The Human Resources Revolution: Why Putting People First Matters

Citation

Chan, C.C.A. (2007), "The Human Resources Revolution: Why Putting People First Matters", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 488-488. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730710761788

The Human Resources Revolution focuses on three central themes. The first theme deals with the contribution of human resources to an organization's competitive advantage. The second theme reviews some international human resource practices. The third theme explores the link between human resource practices and employee wellbeing.

In the first chapter, Ronald Burke argues that the difficulty in replicating human resources provide organizations with a unique competitive advantage. As such, Burke sees HR playing a revolutionary role. However, knowledge about the roles played by HR is nothing new and, so, hardly revolutionary. Still, Burke hits home the various reasons why, in spite of the research evidence, many organizations are still unwilling to accept the roles played by HR in affecting organizational outcomes. Unless top management is willing to acknowledge the barriers to HRM implementations, organizations are not likely going to progress and improve. Burke continues to demonstrate the relevance of HRM in the second chapter by presenting some evidence of effective HRM practices and how these practices can be implemented. In the third chapter, David Lepak, Riki Takeuchi, Niclas Erhardt and Saba Colakoglu present some research evidence linking strategic HRM and various measures of organizational performance. The highlight of the fourth chapter, contributed by Sven Kepes and John Delery, presents the HRM architecture and ways to implement this architecture.

In Chapter 5, Bas van Diepan, Ad van Iterson and Robert Roe compare and contrast HRM in Europe and North America. Chapter 6, contributed by Paul Sparrow and Chris Brewster, presents the building block of a successful global HRM system. Chapter 7 by Maxine Dalton expands on the previous chapter by discussing the knowledge, skills and abilities needed by an effective global manager and the recruitment, selection and development process of such a manager.

In Chapter 8, Cary L. Cooper argues the problems associated with occupational stress and provides some solutions that can be adopted by HR. In Chapter 9, Evangelia Demerouti presents the benefits of having work‐life policies, effectiveness of such policies in improving work performance and barriers in implementations.

In Chapter 10, Michael A. West, Lynn Markiewicz and Helen Shipton discuss the ingredients for effective team work and how HR can get involved in this process. In Chapter 11, Brenda E. Ghitulescu and Carrie R. Leana touch on the important roles played by HR practitioners in developing human and social capital in organizations. In Chapter 12, Michael P. Leiter explains how HR can promote greater work engagement. In Chapter 13, Mary Beth Mongillo argues about importance of talent in an organization and presents some ideas about expediting the process of talent development. In Chapter 14, Jack W. Wiley highlights the importance of employing employee survey strategically as a diagnostic tool to improve individual and organizational performance. In Chapter 15, Tjai M. Nielsen and Terry R. Halfhill describe some techniques of leadership development. The concept of leadership development (with a focus on career development) is again reinforced by Stephen J. Zaccaro, Gabrielle M. Wood and Jeffrey Herman in Chapter 16.

This book is certainly well researched. I suspect this book is written for an academic audience and practitioners who appreciate academic research. As such, this is an excellent reference book. The contributors are experts in their respective fields. Practitioners who are serious about improving their organization's HR culture and practices will find this book tremendously useful and they are invited to bear this responsibility.