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The article examines the attitudes and strategies of a UK based employer as they developed their use of migrant labour in the latest manifestation of a strategy that targeted groups of vulnerable workers with lower labour market power. Management's celebration of the `good worker', based on the stereotyping of the perceived attributes of immigrant employees, resonated with the `business case' and `resource based view' debates within the human resource management literature.Yet terms and conditions of employment remained wedded to the bottom of the labour market. The article integrates analysis of the attitudes of employers with the views, experiences and aspirations of migrant workers. Micro level processes are also located in a wider analytical framework, incorporating the broader socio-economic context and key moments of regulatory intervention.

This article is not a research paper in the conventional sense. Instead, it is a reflexive account of the building of a relationship which would not have happened without the existence of digital technologies and might not have happened but for the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was through reading a digitised resource (an online PhD thesis) in the first UK 'lockdown' that Bob, now a semi-retired academic in the field of adult and organisational learning, began to reappraise his upbringing in a children's home in Scotland. Meanwhile, it was in getting to know Bob (through emails and Zoom meetings) and by accessing Bob's retrospectively digitised case record that Viv, the author of the PhD thesis and now a semi-retired social work academic, was stimulated to revisit her early research from a fresh perspective. We argue that our real-life example, serendipitous and unique as it undoubtedly is, demonstrates the democratising potential of the digital transformation that is currently being played out in child and family social work. Furthermore, it seems likely that digital technologies will continue to bring new and unexpected opportunities for forming such relationships in the future.

This article explores the phenomenon of recurrent internal redeployment, through a case study of restructuring at a UK based steel firm. While redeployment reflected one of the key functions of the traditional internal labour market at SteelCo, frequent restructuring events meant some workers experienced redeployment on a recurrent basis. For these workers the experience of repeated redeployment was analogous to churning in and out of jobs on the external labour market. Adapting this term to internal organisational processes, the article presents a new way of analysing recurrent redeployment through the formulation of the concept of Internal Labour Market Churn. This new contribution to internal labour market theory highlights problems with human capital development, career progression and in-work insecurity associated with internal churning, which tarnishes the sense of mutual commitment traditionally associated with and engendered by internal labour markets.

The article argues that any discussion of regulatory change should be sensitive to the manner in which regulation was originally constructed and developed. Any change can only be understood by a mapping of the complex interrelation of spaces, spheres and actors of regulation. The act of regulatory change requires shifts and re-alignments across a wide range of fronts. This is because regulation involves alliances and linkages across a range of spaces and actors, contingent upon the peculiarities and limits of different states and their respective civil societies. The manner in which regulatory change may be prosecuted also belies any notion of unproblematic transfer of responsibilities between actors.

The 'emergence' of the 'market' as the basis of economic and political decision-making has become a main focus of debate within the social sciences since the late 1970s. Even while those opposing the growing centrality of neo-classical economics and market-oriented political discourses remain a significant academic constituency, within their ranks there has been a growing realization that regulatory mechanisms, and in particular the role of the state, have nevertheless been the subject of extensive changes. Alternative schools of thought have argued in terms of the way in which such mechanisms have been refashioned. Regulation has become, in the words of Regini and Majone, 'transferred' and the 'boundaries' between regulator and regulated 'changed': the regulatory process has been seen to shift at the macro/national level and at the micro/enterprise level. While supporting the general argument that it is the boundaries of regulation which are to be discussed, not its presence, we shall nevertheless argue that these changes are, if anything, more contentious and that a set of ironies emerges which politicize regulation even further. © 2004 Taylor and Francis Ltd.

Purpose – State-led initiatives in Saudi Arabia have focused on 'localisation', a term, which here istaken to mean a state-led process to increase employment of workers from the local labour market,and displace workers from other countries. In Saudi Arabia, the 'Nitaqat' regulations in 2011 requiredprivate sector firms to recruit more Saudi nationals, limiting their access to the non-Saudi labourmarket, and penalising firms that did not comply. To cope with these staffing requirements, firmshave been incentivised to upgrade their approaches to HRM. Drawing on the concept of DynamicCapabilities, this study examines the development and use of human resource capabilities shortly afterthese regulations were implemented. Aim – To understand the role of operational and dynamic HR capabilities in organisations' abilitiesto manage external change.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a case study design and drew on both primaryand secondary data collected in 2013-2014. Data were 17 primary semi-structured interviews with keydecision makers of three private firms, and secondary government documentation on Nitaqat wereanalysed by means of a content analysis approach. Findings – The present research reveals that HRM capabilities do not automatically lead to innovationor successful adaptation to external change, but rather, outcomes depend on how HR strategiesinteract with, and are shaped by other contextual, environmental factors. Limitations of the study – The study is limited by its relatively small number of cases, and focus ona single country context. Practical implications – The results may bring awareness as to the role of socio-cultural context inoperational and dynamic HR capabilities and this knowledge can benefit companies that face similarexternal pressures in the successful development of their capabilities. Originality/value – The originality of the paper lies in its detailed consideration of how HRcapabilities shape, enable and constrain strategic choices during external change. It also points to thevital importance of sociocultural context in understanding how firms navigate change, with the useof HR capabilities being shaped considerably by this context

AbstractEuropean Union (EU) enlargement in 2004 produced a multi‐layered regulatory space structuring labour mobility between Central Eastern Europe and the United Kingdom. Building on a critical revaluation of the concept of labour mobility power as a phenomenon that cannot be reduced to earnings' maximisation, the paper contends that although post‐2004 migration was nested in the macro‐regulatory mechanism of EU freedom of movement of labour, kinship and ethnic networks constituted additional layers in regulating migrants' mobility trajectories. Drawing on migratory biographies, the analysis examines how these regulatory mechanisms shaped migrants' actions and intentions related to transnational exit, contributed in creating linkages through which migrants sought to actualise their labour power on a transnational scale, and provided directions for labour mobility power's use within the receiving country. By embedding labour mobility power within kinship (micro) and ethnic (meso) networks, this paper offers a complimentary understanding of labour mobility power that takes it beyond thehomo economicusexplanatory model.

Set in the context of the Swedish state's agenda of dual emancipation for women and men, the article shows how a global ICT consultancy company's formal gender equality goal is undermined by competing demands. Employing the concept of availability, in preference to work–life balance, the research found women opted out of roles requiring high degrees of spatial and temporal availability for work, in favour of roles more easily combined with family responsibilities. Such choices led to poor career development, plus the loss of technological expertise and confidence.These outcomes were at odds with the company's gender equality aims, as well as government objectives to make it easier for women and men to combine work and family, and increase the number of women within ICT. ; This article was published as manuscript in Line Holths doctoral thesis.