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ADVANCED
MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
VOLUME
65 NUMBER 4 AUTUMN 2000
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to AMJ Contents
Foreign Firms in China:
Facing Human Resources Challenges in a Transitional Economy
While China officially
encourages new management techniques, these are often difficult
or impossible to implement without mastering numerous
human resrouces challenges. Foreign firms must deal with legacies
of the former "iron rice bowl" policy (guaranteed lifetime employment),
with guanxi (using connections to facilitate business), and with myriad
attitudes that seem antithetical to productivity and progress.
However, a combination of pragmatic adaptation and innovative programs may
overcome many of these challenges.
Garry D. Burton,
David Ahlstrom, and Eunice S. Chan
Issues in Strategic
Investment in the Global Electric Utility Industry
Between 1995 and 1998,
U.S. electric utility companies invested heavily in utilities overseas,
especially in the United Kingdom. Subsequently, however, a number of these
takeovers came wholly or partially undone. A closer look at some of
these combinations shows that some of the underlying assumptions prompting
them, such as increased opportunities for growth and revenue, were in
error. Nevertheless, the gradual liberalization of global markets
undoubtedly creates opportunities that may succeed in the future.
Abby Ghobadian and
Howard Viney
Third World Economic
Empowerment in the New Millennium: Microenterprise, Microentrepreneurship,
and Microfinance
Traditional strategies
for aiding the world's poor countries such as large modernization
programs, the Green Revolution, and the
basic needs approach, have had mixed results.
A fresh approach is to make use of the strengths of the traditional
societies and incorporate them into small, focused, concrete
projects. The often ignored "informal economies" of
traditional cultures may be more dynamic than formal economies and may
well benefit from targeted extensions of credit and other
assistance. A close look at banks with such programs in three
countries is instructive and encouraging.
Warner P.
Woodworth
Sexual Harassment
Investigations: A Portrait of Contradictions
Employers may have felt
they already had their hands full complying with sexual harassment
guidelines issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
But nopw they must also contend with guidelines issued by the Federal
Trade Commission. The FTC claims jurisdiction over sexual harassment
investigations as an extension of its sway over the Fair Credit Reporting
Act of 1970, as amended by the Consumer Reporting Reform Act of
1996. The guidelines conflict in a number of ways, particularly in
th eFTC's requirement that the employer obtain the accused harasser's
consent before hiring an experienced third party to investigate the
complaint.
Susan Gardner and
Kathryn Lewis
Managing Work-Related
Learning for Employee and Organizational Growth
The saying that a
company's major asset walks out the door every night recognizes the
crucial role of a motivated and savvy workforce in today's highly competitive
environment. Continuous learning in the workplace
can increase productivity and job satisfaction, especially when
supervisors are the principal coaches. However, relatively few aids
are available to guide supervisors in this role. Some discussed here
include encouraging a learning environment, providing learning
opportunities as well as time and location flexibility, and emphasizing
learning in employment decisions and evaluations.
Dorothy Lang and
Ursula Wittig-Berman
The Relationship
Between Individual Power Moves and Group
Agreement Type: An Examination and Model
Permanent and ad hoc
groups are essential to organizational effectiveness, but the dynamics of
groups are not always well understood. Typically, each group member
has some type of power, deriving perhaps from status or knowledge
or influence. How he or she chooses to wield that power affects the
outcome of the group's efforts. A conceptual model that relates
"power moves' to the types of agreements a group is likely to reach
sheds light on group dynamics and may help predict results.
John R. Carlson,
Dawn S. Carlson, and Lori L. Wadsworth
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