In the knowledge economy, knowledge-based capabilities are the key to competitive advantage. At the firm level, this places the enterprise's people, their knowledge and innovative capacity at the heart of strategic potential, and organisations that excel in attracting, creating, managing and sustaining knowledge capabilities are advantaged. Human resource management (HRM) has over recent years been exhorted to demonstrate its position as a strategic partner to executive management: this promise has been only partially realised.In this article, we explore the knowledge economy and the management of knowledge from an HRM perspective. Commanding a central position in realising value from knowledge assets is proposed as a strategic role for HRM. Specifically, HRM must respond to the key challenges presented by the knowledge economy. We identify four HRM priorities: becoming expert in identifying and defining strategic knowledge capabilities; developing and managing knowledge workers by leveraging the knowing-learning-doing nexus; building knowledge value as an organisational as well as an individual asset; and minimising enterprise knowledge risk.

The current study investigated the psychological impact of a United Steelworkers of America strike on the steelworkers involved, and the relationship between psychological well-being and individuals' levels of involvement in union activity during the strike. Three hundred and fifty-one steelworkers (302 'strikers' and 49 'non-strikers') completed surveys measuring a range of demographic and psychological well-being variables. Strikers, compared to non-strikers, reported higher levels of depression, anxiety, and irritation, and lower levels of mental health. For strikers, engaging in higher levels of union activity during the strike was associated with better psychological well-being. Jahoda's theory of deprivation during unemployment is used as the lens through which to explain some of the results, supporting the view that latent benefits associated with work are important for psychological well-being. A range of practical implications are offered for unions and their members.

A social rules perspective was employed to identify the elements of socially appropriate responses to unfair criticism in the workplace. Women generally endorsed for themselves response strategies based on stronger obligation and softer rights components, while men endorsed responses based on stronger personal rights expression and weaker obligation components. In support of the utility of a social rules approach to operationalizing context‐specific expectations, behavioral responses based on gender and status‐specific rules were evaluated as more effective on task, relationship, and self‐respect dimensions than were rights‐only, rights‐plus‐empathy, or submissive strategies. Results are discussed in terms of the development of a context‐specific model of interpersonal competence and implications for interpersonal skills and assertion training.

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