Customer Reviews

The Future of Human Resource Management: 64 Thought Leaders Explore the Critical HR Issues of Today and Tomorrow

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To create this collection the editors contacted thought leaders and asked them "What is the future of HR?" They responded with the essays that make up this work. Its 45 brief chapters, contributed by 64 HR gurus, cover a broad spectrum of issues confronting the field. The chapters were clustered into nine parts, with the springboard clause of "In the future, an effective HR professional must..." These nine parts focus on outcomes and results-not actions or activities. This non-tradition (i.e., not based on specialized functions) organization of the book's content captures a dynamic, value-generating spirit. The authors hope they have provided a "road map for the profession," spotlighting how HR practitioners can constantly reinvent themselves to continue being of value people, organizations, and societies.

The books' core value is that it encompasses so many key and leading-edge topics written by so many people who are at the forefront of forging the field's future. But each chapter has its own stand alone merit; quite a few have considerable originality and 'push the envelop.' For example, in Chapter 14, "Changing Mental Models: HR's Most Important Task," Jeffrey Pfeffer argues that aside from being keepers and analysts of organization culture, HR needs to be concerned with the mental models and mindsets of the people of the company, particularly its leaders. Page-forward to chapter 30; there, Jac Fitz-Enz has a slightly different take; he concludes that to be a strategic business partner, HR leaders must become more culture managers than anything else-"there is no better place to start than with the organization's culture." Such thought-provoking views are typical of this book and distinguish it as lively, varied and ambitious collection of substantive thinking. Clearly, this is not a fast-read; given its agenda and scope-that's a virtue.

As an HR consultant and practitioner (HRconsultant.com, Partner, Stern & Associates), as well as a reviewer, I find this book to be a valuable, valid, and vivid snapshot of where the HR field is, where it's likely to be heading, and the many challenges it's confronting. No question about it, there's a lot of rewarding reading in this book.

The authors describe human resource management as both an art and
a science. It is an art because we are required to motivate,
build alliances, assume new roles, adopt to the corporate culture
and collaborate on mutually beneficial ventures.

Human Resource management issues range from functional experience
to talent management in an organization. An HR advisor is
knowledgable on core competencies . Generally, such a team member
is trusted by superiors to provide the talent necessary to
accomplish corporate goals. Often, it is necessary to adapt the
corporate culture to take full advantage of business conditions.
Employees must focus on building markets of customers locally
and globally. This task requires both new skills and a considerable technical analysis. The HR management process
is a science in that there are reams of statistical data to
sort and interpret for senior management, customers and governmental units at every level.

This work is a good primer for the Human Resource function in
an organization both large and small.

If you are interested in the critical issues facing Human Resources today and business leadership in general, this text is a must. This book is for the HR practitioner and corporate leaders. The strategic business partner role is the future of Human Resources as the tactical and transactional basics of HR are either being exported outside of HR departments or outsourced. The HR role today is business focused, business critical and business imperative. All the critical isses facing HR are discussed in this anthology - from the strategic national issues, regional issues and globalization. I highly recommend. I also recommend the first addition of this series "Tomorrow's HR Management: 48 Thought Leaders Call For Change." Thanks Amazon for bringing both books to my attention.

TW

The first section of this book was interesting, but it was not an example of what was to come. Many of the practitioner/authors made it clear that actual practice lags behind the available body of knowledge. The usual development of jargon, charts and soft salable materials seem to still dominate actual practice. Many less than expert consultants want to make money and the HR practitioners want to bring in consultants that will make them look good. No wonder the title "consultant" has such a poor connotation Not much has changed in the past 30 years.

Many of the personnnel practices including recruiting, selection, retention, etc. have been written about for years and little is added here. Employee assessment was briefly mentioned, but the development of assessment centers that would measure results was not discussed at any length. Human Resource Accounting by Likert should have had much more explanation. The discussion of Power without differentiating power from authority was pretty weak.

People thinking about this book might ought to first read works by Rensis Likert, K. Lewin, Maslow and other leaders in Organizational Behavior. Experts in this field should be real experts and not just feel good marketers.

The book was in excellent condition and arrived quickly. The price was reasonable and affordable based on price comparisons. I am very pleased with this item.

A lot of authors (64), touch an important range of HR issues. Every chapter provides tips and advise on how can we face each HR issue, adding value to the organization.