The ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to emerge across all facets of the world of work, including the field of human resource management (HRM). Sustainable HRM, drawing on the triple bottom line elements of the economic, environmental and social pillars of sustainability, provides an ideal basis from which to understand the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and HRM. In this systematic literature review, we analyze peer reviewed articles published in the nexus of the pandemic and sustainable HRM, identifying the dimensions and extent of research in this topical area of study. Our CEDEL model—complicator–exposer–disruptor–enabler–legitimizer—conceptualizes our understanding of the role of COVID-19 in sustainable HRM. This paper provides a framework from which future studies can benefit when investigating the impacts of COVID-19, and a comprehensive identification of future research avenues.

Purpose: The pandemic emphasised the importance for society of the “hidden” workforce – cleaners, delivery drivers, security guards or hospital porters. This paper explores the well-being of low-status expatriates in the international workplace exemplified by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This is one of the first studies examining the well-being of people at the bottom of the pyramid, living in difficult circumstances, and undertaking work that is hard and sometimes dangerous.Design/methodology/approach: The authors adopt an exploratory approach. Using semi-structured interview data from 21 low-status expatriates, the authors examine their experiences in the UAE in relation to their well-being, allowing the authors to suggest the need to develop our understanding of the concept of well-being and the concept's application.Findings: Low-status expatriates live restrictive lives, away from their family and friends for extended periods, and subject to rigid terms and conditions of employment. Difficult circumstances, long working hours, late or arbitrarily reduced salary payment and a lack of voice affect their personal well-being and sacrificed to consideration for their family well-being. Applying the concept of well-being in such cases requires the authors to develop the notion beyond the individual to encompass the wider family.Research limitations/implications: This exploratory analysis opens new avenues for well-being studies and highlights the need for contextualised research. Future research might benefit from quantitative methods being used alongside qualitative methods and collecting multiple perspective data, including the views of managers and policy makers and data from the “left-behind” families of these low-status expatriates.Practical implications: There is plenty of scope for managers of low-status expatriates to improve the latter's well-being. Given the lack of interest in doing so, the authors suggest that policy makers may need to modify extant legalisation to ensure a greater focus on low-status expatriates.Originality/value: The authors believe this to be the first study to examine the impact of family orientation on the well-being of low-status expatriates, encouraging the authors to challenge and suggest developments to current understandings of well-being.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the power dynamics between the client firm and the supplier firm in the information technology outsourcing (ITO) supplier chain influence the supplier firm's human resource management (HRM) practices, particularly talent retention.Design/methodology/approach: A multi-case study approach was adopted comprising four supplier firms, three client firms and a total of 53 interviews. The transaction cost economics (TCE) is the theoretical lens that guides the interpretation of our findings.Findings: The power dynamics between client and supplier firms in the ITO supply chain is one underpinned by TCE theory, characterised by an asymmetric client-dominated, transactional relationship, with the client firms controlling the “why”, the “what”, and the “how” dimensions of their collaboration. This “three-dimensional control” led to high talent turnover in supplier firms, which boomerangs to perpetuate the power dynamic, forming “vicious cycles of talent turnover” in the ITO supplier chain. Originality/value: No previous study has analysed power dynamics as an external factor on ITO supplier firms' talent retention. The construct of the “three-dimensional-control” offers a framework to study power dynamics in the ITO supplier chain. The study’s framework of the “vicious cycles of talent turnover” is the first that explains the mechanisms through which the power dynamics in the ITO influences supplier's talent retention.