Technological developments within advanced economies are impacting organisations and working lives. With the advent of 'Industry 4.0', Universal Basic Income (UBI) is being cast as a potential 'buffer'-a social safety net-to the restructuring of organisations, jobs, and economies that are already underway. The Covid-19 pandemic is providing an additional impetus as governments instigate similar safety nets as employment falls in the wake of the virus. To date, much of the debate concerning UBI has taken place in disciplines outside the auspices of Human Resource Management with most commentary occurring within the spheres of economics and social policy. This conceptual study is one of the first within the human resource management (HRM) field to address the potential impacts of UBI on orientations to work and the management of employees. To do this, we focus on a central underpinning theory within HRM, the psychological contract and how this might be affected by its introduction. Finally, a research agenda is developed that provides options by which we might explore the implications of UBI for the practice of HRM when and if such schemes are implemented.

This study explores the impact of the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) on academic identity within the context of a UK-based research-intensive higher education institution. TEF is the latest in a series of changes that have impacted upon the UK's HE sector and it is highly likely to have a significant impact upon academic identity. Collecting evidence through sixteen qualitative interviews, findings show that while TEF may not alter the broad substance of what it means to be an academic in terms of engagement with research, education and citizenship activities, it has the potential to have profound implications in terms of exacerbating conflicts within identity. This paper argues that negative work outcomes result where role conflicts, and mismatches between expectation and reward, create difficulties in realising our desired versions of ourselves. Theoretical contributions relevant to debates around identity conflict are discussed, with practical contributions exploring the importance of resource allocations and the need to align expectations and rewards.

Present theories highlight the varied roles played by weak and strong ties in idea generation, and development, respectively, but the mechanisms through which ties operate to influence the creative process remain uncertain. Investigating this issue across a range of SMEs, this paper demonstrates that strong ties influence idea development through three mechanisms; endorsement and validation, developing cognizance, and encouraging constructive dissent. These mechanisms positively impact idea development by creating organizational spaces that are primed to critically receive ideas, energize knowledge sharing by better transacting resources across network connections, and drive divergent thinking by disordering, but not fracturing, social spaces.

Extant literature draws numerous links between aspects of human resource development (HRD) activity and organizational creativity/innovation, noting that investments in learning positively impact creative output. Within this research base, studies suggest that the ability to self‐direct learning activity can influence creative performance, but we do not yet understand how such processes operate, particularly in small‐medium enterprise (SME) contexts. Given the positive economic and social impacts generated by SMEs, themselves often being sources of breakthrough product or service innovation, this is an important research problem that requires our collective attention. This article argues that while the ability to self‐direct learning activity does contribute to the generation of ideas in SME contexts, the presence of multiple stakeholder voices in the learning conversation suggests that learning is better conceptualized as codirected rather than self‐directed. This study finds that codirected approaches to learning operate through a mechanism termed “participative dialogue,” whereby both employees and managers contribute to learning conversations. It also highlights the role of employee critical self‐appraisal in driving self‐directedness and contributing to the generation of ideas. Findings ultimately suggest that codirection of learning benefits idea generation because such approaches facilitate the emergence of unexpected patterns of thinking, which drive the divergence that creativity depends upon.

New ideas are required if our organizations are going to survive and grow. Without the ability to think differently, firms can quickly stagnate and decline. A key contributor to the success (or otherwise) of the ideation process is the extent to which organizations provide effective control mechanisms, with existing literature drawing tentative links between this and the subject of organizational vision. The aim of this paper is to explore the control of idea generation in SME contexts, examining the interaction between organizational vision and the guidance of ideation in these settings. Through in-depth qualitative research with a range of SMEs, this study shows that structure in the form of an outlining framework assists in opening a liminal space for ideation. More importantly, this paper provides empirical evidence, which demonstrates that organizational visions provide this framework by acting as a target, assisting the development of relevant ideas. Ideation, within the SME, is argued to be fundamentally subject to, and contingent upon, the direction of the organization.

This article concerns rates of wage growth among women and minority groups and their impact on pay gaps. Specifically, it focuses on the pay progression of people with more than one disadvantaged identity, and on the impact of merit pay. Recent research indicates that pay gaps for people in more than one disadvantaged identity category are wider than those with a single‐disadvantaged identity. It is not known whether these gaps are closing, at what rate, and whether all groups are affected equally; nor is it known whether merit pay alleviates or exacerbates existing pay gaps. In addressing these issues, the analysis draws on longitudinal payroll data from a large UK ‐based organization. Results show that pay gaps are closing; however, the rate of convergence is slow relative to the size of existing pay disparities, and slowest of all for people with disabilities. When the effect of merit pay is isolated, it is found to have a small positive effect in reducing pay gaps, and this effect is generally larger for dual/multiple‐disadvantaged groups. These findings run counter to the well‐established critique of merit pay in relation to equality outcomes. The implications of this are discussed, and an agenda for research and practice is set out. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.