Human Resource Management for MBA Students

Citation

Mylona, S. (2009), "Human Resource Management for MBA Students", Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 97-98. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590910925099

Book synopsis

This book primarily aims to acquaint MBA postgraduate students with human resource management theory and practice. The book is based on the author's 15 years of teaching experience with MBA students in Scottish universities. It recognises that MBA students come from varying backgrounds and fields of interest and have particular needs. Consequently, the book aims to equip MBA students to put HRM principles and techniques into practice without requiring an extensive prior knowledge of management theory. The book sets out to adopt a practical focus and is also likely to be of interest to general managers interested in familiarising themselves with human resource management theories and practices.

Human resource management is discussed in twelve chapters. Though each chapter refers to a separate topic within the field of Human Resource Management, there are linkages across themes and topic areas throughout the text. In chapter 1, the author examines the emergence of human resource management versus traditional personnel management and briefly extends the issue to look at the adoption of high performance work practices. It also identifies the differences between hard and soft approaches to HRM. Chapter 2 explores the need for human resource management practices by analysing the strategic role they play in the sustainability and competitive advantage of organisations. The timely issue of best fit or best practice approaches to strategic human resource management is also debated.

The effective design of work is discussed in chapter three and attention is given to the topics of teamworking, flexibility and change management. Recruitment and selection is covered in chapter four and six possible models for personnel selection are examined. Talent management and employee exit are also important areas included in this chapter. The issue of developing people is explored in chapter five through an exploration of topics including learning styles, training evaluation, knowledge management and management.

“Harder” HR aspects are principally included in the second half of the book. The conduct of industrial relations in the era of unitarism, the value of job evaluation and the use of competency frameworks to structure HR systems are some of the issues discussed. Equal opportunities and diversity management matters are also presented. The book concludes with topics that may hold particular interest for the MBA student, namely the impact on people management through mergers and acquisitions, the conduct of HRM in multinational organisations and the expatriation process.

Evaluation

The overall content and the structure of the book can successfully reach its audience, i.e. MBA students and or the individual seeking to familiarise with the overall HRM agenda. The clear‐cut aims of each chapter and the concise labelling of sub‐sections enhance the readability of the text and encourage the reader to stay on track. Likewise, the case studies link theory with applied management, and a summary of the key issues provided at the end of each chapter. The language and writing style are both accessible. The themes roll quickly without stalling while covering popular and critical concepts.

Perhaps in some cases wider reference to the causal/generating factors might offer a firmer and grounded viewpoint to the reader for the usefulness and reasoning behind the debates‐issues discussed. For instance, why organisations resort to the flexible approach of the core and peripheral workforce; why the unitarist view of employee relations is so prevalent nowadays. At times, the text mentions concepts or terms that only later are explained. This may confuse a reader who is not already familiar with human resource management concepts and debates.

The references used are indeed based on key texts for the issues discussed, i.e. Hofstede's work on international management. A tendency for frequent use of CIPD sources might be noticed.

The core value of the book is its overall coverage of human resource management under the lens of business management, which really will be the main interest of the book audience.

In the author's own words

In today's world and tomorrow's world, sustainable competitive advantage can only come from the skills, experience, creativity, imagination and brainpower of people. In the modern economy it is relatively easy to raise capital to fund a bright idea, but the human resources of an organisation to turn that idea into a business and achieve sustainable competitive advantage‐how to create and build the next BMW or Apple is the single most important management challenge in the twenty first century, and that's what ambitious MBAs want to be involved in. To do this, managers have to know about people (p. 29).