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Human Resource Strategies
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Human Resource Strategies

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December 1991 | 360 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Few would disagree with the principle that successful achievement of an organization's overall strategic objectives is bound up with the design and implementation of appropriate human resource strategies (HRS). Yet many questions remain about what is entailed in implementing effective HRS. This volume brings together a range of outstanding contributions which explore not only the advantages but also the complexities of a strategic approach to human resource management. Deliberately broad in scope to reflect the organization-wide ramifications of HRS, combining theoretical analyses alongside case studies of HRS in practice, the book offers a fascinating review of this crucial topic.

The book begins by addressing key themes and debates within the field about the nature and role of human resource management. Succeeding sections then focus on three core organizational arenas inevitably implicated in strategic human resource management - organizational structure, culture and personnel strategies.

Human Resource Strategies is a Course Reader for the Open University Course B884 Human Resource Strategies.

Graeme Salaman
Introduction
 
PART ONE: HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGIES
Graeme Salaman and Christopher Mabey
Introduction
David Guest
Right Enough to be Dangerously Wrong
An Analysis of the `In Search of Excellence' Phenomenon

 
Phil B Beaumont
The US Human Resource Management Literature
A Review

 
Peter F Drucker
What Business Can Learn From Nonprofits
John Storey
Human Resource Management in the Public Sector
John Purcell
The Impact of Corporate Strategy on Human Resource Management
Chris Argyris
A Leadership Dilemma
Skilled Incompetence

 
Richard Beckhard
A Model for the Executive Management of Transformational Change
Alan McKinlay and Ken Starkey
Competitive Strategies and Organizational Change
 
PART TWO: STRUCTURAL STRATEGIES
Sheila Cameron
Introduction
Peter F Drucker
The Coming of the New Organization
David A Buchanan
High Performance
New Boundaries of Acceptability in Worker Control

 
Stewart R Clegg
Modernist and Postmodernist Organization
 
PART THREE: CULTURAL STRATEGIES
Kenneth Thompson
Introduction
V Lynn Meek
Organizational Culture
Origins and Weaknesses

 
Paul Bate
The Impact of Organizational Culture on Approaches to Organizational Problem-Solving
Edgar H Schein
Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture
 
PART FOUR: PERSONNEL STRATEGIES
Paul Iles and Christopher Mabey
Introduction
Richard E Boyatzis
Building on Competence
The Effective Use of Managerial Talent

 
Jeroen J J L Seegers
Assessment Centres for Identifying Long-Term Potential and for Self-Development
Jeffrey A Sonnenfeld, Maury A Peiperl and John P Kotter
Strategic Determinants of Managerial Labor Markets
A Career Systems View

 
Ewart Keep
Corporate Training Strategies
The Vital Component?

 
Thomas A Mahoney
Multiple Pay Contingencies
Strategic Design of Compensation

 

`Both theoretical and practical examination of the issues makes for a fascinating review of the field' - Journal of the Institute of Health Education

`Like most OU Course Readers it is sturdy enough to stand on its own, and I am sure that it will prove to be of value to researchers and practitioners as well as to students following Masters' courses in management.... There is a good balance between the conceptual (Clegg on modernist and post-modernist organization), the analytical (McKinlay and Starkey's case studies of Pilkington's, Rank Xerox and Ford UK) and the practical (Seegers' description of the use of assessment centres in the selection and promotion of employees). The editors have produced more than a mere collection of articles: they have brought together an up-to-date, varied and representative sequence of contributions, linked together by brief and thoughtful introductions to each section.... the variety of perspectives ensures that the Reader as a whole is not overly promotional of one point of view. Its use as a reference text is helped by a good subject index.... There is, though, a great deal to recommend. For me, the high spots are: the clarity of Storey's application of human resource management to the public sector (chapter 4), and his four-part conceptual framework built, as he says, on the pillars of integration, commitment and responsiveness, individualism, and line-manager ownership; Drucker's vision (chapter 9) of the information-based organization of the future, more like a hospital, university or symphony orchestra than the large business of today, and his prediction that once we realize that `whole layers of management neither make decisions nor lead' the new organizations will become predominantly organizations of knowledge-specialists and professionals; the impishness of Keep's suggestion (in a chapter on corporate training for strategies that should be required reading for all those involved in industrial training) that managers might not universally and unequivocally seek out well-trained employees - `bearing in mind the education and training of British managers, it is open to question how genuine would be their welcome for a better-educated, better-trained, more self-sufficient and questioning workforce'.... In general, the contributions should promote serious reflection on many of the human resource issues facing managers in the UK today, and perhaps to help remedy what Guest identifies as `their failure to develop habits of reading and of keeping up to date with new ideas'. Although the principal readership will be found in the world of business, every chapter has something of importance to say to the public sector manager, and this volume should be read by senior staff both in the soon-to-be incorporated FE colleges and... in the newly-designated Universities' - Tony Lewis, University of Greenwich, in The Vocational Aspect of Education

`A very useful reader.... It combines readability with utility, as well as using pieces which are appropriate for a British readership, as opposed to most books on HRM which seem to be biased towards the US market.... This volume commendably tries to approach HRM from the standpoint of `organization theory' and in doing so focuses on strategies and structures in ways that are both insightful and interesting' - Journal of General Management

`Those who are interested in the development and in an actual state of the art of HRM in the US, can gain insight from Beaumont's brilliant and critical review of the American HRM literature. Argyris's hypothesis on the skilled incompetence of managers is highly noteworthy.... Buchanan's study on the acceptability in worker control is an interesting contribution to the phenomenon of individualization - a topic which has been discussed for some years now in Germany. Clegg's study on modernist and postmodernist organization is worth reading for its comparison of Japanese and western styles of management.... Among the three contributions on corporate culture in Part Three Meek's contribution remains remarkable because it treats organizational culture not as a variable which can be determined and measured but as an integrative part of organizations. Schein's famous essay on the awareness of organizational culture has meanwhile become a classic' - Management International Review

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