Evolving Practices in Human Resource Management: Responses to a Changing World of Work (J-B SIOP Professional Practice Series) [Hardcover]

Allen I. Kraut (Editor), Abraham K. Korman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 5, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0787940127 | ISBN-13: 978-0787940126 | Edition: 1st

Written for non-experts in jargon-free language, this work shows how to create systems within organizations that preempt the monetary, strategic, and emotional costs associated with on-the-job conflict. Its clear and simple approach translates advanced concepts into practical how-tos and provides readers with four guiding principles they can follow to create conflict control systems of their own. Amply illustrated with real-world examples, it details the policies, procedures, and practices that make for successful control systems and tells precisely how to implement them.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The table of contents for Evolving Practices reads like a survival kit for HR executives. This book provides concrete advice on how to deal with the challenges facing senior HR executives. From recruitment to leadership development, it offers valuable and usable insights." (Donald J. Sacco, executive vice president of human resources, Bell Atlantic)

"A very well done overview of the important issues faced by human resource management today. I highly recommAnd it." (Ed Lawler, director, Center for Effective Organizations)

From the Inside Flap

The ninth volume in the Professional Practice Series, sponsored by the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, a division of the American Psychological AssociationThe past two decades have seen astonishing changes in the way we do business. With the proliferation of contract work, telecommuting, and downsizing, it's clear that many bedrock assumptions about jobs and careers have been transformed, probably forever. What's not clear is how the human resource professional can best react to those changes.In this book, a team of noted practitioners and researchers—including Morgan McCall, Joel Moses, David Noer, and Benjamin Schneider—tackle that question. They explore how shifts in demographics, economics, regulations, technology, and values have affected, and will continue to affect, the practices human resource managers and industrial/organizational psychologists employ to enhance organizational effectiveness and the individual's sense of personal and social fulfillment. Addressing specific human resource functions, the contributors examine the assumptions that underlie traditional HR practice and reveal areas where new realities demand new strategies. Readers will discover exciting innovations in team management, in creating greater worker involvement and diversity, in selecting and grooming leaders, and in using organizational surveys, among other strategies and techniques. They will also find sage advice on how to ready HR for a host of challenges yet to come. Although the consequences of change have been dramatic, many organizations have responded in unique and effective ways. By sharing insights from the latest research, best practices from successful organizations, and the views of leading industrial and organizational psychologists, this book helps HR practitioners better understand the current state of their profession and better prepare for its future.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Pfeiffer; 1st edition (March 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787940127
• ISBN-13: 978-0787940126
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,361,553 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An invaluable study for understanding strategic HRM., May 15, 2000

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Evolving Practices in Human Resource Management: Responses to a Changing World of Work (J-B SIOP Professional Practice Series) (Hardcover)

As stated by series editor Manuel London, "the current volume, edited by Allen I. Kraut and Abraham K. Korman, explores how changes in the work world during the last two decades have altered the nature of human resource management (HRM). Economic, global, and marketplace changes have led to flatter organizational structures, reengineered jobs, team processes, and methods for continuous, customer-driven quality improvement. The chapters in this volume show how the practice of HRM and I/O psychology has adapted to these challenges and contributed to organization development...The chapters -all written by expert practitioners who value research- describe success stories and emerging strategies in key areas of HRM such as career development, recruitment and selection, performance appraisal, teamwork, leadership development, and organizational surveys."

In this context, as a sample, in third chapter of this book, "Is Job Analysis Dead, Misunderstood, or Both? : New Forms of Work Analysis and Design", Juan I. Sanches and Edward L. Levine argue that the obsolescence of job analysis is really the obsolescence of some of the traditional forms and applications of job analysis. Thus, they :

(1). discuss the basis of traditional job analysis,

(2). outline the business trends that have called that basis into question,

(3). propose revisions in traditional job analysis practices in line with emerging trends.

They begin by comparing and contrasting 'the factors' that shaped the job analysis methodology that has been used successfully in the past with their emerging counterparts, which make some traditional forms of job analysis obselete.

I. Traditional Factors :

* Division of labor and clear-cut labor-management distinction.

* Static job.

* Minimal interaction with coworkers.

* Accountability to superiors.

* One-way relation to technology.

* Long-term employement.

* Cultural homogeneity.

* Tolerance for budgetary slack.

II. Emerging Factors :

* Cross-functional responsibilities and blurring of labor-management distinction.

* Dynamic work assignments.

* Maximal interaction with coworkers.

* Accountability to internal and external customers.

* Two-way relation to technology.

* Short-term employement.

* Cultural diversity.

* Cost containment.

After describing these factors, and changes in work analysis and its building blocks : sources of data, methods of data collection, types of data, and level of analysis; finally, they suggest that unlike traditional job analysis, instead of being overconcerned with documenting molecular tasks and job boundaries new forms of work analysis should focus on contributing useful inputs to the process of continuous organizational innovation.

Not only this chapter, but this book as a whole is higly recommended for HR practitioners.