HR Includes Management CourseMate with eBook Printed Access Card

Citation

Raju, P.G. and HymavathI ch, L. (2013), "HR Includes Management CourseMate with eBook Printed Access Card", Journal of Chinese Human Resource Management, Vol. 4 No. 1, pp. 90-92. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCHRM-01-2013-0002

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention (Sir Francis Bacon).

This longstanding quotation continues to hold as long as there are writers, inspiring writers and pulsating writers. The advent of e‐books, kindle, I‐pad, etc. has totally changed the pattern and practice of book reading. The younger generation has learnt to depend only on technology to read and never from a book in the book‐shelf. At this juncture, DeNisi and Griffin have come up with their latest book HR, the student edition, that comes alive within unique, magazine‐style pages that takes the student through today's effervescent, and exhilarating world of human resources and its management which is immediately engaging and motivating vis‐à‐vis compulsively interest sustaining.

The content for this book has been prepared through thorough research and the lay‐out has been planned based on the input from at least 100 students and teachers keeping in mind the various styles of learning and teaching.

The book, HR presents a compendium of online tools and learning aids such as interactive e‐book, flashcards, quizzing, videos, exercises, interactive decision making exercises which enable the students' ease of access vis‐à‐vis not disrupting their perception of bliss of reading online. Every chapter has a judicious blend of HR principles and concepts found in conventional textbook vis‐à‐vis picturesque description of HR issues with real life examples and impressive quotes which ignite interest for HR and also a good dose of exercises which have ample scope for decision making on people matters. The unique point about this book is the entrancing presentation filled with appropriate research about models, definitions, theoretical frameworks and latest issues; real photographs of organizations and people at work in these organizations, and classic photographs, for instance, revolutionized recruitment using scientific management at Ford, and real cases in boxes to catch the interest of the student. A rich repository of glossary and a well worked out subject index helps navigate through the chapter.

On the whole, the book is abundantly endowed with:

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  captivating learning features, such as “HR in the 21st century,”;

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  highlighting important challenges facing managers and employees in today's business climate;

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  opening and closing cases explore real companies and organizations in‐depth and investigate into some of today's most effective, unique approaches in dealing with HR issues;

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  striking quotes woven throughout the text put voice to the critical concepts covered in each chapter; and

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  time‐saving instructor prep cards, e‐book printed access powerful supplements, etc. to help students motivated and excited about HR.

The book has 14 chapters in all. The titles of each chapter are not hackneyed like other HR textbooks but embedded with inbuilt knowledge. For example, chapters on human resource planning and job analysis are not seen in the table of contents, instead they are seen under the title, information for making HR decisions under Chapter 5 in the book. Also, Chapter 6 is titled as “Human resource decision making in organizations” which extensively covers rightsizing, terminations and turnovers. Many books do not cover these aspects as separate chapter(s).

Chapter 1 is the regular nature of human resource management whose uniqueness lies in explaining the role of HRM in small and medium organizations which is again less‐found in other books. Chapters 2 and 3 deal with legal environment and global environment, respectively. Chapter 8 deals with managing a new and a diverse workforce and its uniqueness lies in a combination of knowledge management and HR function's strengthen knowledge assimilation. Another significant contribution of this book is Chapter 13 on motivation at work, a topic usually found in organizational behavior textbooks. Here, the authors have brought‐in all the prevailing theories of motivation and associated it with workplace dynamics. Chapter 10 talks about performance appraisal and career management while Chapter 14 talks about managing and enhancing performance: big picture. Chapter 14 covers alternative work arrangement, and rewards and incentives while a separate chapter (Chapter 9) on compensation and benefits discusses benefits and compensation strategy. Rest of the chapters is on labor relations and safety, stress, and health of employees which is purely based on US labor law.

The book HR has a great appeal. Students of all developed and developing countries would definitely enjoy the illustrations and real life examples. Each chapter seems to resonate well with different learning styles. The descriptive graphics provide freshness to facilitate learning. Particularly, this book is an ideal read for students in the Chinese economy. China is taking the center stage of the world economy and its transition is phenomenal. The book helps Chinese students to learn how international and local businesses manage their human resources effectively. As a transitional economy Chinese managers face challenges on how to manage within the margins of the country's commanding institutions such as social, economic and political bodies, and the social norms and rules and ideologies such as Communist, Confucian and Capitalist ideologies. As China is entering the knowledge based economy and being integrated into the globalization process, the scarcity of human resources and related management and development efforts is a major impediment to its sustained development. With growing interest in understanding the Chinese HRD and HRM practices vis‐à‐vis developing indigenous theories, models and practices, a prerequisite for Chinese students to learn the HRM practices, theories and models prevailing in different parts of the world.

In summary, we strongly recommend this book for students of developed and developing nations for three reasons:

1. 1.

   it rouses students' interest to learn HR and answers lot of questions that arise on a day‐to‐day basis at workplace;

2. 2.

   it helps develop the decision making skills of students on HR issues; and

3. 3.

   it utilizes technology thus catering to the younger generation students' interest for online reading.