Robin Kramar

This paper examines human resource management ( HRM ) policies within five countries in the A sia P acific region – A ustralia, J apan, N ew Z ealand, P hilippines and T aiwan. We examine whether HRM in these countries is similar to the idealised model of strategic HRM , largely developed in the U nited S tates of A merica ( USA ), or whether HRM in this region has its own characteristics. We also investigate whether there are broad similarities or differences between the HRM policies of these countries. Drawing on data from the C ranet survey of comparative HRM , we found that HR practice within these five countries was indeed similar to strategic HRM , but that there were also important differences, both between Asia P acific HRM and the general model of strategic HRM and between HRM in the five countries.

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) emerged as a dominant approach to human resource management (HRM) policy during the past 30 years. However, during the last decade, a new approach to HRM has evolved. This approach has been labelled sustainable human resource management (sustainable HRM). It is an approach that seeks to link HRM and sustainability. The term sustainability is fraught with semantic difficulties, as is conceptualising its relationship to HRM. Consequently, sustainable HRM is viewed in a variety of ways. This paper examines the major features of SHRM, some of the meanings given to sustainability and the relationship between sustainability and HRM. It then outlines the major characteristics of sustainable HRM. Although there are a diversity of views about sustainable HRM, this approach has a number of features which differentiate it from SHRM. It acknowledges organisational outcomes, which are broader than financial outcomes. All the writings emphasise the importance of human and social outcomes. In addition, it explicitly identifies the negative as well as the positive effects of HRM on a variety of stakeholders; it pays further attention to the processes associated with the implementation of HRM policies and acknowledges the tensions in reconciling competing organisational requirements. Such an approach takes an explicit moral position about the desired outcomes of organisational practices in the short term and the long term. Sustainable HRM can be understood in terms of a number of complimentary frameworks.

Diversity management is a term that has become increasingly popular and well established in organisations in A ustralia. However, it is a term which has no single definition. This article examines the variety of concepts, processes and models of diversity management in the international context. It also examines the practice of diversity management in A ustralia and highlights the inconsistencies present in the operation of diversity management in private and public sector organisations. The final section explores some of the challenges and future research directions for diversity management.

This article examines the trends in A ustralian human resource management ( HRM ) policies in the last fifty years. It briefly reports on the practices used in the period from the 1960s to the early 1990s and provides a brief description of the characteristics of the concept of strategic human resource management ( SHRM ). The article then examines the results of four surveys co‐ordinated by the C ranet N etwork and conducted in A ustralia between 1996 and 2008–09. These surveys show there have been strong trends of HRM policies becoming more calculative and individual, a reduction in the role of collective organisations, the adoption of some HRM policies regarded as more effective than others and the development of the roles of HRM managers and HRM departments. There was increasing use of flexible working practices, greater use of performance appraisals, the development of policies such as career planning methods, career break schemes and targeting older workers and women. The representation of human resource managers on boards increased between 1996 and 2008–09.