From the Editor

Abstract

This issue continues one of the traditional themes of GBOE with four articles broadly related to human resource management. Sylvia Freitas Mello and Patricia Amelia Tomei begin the issue by looking at the life of expatriates undertaking international assignments. In “The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on expatriates: A pathway to work-life harmony?” (https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22088) they examine how the “new status quo” created by COVID-19 has impacted on expatriates' lives. Their qualitative study of 12 expatriates shows how the pandemic influenced expatriates' expectations regarding their work-life interface, and how it offered a pathway to a changing their work-life balance. The study provides recommendations to human resource managers on how to achieve work-life harmony, where work and life are seen as a single domain. Studies show that human resource management can have a positive impact on organizational ambidexterity, but few examine both employee motivation for ambidexterity, and their ability to achieve it, in the nonprofit sector. In “High involvement human resource practices and their impact on organizational ambidexterity: The mediating role of employees' ambidextrous behaviors” (https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22090) Dina Farouk Al-Agry examines ambidexterity, at both the individual and the firm level, using a sample of 130 healthcare personnel from a leading children's cancer hospital in Egypt. The results show the value of high-involvement human resource practices in achieving ambidexterity through encouraging employees' ambidextrous behavior. Following a similar theme in their article “High commitment human resource management practices and hotel employees' work outcomes in Bangladesh” (https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22089), Mohammad Rabiul Basher Rubel, Daisy Mui Hung Kee, and Nadia Newaz Rimi look at how high commitment human resource management creates and sustains employee relationships. Viewing high commitment human resource management as a relational process, and based on data from 365 front-line employees in five-star hotels in Bangladesh, they show how high commitment human resource management influences work outcomes. The results show the role that high commitment human resource management plays in ensuring positive work outcomes, and indicates how organizations might benefit from this knowledge. Finally, although the cost of workplace deviance goes beyond simple financial losses, there is little research on the influence of ethical climate types on workplace deviance. In “The impact of perceived ethical climate types on workplace deviance: An empirical investigation of IT professionals in India” (https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22085), Hiranmayakaparthi Ramadugu and Renu Rastogi look at the impact of perceived ethical climate types on workplace deviance in the Indian IT industry. Based on data from 158 IT professionals, they analyze workplace deviance using four ethical climate types. Their results show that ethical climate types can be leveraged to counteract the threat of deviant behavior in the workplace.