Building More Effective Organizations: HR Management and Performance in Practice

Organizations today are facing heightened challenges in their efforts to perform effectively. These challenges are reflected in the failure of many long-standing organizations and the shortened tenure of senior level executives. There is increasing agreement that the unique competitive advantage organizations have today lies in their people, their human resource management practices and their cultures. All other elements of production can be readily obtained, bought or copied. We are now in the era of human capital; to be successful organizations need to unleash the talents of their people. Fortunately we now have considerable understanding of what high performing organizations look like. However, a large gap still exists between what we know and what managers actually do. With contributions from a team of leading academics and practitioners, Building More Effective Organizations provides an extensive survey of human resource management and the organizational practices associated with the high performance of individuals.

Table of Contents:
List of figures; List of tables; List of contributors; Foreword; Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. Building More Effective Organizations: 1. Building more effective organizations: a primer Ronald J. Burke and Cary L. Cooper; Part II. Enhancing Individual Health and Performance: 2. Enthusiastic employees David Sirota, Louis A. Mischkind and Michael I. Meltzer; 3. Organizational citizenship behavior, transaction cost economics, and the flat world hypothesis Dennis W. Organ and Jay Lee; 4. Best practices for work stress and well-being: solutions for human dilemmas in organizations Alvin L. Gibson and James Campbell Quick; 5. Enhancing staff well-being for organizational effectiveness Ivan T. Robertson, Gordon Tinline and Susannah Robertson; Part III. Enhancing Organizational Health and Performance: 6. Maximizing the value of leadership development: key questions (and some answers) Steve Kerr, Steffen Landauer and Elise Lelon; 7. Best practices in building more effective teams Kevin C. Stagl and Eduardo Salas; 8. Career development processes in organizations Yehuda Baruch and Sherry E. Sullivan; 9. Fostering organizational learning: creating and maintaining a learning culture Silvia Salas and Mary Ann Von Glinow; 10. Work-life balance, best practices and healthy organizations: a European perspective Christine Purcell, Suzan Lewis, Janet Smithson and Sue Caton; 11. Diversity management practices in leading edge firms Val Singh; Part IV. Transforming Organizations: 12. Making it better - achieving outstanding performance in manufacturing organizations John Bessant and Dave Francis; 13. Culture change in a financial services organization Emma Preece; 14. Building the sustainable organization through adaptive, creative coherence in the HR system Barry Colbert, Elizabeth Kurucz and David Wheeler; 15. Be in to win - from absence to attendance in Royal Mail Group Stuart Kennedy and Tony McCarthy; 16. Transforming a company into a community Philip Mirvis; Index.

About the Author :
Ronald J. Burke is Professor Emeritus of Organizational Behaviour and Industrial Relations at the Schulich School of Business, York University. One of Canada's most prolific researchers and writers, Professor Burke's work has focused on the relationship between individual well-being and the work environment. Cary L. Cooper is Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health and Pro-Vice Chancellor (External Relations) at Lancaster University. He is the author of over 100 books and has published a major report for the EU European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Work Conditions on 'Stress Prevention in the Workplace'. Professor Cooper was awarded a CBE for his contribution to organizational health.

Review :
'Burke and Cooper, two distinguished and prolific authors in management, have managed to put together an impressive text blending contributions from some of the leading scholars in the academy with contributions from senior executives from the top blue chip corporations. This book is a 'must-read' for both students and practitioners struggling with adapting innovative policies and practices which will enable their organizations to be effective in the 21st century global competitive scene. The book is informative and provocative and is highly recommended.' Simon L. Dolan, Ramon Llull Chair in Human Resource Management, ESADE Business School, Barcelona, and Editor-in-Chief of Cross Cultural Management 'Ronald Burke and Cary Cooper state that the competitive advantage organizations have today lies in their people and their cultures, and I think they are right. In this book they bring together relevant research to back up their statement and I think they did a great job.' Marc J. Schabracq, University of Amsterdam