Human Resource Management : A strategic approach

Few of you who read this textbooks will actually become human resource managers in organizations, but most of you will (at some point in you career) manage a group of people. Also, some of you will be in a position to influence your organization's human resource policy significantly, even if you are not in your firms's human resource department. Of course, no matter where you are in the organization, you will be affected by your organization's human resource policy simply because you are a member of that organization. The bulk of this textbook examines the formulation and implementation of human resource policy at the strategic level. In other words, we are most concerned with the major aspects of how an organization deals with its people - how it acquires them, utilises them, rewards them, and separates them. We are concerned with the interplay of the human resource department and line managers as strategic decisions are made and implemented on human resource acquisition and use in organizations. We are also concerned with how strategic human resource decisions interplay with the overall strategic decisions an organization makes. The book examines typical functions in human resources such as recruitment, selection, training, rewarding (wage and salary analysis), and so on, but it does so from a strategic perspective. Specifically, it explores how these functions integrate with the overall strategy of the firm in order for the firm to become more effective and efficient - in short, more competitive.