A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Human Resource Management

Irena Grugulis is Professor of Work and Skills and Head of the Work and Employment Relations Division at Leeds University Business School and an Associate Fellow and member of the Steering Group at the ESRC Centre for Skills, Knowledge and Organisational Performance at Oxford University. She held an ESRC/AIM Services Fellowship and served as Editor and Joint Editor-in-Chief of the journal Work, Employment and Society for seven years. Her principal research interests lie in the (broadly constituted) area of skills, particularly the way that organisations attempt to shape their employees and the impact and implications of this for the employees themselves. She has published extensively including articles in Organization Studies, Journal of Management Studies, British Journal of Industrial Relations and Work, Employment and Society.

• IntroductionChapter 1: Human Resource ManagementChapter 2: Is HRM strategic?Chapter 3: Skills and TrainingChapter 4: Pay and RewardChapter 5: Flexible Work and Flexible WorkersChapter 6: Employee VoiceChapter 7: Service WorkChapter 8: HRM and the Future of WorkConclusion

This is a grounded, critical and well thought through introduction to the subject. It is conscious of major debates yet able to explain them in a subtle and meaningful way.  The book presents the reader with the tensions and realities of HRM, inviting them to realise the ways in which management is structured in relation to workers.