Call for Papers
Ageing Societies: Comparing HRM Responses to the Career Expectations of Older Employees in Germany and Japan

Management Revue Special Issue

Keith Jackson, SOAS, University of London and Doshisha University, Japan
Philippe Debroux, Soka University and Chuo University, Japan

The emerging demographic context for the research and practice of human resource management (HRM) is unprecedented. Demographic shift in the form of ‘ageing societies’ has become recognised among academics and policy-makers as a growing economic challenge to organisations globally and to those operating from within so-called ‘developed’ economies in particular. Whereas some emerging economies and, by extension, some nationally-defined labour markets such as Turkey and Indonesia are experiencing rapid population growth and lower average ages among their populations, others such as Germany and Japan are experiencing a sharp fall in indigenous birth rates and simultaneously a rapidly ageing working population. In short, demographic shift in the form of ageing societies has become a key challenge to HRM policy-makers and practitioners across organisational, sectoral, regional, and national boundaries.

In this Special Issue we focus attention on two leading global economies, each giving context to historically comparable HRM systems: Germany and Japan. Each nationally defined system is under pressure to maintain equilibrium by seeking alternative working conditions or end-of-career pathways for older employees. At the national level, the response in each case might translate into policies for targeted immigration, increasing employment and career opportunities for women, or the raising of retirement ages in certain sectors. At an organisational level, HRM responses might become manifest in the re-negotiation of company pension and other compensation and benefit systems or the re-designing of work conditions and / or career pathways for older employees.

The emerging situation is both dynamic and, as stated previously, unprecedented. Consequently, organisations in both Germany and Japan are under pressure to formulate and implement innovative HRM strategies in response to the opportunities and threats to productivity that current global demographic trends are creating.

Call for Contributions
In the broader demographic context of ‘ageing societies’, this Management Revue Special Issue represents an attempt to identify and compare patterns of responses among HRM practitioners and policy-makers in German and Japanese organisations operating and competing across a range of business sectors. For the purpose of continuity across contributions we interpret ‘ageing societies’ as segments of nationally defined labour markets comprising current or potential employees at the age of fifty and over. In the specific context of markets for employment and career development so defined in Germany and Japan, we are looking for contributions on the following themes:

• Responding to the employment and career expectations of employees aged fifty and over in the German manufacturing sector
• Responding to the employment and career expectations of employees aged fifty and over in the Japanese manufacturing sector
• Responding to the employment and career expectations of employees aged fifty and over in German public sector organisations
• Responding to the employment and career expectations of employees aged fifty and over in Japanese public sector organisations
• Responding to the employment and career expectations of employees aged fifty and over in German service sector organisations
• Responding to the employment and career expectations of employees aged fifty and over in Japanese service sector organisations

Notes:
The Editors also welcome expressions of interest from potential contributors offering to write on themes that connect generally with those specified above.

The Editors especially welcome contributions in the form of joint collaborations between German and Japanese HRM researchers and practitioners.

Final contributions will be around 5,000 words in length.

The Editors undertake to provide full editorial support to contributors who are relatively new to preparing contributions for publication in a quality management journal through the medium of international English: initial offers to contribute can be submitted in English, German or Japanese.

Regardless of each contributor’s language of preference, the Editors undertake to engage all contributors in a cross-national dialogue that should both strengthen the cohesion of the discussion across contributions and establish a global network of HRM scholars and practitioners that endures beyond the publication of this Special Issue.

Deadline for submission of full papers: 28.2.2015. All submissions will be subject to a double blind review process. Please submit your papers electronically via the online submission system at http://www.management-revue.org/submission/ ‘SI Ageing Societies – HRM’ as article section.

Call for Papers

Innovation, Knowledge Integration and Path Dependence –
Towards More Reflective Practices

 31th EGOS Colloquium, Sub-theme 35
2.-4. Juli 2015; Athens, Greece

Convenors: Jörg Sydow, Christian Bergren, Robert DeFillippi

Knowledge integration is necessary for innovating products, processes and institutions, in private as well as public sectors. Typically, it is not sufficient to get access to new or complementary knowledge, with the help of a strategic alliance, licensees or mergers. Rather it is necessary to combine and integrate stocks and flows of knowledge with the help of (inter-) organizational arrangements.

Going beyond such a governance perspective on organizations and interorganizational arrangements, the subtheme aims to explore how actual practices help or hinder the integration of diverse sets of knowledge. And going also beyond firms with strong R&D capabilities, that are typically at the centre of such inquiry, effective knowledge integration practices will be studied in not only in private but also public sectors, from sophisticated crime investigations seeking to make use of an ever increasing menu of advanced detection technologies to international relief and emergency operations.

The focus on knowledge integration practices with its emphasis on sociomaterial detail and inand outflows complements extant research on open innovation, absorptive capacity, R&D alliances, and organizational and network learning. Although not exclusively, we wish to concentrate on the tensions and contradictions between novelty and path dependence; no matter whether the latter is rooted in technological, institutional or organizational arrangements or – like in regional clusters – a mixture of all three. In all these cases, path dependencies are likely to hinder the absorption and integration of new knowledge which is required for innovation; sometimes making the breaking of an established path or the even the creation of a new path necessary.

The sub-theme particularly invites contributions that focus on one or more of the following issues, more or less addressing the intersection of innovation, knowledge integration and path dependence:

• Organizing for knowledge integration practices in open innovation processes
• Knowledge absorption and integration in rapidly developing firms in emerging economies
• Combining and integrating extremely diverse knowledge for radical innovations
• Sociomaterial practices of knowledge integration for incremental innovations
• Organizational/institutional path dependence as a barrier to knowledge integration
• Path dependence of knowledge accumulation processes in and among organizations
• Interplay of power and path dependence in knowledge integration processes
• Knowledge integration practices in public sector organizations
• Organizational and network learning perspectives on knowledge integration
• Capturing reflexivity in knowledge integration processes
• Indicators of knowledge integration, qualitative and quantitative methods forempirical studies beyond patent data.

Papers that discuss such issues, and possibly others, empirically or conceptually, with regard to recent or more historical developments, are cordially invited.

Deadline for the submission of short papers: 12.1.2015

Further information

Call for Papers

Dynamic Capabilities for Strategic Change in Practice

 31th EGOS Colloquium, Sub-theme
2.-4. Juli 2015; Athens, Greece

Convenors: Wolfgang H. Güttel, Patrick Cohendet, Uta Wilkens

Uncovering the sources of (sustained) competitive advantage can be regarded as the „Holy Grail“ of strategic management research (Helfat & Peteraf, 2009). In search of an explanation of adaptive firm behavior, researchers have developed the concept of dynamic capabilities as “the capacity of an organization to purposefully create, extend or modify its resource base” (Helfat et al., 2007: 4). Dynamic capabilities have taken center stage in explaining organizational change processes in certain dimensions including innovation, entrepreneurial behavior, organizational transformation or coping with crises (see e.g. Ambrosini & Bowman, 2009; Easterby-Smith et al., 2009, Vogel & Güttel 2013). The dynamic capabilities view (DCV) is designed to give a theoretical framework for specifying routinized adaptation processes as well as actors’ influences on renewal (Eisenhardt & Martin, 2000; Teece et al., 1997; Zollo & Winter, 2002; Teece, 2007).

With respect to future research it is an important question how exactly the organizational and the individual level interact and reflect the broader institutional environment in order to practice change. It is the aim of this sub-theme to bridge research from strategic management with organization studies and to give emphasize to practices of strategic change reflecting institutional, organizational and individual actors’ influences and interactions from a dynamic capability perspective.

Contributions on a theoretical-conceptual and an empirical basis that try to uncover dynamic capabilities for practicing change in general and/or that specify context factors are invited and encouraged.

Deadline for the submission of short papers: 12.1.2015

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Call for Papers

Sustainable HRM and Human Factors for Innovation

15th Annual EURAM Conference, Track Sustainable HRM 
17.-20.6.2015; Warsaw

Ina Ehnert; Sugumar Mariappanadar; Klaus Zink; Andrew Imada

Organizational strategies that rely on technology to gain competitive advantage are dependent upon successfully integrating humans into the solution. This track focusses on research that deals with human factors (HF) and human resource management (HRM) to harmonize human, social, ecological, and economic resources to realize competitive and sustainable success.

The objective of this track is to encourage work on Sustainable HRM and to increase our understanding of the role of HF/HRM in developing more sustainable business organisations. Consequently we call for full papers that provide new theoretical perspectives on and/or empirical insights into HF/HRM and Sustainable Development.

Deadline for submission of full papers: 13.1.2015

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Call for Papers

Work and Organization in the Age of Global Economic Crisis:
Industrial Relations in the Post-Socialist Societies of Europe

Special issue in European Journal of Industrial Relations
Guest Co-editors: Anna Soulsby, Graham Hollinshead, Thomas Steger

In this special issue, we invite comparative studies that examine growing insecurities in the fields of work, organization and employment in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), including the effects of migration, in the context of the international ‘crisis of capitalism’. We are interested in research that investigates local responses (at the levels of the workplace, establishment or industry) to the spread of uncontrolled market forces in the region and makes connections to debates in the wider social sciences. We are particularly interested in studies which analyse the latest phases of transition in CEE as subject to contestation and negotiation by a plurality of groupings within economy and society, and which bring to the fore the significance of class, gender and ethnicity. We welcome submissions which capture the unevenness of developments since the financial crisis through comparative analysis of changes in the institutional arrangements impinging on work and employment. We also wish to explore whether, and how, the particularly hostile environment for trade unionism in CEE is creating new avenues for renewal and reinvention, and whether the resourcefulness and imagination exhibited by trade unionists in the region offer real learning opportunities for the international labour movement.

Deadline for submission of extended abstracts (max. 1000 words not including references): 29.12.2014

Deadline for submission of full papers: 31.7.2015

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Call for Papers

The long and winding road of employee ownership –
What can we learn from the experiences with Employee Share Ownership and Employee Owned Companies in Central and Eastern Europe before, during, and after transformation?

9^th International Conference in Critical Management Studies, Sub-Theme
8-10 July, 2015; Leicester

Convenors: Olaf Kranz, Mihaela Lambru, Claudia Petrescu, Thomas Steger

The academic literature on ESOP and EOC in CEE is characterized by at least two omissions. First, it remains rather silent about the relationship between EOC and ESOPs in CEE countries, though ESOP has been widely used as an instrument of mass privatization in several CEE countries and has led to majority employee share ownership (ESO) in a large number of firms. This neglect reminds us of the fact that despite close topical, theoretical, and empirical associations, the phenomena of EOC and ESOP have scarcely been discussed together in the academic discourse at all. Ironically, while the EOC literature stresses the negative aspects of this specific employee ownership form, such as the degenerative tendencies and a limited viability of EOCs, the ESOP literature propagates the positive aspects of ESO, such as identification with the firm or productivity gains.

Second, the academic discussion on the role of ESOPs and EOCs in the transformation process in CEE countries is rather disconnected from the traditional discourse about the emancipatory role of ESOPs and EOCs in the Western world. Moreover, there are hardly any references made to the debate about ‘labor-managed-firms` in ‘labor-managed’ or ‘mixed’ economies, which had a very strong theoretical basis in terms of the “Illyrian Firm” (B. Ward) or the “pure rental firm” (M.C. Jensen & W.H. Meckling) . Ironically, in particular neoliberal scholars have suggested that ESOPs or even EOC could work well as instruments for mass privatization during the economic transformation in CEE. Thus, participatory ways of organizing are utilized by politics and management as a vehicle to transform firms towards the normal corporate form. Moreover, the implications of the rather sharp and fast decline of ESO and EOCs in the CEE countries following privatization has not been systematically reflected in the literature yet.

Thus, our current understanding of ESOPs and EOCs in CEE is limited by a lack of coherent empirical data, by a lacking connection of the experiences in CEE during transformation to the strong theoretical tradition, and by a lack of studies comparing the experiences made in CEE with the experiences made in Western countries. Against this background, the sub-theme aims (a) to advance our knowledge on the structures and processes at the individual, organizational, and societal levels that are germane to participatory types of organization; (b) to draw lessons from the CEE experiences for western countries; and (c) to learn about the behavior of participatory types of organization and of individuals in such organizations in different institutional settings.

For this purpose, we are looking for both theoretical and empirical studies that focus on micro, meso or macro levels of analysis based on qualitative and/or quantitative methods.

Deadline for submission of abstracts (max. 500 words): 31.1.2015

Further Information on Call for Papers (9th International Conference in Critical Management Studies)

Further Information on related Call for Papers (Special Issue in Organizacija)

Call for Papers

Perspectives on Sustainable Consumption
20.-24.4.2015, Seminar at the IUC Dubrovnik & Special Issue of Management Revue

Ortrud Leßmann, Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg (Germany); Torsten Masson, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ Leipzig (Germany); Wenzel Matiaske, Helmut-Schmidt-University Hamburg (Germany); Simon Fietze, University of Southern Denmark

The problem of sustainability has received serious attention since the Club of Rome pointed to the limits of growth in 1972. Addressing ecological, economic and social issues, it is still a major – perhaps the biggest – challenge humanity faces. The problem demands attention by actors from all social levels. On the micro-level, sustainable consumption is often regarded as the major way how individual consumers can contribute to sustainable development. By now a growing number of people are aware that many consumption habits have to be changed because they are in conflict with the goal of sustainable development. Yet, there is a gap between knowledge and action. Much research has been done in the last 30 years on sustainable consumption, exploring the motivations, practices, opportunities, and drivers for sustainable consumption from economic, psychological and sociological perspectives. Despite this multidisciplinary effort and the often interdisciplinary nature of research on sustainable consumption, there is room for broadening the perspectives further. In particular, the link between political participation and sustainable consumption as a political statement as well as the link between various forms and objectives of political consumption deserves more attention. Further, the impact of societal inequality on sustainable consumption has not gained much attention. Especially research on the interaction between inequality, issues of security and precariousness, political participation and consumption behavior is lacking.

In the special issue and the corresponding seminar (IUC Dubrovnik, http://www.iuc.hr/, 20.-24. April 2015), we would like to discuss our topic in an adequately broad and interdisciplinary way.

Deadline for potential contributors to the seminar at the IUC Dubrovnik are encouraged to contact the guest editors directly with an abstract of 1-2 pages before January 31^st 2015. Full papers for the special issue of management revue must be with the editors by July 31^st 2015.

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Call for Papers

Arbeit und Soziale Sicherheit
3. Rhein-Ruhr Promovendensymposium
12./13.3.2015, Duisburg

Organisations- und Programmkomitee:  Prof. Dr. Brigitte Unger (WSI), PD Dr. Martin Brussig (IAQ), Prof. Dr. Marcel Erlinghagen (IfS)

Das Rhein-Ruhr Promovendensymposium ist eine Veranstaltung, die gemeinsam vom Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftlichen Institut (WSI) in der Hans-Böckler-Stiftung, Düsseldorf sowie dem Institut Arbeit und Qualifikation (IAQ) und dem Institut für Soziologie (IfS) der Universität Duisburg-Essen organisiert wird.

Die jährlich ausgerichtete Veranstaltung richtet sich an Promovendinnen und Promovenden unterschiedlicher sozialwissenschaftlicher Disziplinen und angrenzender Fächer (z.B. Soziologie, Wirtschaftswissenschaft, Politikwissenschaft), deren laufende Doktorarbeit einen Zusammenhang mit dem Oberthema „Arbeit und Soziale Sicherheit“ aufweist. Im Rahmen des Symposiums besteht für die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer die Möglichkeit, ihre im Entstehungsprozess befindliche Arbeit vorzustellen und mit erfahrenen Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern sowie anderen Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden intensiv zu diskutieren. Dabei sind sowohl theoretisch-konzeptionelle als auch empirische oder sozialpolitische Arbeiten gleichermaßen erwünscht.

Interessierte Promovendinnen und Promovenden können sich für die Präsentation ihrer Arbeit bewerben, indem sie bis zum 15. September 2014 eine Zusammenfassung ihres Vorhabens (maximal 3.000 Zeichen) einreichen. Eine Entscheidung über die Annahme des Vortragsvorschlags fällt spätestens bis zum 15. November 2014. Angenommene Bewerberinnen und Bewerber müssen den Organisatoren dann bis spätestens 31. Januar 2015 einen zusammenhängenden Aufsatz (maximal 60.000 Zeichen) zusenden.

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Call for Papers

Entgrenzung von Organisation und Arbeit?
Herausforderungen für Arbeitsrecht, Management und Mitbestimmung

Schwerpunktheft der
Industriellen Beziehungen

 Gastherausgeber: Olaf Deinert, Markus Helfen

 Glaubt man der jüngeren Managementliteratur, geht die Entgrenzung von Organisation und Arbeit durch ‚Outsourcing‘ und ‚Offshoring‘ in potenzierter Form in die nächste Runde. Nicht mehr allein Teil- und Vorprodukte oder abgrenzbare Dienstleistungsbündel,sondern einzelne Arbeitsgänge seien mittlerweile vom organisatorischen ‚fineslicing‘ betroffen, das heißt der feingliedrigen Zerlegung der Wertschöpfungskette in einzelne Prozessschritte und Aktivitäten. Sogar vom Handel mit einzelnen Aktivitäten ist die Rede, etwa wenn mit Crowdsourcing über Internetplattformen die Erbringung einzelner Programmierschritte gehandelt und kombiniert werden soll. Manche meinen gar, dass eine Ära der ‚Hyper-Spezialisierung‘ (Laubacher/Malone/Johns) eingetreten ist, in der vormals integrierte Tätigkeitsprofile von Arbeitsplätzen in eine temporäre, maximal variable Erbringung einzelner Aktivitäten aufgespalten wird. Damit veränderte sich auch das Zusammenspiel verschiedener Organisationen im Leistungsprozess; es ist verstärkt von Vermarktlichung und Desintegration von Organisationen die Rede, aber auch von sektorübergreifenden Wertschöpfungsnetzwerken und Allianzen und unternehmensübergreifenden Formen der Arbeitsorganisation und Mehr-Arbeitgeber-Beziehungen (interorganisationale Projekte, Arbeitnehmerüberlassung, Werkverträge). Es scheint als sei der Zusammenhang zwischen Organisation und Arbeit in Auflösung begriffen, der als zentraler Anknüpfungspunkt der Regelfindung und Regeldurchsetzung in Bezug auf Arbeit angesehen werden kann. Zugleich werden die Prinzipien der Regulation von Arbeit empfindlich infrage gestellt, nicht nur in Bezug auf das kollektive und individuelle Arbeitsrecht, sondern auch im Hinblick auf implizite Kontrakte und normative Erwartungen.

Vor diesem Hintergrund ist eine Analyse diese neuen Grenzziehungen von Arbeit und Organisation aus unterschiedlichen Fachrichtungen (u.a. Arbeitsrecht, Betriebswirtschaft, Arbeits- und Organisationssoziologie) und auf verschiedenen Analyseebenen (Mikro-, Meso-, Makroperspektive) angezeigt.

Konzeptionelle oder empirische Beiträge sind eingeladen. Eine personalökonomische oder rechtssoziologische Betrachtung einzelner Beschäftigungsformen ist dabei genauso erwünscht wie branchenspezifische und länderübergreifende Vergleiche. Sofern die Beiträge Ergebnisse empirischer Studien berichten, sollten diese theoretisch-konzeptionell untermauert sein.

Einsendefrist für Extended Abstracts ist der 1.12.2014.

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Call for Papers

Workshop on Co-determination and Employee Participation
28./29. November 2014, University of Trier

Organizing Team: Laszlo Goerke, Vanessa Mertins, Sabrina Jeworrek (University of Trier)

The purpose of the workshop is to bring together international scholars working on the economics of participation in decision-making, to create a network which will benefit all participants and to stimulate research on this theme. Theoretical, empirical, and experimental contributions from economics and business studies and related disciplines are welcome. Possible, but not exclusive, questions to be addressed are:

•  What are the differences and similarities between existing co-determination and participation mechanisms and institutions?
• Do broad-based worker participation schemes influence e.g. workers’ performance, job satisfaction or turnover intentions? What are the limitations/ problems of such schemes?
• In the presence of broad-based participation schemes, are institutions such as works councils still necessary?
• What are the impacts of employee ownership? Might employees’ intrinsic motivation be crowded out by extrinsic motivation?
• How do wage increases negotiated by trade unions influence employee productivity, motivation and firms’ competitiveness?

Deadline for the submission of complete papers, or extended abstracts, is 1.8.2014.

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