HRMT20024 Literature Review: Australian Retail Sector Analysis

This report is a literature review focused on human resource management (HRM) within the Australian retail sector, examining the evolution, standardization, and competitive dynamics of HRM practices. The review analyzes four articles, including Rotich (2015), which traces the historical development of HRM; Kellner (2017), which discusses HRM standardization and adaptation in franchises; You & Barry (2016), which evaluates intra-industry competition among employer associations; and Markey, McIvor, & Wright (2016), which explores the role of employee participation in carbon emissions reduction. The articles cover topics such as the strategic importance of HRM, the influence of globalization and technology, the impact of franchising on HRM, the responses of employer associations to labor law changes, and the connection between employee involvement and environmental sustainability. The review highlights the contribution of each article to understanding the complexities and challenges of HRM in the retail sector, emphasizing the importance of strategic HRM, adaptation to changing market conditions, and the role of employees in organizational success. The report provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of HRM research and its implications for the Australian retail industry.

HRM
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Article 1
Rotich, K. J. (2015). History, evolution and development of human resource management: a
contemporary perspective. Global Journal of Human Resource Management, 3(3),
58-73.
Objective and research question: This article focus on the history, growth, and development
of human resource management (HRM) with a modern viewpoint. This article describes the
complete antiquity of the discipline of HRM from a general viewpoint. The objective of the
article is to trace the evolution and progress of HRM exact from pre-historic times by the
postmodern world. The question of the article is to describe the evolution and advancement
of HRM.
Method: The qualitative methodology has been undertaken in the report to deliberate the
history, progress and advancement of HRM in the retail industry of Australia. The HRM has
been traced through the cases for the pre-historic times through to the postmodern globe.
Findings and discussion: HRM is a tactical approach to the management of an organization.
HRM is intended to make best use of the performance of the staffs in order to attain the
strategic objective of the organization. The HR departments in the organizations are majorly
liable for a number of actions comprising employee conscription, performance and appraisal,
training and advancement and gratifying. HRM belongs to the products of the early 20th
century when researchers began verifying conducts of forming business value by the strategic
management of the employees. The purpose of HRM was mainly conquered by transactional
work like payroll and benefits management. But the globalization and development in
technology have made HRM concentrate on strategic ingenuities such as talent management,
mergers and acquisitions, success planning and ethical considerations.
The Australian government at the state and countrywide levels started to trail suit
from the early 1900s. But the nation has approved a differentiated system reliant on
pacification and adjudication than the delegated circumstances. The way in which HR
theories are adopted reflects the attitude of the HR professionals in the form of varying
attitudes, work procedures, and organizational structures. On the other side, essentials of
contemporary HRM theory comprise principles like efficiency, productivity, effectiveness,
labor flexibility, and the competitive organizational advantage. The recent trends in the retail

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industry observed by HRM in the nature of employment, globalization and several impacts of
the technology.
Conclusion: HRM has progressed to become an indispensable academic field with a
significant function in organizational management. The functional areas which institute the
contemporary viewpoint of HRM field comprise human resource policy, human resource
planning, HRM systems, career management, diversity management, occupational, health,
and safety.
How this article will contribute to the Essay: The article will subsidize to the essay by
opposing several tough issues and problems regarding the roles, exercises, ethics, and nature
of the professional connotations. These issues will help work as a precaution in the working
environment. The advancement of strategic HRM can also ultimately resolve matters in an
innovative and operative manner. The developing nature of strategic HRM could even help in
recovering the contemporary issues arising on a regular basis.

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Article 2
Kellner, A., 2017. Human resource management standardisation and adaptation in
franchises. The Service Industries Journal, 37(9-10), pp.545-566.
Objective and research question: This article aim to discuss the standardization of HRM from
the perspective of the franchisor. The experience of franchisees has been discussed with
insufficient consideration. The research question is to illustrate HRM behavior in the
franchisee HRM Response Matrix.
Method: The small number of cases has been taken in the paper. A qualitative, inductive case
design study has been implemented in the report to attain qualified and contextualized data
offering hypothetical awareness into the research problem. The paper efforts to upsurge the
significance of the answers for other franchises by a selection of 3 illustrative cases from
severely franchised Australian food and beverage services industry.
Findings and discussion: The franchising business model has attained rapid success in all
industries. Australia is resident to just a one-tenth number of units, although a minor market
is more profoundly drenched with one of the greatest per-capita rates in the globe. The
franchises indicate the majority of the systems, standardize and control franchisee’s business
activities like supply links, finance, pricing, marketing, and training. There is constrained
execution of the discussion on the essential business function of human resource
management. HRM incorporates policies, practices, procedures and predominant viewpoints
that address the management of workers along with the role of a robust HRM system in
manipulating organizational performance.
The outcomes of the micro-level case study of 3 completely franchised Australian
cafés have been assessed in the article. The argument on standardization and adaption has to
lead to the literature on HRM in franchises. The standardization includes the basics of the
franchise model with functions like marketing or supply chain management. All the business
actions can or cannot be regulated by the franchisor. The execution of the standardized policy
will be impacted by the franchisee drives like adapting a standardized menu to enhance
profits. The local preferences of the customers are considered to act speculatively. The
franchisees can manage human resources in a number of ways within the parameters of
standardization and adaptation.

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Conclusion: The franchising has reached maturity in Australia and its outcome is just
commencement in the emerging countries. The comprehension of HRM system design and
execution remains unpredictably partial even after the success of the franchisee model
globally. There are massive costs, assistance, and risks that are linked to corporate HRM
decisions.
How this article will contribute to the Essay: The findings from the article can be applied to
the Australian retail franchise sector. The HRM can play out inversely in the systems with an
advanced specialized labor force when the number of unit employees is slighter.

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Article 3
You, K., & Barry, M. (2016). Intra-industry competition among employer associations: a case
study of the retail sector. Labour & Industry: a journal of the social and economic
relations of work, 26(2), 120-137.
Objective and research question: The objective of this article is to evaluate the intra-industry
rivalry among employer links in the retail sector. The aim of the article is to know the way
trade unions have retorted to the structural variations in the retail sector of Australia. The re-
regulation of labor laws in Australia have been also questioned. The response employer
associations have been also covered in the article. The literature on the employee
connotations’ adaptive devices has highlighted the requirement for the employer figures to
accomplish the pressure between providing outdated united goods by replying to the varying
requirements of the discrete members.
Method: The research questions have been used as a method to address the article. The
article examines the modest dynamics among the retailed EAs and how individual
organizational uniqueness was affected by IR regulatory reforms. The question has addressed
the aforementioned reforms affecting competition among EAs and the way it impacts on
retail EAs’ adaptive responses.
Findings and discussion: The major reasons pronounced for the early development of
associations of business comprise safeguarding legal trade defenses, restraining inter-firm
competition and contradicting unionized workforces. The IR concerns have become
progressively significant in the 20th century as labor regulations advanced to provide a greater
defense to the workforces. The unions have also attained influence in the political domain.
The specific characteristics of EAs are greatly context-reliant whereas communal instincts
promoted managers to associate in utmost western countries. For example, the inner
subtleties of early EAs in the US were defined as ‘brittle and unstable’ and their roles were
deliberated comparatively insignificant. On the other side, EAs have been historically quite
strong in European nations like Germany and the Netherlands. European EAs has played an
encircling part in the diversities of capitalism terminology. The Australian EAs have
functioned in the diverse and more planned environments from other English-speaking
nations due to the process of the pacification and negotiation system. The system offered

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formal recognition along with the protection to register the organization of employees and
employers.
The idea of the product market competition, likes of specialized service organizations
and human resource functions are now opposing for the space attained by EAs. In this paper,
rivalry between industry-based links is not discovered. The paper has represented three main
EAs in the retail sector of Australia through a series of interviews conducted. The nature of
the intra-industry subtleties between 3 links have been analyzed in the retail sector and the
way dynamics shape the responses to the varying environment.
Conclusion: The ground of IR has abandoned to analyze EAs as companies encountering the
budding for financial sustainability. The adaptive strategies have been compared with the
revitalization efforts of EAs encompassing rivalry between the same associates within the
retail sector. The subtleties of post-reform rivalry among the industry connections in the
nonappearance of robust unions and deviating policy positions have been discussed.
How this article will contribute to Essay: This article contributes to the empathetic of
competitive subtleties of largely under-researched IR actors. The article even indicates how
existing theories on EAs can be executed in the framework of intra-industry rivalry. There is
greater opportunity for the upcoming examination on competitive subtleties.

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Article 4
Markey, R., McIvor, J., & Wright, C. F. (2016). Employee participation and carbon
emissions reduction in Australian workplaces. The International Journal of Human
Resource Management, 27(2), 173-191.
Objective and research question: This article is having an objective to address a research
breach on the role of employee contribution in encouraging office climate change extenuation
activities. There is a strong connection between administrative activities for lessening carbon
emissions and worker contribution in empowering, advancing and executing the actions. The
research question is to know the role of the employees in the organizational decision-making
concerning the emissions lessening at the office.
Method: This article is drawn on 2 data sets evaluated at the business sector level. The 1st data
framework is a survey of 682 Australian companies retaining twenty or more persons,
comprising 466 medium and large business with almost 200 government interventions. The
business samples have been attained from Dun and Bradstreet, a business gen organization.
Findings and discussion: The employee participation state the diversity of the practices and is
generally linked with a sundry-concerned jargon comprising employee participation,
employee voice, and authorization. The employee participation incorporates a variety of
mechanisms utilized to comprise the workers in the verdicts at all levels of the company. The
participation of the employees can be differentiated in the form of direct and representative.
The direct participation can be discrete or team-based and concentrates on the instant work
environment comprising a degree of job independence or optional. Direct participation is
generally empowered by the organizational goal of enhancing efficiency. For instance, staff
surveys, informal or formal conferences with the HRM, excellence circles and more.
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of employee participation, the Blyton and
Turnbull notions of death and possibility are employed. The scope of partaking is stated to
the arrays of the decisions which are taken by the employees to participate in. two approaches
have been identified in the approach of employee participation like a consultative approach
and a substantive approach. The consultative approach is narrow detailed and slight in
possibility and extensiveness. This approach comprises evidence sharing without decision
making with the constrained variety of participative practices. On the other side, a practical

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approach is broader and deeper comprising more inspiration in the decision-making by a
wide variety of participative practices which are more anticipated to be entrenched in the
company. The data used in the article outcomes from both employer survey and initiative
contract data offer robust evidence for the significance of worker contribution in empowering
carbon extenuation policies at the organization.
Conclusion: The article represents a strong link between activities for the lessening of carbon
emissions and employee contribution. Most of the companies have involved in some carbon
mitigation actions at the office level are likely to have a significant role in the worker
contribution in the procedure.
How this article will contribute to Essay 3: The article will subsidize to the essay as it clearly
offers imminent instructions for both public policy deployment and influential assistance for
the green HRM agenda. The retail sectors with the lowest occurrence of carbon mitigation
actions practice the lease significant degrees of employee participation.

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Article 5
D'Netto, B., Shen, J., Chelliah, J., & Monga, M. (2014). Human resource diversity
management practices in the Australian manufacturing sector. The International
Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(9), 1243-1266.
Objective and research question: The employee insights of the assistances and encounters of
workforce diversity and human resource diversity management practices approved in the
Australian manufacturing sector. The aim of the article is to play a crucial part in diversity
management as HRM can not only certify fairness but value and efficient use of diversity.
Method: The data in the article has been gathered by making use of a qualitative approach.
The Australian retail sector has been focused on. The Australian labor union offers entree to
the HR managers and native unions. The sample comprises a complete of 9 large
international corporations situated in New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria.
Findings and discussion: Retail is considered as an essential part of the Australian economy.
The retail sector relics a foremost donor to the manufacturing in Australia. HRM plays a
significant part in diversity management as HRM can certify parity with value and efficient
use of diversity. The affirmative action (AA) equal prospect is an umbrella term for Australia
comprising corrective retorts to discrimination, past and present. Diversity management is the
crucial area of HRM. The diversity management goes yonder equality and fairness
comprising personal variances. The culture diversity management focuses on constructing
precise skills, forming rules and conscripting practices in order to get the greatest from every
worker in diverse workers.
Cultural diversity management is about handling the variances and resemblances of
the staffs. It can vary as per the extent to which conventional workers are open to diversity.
When it comes to the individual and group well-being, social responsibility is authoritative,
albeit generally impelled by legislation in Australia. Workforce diversity is generally
observed as a ‘double-edged sword’ to produce negative and positive outcomes. The diversity
also upsurges ingenuity and innovation and has an adverse effect on organizational
performance. It has been observed that diverse groups create more innovative ideas then
consistent ones. They offer superior solutions to organizational problems along with
increasing efficiency. Whenever any diversity linked problems are faced in the organization

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than these can be explained and the latent assistances can be attained by effective diversity
management.
Conclusion: Australia is deliberated to be a distinctive diverse civilization and its HR
diversity management mirrors the way diversity is succeeded in other Western economies.
The article surpasses the Australian national framework. At current, companies do not seem
to be executing active HR diversity management policies to assist workforce diversity.
How this article will contribute to the Essay: Effective HR management will contribute to the
essay through the actual HR diversity management in the Australian retail sector in order to
improve the application of its diverse staff. It is also helpful in practicing other areas like
teamwork, leadership and collective bargaining.