Reviews the available evidence on the use of human resource management consultants, and examines the findings from a study of their use in manufacturing in the North‐East of England. Also considers the following questions: What types of consultants are used and in what areas? How is the HRM...

States that there has been much debate about the EC’s Social Charter but very little research on the implications for personnel managers. Personnel managers will be responsible for implementing the majority of Social Charter initiatives within their organizations. Based on the results from a...

Explores the burgeoning literature on HRM with the aim of assessing its distinctiveness in terms of the arguments expounded by Guest in 1989 in his article “Personnel Management and HRM: Can You Tell the Difference?”. Summarizes Guest’s article, drawing out his three main approaches;...

Considers the changes in the way that we theoretically conceptualize organizations being brought about by the configurations approach towards organizations. Shows that the concept of fit is crucial to this approach and that this can be operationalized at both a macro and a micro level in...

Describes a process through which an organization moved from traditional personnel management towards a more strategically oriented human resource management. Focuses on tracking down, periodically, the actions taken by the human resource manager and his/her relationships with the strategic...

The treatment of training and skill issues in much of the recent empirical work within the HRM tradition, tends to be highly aggregated and schematic. Few studies have sought systematically to explore in detail the impact of key economic forces and agencies on the generation and reproduction of...

Human resource management (HRM), in contrast to “personnel management” and “personnel administration”, is often held to be proactive rather than reactive, strategic rather than tactical, and integrated with corporate strategy rather than marginal or peripheral. Argues that it is...

Examines the use of Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) in the analysis and improvement of a “messy” HRM problem in Nationwide Building Society (NBS). Describes SSM in outline and relates it to a case study application of the methodology in the area of career management and career counselling. At...

Considers the idea of linking decisions on business strategy, product market characteristics and personnel/human resource management policies. Initially explores some theoretical aspects of business strategy‐personnel policy linkages and then considers some empirical evidence from a survey of...

Using data from the Price Waterhouse Cranfield Project, investigates a umber of key aspects of industrial relations at organization level as a means of evaluating the nature of change in industrial relations. Examines levels of trade union membership in organizations across Europe; the extent and...