Spotlight: Human Resource Management
Human resource management—the strategic approach to hiring, developing, and motivating employees—plays a crucial role in helping organizations achieve their objectives. Dealing with both employee satisfaction and employee performance, effective human resource management allows businesses to gain a competitive advantage. This page features a curated selection of annotated bibliographies drawn from Oxford Bibliographies in Management, designed to help scholars understand key theories and topics in our discipline.
“The human resource management (HRM) […] profession is responsible for the interface between employees in an organization and the policies and procedures of that organization, overseeing everything from staffing to compliance, to performance management, to total rewards, to a myriad of other workforce issues and processes. In addition to the day-to-day workforce issues covered by HRM, there is also a strong strategic component to the function. HRM professionals operate as strategic business partners in an organization, providing guidance, advice, and direction that add value to organizational processes...”
“Human resource management (HRM) professionals use the term “strategic human resource management” to convey their thinking that effective strategic HRM contributes to business effectiveness […] A grand unifying aspect of scholarship on strategic HRM is the assumption that further insights about managing human resources can be gained through research that treats the many activities involved in managing the workforce as a set of activities that, if properly aligned with the needs of the business, can result in many positive consequences...”
“[Personality] has often been a focus of study in work settings because organizations seek to capitalize on individuals’ unique habits and propensities as distinct from their knowledge, skills, and abilities toward improving organizational success. Workers are key to that success, and personality offers organizations a target for assessing individuals in personnel selection, work motivation, leadership, teamwork, and other key aspects of organizational functioning...”
“Equal employment opportunity (EEO) laws prohibit employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, age, religion, disability, and national origin; in the United States, these laws apply to employers with fifteen or more employees. The concept means that all employees shall have an “equal opportunity” based hypothetically on their skills and performance to obtain employment and advance on the job once they have obtained such employment...”
“Diversity is defined as real and perceived differences among individuals or groups and the ways in which these differences affect interactions and relationships as well as the status of different groups in organizations. The types of differences include general ones of gender, race and ethnicity, nationality, and sexual orientation as well as individual differences such as personality […] Though the relevant types of diversity may differ from one country to another, the core issue is how to effectively manage the benefits of diversity and mitigate its negative effects as well as preventing the exclusion and devaluation of members of nondominant groups...”
Featured image credit: Three businesswomen by Tim Gouw. Public Domain via Unsplash.
We want to hear from you.
Oxford Bibliographies is a partnership between the publisher and the academic community, and we invite you to participate. Please feel welcome to email OxfordBibliographies@oup.com.
