two-stage longitudinal qualitative approach involving 52 interviews with owners and HR managers of Chinese SMEs in the pre- and post-pandemic time periods.

The findings reveal a shift from the perceptions of a general labour shortage to perceptions of specialised talent shortages and increasing geographical disparities in local labour markets. They further reveal that SMEs are increasingly likely to adopt efficiency-oriented, flexibility-enhancing HR practices in the face of high uncertainty.

The findings provide insights into the nature of the constraints of SMEs' sustainable development that need to be addressed by policymakers, SME owners and HR managers when they devise and implement policies relating to structure optimisation, labour market integration and mobility enhancement.

In contrast to extant literature that has examined the labour market at the national level, this study explores the views of SMEs (the demand side) by taking a localised perspective on how SMEs have responded to change through their HR practices.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employees’ perceptions of HRM practices and two outcomes, namely, employee commitment and turnover intention (TI), in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in mainland China.

This paper adopts a quantitative approach based on a sample of 227 employees working in 24 SMEs in eastern and western China.

Employees’ perceptions of HRM practices, such as training and development, reward management and performance management, are significant predictors of employee commitment. A negative direct relationship is found between employees’ perceptions about the use of HRM practices and TIs.

Although data were collected from two representative provinces of eastern and western China, the size of the sample may limit the generalisability of the findings to the wider region.

The relationship between employees’ perceptions of HRM practices and employee outcomes in Chinese SMEs provides an effective way for SME owners and HR practitioners to generate desirable employee attitudes and behaviours, which, ultimately contribute to improving organisational performance.

This is an original paper which makes a contribution by helping to address the dearth of studies which have explored aspects of the effectiveness of HRM in SMEs in China. In contrast to the majority of China-focussed studies on this topic, it highlights HRM outcomes at the individual level rather than the organisational level. Further, the study involves SMEs in western China which is an under-explored region.

The purpose of this paper is to explore employers' perceptions of China's Labour Contract Law (LCL) and its influence on employment relations and human resource management practices in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This paper adopts a qualitative approach based on 24 interviews with owners and human resource managers of 23 privately owned SMEs in eastern and western China.

Mixed levels of reported compliance with the provisions of the LCL legislation indicate that the regulatory adoptive behaviours of SME employers are partially explained by the coercive mechanism. Various strategies adopted by employers suggest that when under the pressure of law, SMEs are formalising their employment practices while simultaneously seeking to maintain a degree of informality in respect these practices.

The adopted qualitative approach may limit the findings to be explorative within broader national contexts.

The move towards more formalised practices helps to address issues such as high turnover and widespread labour shortage in SMEs. The paper is likely to be of interest to policymakers seeking to gain insights into employers' perceptions as a means to develop more effective labour regulations.

Unlike most of existing literature examining the general compliance to the LCL and workers' perspectives, this paper reports the views of SME employers; as such, it offers an original contribution to understanding of the role and behaviours of SME employers in regulatory responses in the studied context.

Drawing on the social exchange theory, this study aims to explore line managers' perceptions of diversity management, as well as their perceptions of their role and responsibilities in shaping and implementing diversity practices. The senior management's leadership support, as it is perceived by line managers, in assisting them to manage diversity successfully is also examined.

Semi-structured interviews with 51 line managers across different sectors in the UK were conducted to address the following three research questions. First, how do line managers perceive diversity management? Second, what are the actual roles and responsibilities of line managers in shaping diversity practices' implementation? Third, how do leadership interactions within the organisation influence line managers' perceptions of diversity practices?

Line managers present high levels of personal determination and commitment towards diversity supplemented by a consensus on the strategic role of leadership in relation to diversity management. In addition, poor levels of organisational support, leadership values and style are identified; all highly related to their ability to deliver results and, most importantly, to form effective relationships in the workplace.

Data included line managers' views but not senior managers' perspectives, thus limiting the study in identifying the holistic impact of social exchanges in shaping effective relations. In addition, quantitative research could test and enhance the generalisability of existing findings.

Investing in social relationships can positively influence line managers' ability to deliver results. Action is required at the organisational level by senior management to support and recognise line managers' critical roles to enable them to apply and promote diversity management.

These findings address a theoretical gap relating to the evaluation of the critical role played by line managers in the delivery of diversity practices. The study further demonstrates how social exchange relationships can influence line managers' perceptions of diversity management, an unexplored area within the diversity literature.

In recognising the weakness of trade unions and the lack of an institutional framework designed to enforce employee rights in an African context, the purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which human resource (HR) practitioners are perceived to play the role of employee advocate.

The quantitative data set is derived from a sample of 305 respondents (95 HR practitioners, 121 line managers and 89 employees) from Malawi.

Despite the challenges of the context, HR practitioners are perceived by key stakeholders (including line managers and employees) to be playing the role of employee advocate. Standard multiple regression results indicate that the main factor contributing to the perception that HR practitioners are playing this role is their contribution to “motivating employees”.

The study was conducted in Malawi. Further research is necessary to explore the generalisability of the findings to other contexts.

The findings provide an empirical base for future studies which explore perceptions of the employee advocacy role undertaken by HR practitioners in Africa.

Reports and experiences suggest that several developing African economies are faced with entrepreneurial-impeding forces such as lengthy bureaucratic processes and poor regulatory space. The study examines a general trend in “doing business performance” among selected African countries and uses the case of Ghana to explore how particular indicators or forces affect the development and deployment of small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) policies.

Comparative analysis of six African economies on their ease of doing business score. This is followed by a critical review of the literature to develop a six-point explanatory framework to explore the relative position of the six countries on the ease of doing business scores. Using Ghana as a critical case study, the authors deploy an in-depth case study analysis via in-depth interviews of relevant stakeholders to validate the information from secondary sources.

The study observes that the nature of leadership, socio-cultural imperatives, economic structure and policy and the role of domestic institutional players and international players have implications for the extent to which the state creates an enabling environment for SMEs and entrepreneurial activities. The role of supportive cultural software that will help drive SME and entrepreneurial growth has been established. The study contends that different aspects of national culture do have implications for the tendency for people to be business-minded or to have the ability to take risks. The demand and supply sides are crucial in promoting SME growth.

The study develops a framework that helps explore elements to help explain ease of doing business scores and the viability of SMEs in Africa. These elements were validated through qualitative interviews as well.

Having the right intent, aspiration, ability and attitude to become an entrepreneur has become the mantra in the extant literature to be driver of entrepreneurship and small and medium enterprise (SME) growth. Why would zealous and ambitious individuals with all rightful attributes so required of entrepreneurs have to fizzle out few years after venturing into business or SMEs? Perhaps these same individuals may relocate to other jurisdictions and would establish successful firms even beyond their imaginations. Beyond the individual’s entrepreneurial attributes, there are other external countervailing forces which either “enable” or “impede” entrepreneurial drive and SME growth processes. Adopting the theory of planned behavior, this study conceptualizes a systems framework to analyze how SMEs either flourish or fail in developing countries.

The study relies on secondary sources of data. It adopts a critical stage review of secondary data.

The study argues that the interplay of “internal factors” and “external factors” of prospective entrepreneurs provides a useful framework to explain the general SME outlook of an economy. The study postulates that many internally driven prospective SME entrants (with entrepreneurial attitudes, abilities and aspirations) mostly in the developing economies may have their dreams shattered because of obstructive external ecological elements which tend to frustrate new business entrants as well as existing ones.

With the aid of a framework, this study conceptualizes a comprehensive framework to analyze how SMEs either flourish or fail in developing countries.

This article argues that critical realism (CR) offers an ontological position suited to understanding the dynamic relations between multinational companies (MNCs) and the complex political spaces within which they operate. After outlining the core assumptions of CR, the key arguments are elaborated through two case studies which focus on issues of staffing and expatriation. The first case concerns recent developments in the Middle East, highlighting the shifting reality of nationality-based definitions of staffing the MNC, and the second examines the internationalisation of Chinese firms, exploring the way MNCs restructure space to retain access to home-country advantages.