As the world struggles to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, the stark inequalities in our societies have been laid bare, and the interplay between organizations and societies has also become evident yet again. This crisis underscores the need for management scholars to take a societal turn and examine how organizational practices interact with societal economic inequality. To illustrate this approach, we discuss organizational practices—corporate social responsibility, work design, recruitment and selection, and compensation management—that can contribute to the normalization, reinforcement, and reduction of economic inequalities in society. We conclude by calling on scholars of inequality, as well as of broader management research, to take a societal turn to enhance the relevance and impact of management research.

This study investigates the impact of a human resource management (HRM) system, which integrates both content and process of human resource (HR) practices, on organizational performance, through collective employee reactions. The analysis is based on a sample of 1,250 Greek employees working in 133 public-and private-sector organizations, which operate in the present context of severe fi nancial and economic crises. The fi ndings of the structural equation modeling suggest that content and process are two inseparable faces of an HRM system that help to reveal a comprehensive picture of the HRM-organizational performance relationship. Based on the fi ndings that collective employee reactions mediate the HRM content (i.e., organizational performance relationship) and HRM process moderates the HRM content (i.e., employee reactions relationship), the study has several theoretical and practice implications.

In this article, we highlight the significance and need for conducting context-specific HRM research, by focusing on four critical themes. First, we discuss the need to analyze the convergence-divergence debate on HRM in Asia-Pacific. Next, we present an integrated framework which would be very useful for conducting cross-national HRM research designed to focus on the key determinants of the dominant national HRM systems in the region. Following this, we discuss the critical challenges facing the HRM function in Asia-Pacific. Finally, we present an agenda for future research by presenting a series of research themes.

Using an in-depth qualitative case study design, focusing on a significant global technology consulting multinational enterprise's (MNEs) subsidiary in India, this research analyses interview, documentary and observational data for insights on the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) in human resource management (HRM). By developing HRM-focused, AIenabled applications, the MNE improved HR cost-effectiveness and offered a hyperpersonalised and individualised employee experiences. Employing the theoretical lenses of individualisation of HRM practices, AI-mediated social exchange, job signalling and personorganisation fit theories, this research explains employees' experience of HRM practices and its impact on their attitudes and behaviours. Ten interviews were conducted with global technology leaders, champions of innovation, senior HR leaders and employees, including those engaged in the design and implementation of HR-focused AI applications. Findings suggest the use of AI-enabled bots, virtual, digital and personal assistants for carrying out a range of HRM tasks, such as routine, analytical, interactional and communicative tasks involving employees. A diverse set of HRM-focussed AI applications operant at this MNE contributed to its HR cost-effectiveness and enhanced the overall employee experience, thereby resulting in improved levels of employee commitment, satisfaction and reduced employee turnover behaviour. Implications for research and practice are also discussed.

This research examines the relationship between innovation‐led strategy and innovation‐led HR policy (hereafter, management initiatives) and innovation performance. Our research model is theorized and tested in the Vietnamese context, based on the servant leadership theory and componential theory of creativity. We draw upon constructs of management initiatives, servant leadership, employee creativity, and firm innovation to hypothesize serial mediation mechanisms linking management initiatives to firm performance. Using a multilevel sample of 56 service firms, we conduct multilevel path analyses. We find that (a) individual‐level servant leadership mediates the top‐down relationship between management initiatives and employee creativity, (b) employee creativity mediates the bottom‐up relationship between individual‐level servant leadership and firm‐level innovation, and (c) firm‐level innovation mediates the bottom‐up relationship between employee creativity and firm‐level market performance. We conclude by discussing both theoretical and practical implications.