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Achieving Strategic Excellence
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Achieving Strategic Excellence

An Assessment of Human Resource Organizations

Edward E. Lawler, John W. Boudreau and Susan Albers Mohrman
Stanford UP, 2006
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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Background

Recommendation

Between 1995 and 2004, the Center for Effective Organizations conducted periodic surveys of the role of human resource departments in large U.S. corporations. Edward E. Lawler III, John W. Boudreau, Susan Albers Mohrman and other researchers, analyze that study in this useful book. Although their style can get dry and academic (perhaps since they are all university faculty members), this work is by no means purely theoretical. It includes applicable, real-world information that shows how HR managers and other corporate leaders perceive the changing role of the organizational HR department. This study says corporate leaders have come to realize that human resource work adds strategic value, given the importance of skilled personnel. It is no news to insiders that HR has become far more than a cost center, but these authors explain why. getAbstract recommends this work to HR managers and other executives who have a professional and intellectual need to stay on top of HR trends – and who will fearlessly take on tables, statistics and the halls of academe in the quest for that knowledge.

Summary

Using HR Strategically

During the early 1990s, intense global competition forced companies into new, leaner structures, making corporate leaders view their human resource (HR) departments as costly impediments. Companies tried to cut HR costs by using technology and outsourcing individual functions. At the time, the future of HR as a profession looked bleak. No longer. New studies demonstrate that successful companies are using HR strategically and realizing measurable value.

In 1995, 1998, 2001 and 2004, the Center for Effective Organizations of the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California sent surveys about HR practices to HR and non-HR executives from 417 to 996 large and medium-sized U.S. companies. This study, the source of the following data, garnered 115 to 150 responses each time. It found that when corporate managers use HR as a partner in staff development, succession planning, efficient resource allocation and organizational change, they do better and accrue more market value per employee.

This promising turn of events should alert HR managers that they need to rethink their organizational roles to make their careers secure...

About the Authors

The authors are affiliated with the University of Southern California. Edward E. Lawler III, distinguished professor of business, has written books on business process outsourcing and strategic HR organizations. John W. Boudreau, a professor and research director, has written more than 50 books and articles. Susan Albers Mohrman, a senior research scientist, is a past board member of the HR Planning Society and the Academy of Management.

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