El. knyga: Achieving Strategic Excellence: An Assessment of Human Resource Organizations

Lawler, Boudreau, and Mohrman (business, U. of Southern California) provide a study, from the Center for Effective Organizations at the Marshall School of Business at the U. of Southern California, that considers human resource function in large corporations. It focuses on how it is changing to become an effective strategic partner, and how organizations can manage their human capital more effectively, also comparing the 2004 data with that of the previous studies in 1995, 1998, and 2001, in which some of the same corporations are analyzed. Specifically, the study details findings about adding value, research design, the role of HR, business strategy, decision science, organizational design, activities and skills, outsourcing, information technology and systems, analytics and metrics, determinants of effectiveness, and excellence. No index is supplied. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com) This is the Center for Effective Organizations’s (CEO) fourth national study of the human resources (HR) function in large corporations. It is the only long-term national study of this important function. Like the previous studies, it focuses on measuring whether the HR function is changing and on gauging its effectiveness. The study focuses particularly on whether the HR function is changing to become an effective strategic partner. It also analyzes how organizations can more effectively manage their human capital. The present study compares data from earlier studies to data collected in 2004. The results show some important changes and indicate what HR needs to do to be effective. Practices are identified that enable HR functions to be high value-added strategic partners. This is the Center for Effective Organizationss (CEOs) fourth national study of the human resources (HR) function in large corporations, and the only long-term national study of this important function. While measuring whether the HR function is changing, gauging its effectiveness, and focusing particularly on whether it is changing to become an effective strategic partner, this study also analyzes how organizations can more effectively manage their human capital.