Compromise may undermine UN peace and security reform

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Member State ◽  
Resistance To Change ◽  
Middle Management ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Security Architecture ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Peace And Security

Subject Reform of the UN's peace and security architecture. Significance UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was elected on a reform agenda, including promises to transform arguably the UN’s most prominent public face: its peace and security architecture. However, there are growing indications that his vision is being diluted by a combination of bureaucratic resistance and member state divisions, despite general support for this agenda. Impacts The UN will remain hobbled by a human resources system that is inefficient, opaque and lacks accountability. Frustrations among UN staff who feel unsupported in personal or career development may undermine efficiency. Stagnation and lack of leadership skills in UN middle management may exacerbate resistance to change.

Guterres reforms shake up UN agency dynamics

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Member State ◽  
Financial Institutions ◽  
Development Assistance ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
International Financial Institutions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Development System ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Reform Plan ◽  
State Representatives

Significance Member state representatives are expected to use the opportunity to debate long-awaited reforms to the UN development system and make it clear which elements of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s ambitious reform plan they support -- and whether they will provide the funds needed to implement it. Impacts Authority over UN development assistance will become more centralised within the UN Secretariat, as opposed to the agencies. Even with modest reform, UN agencies will remain more fragmented and less efficient than international financial institutions. Countries hoping to raise their UN stature may back Guterres’s reform agenda by financing the proposed Resident Coordinator system.

Doing less with less? Peacekeeping retrenchment and the UN's protection of civilians agenda

2020 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-82
Author(s):  
Timothy Donais ◽  
Eric Tanguay
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
State Level ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
The Other ◽  
Security Architecture ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Peacekeeping Operations ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The One

The United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres’s Action for Peacekeeping initiative represents the latest in a series of efforts to make the UN’s peace and security architecture “fit for the future.” The Action for Peacekeeping initiative, however, has exposed two seemingly contradictory tendencies at work in contemporary peacekeeping. On the one hand, peacekeeping operations are increasingly expected to be lean, efficient, and performance-focused. On the other, expansive protection of civilians (PoC) mandates, which entail everything from predicting and pre-empting attacks against civilians to reforming state-level security institutions, are becoming increasingly central to contemporary peacekeeping. In this paper, we will suggest that as currently framed, the UN’s peacekeeping reform agenda—driven at least in part by downward budgetary pressures—will inevitably increase the gap between promise and performance with regard to PoC, with serious implications for the credibility and legitimacy of UN missions among the populations they are mandated to protect.

Trump-Guterres alliance may deliver UN reform

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
New York ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
Development Projects ◽  
Member States ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Development System ◽  
Un Reform ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Major Reform

Significance The meeting comes shortly after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres published an ambitious blueprint for reform of the UN development system -- the product of months of internal reviews, and one of three major reform streams proposed by Guterres upon assuming office. This week’s event resulted in 128 UN member states signing a pledge to support reform. The headlines have highlighted Trump’s role in bringing this to pass. Arguably, this more accurately reflects a deft move by Guterres in letting Trump put his imprimatur on Guterres’s own plans, increasing his leverage to achieve changes that have proved elusive for years. Impacts The reforms would further concentrate UN decision-making in New York at the expense of Geneva and Vienna. Efficiency of development projects could rise if donors commit funding for longer periods and with fewer strings attached. Guterres’s other proposed reforms, on peace and security and on management, may prove more controversial.

Politics impedes Indonesian leader's 2014-19 agenda

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Tax Policies ◽  
Economic Nationalism ◽  
Foreign Investors ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reform Agenda ◽  
Transportation Projects ◽  
Public Revenue ◽  
Bureaucratic Reform

Subject Political constraints to Jokowi's reform agenda. Significance In recent speeches, especially his state of the nation address and the budget speech last month, Jokowi has stressed the need for wide-ranging economic reform, particularly investment in infrastructure and human resources, deregulation, bureaucratic reform and corruption eradication programmes. The tone and emphasis of these reform-focused speeches have differed significantly from last year's statements, where rhetoric of economic nationalism dominated. Impacts Falling public revenue will strengthen the finance ministry's resolve to pursue major corporates such as Google for tax. This will be popular politically, but would rattle foreign investors concerned about unpredictable tax policies. The outcome of the 2017 Jakarta gubernatorial elections holds the key to important transportation projects underway in the capital.

The good, the bad, and the ugly: organizational effectivity in human resources processes

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
María de Guadalupe GG Gaytán-Jiménez ◽  
Carlos Eduardo López-Hernández ◽  
Jaqueline Cordero-Estefan
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Graduate School ◽  
Human Resources Management ◽  
Leadership Skills ◽  
Travel Agency ◽  
Executive Education ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
Strategic Human Resources ◽  
Academic Level

Learning outcomes Students are expected to achieve identify the prerequisites and basic to an institutionalization process; prioritize strategic human resources processes as a basis for the growth of the company; analyze the importance of the stages in human resources management; define the areas of opportunity and their respective action plans; and propose the leadership skills that a leader requires. Case overview/synopsis Tramuntana® is a travel agency that stands out for being a prime service, which is promoted by its own customers. Its founder wishes to institutionalize his company. The main problem in which they face to grow and consolidate is to maintain their human resources, and in which they cannot be retained, and therefore, do not have a solid structure. Complexity academic level Undergraduate and Graduate School of Business and executive education. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 1: Accounting and Finance.

Trygve Lie, 1946–1953

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Jenny Ravndal
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Security Council ◽  
The United States ◽  
Secretary General ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Political Role ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Political Negotiation

This chapter explores all aspects of Trygve Lie’s interaction with the Security Council, beginning with his appointment process and the negotiation of the relative domains of the Council and the Secretary-General. This was a time when the working methods of the UN system were rapidly evolving through political negotiation and responses to external crises. It examines Lie’s personality and character, how he viewed his own responsibilities in the maintenance of international peace and security as crises arose, the legal and political tools he developed and exercised, and his changing relationship with individual permanent members and the six elected members. In the emerging Cold War, Lie’s position in the Security Council would be determined in particular by his relationships with the United States and the Soviet Union. Taking initiative in response to external crises in Iran, Palestine, Berlin, and Korea, Lie succeeded in laying foundations for an expanded political role for the Secretary-General.

Business strategy, performance appraisal and organizational results

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Bayo-Moriones ◽  
Jose Enrique Galdon-Sanchez ◽  
Sara Martinez-de-Morentin
Keyword(s):  
Firm Performance ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Performance Appraisal ◽  
Competitive Strategy ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Robust Regression ◽  
Innovation Strategy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Developmental Performance

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to analyze how the design of performance appraisal is influenced by the competitive strategy of the firm. Then, this paper examines if the alignment between appraisal and strategy impacts firm performance.Design/methodology/approachThe study sample includes 258 Spanish firms in the manufacturing and services sectors. This information was gathered through questionnaires addressed to the CEO and the senior human resources manager. Several econometric models are estimated, using robust regression analysis and including a set of relevant control variables.FindingsA positive relationship is found between an innovation strategy and developmental performance appraisal. A cost strategy has a negative impact on the adoption of developmental performance appraisal. The findings also confirm that firms with a quality strategy and developmental appraisal have higher performance. In addition, firms adopting an innovation strategy and administrative appraisal enjoy higher return of equity.Research limitations/implicationsFuture research should analyze the dynamics of the relationships between appraisal, strategy and performance to rule out the flaws of cross-sectional data. Another potential extension is the analysis of the interactions of the design of other human resources management practices with both competitive strategy and firm performance.Practical implicationsFirms can improve performance by aligning performance appraisal design with strategy. Those with an innovation strategy should choose administrative appraisal, and those competing on quality should focus on developmental appraisal.Originality/valueThis paper compares the theoretical recommendations on performance appraisal for different competitive strategies, what firms actually do, and the impact that the alignment between appraisal and strategy has on firm performance.

Feasibility study of automatically performing the concrete delivery dispatching through machine learning techniques

2015 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 573-590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojtaba Maghrebi ◽  
Claude Sammut ◽  
S. Travis Waller
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Human Resources ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
Mixing Process ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Practical Solution ◽  
Learning Techniques ◽  
Ready Mixed Concrete ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the implementation of machine learning (ML) techniques in order to automatically measure the feasibility of performing ready mixed concrete (RMC) dispatching jobs. Design/methodology/approach – Six ML techniques were selected and tested on data that was extracted from a developed simulation model and answered by a human expert. Findings – The results show that the performance of most of selected algorithms were the same and achieved an accuracy of around 80 per cent in terms of accuracy for the examined cases. Practical implications – This approach can be applied in practice to match experts’ decisions. Originality/value – In this paper the feasibility of handling complex concrete delivery problems by ML techniques is studied. Currently, most of the concrete mixing process is done by machines. However, RMC dispatching still relies on human resources to complete many tasks. In this paper the authors are addressing to reconstruct experts’ decisions as only practical solution.

Configurational examination of successful human resources outsourcing

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 1681-1697
Author(s):  
Thuy Thi Thanh Nguyen ◽  
Man-Ling Chang
Keyword(s):  
Human Resources ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Task Interdependence ◽  
It Use ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Provider Quality ◽  
Core Condition ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The causal conditions leading to successful human resources outsourcing (HRO) have until now attracted only limited research attention. To address this shortcoming, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how a firm and a HR provider should work together to ensure successful HRO. Design/methodology/approach By applying a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, the authors demonstrate how combining in different ways provider quality, business understanding, trust, and closed HRO networks can lead to HRO success. In addition, this study compares the causal combinations between cases with differing levels of HR-task interdependence and IT use. Findings The results of this study reveal three common solutions that lead to successful HRO from both economic and relational viewpoints. The findings also indicate that, from an economic viewpoint, trust is a core condition for achieving HRO success. Moreover, HR-task interdependence and IT use alter the number of solutions and the conditions for attaining HRO success. Practical implications Based on the solutions proposed herein, firms can consider different ways to achieve HRO success under diverse conditions. Originality/value This work also contributes to building new theories regarding HRO, trust, knowledge sharing, and IT use.

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