The job profile of a Human Resource Manager has undergone a drastic change in the past couple of years. The HR manager of today need not face an angry mob of workers, negotiate with union leaders on their unreasonable demands, receive threatening calls through phones, face a strike or convince the management in situations that demand lock outs. Further, he/she need not attend to all and sundry activities such as maintenance of statutory records, and worry about administration of benefits and services, for, all these and other mundane activities are largely getting outsourced. All these factors would lead us to think that the job of an HR manager is apparently a soft and cushy one.

But in reality, the job of the HR manager is no more cosy than it was earlier. As Chapter 27 unfolds, the challenges before the HR manager are daunting, stressful and often unnerving. How to attract and retain talent? How to tackle professionally, the youngsters employed in BPO jobs and call centres? How to pick, train and depute employees on foreign assignments? How to repatriate them? The list goes on.

New and ever-changing challenges notwithstanding, human resource management continues to be crucial for the success of a firm. It was the people who had made Binny a household name 50 years back. It is Azim Premji and his team of 43,880 employees who have made WIPRO a successful company today. A book on people management will continue to be relevant and useful as long as the human resource endures to be crucial for a firm. But the book needs to be updated periodically so as to make it contemporaneous.

The enthusiastic response accorded to the third edition of Human Resource and Personnel Management has motivated me to revise the text and bring out its fourth edition.

1. Opening Cases

An opening case has been included in most of the chapters. These cases/vignettes introduce the reader to the respective chapters and also hold his or her interest till he or she reads through the chapters.

2. Recast

Chapters 5, 16, 18, 20, 25 and 27 have been thoroughly recast. Of particular interest is the inclusion of HR problems in BPO and call centre industries in Chapter 27.

3. New Topics and Expanded Discussions

4. India-centric Cases and Examples

The opening and chapter end cases in the book are India centric. These cases centre around live examples observed by the author personally or have been narrated to him by HR practioners. Exhibits and examples also reflect the HR practices in the Indian corporate sector. The text has been thoroughly Indianised and this should help the readers easily correlate the concepts with practices.

5. Pedagogic Aids

The book is rich with several teaching aids such as learning objectives, key concepts, questions, visuals, websites, opening and chapter end cases and exhibits. The instructor will find these highly useful during lecture sessions.

6. Online

For the first time, the book has gone online. The reader may visit (http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com\sites\007059930-0) for power point presentations, answers to review and discussion questions, objective type questions with answers, tips to chapter end case questions, group exercises, HR newsroom, hot updates and several other features.

7. Rich Material

The author is of the firm conviction that a book sells not because of additional frills alone. It should be rich in theoretical content too. As the reader flips through the pages of Human Resource and Personnel Management, he or she finds that the treatment of each chapter is comprehensive besides carrying several highlights. Thus, the book is a thorough compendium on human resource management.

8. Direct Appeal

Overtime, the author has been credited by the discernible readers with a style of presentation that is direct and is free from verbosity and tautology. The reader will experience this when he or she reads through the book.

9. Wide Acceptance

Within a short span of time, Human Resource and Personnel Management has been accepted widely across colleges and boardrooms in the country. This is evident from the words of appreciation received by the author from readers and also from the number of editions and reprints the book has already gone into. This performance-reward correlation has been a great reinforcing factor to the author to improve the quality of the book further.

K ASWATHAPPA
dr_k_aswathappa@yahoo.com