Human Resource Management in a Business Context
3rd edition
April 2007

by Alan Price

Human Resource Management in a Business Context provides an international focus on the theory and practice of people management. A thorough and comprehensive overview of all the key aspects of HRM, including case studies, articles from HRM Guide and other sources, key concepts, review questions and problems for discussion and analysis.
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HRM Guide Sections

HRM Guide Australia

HRM Guide Canada

HRM Guide NZ

HRM Guide UK

HRM Guide USA

Introduction Overview of HRM Guide

HRM Guide Updates Latest updates on the HRM Guide websites

Jobs and Careers Advice, job postings and leads

HRM Topics Hundreds of pages of information, updates and links to articles

HR Directory Links to HR service providers

HR News Releases Announcements, news, reports

Overview of HRM

The Glossary (new to the second edition Human Resource Management in a Business Context ) provides the following working definition of HRM:

"A philosophy of people management based on the belief that human resources are uniquely important to sustained business success. An organization gains competitive advantage by using its people effectively, drawing on their expertise and ingenuity to meet clearly defined objectives. HRM is aimed at recruiting capable, flexible and committed people, managing and rewarding their performance and developing key competencies.

The final chapter of Human Resource Management in a Business Context addresses the following questions:

• The status and significance of HRM
• HRM and globalization
• HRM and 'best practice'
• Driving forces of HRM
• The impact of HRM
• What next?

 Status and significance of HRM

 A Watson Wyatt study demonstrates a clear link between specific HR practices and financial performance. Read  HRM delivers shareholder value.

 The implementation of HRM. Part of the confusion comes from the indistinct boundaries between  HRM and a plethora of other fashionable management programmes. Often HRM is used as a label for a collection of different people management techniques, described by Karen Legge (1995) as 'symbiotic buzz-words'. A specific people management initiative may be regarded as HRM or, alternatively, bundled up with total quality management, customer care, business process re-engineering and so on.

  The driving forces of HRM. (...) we can justifiably ask if the uptake of HRM has been driven by practitioners - people involved in practical people management - and then attracted wider attention, or if it is the creation of academics and consultants, with some (and only some) practitioners following on. What is apparent is that the practitioners involved in the introduction of HRM are often line or general managers rather than personnel managers.

  Managerialists. One perspective sees HRM as a reflection of Thatcherite and Reaganite policies which were translated into a wave of managerialism, first in industry and then in the public sector. (...) managerialism's new legitimacy is most clearly seen in the public sector where government has imposed 'market conditions' and new management structures. Ironically business concepts such as HRM have been adopted most widely in organizations which are not true 'businesses' at all.

Overview of HRM

 

Further reading