The Conference in Research and Intervention in Human Resources (RIHR) is organized by the Human Resources department of Porto Polytechnic Institute and NID_RH (Research and Development Group in Human Resources), and every other year organized by the Superior School of Management Sciences, of Setúbal Polytechnic Institute.
RIHR Conference provides a forum for discussion, dissemination, and publication of scientific research in Human Resources. This conference intends to merge multidisciplinary perspectives on MANAGING PEOPLE and WORK, promoting and expanding the discussion between scholars and professionals from different domains of activity and knowledge.
For those whose professional activity is focused on managing people and their occupations, whether in the role of manager, coach, consultant, scholar or educator, there is a challenge of rethinking the management and development of people in the large and demanding context of demographic changes, competiveness, globalization, and rapid change that frames the current economic and social paradigm.
This special issue results of the best papers presented at the V Conference RIRH, held on the 10th and 11th April 2014, at the Superior School of Management and Industrial Studies (Porto Polytechnic Institute), Vila do Conde, Portugal.
The 8 selected papers for this Special Issue in Human Resources Management reflect the wide scope, complexity, as well some of the contemporary issues that arise in the Human Resources field.
The first paper, focusing on virtuous leadership, emphasizes the importance of morality and ethics both to employees and organizations. Even considered by many naïve, this approach is gaining importance in HR research. Araújo and Lopes present a quantitative study: Virtuous Leadership, Organizational Commitment and Individual Performance.
In the next paper, the focus is on social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneur's contribute to society and economy of their innovative responses to social and economic needs. Braga, Proença and Ferreira, in their qualitative study Motivations for Social Entrepreneurship – evidences from Portugal explore the factors that inspire people to create, grow and sustain social entrepreneurship projects, as well as difficulties and expectations social entrepreneurs face.
The third paper sheds new light into the Social Responsibility topic. Standing on the importance of people to the competitiveness of the firms, Duarte, Gomes e Gonçalves, in an experimental study, lay their research on the value of efficient attractiveness of qualified and adjusted profiles of newcomers: Tell me your socially responsible practices, I will tell you how attractive for recruitment you are! The impact of perceived CSR on organizational attractiveness.
The following paper draws attention in an international trend on the New Public Management, which Portugal also entailed, namely introducing new performance appraisal systems for the public sector in 2007. Lira steered a quantitative research focused on the Satisfaction with a performance appraisal system in the Portuguese public sector: the importance of perceptions of justice and accuracy.
The fifth paper focuses on a growing, different type of employment relationship: temporary agency workers. Lopes and Chambel present a quantitative study, in which they inquire more than 2000 subjects about the relationship between motivations for being temporary agency workers and work engagement: Motivations of temporary agency workers and context free well-being: Work engagement as a mediator.
Next paper also emphasizes a contemporary issue that arose in the Human Resources Management field: the increase of long-term international assignments. This trend led Martins and Dindire to explore the recruitment and selection process in their article: Expatriates Recruitment and Selection for Long-Term International Assignments in Portuguese Companies. Their qualitative study work focuses on the criteria to decide on whom to send on international assignments.
The following article highlights the topic of demographic ageing population trend, which will shape workforce structure and predicts skills shortages. Pinto, Ramos e Nunes present a quantitative research studying the role of Human Resource Management Practices and their importance to different age groups: Managing an ageing workforce: what is the value of human resource management practices for different age groups of workers?
The last paper draws attention on another topic that is being studied in the Human Resources field: violence in the work setting. Sousa, Silva, Veloso, Tzafrir and Guy in a mixed method research present Client's violence towards social workers characterizing clients’ type and frequency of violent acts, and identifying the organizational actions to diminish and manage work-related violence towards this kind of workers.
These papers were selected by its originality and approach range exposing the broaden research it is being held on the Human Resources field. This work is not restricted on space and time, since it is possible to access all other research on the Conference Proceedings Research and Intervention in Human Resources website since its first edition, as well as participating with this project in its future issues.
