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Reassessing Human Resource Management
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Reassessing Human Resource Management


December 1992 | 288 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
"The book successfully raises conceptual, theoretical, and some practical issues key to management practice, human resource management, and trade unionism. For the critical practitioner and the student of human resources the book advances many notable arguments." --International Journal of Career Management "So well does the book succeed that the reader is left wondering who set this hare running and why are we all chasing it? . . . The book is well researched, well illustrated, and thought provoking. As such, it is a welcome antidote to the grossly hyped popular literature and the less critical academic treatments of the subject." --The Times Higher Has the rhetoric of human resource management (HRM) outstripped the reality? Are the various contradictions of an HRM perspective conceptually and practically sustainable? Drawing on a rich vein of case study material, this volume examines the emergence of HRM, its core assumptions and dimensions, the extent to which it represents a coherent strategy for employee management, and the contexts and conditions under which it will tend to prevail as a preferred approach. The contributors address such vital topics as HRM and competitive success; issues and contradictions in HRM approaches to flexibility; decentralization; "reward management;" supervision; such production systems as "Just-in-Time" manufacturing and new technology; HRM and trade unions; and, HRM rhetoric as the management of managerial meaning.

Peter Turnbull and Paul Blyton
HRM
Debates, Dilemmas and Contradictions

 
 
PART ONE: THE EMERGENCE OF HRM
Mike Noon
HRM
A Map, Model or Theory?

 
Richard Whipp
Human Resource Management, Competition and Strategy
Some Productive Tensions

 
Rick Delbridge and Peter Turnbull
Human Resource Maximization
The Management of Labour under Just-in-Time Manufacturing Systems

 
 
PART TWO: DIMENSIONS OF HRM
Emmanuel Ogbonna
Organization Culture and Human Resource Management
Dilemmas and Contradictions

 
Graham Sewell and Barry Wilkinson
Empowerment or Emasculation? Shop Floor Surveillance in a Total Quality Organization
Paul Blyton and Jonathan Morris
HRM and the Limits of Flexibility
Ian Kirkpatrick, Annette Davies and Nick Oliver
Decentralization
Friend or Foe of HRM?

 
James Lowe
`Locating the Line'
The Front-Line Supervisor and Human Resource Management

 
Ian Smith
Reward Management and HRM
Caroline Lloyd and Mike Rawlinson
New Technology and Human Resource Management
 
PART THREE: MANAGEMENT, UNIONS AND HRM
Michael Poole and Roger Mansfield
Managers' Attitudes to Human Resource Management
Rhetoric and Reality

 
Miguel Martinez Lucio and Syd Weston
Human Resource Management and Trade Union Responses
Bringing the Politics of the Workplace Back into the Debate

 
 
PART FOUR: A NEW FORM OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICE?
Tom Keenoy and Peter Anthony
HRM
Metaphor, Meaning and Morality

 
Paul Blyton and Peter Turnbull
Afterword

`Welcome and important attempts to help fill this `qualitative void'.... Comprehensive reference lists in discrete subject areas also constitute a valuable by-product of all the chapters. Moreover, the case studies yield some interesting illustrative material' - Work, Employment and Society

`The book is well researched, well illustrated and thought provoking. As such, it is a welcome antidote to the grossly hyped popular literature and the less critical academic treatments of the subject' - Times Higher Education Supplement

`The book successfully raises conceptual, theoretical and some practical issues key to management practice, human resource management and trade unionism. For the critical practitioner and the student of human resource management the book advances many notable arguments' - International Journal of Career Management

`Fifteen papers that review a wide range of issues. Particularly valuable for those who need to keep up with developments in this area' - Long Range Planning

`One of the great strengths of the book is the way it integrates theoretical and empirical data.... essential reading for undergraduates and graduate human resource management students.... Blyton and Turnbull's book is a welcome addition to the literature on human resource management' - The Journal of Industrial Relations

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ISBN: 9780803986978
$234.00

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ISBN: 9780803986985
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