Employment relations derives from the fields of industrial and labour relations, the latter of which have both been deemed demeaning to human beings as workers/employees.

South African labour relations history is also regarded as having been degrading to workers, specifically migrant, black and unskilled labours. After decades of research, psychologists and sociologists have been able to show employers, managers and supervisors the importance of understanding human behaviour in fostering a workplace characterised by high job satisfaction, employee commitment and engagement. Employment relations in South Africa: a psychological perspective explores the ramifications of the past while promoting collaboration between employment relations and psychology toward more productive and harmonious employment relationships.

Employment relations in South Africa: a psychological perspective considers questions such as the following:

• What is the link between psychology and employment relations?
• Is psychology important to the field of employment relations?
• Why were industrial psychologist contributions previously neglected by trade unions?
• Why did psychologists and sociologists contribute less to industrial/labour relations in the past?

Employment relations in South Africa: a psychological perspective is aimed at undergraduate and postgraduate students, and will also serve as a valuable resource to human resource practitioners, psychologists, industrial psychologists, shop stewards, trade union officials, labour or employment relations consultants, and managers.

Manju Pathak is presently a Professor of Biotechnology at Amity University, Noida. Earlier to this, she was a Professor of Biotechnology at Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) University, Vellore, Tamilnadu.

The Handbook of Employee Engagement contains cutting edge contributions from a wide array of world-class scholars and consultants on state-of-the-art topics key to the science and the practice of employee engagement. The volume presents comprehensive and global perspectives to help researchers and practitioners identify, understand, evaluate and apply the key theories, models, measures and interventions associated with employee engagement. The Handbook provides many new insights, practical applications and areas for future research. It will serve as an important platform for ongoing research and practice on employee engagement. Combining an excellent balance of academic perspectives and practical applications this Handbook will prove to be invaluable for academic researchers in the field of organizational behaviour, organizational development and organizational psychology. In addition, human resource and organizational development practitioners and consultants should not be without this `state-of-the-art' and informative resource.

This unique guide details a revolutionary approach to lean systems. Whereas traditional lean techniques suffer from less-than-inspiring results, Quantum Lean (QL) rethinks this subject and provides an overdue remedy. The key to this breakthrough is that QL approaches lean systems from an entirely different perspective than conventional methods. Instead of focusing on resource utilization, QL centers on achieving efficiency from the standpoint of a company's product. The benefits from this simple departure are vast and wide-ranging. In terms of speed, effectiveness, and sustainability, QL offers a superior process for transforming an enterprise and gives practitioners a way to avoid the shortcomings that are commonplace in conventional lean. In addition to being geared toward lean practitioners and consultants, the book is also useful for the C-suite, managers, supervisors, technical staff, and rank-and-file employees. It is intended for those who work in all economic sectors, including services, manufacturing, and government. Key Features: provides easy-to-understand QL analysis techniques that are much simpler than standard lean methods and offer uncomplicated rules of thumb for determining priorities and improvement targets; details a win/win/win scenario for customers, employees, and shareholders that focuses on a company's product, avoids conflicting objectives, and enables every stakeholder to benefit, and more.

The phenomenon of aging results from the transition from a demographic model whose birth and mortality rates are exceptionally high to another model in which both demographic factors are increasingly lower. Today's organizations will encounter issues related to the aging of their workforce. It is necessary to consider and implement new strategies through age management that can contribute to society at various phases of life. Examining the Aging Workforce and Its Impact on Economic and Social Development builds on existing literature in the field of the aging workforce for the economic and social development of countries while providing additional research opportunities in this dynamic and growing field. This book reflects on this critical issue, increasing the understanding of the importance of the aging workforce in the context of the business and management area, and providing relevant academic work, empirical research findings, and an overview of this relevant field of study. Covering topics such as hiring practices, workplace age diversity, and retention practices, this premier reference source is an excellent resource for government officials, business leaders, human resource managers, sociologists, students and educators of higher education, librarians, researchers, and academicians.

There is no end in sight as the Fourth Industrial Revolution becomes more prevalent across the world. Artificial intelligence (AI) is making it imperative that machines and technology be integrated within the workplace. As the workforce ages, there has to be a way to acquire the tacit and explicit knowledge of these workers. The fields of human resource development and workforce development must lead in efforts to train and develop these workers for continuous technological change. Strategies for Attracting, Maintaining, and Balancing a Mature Workforce is an essential reference source that examines efforts for engaging, retaining, and utilizing an aging workforce in a workplace that is increasingly becoming more technology-centered and provides reskilling and upskilling strategies to address the skills gaps. The title compiles vital human resource and workforce development strategies that assist these professionals with helping all employees at all levels within the workforce attain work, keep their jobs, and grow in their development to assist others. Featuring research on topics such as organizational culture, career learning, and agile workforce, this book is ideally designed for managers, executives, recruiters, hiring professionals, managing directors, human resources professionals, business researchers, industry professionals, academicians, and students.

In this important and timely book, Bart Nooteboom develops and applies a social cognitive theory of firms and organizations with a focus on learning and innovation. Why explore a cognitive theory of the firm? This enlightening study explains that a cognitive theory of the firm is required in order to lend more substance and analysis to current vague and unconnected ad hoc notions in the literature, such as entrepreneurial vision, absorptive capacity, and variety and dispersion of knowledge. The author explores the notion of differential cognition, drawing together the work of Hayek, Schumpeter and Penrose to shed light on the sources of innovation. This interdisciplinary book connects ideas from specific branches of economics, management and organization, cognitive science, social psychology and sociology and will be invaluable to students and scholars interested in a new perspective on the firm.

Why do companies exert high effort to reduce the costs of products that are production? Because they can! Because unnecessary product costs were not removed during product development. C-O-S-T, short for Cost Optimization System and Technique, details how a company's product development teams, their supporting functions, and company leaders can optimize product costs before production starts and thereby maximize lifecycle profits. Since product development teams determine product costs imparted to new products, much of the book details how these teams optimize product costs. The book also includes ways company leaders can create and sustain company-wide engagement in optimizing product costs and keeping the resulting increased profit margins. The reader is entertained while observing a three-day workshop where executives of a fictitious company, Defender Products, Inc. are being taught the C-O-S-T system by its developers. The story flows like a business workshop with slides, dialog, and break-out sessions. The content will benefit all companies that design, develop and manufacture products.