I am very pleased to write the foreword for the third edition of this innovative textbook in Human Resource Management. The text is underpinned by a strategic approach to HRM, focusing on the three way linkage between strategy, people and performance. As the authors explain, the HRM function can be developed to help the organization create value and sustain competitive advantage in business. The HR function also plays a major role in initiatives that promote employee wellbeing. Each chapter highlights the strategic achievements that have occurred within each HR topic and addresses four key challenges central to the effective management of people: managing in a globalised context, managing HR innovation, attracting and retaining people, and managing in sustainable ways.

Featuring an Australian and regional focus, the book examines important new areas of HR practice in depth, such as managing workplace relations in the context of changing legislation, outsourcing, work–life balance, ethics and HRM, managing employee turnover and retention, and evaluating the HR function. The book opens with an analysis of the environment for HRM in Australia and then expands upon the intra-organisational aspects of HRM, such as building HRM systems, developing and rewarding people, and identifying new directions of HRM.

This text will appeal to a wide audience. The analysis of current academic knowledge and major areas of HRM practice provides an informed handbook for students, academics and practitioners. The text could easily be used in an undergraduate or graduate HR unit or as a comprehensive HR handbook for managers. For instructors, the text includes numerous pedagogical features that ensure a sound basis for teaching; and for students, it successfully reinforces the link between theory and critical thinking. All users will be engaged by the real and relevant cases that appear throughout the book, and by the rigorous intellectual and practical approach the authors have taken to the subject, linking key HRM concepts and theories to the outcomes of empirical research.

Peter J Dowling, Life Fellow AHRI
Professor of International Business
Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand