The strategic role of human resource management in organizations is becoming an accepted viewpoint. Managers are aware that HRM is a function that must play a vital role in the success of organizations. HRM is no longer an afterthought, a limited service, or a unit to be tolerated. It is an active participant in charting the strategic course an organization must take to remain competitive, productive, and efficient.

This Tenth Edition of Human Resource Management—like the earlier editions—takes a managerial orientation; that is, HRM is viewed as relevant to managers in every unit, project, or team. Managers constantly face HRM issues, challenges, and decision making. Each manager must be a human resource problem solver and diagnostician who can deftly apply HRM concepts, procedures, models, tools, and techniques. This book pays attention to the application of HRM approaches in real organizational settings and situations. Realism, currentness, understanding, and critical thinking are cornerstones in each edition of this text. Human resource management is clearly needed in all organizations. Its focal point is people; people are the lifeblood of organizations. Without them, there is no need for computer systems, compensation plans, mission statements, programs, strategic planning, or procedures. Because HRM activities involve people, the activities must be finely tuned, properly implemented, and continuously monitored to achieve desired outcomes. The uniqueness of HRM lies in its emphasis on people in work settings and its concern for the well-being and comfort of the human resources in an organization. This edition focuses on (1) managers and leaders with the responsibility to optimize performance and do what is ethically correct; (2) employees (e.g., engineers, clerks, software programmers, designers, machinists, chemists, teachers, nurses) who perform the work and (3) HRM specialists who advise, support, and aid managers and nonmanagers in their work.

Students and faculty identify readability as a key strength of this book. This book also remains current, thorough, and relevant. But it was never intended to be an encyclopedia or a compendium of human resource management tools, laws, or ideas. Instead, the intent was to provide a book that instructors and students could learn from and that would stimulate their own ideas, while keeping them up to date on HRM theory and practice.

Pedagogical Features

In order to make the book relevant, interesting, scholarly, and practical, a number of pedagogical procedures were adopted and strengthened with each new edition. Each chapter contains most of the following elements:

• Brief list of behavioral learning objectives and an outline of the chapter.
• Career Challenge—a short situation emphasizing applied HRM techniques and issues that introduces each chapter and is further developed at various points in the chapter and at its conclusion.
• HR Journal—a brief news story or best-in-class example about an actual company, technique, or group of people.
• HRMemo—a margin item that highlights a statistic, fact, historical point, or relevant piece of information.
• The most recent statistics and data available on topics covered in the chapter.
• Chapter summary—a handy, concise reference to the chapter's main points.
• List of key terms (plus a comprehensive glossary of key terms at the end of the book).
• Questions for Review and Discussion.
• HRM Legal Adviser—a brief legal point, case, or fact tied to the content of the chapter. Managers must be familiar with legal factors and the law.
• Application case(s) and/or experiential exercises—reflecting HRM issues, concerns, and problems faced in organizations of various sizes and in a wide array of industries.
• Each of the five parts uses a video case and discussion questions to integrate material relevant to the participation section of the book.

Parts and Appendixes

The Tenth Edition consists of five parts, divided into 17 chapters, and four appendixes. Appendix A is at the end of Chapter 1 and discusses careers in HRM. Appendix B, "Measuring Human Resource Activities," was originally prepared by Jac Fitz-Enz, Ph.D., president of the Saratoga Institute. It spells out the reasons why measurement is important and how a measurement system for the HRM unit can be developed and styled. Appendix C, "Sources of Information about Human Resource Management: Where to Find Facts and Figures," was originally prepared by Paul N. Keaton of the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse, and has been updated for this edition. This appendix provides valuable sources of information that are useful in HRM. Appendix D, "Career Planning," was prepared by the author of the text. It examines important steps involved in career planning that each person must accept responsibility for and initiate at the appropriate time. Each reader of the book must become actively involved in his or her own career plan.

New and Strengthened Content Features

Each new edition involves major revisions, additions, deletions, and rewriting. Comments by instructors, students, practitioners, researchers, consultants, legal experts, and colleagues are each taken seriously so that the Tenth Edition is better, fresher, more valuable, and current. It is estimated that over 2,000 changes were made in this edition. Instead of detailing these changes, a select few mentions will set the tone for your own perusal.

• More small and medium-sized company examples are included.
• Increased discussion of global issues, ethical issues, and technology and family/life balance issues are included throughout the book.
• The law and its impact on HRM is introduced to illustrate why managers must be up to date and knowledgeable about legal matters.
• The end-of-chapter element called "HRM Legal Advisor" illustrates the importance of understanding the legal rights of employees and employers.
• The most up-to-date reference and illustrative materials are incorporated. This is a book for the 21st century. However, when earlier citations were the best available, they remained. Recent citations are not always the best or the most relevant.
• A greater emphasis on managerial responsibilities and actions pertaining to HRM activities is woven throughout the content and chapter elements.

Students Guide to the Internet/World Wide Web

While most students are well acquainted with computers, a revolution is under way in how to use them. If you link computers together, each can have its own software and data, but can take advantage of the resources of the network. For any course or program you take, you have at your fingertips and at the convenience of a "click" information, data, statistics, historical factors, and an endless array of content.

You can increase your understanding of human resource management by using the tips and recommended address sites in each chapter to link to other pods of information that will further extend your understanding. The Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) have provided this wonderful opportunity to students.

The Internet

The Internet was created nearly 30 years ago as a project of the U.S. Department of Defense, specifically, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration, or DARPA. Its goal was to provide a way for widely separated computers to transfer information and data and to make these data communications as robust and reliable as possible. DARPA wanted to make a network that was smart enough to recover on its own from problems such as power failures and interruptions in communication lines.

Eventually, the government dropped the idea that its network was only useful for defense-related projects, and the network became known as Arpanet. The government then began connecting many of the country's universities to the network. Since then, generations of students have studied, used, and improved what we now call the Internet.

Although the Internet began as a government research project and was funded by tax dollars for years, the government is not involved in it anymore. It might still be one of the largest single users of the Internet, but it no longer funds new development or supports any of the costs associated with maintaining the network. The Internet is completely self-sufficient.

About 10 years ago, the Internet was still relatively unknown outside of the scientific and technical communities. That has changed dramatically in just a short time. After two decades of development and improvements, the Internet has exploded into the mainstream.

People were initially attracted to the Internet because it connected them to the world at large. They could exchange electronic mail, participate in discussions (via Usenet newsgroups), and easily exchange programs and data with others around the world using the Internet's file-transfer facilities.

Technically, the Internet isn't a network of computers—it's a network of networks. Local networks throughout the world are tied together by wires, telephone lines, fiberoptic cables, microwave transmissions, and satellites in orbit. But the details of how data get from one computer on the Internet to another are invisible to the user.

The Internet is dramatically different from online services such as America Online. These companies sell access to their computers; think of them as gigantic bulletin board systems owned and operated by a company. What you see and what you can do with them are limited to what they allow you to see and do. To avoid losing their entire memberships to the Internet, these services have found it necessary to offer access to the Internet and the World Wide Web. They determine which parts of the Internet you can access, however, and some of them charge extra for Internet access, even for sending e-mail to an Internet address.

The World Wide Web

For all its technological wonder, the Internet has suffered for years from a reputation of being difficult to learn, hard to use, and downright homely compared to the sexy interfaces of bulletin board systems, online services, and most of the software people use on personal computers.

Part of the reason for the Web's huge and rapid success is that it's easy to use: It's as simple as clicking a mouse button. In the front of each chapter you will be provided with addresses that you can enter and then simply click to find the information you want or need.

Just as you need an e-mail address so people can communicate with you, files on the Internet need an address so people can access them. A file's address is known as its Uniform Resource Locator or URL. Each chapter has URLs that will link to specific information associated to human resource issues, concerns, challenges, or opportunities.

The first page of any site is called the home page. The "home page" is simply a starting point. You will need a browser, a program that permits you to visit different URLs on the Internet/World Wide Web. Two of the most widely used browsers are Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. They are the Coke and Pepsi of browsers. A browser displays a document from the Internet on your computer screen.

Another key to the Web's magic is its simplicity. Web "pages" are simply files residing on the hundreds of thousands of computers connected to the Internet. To "serve" the pages when they're requested by a browser, all a computer needs is another simple program called a Web server. The Web server just waits and listens for requests from Web browsers. When a request comes in, it finds the requested file and sends it back to the browser.

Search Engines

Getting information is made easier if you know the URL of the website that contains what you want. But what if you don't know the URL? Don't worry—all you need to use is a search engine. A search engine is a website that enables you to enter a query and provides a list of hyperlinks (text or graphics that when clicked take you to a different page on the same site or to a completely different site). Some of the better known and used search engines are:

www.google.com
www.yahoo.com
www.msn.com

Type the URL of a search engine in the address bar of your Web browser (Explorer or Netscape) and press enter. You can take it from there by clicking and/or typing in some words that describe what you are looking for and then pressing enter. Don't be surprised if your search for human resource management information turns up hundreds or even thousands of Web pages. Since the Internet/World Wide Web is expanding and changing every day, you need to keep your favorite URLs current.

The Internet/World Wide Web will serve you well in this and in other courses. As you use this invaluable resource more, you will become more comfortable and proficient. Think of the Internet/World Wide Web as your own personal tutor that can be used when you need to improve your understanding of an HRM issue, topic, subject, or situation.

Contributions of a Colleague

Robert (Rob) Konopaske, assistant professor of management at Florida Atlantic University, contributed significantly to the development and presentation of chapters, pedagogy, and revision work on this Tenth Edition. He made suggestions, introduced creative examples, worked, on chapters, responded to reviewers' comments, and discussed with the author ways to improve the student and instructor friendliness of the book. As an accomplished and experienced educator, researcher, and practitioner, Rob is superb and meticulous in what he contributes to this book.