Derek Torrington – Human Resource Management

Автор: Derek Torrington
Название книги: Human Resource Management
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Управление персоналом
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

This book and its antecedent have been through many editions in the quarter of a century
since first publication in 1979 as Torrington, D.P. and Chapman, J.B., Personnel Management,
Prentice Hall International: London. Over that period it has steadily evolved in line
with the development of the personnel/HR function and the changing mix of students studying
the subject. In 1979 Personnel Management or Manpower Administration was given
little respect in academia. It was rarely taught on undergraduate courses and the UK did
not have a single professor of personnel management, although there was a reasonable
number of professors of industrial relations. Teaching was mainly focused on professional
courses leading to a qualification from the then Institute of Personnel Management (IPM).
Twenty-five years later human resource management is found in virtually all undergraduate
teaching of business and management, as well as in MBAs and specialist masters’ programmes.
The number of professors of industrial relations is declining and professors of
HRM are everywhere.
We have been very glad to see the number of people buying the book increase year by
year, despite the great growth in the number of available texts, and the steady growth of
translations into foreign languages, with Georgian and Serbian being the latest versions. It
is also gratifying to see that the use of the text is equally strong at all academic levels from
specialist master’s, through MBA to all undergraduate and professional courses, and that it
is being used by many practitioners.
For this latest edition we have comprehensively updated and revised the material to
encompass legislative changes, emerging issues of professional and academic debate,
findings and commentary from our own recent research into contemporary business practices,
and other recent data and survey findings. Despite adding much new material we
have maintained the same general structure that has been appreciated in the past, taking
each of the main functional areas of HRM in turn. We have also been careful to retain all
of the material that regularly receives special commendation and requests for permission
to copy.
For the first time we have dropped the part of the text on organisation, as several of the
people who were kind enough to review our previous edition for us felt that this material was
now more appropriately located in a text on general management. Also following reviewers’
comments we have a new Part VII dealing with developing issues that affect all the functional
areas of human resource management.
There is a range of assessment material and illustrations, as well as several design features
to assist readers further in using and learning from the text; these include:
Integrated Window on practice boxes provide a range of illustrative material throughout
the text, including examples of real company practice, survey results, anecdotes and
quotes, and court cases.
• Integrated Activity boxes encourage readers to review and critically apply their understanding
at regular intervals throughout the text, either by responding to a question or by
undertaking a small practical assignment, individually or as part of a group. In recognition
that this text is used on both professional and academic courses, most of the exercises
reflect the fact that many students will have little or no business experience. Others
may appear to exclude students who are not in employment by asking readers to consider
an aspect in their own organisation; however, the organisation could be a college
or university, the students’ union, a political body or sports team.
• Discussion topics: at the end of each chapter there are two or three short questions
intended for general discussion in a tutorial or study group.
• Case study problems: at the end of each part we have included one short case study
with several questions to enable readers to review, link and apply their understanding of
the previous chapters to a business scenario.
• Examination questions: at the end of each part of the text we have included eight
sample questions from past examinations at various levels: undergraduate, MBA,
master’s and professional.
• Web links are given as appropriate at various points in the text. These are either to the
text’s companion website, where there is a great deal of further material, or to other
websites containing useful information relating to the topics covered.
• Further reading lists for each chapter suggest further relevant readings, with guidance
on their value.
• Each part of the text includes a brief introduction to its scope and purpose.
• Chapter objectives to open and Summary propositions to conclude each chapter set
readers’ expectations and review their understanding progressively.
• There are full References at the end of each chapter to aid further exploration of the
chapter material, as required.
• In previous editions there have always been a number of chapters dealing with the
face-to-face situations that make up a large part of the HR manager’s day. This time they
are re-styled as ‘Focus on skills’ at the end of each part; they have a twofold purpose.
Not only do they introduce a basic aspect of human resource management activity, they
also act as a means of focusing one’s understanding of the myriad other activities discussed
in the part of the text which they conclude.
• For the first time we include a Glossary. This is not a comprehensive repetition of all the
terms used throughout the text. Rather, it provides further notes on a selection of words
and phrases that benefit from more background than is already provided. Words that
appear in the glossary are emboldened the first time they appear in the text.