The increased diversity in Ontario workplaces, the benefits and challenges that diversity presents to organizations, and initiatives to increase awareness and make our workplaces more inclusive have been an important focus of Canadian businesses and their human resource professionals over the past several decades.
Recognizing that the state of the human resources (HR) profession is changing, in Canada and around the globe, Queen's IRC sought to explore both quantitatively and qualitatively how Canadian practitioners view their profession. In February 2011, we launched a 53-question survey, "An Inquiry into the State of HR in Canada." The purpose of the survey was to describe the HR profession in Canada, based on the perspectives of practitioners.
How can the CEO and HR department find their common ground? CEO Paul Johnson advises that organizations can’t save their way to greatness – they grow their way to greatness. This requires developing a clear strategy and investing in good tools to make it all happen: your people. Ultimately, this is how the CEO and …
You would think, in this money-mad society, that most people make their big work-related decisions on the basis of maximizing their compensation. And you would be wrong. In fact, social scientists will tell you that most people satisfice; that is, they choose an action that is merely “good enough” rather than optimal. For example, when …
Back in 1999, Queen’s IRC Senior Research Fellow Dr. David Weiss offered a far-reaching view of the forces affecting human resources management. A decade later, David takes a look back and a prescient look forward to make sense of the rapid changes in the profession. What does he see?
When it comes to psychological harassment and bullying in the workplace, targets report that HR departments often make a bad situation much worse, says Jana Raver, Queen’s School of Business Assistant Professor and E. Marie Shantz Research Fellow in Organizational Behaviour. An active researcher in the field, Raver gave an overview of harassment and bullying …
Bullying in the Workplace: Doing Nothing Is Not a Neutral Act Read More »
In this current difficult economic climate, many organizations are facing the unfortunate necessity to downsize and streamline. Astute executives and HR managers, many of whom have been through previous rounds of downsizing, realize that they must approach it carefully because both research and experience have shown that there are many negative consequences to this process. …
Downsizing Your Organization? Lessons from the Trenches Read More »
Succession planning is particularly important in government, if only because public sector employees tend to retire earlier than those in the private sector. But a study of 34 Ontario municipalities shows that senior municipal leaders are paying lip service to succession planning, mostly because other issues seem more pressing.
Increasingly, human resources practitioners are being challenged to help break down barriers to the participation of employees with disabilities. Those barriers, alas, are proving tough to overcome. Certainly a growing percentage of people with disabilities are finding work, according to the latest Statistics Canada report Participation and Activity Limitation Survey (PALS) 2006: Labour force experience …
Dealing With the Disabled: Are HR Leaders Up to the Challenge? Read More »
Jay Handelman, Director of the Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) at Queen’s School of Business, says CSR presents the ideal opportunity for HR practitioners to become strategic partners in their organizations. Read on to learn more about CSR, HR’s role in driving it, and why managers are not yet embracing it with open arms. …
Corporate Social Responsibility: The Void HR Has To Fill Read More »
Employee engagement is a top HR priority for the Ontario Public Service (OPS), says Richard McKinnell, a senior OPS manager and the 2006 Amethyst Fellow at the Queen’s University School of Policy Studies. Richard – former Assistant Deputy Minister in Corporate Services Division, and a Director of Communications for several ministries, including the Centre for …
This study investigates managers’ perceptions toward employees with varying medical conditions during a request for workplace accommodation. Workplace accommodation is likely to be viewed as unwarranted by co-workers and supervisors when it comes to individuals with psychiatric illnesses, and companies feel that it was easier to accommodate people with physical disabilities versus those with mental …
Queen’s IRC Facilitator Lucinda Bray is a management development consultant based in Dublin, Ireland. In the following piece, she muses on the brilliant cultural chaos of the European Commission workforce. The Head of the Department is Italian, who also speaks fluent French and passable English. Her deputy is from Finland, and has excellent English and …
This discussion paper reports on research that looked at whether the relationship between employee intention to quit and human resource management (HRM) changed based on union membership. The investigation first considered whether HRM reduced or increased an employee’s intention to quit. Next, the moderating effect of union membership on the relationship between HRM and quit …
What do top leaders want from HR professionals? The following information, drawn from the author’s ongoing research, provides valuable insight into what CEOs think HR managers are doing well and what competencies need developing. In general, the CEOs agreed that their HR departments did a good job in the transactional aspects of their work but …
Jana Raver, Assistant Professor and E. Marie Shantz, Research Fellow in Organizational Behaviour at the Queen’s School of Business, is an expert in counterproductive behaviours at work. We spoke to her upon the release of her ground-breaking study, “Beyond the individual victim: Linking sexual harassment, team processes, and team performance.” Managers and leaders may be …
Christina Sutcliffe, Queen’s IRC Research Associate, chats with Prof. Nick Turner of Queen’s School of Business on the link between organizational design and health and safety “You can’t direct people into perfection; you can only engage them enough so that they want to do perfect work” —Margaret Wheatley, consultant, author, and President of The Berkana …
Employee ownership (EO) usually generates two extreme reactions: EO is the greatest thing since sliced bread, or EO is hopelessly idealistic. Queen’s IRC Director Dr. Carol Beatty spent seven years studying 10 companies with employee ownership and published what she learned in the highly entertaining book, “Employee Ownership: The New Source of Competitive Advantage.” In …
Why is there no consensus about best practices for managing individual employee performance (IEP) in unionized workplaces? This paper discusses the reasons, investigating the success of collectivist or high-performance work systems; why managers and unions need to address IEP issues and what’s in it for them; what academic research says about best practices; and workable …
This study of the strategies of 44 Canadian companies with active merger and acquisition programs provides clear understanding of common “people problems” related to failed mergers.
This study highlights the importance of the proactive management of HR issues and offers detailed practical advice to practitioners.
The author, Julie Anderson, wrote a paper on people management during mergers and acquisitions. This information sheet is extracted from that paper, and discusses the human factors that can be responsible for merger failures.
This examination of the merger of two beer companies provides insights about the human impact of mergers, as well as merger principles for HR professionals.
Once believed to be strictly an administrative function low on management's priority list, the human resource function is increasingly involved in strategic management decisions. Intense competitive pressures are forcing it to reexamine its structure, the services it provides, and the competencies it requires. As a result, HR is looking at outsourcing as a way to reduce its workload and concentrate on strategic core functions. Interviews with nine HR executives reported in this study provide a snapshot of how Canadian organizations and their HR functions are changing to cope with the new economic environment.
There has been very little research addressing the relationship between human resource practices and organizational strategy and culture. Among the questions that frequently arise are: what practices have other organizations implemented?, what HRM practices and organizational strategies distinguish successful and unsuccessful organizations?, and what is the impact of strategy and culture on the success of HRM practices and organizational behaviour? The present study is aimed at addressing these questions.