HRD challenges faced in the post-global financial crisis period – insights from the UK

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 86-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Rose Keeble-Ramsay ◽  
Andrew Armitage

Purpose – The paper aims to report initial empirical research that examines UK employees’ perceptions of the changing nature of work since the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) to consider how the financial context may have constrained HRD practice and more sustainable approaches. Design/methodology/approach – Focus group research was facilitated through collective group discussion. Through template analysis of the findings, thematic analysis was undertaken to extend prior research. Themes used by Hassard et al. (2009) in terms of the changing nature of the workplace between 2000 and 2008, were used to provide new data on HRD realities. Findings – Participants reported diminishing personal control over changes within the workplace and a cultural shift towards a harsher work climate. HRD was considered as silenced or absent and associated solely with low cost-based e-learning rather than acting in strategic role supporting sustainable business objectives. Research limitations/implications – Whilst providing only indications from employee perceptions, the research identifies a weakened HRD function. The key contribution of this paper lies with empirical evidence of post-GFC constraints placed upon HRD strategies. It further identifies whether alternative development approaches, mediated by organisational learning capabilities, might emancipate UK HRD. Social implications – This paper engenders a debate around the status of HRD within the UK organisations, further to the global financial crisis (GFC), where HRD might be viewed as at a juncture to argue a need for a shift from a financialised mode for people management towards one of greater people focus. Originality/value – This research provides initial findings of the impact of the economic climate. It considers new approaches which might resolve expiring HRD through more sustainable practices.

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-38

Purpose – This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies. Design/methodology/approach – This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context. Findings – Participants reported diminishing personal control over changes within the workplace and a cultural shift toward a harsher working climate in the UK following the global financial crisis. Human resource development was considered as silenced or absent and associated solely with low cost-based e-learning rather than acting in a strategic role to support sustainable business objectives. Practical implications – The paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world’s leading organizations. Originality/value – The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 1827-1845
Author(s):  
Mehmet Asutay ◽  
Jaizah Othman

Purpose The global financial crisis of 2008 still has an impact on the financial systems around the world, for which funding liquidity has been mentioned as one of the main concerns during that period. This study aims to consider the impact of and extent to which the funding structure of Islamic banks along with deposit structure, macroeconomic variables, other bank-specific variables, including alternative funding mix variables (in terms of funding structure measured as financing/deposit ratio), could play a part in explaining the financial conditions and predicting the failures and performances of Islamic banks in the case of Malaysia under the distress created by the global financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach Multivariate logit model was used with a sample including 17 full-fledged Islamic banks in Malaysia for the period from December 2005 to September 2010 by using quarterly data. Findings This study found that the funding mix variable (financing/deposit ratio), the composition of deposits, alternative bank-specific variables and alternative funding mix variables are statistically significant. In contrast, none of the macroeconomic variables is found to have a significant impact on bank liquidity. In the final models, the variables that showed significant performance were selected as explanatory variables. The results of McFadden R-squared for both selected models showed an excellent fit to predict the Islamic banks’ performance. Originality/value This empirical study contributes to the literature in two ways: to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine the role of the funding structures of Islamic banks in determining their performance; and it also examines the effect of deposit composition (the mudharabah and non-mudharabah deposits) on Islamic banks’ performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (9) ◽  
pp. 1708-1728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vijay Pereira ◽  
Kamel Mellahi ◽  
Yama Temouri ◽  
Swetketu Patnaik ◽  
Mohammad Roohanifar

Purpose This paper aims to analyse the impact of dynamic capability (DC) of emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) on their firm technological performance by teasing out the concepts of agility and knowledge management (KM) through DC. Design/methodology/approach Evidence from this study is contextualised on EMNEs that operate in the UK, Germany and France. This study examines the investment in intangible assets which EMNEs use to develop their DC over the period 2005-2016 and how this leads to increased firm technological performance. Findings Results show that higher investments in DC allow EMNEs to be more agile and gain competencies through KM and thereby sustain competitiveness in the three leading European countries. This research also identifies which EMNE groupings show greater technological performance and how such EMNE groupings are able to translate dynamic capabilities into greater technological performance compared to others over time. In summary, the role of DC during of the global financial crisis was also examined, where they are required to be more agile. Originality/value This paper sheds light on a novel way and motivation of successful EMNEs in using developed host countries as a location for generating DC through agility and KM.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-196
Author(s):  
Saad Almohammed Alrayes

Purpose The global financial crisis of 2007-2008 prompted a significant debate on corporate governance and shareholder empowerment. A question arises as to whether shareholders ought to be further empowered to have a greater influence over the companies’ activities. Yet, it is not self-evident that shareholder empowerment ensures better-run companies’ corporate activities. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to critically examine, identify and explain the corporate regulation forms and control collectively to evaluate the effectiveness of shareholder empowerment fully. Design/methodology/approach To do so, this paper sets out a comparative analysis approach between two jurisdictions, the UK and Delaware in the USA. The paper further addresses by undertaking three case studies; Barclays Plc which illustrated the Comply or Explain role, AVIVA (2012) that concentrated on the impact of the shareholder revolt, and the case of Hills Stores Co. v. Bozic (2000), which involved a claim brought by shareholders on the grounds of a breach of fiduciary duty. Findings This paper argues that the shareholder empowerment theoretically provides an effective means through which corporate activities can be regulated. However, to do this, account must be taken that a distinction should be made between long-term and short-term investors to encourage shareholder engagement by responsible long-term investors. Furthermore, the shareholders can exercise their powers effectively and influence the Board’s decision to award executive compensation. Originality/value This paper offered two distinct contributions: assessing whether in times of crisis shareholder empowerment represents a way to regulate corporate activities and by assessing the distinction between the perception of shareholder empowerment and the reality in practice.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giacomo Morri ◽  
Andrea Artegiani

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test whether the financial crisis has affected the capital structure of real estate companies in Europe and whether these impacts can be studied utilizing the variables traditionally used by the trade-off and pecking-order theories to explain the capital structure of companies. Design/methodology/approach – The study uses a fixed-effect panel regression analysis and a sample composed of companies included in the EPRA/NAREIT Europe Index. The effect of the financial crisis has been accounted for within the model by means of a dummy variable. Findings – The global financial crisis did have an impact on the capital structure of companies and the main variables traditionally used by the trade-off and pecking order theories proved to be suitable in explaining the capital structure of real estate companies. Real estate investment trusts are, on average, more leveraged than traditional real estate companies due to their special regulatory status. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to the European market and UK companies in particular account for a large part of the sample. In addition, major regulatory differences between the various European countries are not taken into account in the model. Originality/value – Similar studies have been performed for the US and Australian market. However, the impact of the global financial crisis has not been traditionally considered in these studies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carole Elliott ◽  
Valerie Stead

A continuing challenge for organizations is the persistent underrepresentation of women in senior roles, which gained a particular prominence during the global financial crisis (GFC). The GFC has raised questions regarding the forms of leadership that allowed the crisis to happen and alternative proposals regarding how future crises might be avoided. Within this context women’s leadership has been positioned as an ethical alternative to styles of masculinist leadership that led to the crisis in the first place. Through a multimodal discursive analysis this article examines the socio-cultural assumptions sustaining the gendering of leadership in the popular press to critically analyse how women’s leadership is represented during the GFC of 2008–2012. Highlighting the media’s portrayal of women’s leadership as a gendered field of activity where different forms of gender capital come into play, we identify three sets of dialectics: women as leaders and women as feminine, women as credible leaders and women as lacking in credibility, and women as victims and women as their own worst enemies. Together, the dialectics work together to form a discursive pattern framed by a male leadership model that narrates the promise of women leaders, yet the disappointment that they are not men. Our study extends understandings regarding how female and feminine forms of gender capital operate dialectically, where the media employs feminine capital to promote women’s positioning as leaders yet also leverages female capital as a constraint. We propose that this understanding can be of value to organizations to understand the impact and influence of discourse on efforts to promote women into leadership roles.


2015 ◽  
Vol 30 (4/5) ◽  
pp. 302-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Alexeyeva ◽  
Tobias Svanström

Purpose – The paper aims to investigate audit and non-audit fees during the global financial crisis (GFC) in an environment that is relatively sparsely regulated with regard to the provision of non-audit services. Design/methodology/approach – Audit and non-audit fees were studied during pre-GFC (2006-2007), GFC (2008-2009) and post-GFC (2010-2011) periods. Findings – During the GFC, Swedish companies benefited from an increase in sales and total assets, although return on assets decreased. In this setting, the auditors charged higher audit fees compared with the pre-GFC period, despite the absence of increased audit reporting lags. A significant increase in audit fees continued during the post-crisis periods with auditors paying more attention to companies’ leverage and whether they report losses. At the same time, the companies spent less on non-audit services. Research limitations/implications – This study is limited to companies from Sweden, which was less affected by the GFC. Practical implications – GFC auditors are able to charge higher audit fees to public companies including those that are well-performing during financial crises, and they are also able to increase the audit fees in the post-crisis period. This implies that auditors put in extra audit effort to compensate for higher risk, or that they are good at negotiating prices with their clients. However, non-audit fees decreased during the same period, implying that the demand for these services drops under financial instability. Originality/value – The study highlights auditors’ behavior in the liberal economic environment and it studies both audit fees and non-audit fees before GFC, during GFC and after the GFC. The GFC appears to have provided audit firms the opportunity to extract higher audit fees. Our findings are of interest to managers, auditors and regulators.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-79
Author(s):  
Gianluca Mattarocci ◽  
Georgios Siligardos

Purpose – The overall performance of real estate funds can be ascribed to capital appreciation and/or income return. The Italian property funds market has grown significantly over the past few years; however, little is known about the key drivers of property fund performance. The purpose of this paper is to measure the impact of two sources of funds’ performance and identify their relevance during the financial crisis. Design/methodology/approach – The paper considers the Italian market in the last decade and analyses the annual reports of public real estate funds, separating appraisal returns from income returns. By considering a wide time horizon, it evaluates if the roles of income returns and capital gains with respect to overall performance are more or less influenced by fund characteristics, such as asset diversification, concentration, and leverage. Findings – The contribution of income return and capital growth are not strictly related to the overall performance of Italian real estate funds, with a significantly lower correlation during the global financial crisis. Furthermore, the main drivers of the two income sources are not strictly comparable. Originality/value – The paper presents the first analysis on the source of income return for the Italian real estate funds and it represents one of the few studies that considers the effect of the financial crisis on European indirect real estate investments, capital appreciation and income return.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhamad Abduh

Purpose This study aims to investigate the volatility of conventional and Islamic indices and to explore the impact of the global financial crisis toward the volatility of both markets in Malaysia. Design/methodology/approach The data consist of financial times stock exchange group (FTSE) Bursa Malaysia Kuala Lumpur Composite Index and FTSE Bursa Malaysia Hijrah-Shari‘ah Index covering the period January 2008-October 2014. Generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity is used to find the volatility of the two markets and an ordinary least square model is then used to investigate the impact of the crisis toward the volatility of those markets. Findings Interestingly, the result shows that Islamic index is less volatile during the crisis compared to the conventional index. Furthermore, the crisis is proven to significantly affect the volatility of conventional index in the short run and Islamic index in the long run. Originality/value This study explores the volatility–financial crisis nexus, especially for the Islamic financial markets, which to the best of the author’s knowledge, is still lacking empirical research which may improve the understanding upon this issue.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alain Coën ◽  
Benoit Lefebvre

PurposeThe aim of this study is to shed light on the relative importance of money supply and exchange rates variations on office markets prices dynamics.Design/methodology/approachUsing a parsimonious real estate asset pricing model, the authors focus on the two biggest European office markets; namely the United Kingdom and Germany. The authors use a panel approach based on a robust econometric methodology (GMM with correction errors-in-variables). The authors take into account the variations of exchange rates and money supplies for the most important currencies.FindingsThe results highlight the impact of money supplies and exchange rates on office prices after the Global Financial Crisis. The authors report that the monetary policies in the UK and in Germany (Euro zone) have had significant influences in the real estate sector after the Global Financial Crisis. However, the authors identified significant differences between British and German office markets for the 2009–2019 period regarding the impact of money supply and exchange rates variations on the office prices dynamics.Practical implicationsThe results highlight the impact of money supplies and exchange rates on office prices after the Global Financial Crisis. The detailed and exclusive database (composed of the main office markets in the United Kingdom and in Germany) allows the authors to identify significant differences and opportunities for investors.Originality/valueThe authors use a parsimonious model and apply a panel approach based on a robust econometric methodology to analyse the impact of exchange rates and money supply variations on the office prices dynamics. The detailed and exclusive database (composed of the main office markets in the United Kingdom and in Germany) allows the authors to identify significant differences for investors.


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