Employment Practices and Business Strategy [Hardcover]

This book explores the reasons for persistent differences in work practices both within and between industries. The authors found that the strategy that a firm chooses to follow often determines the kind of work practices it fosters. Therefore a firm may not adopt the approach now advocated by many management thinkers--in which decision-making is pushed down to the lowest level of the firm--because this choice may not be consistent with its competitive strategy. The authors discuss the ways that public policy can aid workers without subverting the strategic choices made by firms.

Preface
List of Contributors
Introduction
1. Explaining Variation in Human Resource Practices in U.S. Steel Minimills,Jeffrey B. Arthur
2. The Characteristics and Determinants of Organized Innovation in the Apparel Industry,Thomas Bailey and Carola Sandy
3. Organizational and Environmental Factors Influencing the Use and Diffusion of High-Involvement Work Practices,Frits K. Pil and John Paul MacDuffie
4. Human Resource and Employment Practices in Telecommunications Services, 1980-1998,Rosemary Batt and Jeffrey Keefe
5. Transforming Retail Banking: Inclusion and Segmentation in Service Work,Larry W. Hunter
6. Product Strategies, Workforce Skills, and High Involvement Work Practices,Geoff Mason

The detailed industry descriptions are a benchmark for future researchers, and the authors have done a particularly fine job of documenting the current state of HR practices in the industries' core jobs. This groundwork should be of value in future efforts to understand how strategy and HR practices are linked--or why they are not. Industrial and Labor Relations Review

There is much useful comparative material here, both for the more advanced student and for the HR specialist. --European Management Journal