ABSTRACT
One of the arguments in this book is that HR may have new roles to play and this means it has new skills to develop, but this is only one aspect of the transformational journey. Another is that HR has to be more effective in new content territories, as in old. HR will still need to develop policies and practices in reward and performance management, in training and development, in recruitment and retention, etc. What it has to do in addition is to look at these areas of professional expertise and recontextualize them. The combination of globalization, tight labour markets, changing employee aspirations, regulation of employment conditions and intensifi ed competition has driven the best in class to be more holistic in their approach to people management and more sophisticated in how they go about their work. But what is changing thinking in the most sophisticated organizations is the evidence linking employee performance to business outcomes. Whether it be under the heading of high performance working, high involvement management, high commitment practices or engagement, there is a volume of evidence that indicates that organizations can succeed better if they give due attention to their employees. Much of this thinking chimes with HRM and with theories on human capital management, the resource-based theory of the fi rm and the notion of core competencies/capabilities.
