Purpose The purpose of the paper is to trace the historical perspectives in the development and evolution of human resource management as a field of study and profession. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a desk research to conduct a general review of literatures that are fundamental in tracing the historical routes, evolution, and professional development in the field of human resource management. Findings The literature reviewed reveals that human resource management is a product of the human relations movement of the early twentieth century, when researchers began documenting ways of creating business value through the strategic management of the workforce. The function was initially dominated by transactional work such as payroll and benefits administration, but due to globalization, company consolidation, technological advancement, and further research, human resource now focuses on strategic initiatives like mergers and acquisitions, talent management, succession planning, industrial and labor relations, and diversity and inclusion. In start-up companies, human resource’s duties are performed either by a handful of trained professionals or even by non-human resource personnel. In larger companies, an entire functional group is typically dedicated to the discipline, with staff specializing in various human resource tasks and functional leadership engaging in strategic decision making across the business. To train practitioners for the profession, institutions of higher education, professional associations, and companies themselves have created programs of study dedicated explicitly to the duties of the function. Academic and practitioner organizations likewise seek to engage and further the field of human resource, as evidenced by several field-specific publications. Originality/value The study contributes to the body of knowledge in human resource management and practices, professional development, history of human resource management and the future of human resource functions. Further attempt is made in the study to present historical perspective of the evolution of the field to prepare professional managers in managing the human resource function and disseminate the human resource development philosophy and values to improve human resource practice and recognition within the management agenda.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) among local government civil servants. Design/methodology/approach This paper adopts a cross-sectional survey research design with a response of 239 civil servants in the local government sector; data was collected using a questionnaire and quantitative approaches were used in analysis. Findings The findings reveal that there is a significant positive relationship between organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour. The predictive power of organizational commitment on OCB is, however, lower than other similar studies in extant literature. Despite being significant, the coefficient of determination in the final model was very low raising thoughtful concerns hence recommendation for further analytical studies in the local government context in the African setting. Research limitations/implications The results in this study cannot be without limitations. The authors take a note of the sector that the authors studied, i.e., local governments, in which the authors may not have contextualized the concepts very well and had challenges of interpretation by the respondents. The authors were also limited by the lack of context-specific literature to underpin our discussion. The paper is also limited by the narrow scope of one region in Uganda and thus generalizability to the African level may be done with caution. Practical implications This study provides important implications to policy, practice and research. While policies provide for expected efficiencies and productivity, the authors note that an environment in which these are to be achieved is important when it promotes OCB. Policy makers should bear in mind behavioural elements for affective, normative and continuance commitment. Originality/value This study contributes to the body of knowledge by finding further support for the relationship between organizational commitment and OCB, and advances a likely debate that among local government civil servants in a developing country context the predictive power could be very low. This possibly explains the efficiency gaps at this level of state governance.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the key predictors of organizational citizenship behavior of civil servants in local governments in Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on a quantitative approach and cross-sectional survey design. Data were collected using a self-administered closed-ended questionnaire from a sample size of 265 respondents derived using Krejcie and Morgan (1970) from a population of 844 civil servants using stratified simple random sampling technique. Data were analyzed using IBM SPSS statistical software vs 23 and Hypotheses tested using Hayes (2018) Process Macro v3.2 (Model 4).FindingsThe findings revealed that organizational justice has a significant positive effect on organizational commitment, which impact positively on organizational citizenship behavior of civil servants. The study further reveals an indirect-only mediation where organizational justice affects organizational citizenship behavior through organizational commitment. The study proves that there is no direct relationship such a relationship is enhanced through organizational commitment.Originality/valueThis study contributes to knowledge by providing key information on the predictors of organizational citizenship behavior of civil servants. The indirect-only mediation findings give some new insights into theory and literature. This study has eventually changed the direction of the debate popularly held among previous scholars who believe that organizational justice relates to organizational citizenship behavior. This is relevant in understanding the concept of organizational citizenship behavior and filling the practical gap that exists in Ugandan context.

PurposeThe purpose of the study is to establish the mediating role of Perceived Service Quality on the relationship between Retail Atmospherics and Retail Store Patronage of Supermarkets in Emerging Economies using empirical evidence from Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a cross-sectional research design and quantitative approach to understand stand the structured reality of Retail Store Patronage of supermarkets in context of emerging economies. In the context of this study, the data were drawn from Uganda's supermarkets. A sample of 1,504 customers were selected from 136,270 customers. Data was collected from supermarket customers using closed ended questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were derived to describe the behavior of customers and draw conclusions on population using sample statistics. Correlation analysis was used to establish the degree of association between the variables. Hierarchical regression was applied to assess the unique contribution of each variable; control variables-income and age, predictor variables – Retail Atmospherics and Perceived Service Quality on dependent variable – Retail Store Patronage. Mediation was done following the four-step procedures of mediation of Baron and Kenny (1986).FindingsThe results revealed significant positive relationship between Retail Atmospherics, Perceived Service Quality and Retail Store Patronage, confirming the direct hypotheses. Perceived Service Quality partially mediated the relationship between Retail Atmospherics and Retail Store Patronage. The findings depict that Retail Store Patronage is influenced directly by Retail Atmospherics and indirectly through Perceived Service Quality as a mediating variable. However, in situations where the atmospherics is good but perceived service quality is poor, Retail Store Patronage may not be fully realized.Originality/valueThe study provides information that is relevant for filling the practical and theoretical gap in the Retail Store Patronage in Ugandan supermarkets. Previous research studies investigated patronage behavior of shoppers in single retail units yet there is paucity of research on patronage behavior across different retail formats in the world. This study can be generalized and have strategic implications to developing economies that seek to grow and sustain their businesses. It points to the gaps that are normally overlooked and could lead business failure. The focus of most previous studies were on developed economies more especially Europe and America. This study in particular focused on the role of perceived service quality in the relationship between retail atmospherics and customer retail store patronage in emerging economies like Uganda as a testing ground.

City branding and marketing is gaining more attention as cities compete on a global scale in attracting visitors, investors, talents, and inhabitants. Websites are used among other mechanisms to market cities as brands. Brands exist as distinct themes, logos, slogans, symbols, and content. Using review of literature, this chapter examines the embeddedness of city branding and marketing in city governance in the developing world. Symbolic elements that differentiate city brands should be exploited in embedding city marketing.