Managing Human Resources

Wayne F. Cascio

A comprehensive guide for general managers on strategically managing human resources to enhance productivity, quality of work life, and profits in a globally competitive environment.

This book is written not for HR specialists, but for students of general management whose jobs inevitably involve the responsibility for managing people. It operates on the fundamental assumption that all managers are accountable for the impact of their human resource management (HRM) activities and are expected to add value by managing their people effectively. As a unifying theme, the book links the content of each chapter to three key outcomes—productivity, quality of work life, and profits. It provides a complete, evidence-based roadmap covering the entire HRM system, from understanding the business environment and legal context, through the core functions of employment, development, and compensation, to crucial topics like labor relations, workplace justice, and international HRM. By grounding its principles in research, case law, and real-world company examples, this book equips managers to make sound, data-driven decisions that foster competitive advantage through people.

The model it argues

This model, derived from the book's unifying theme, posits that a well-designed and integrated Strategic Human Resource Management (HRM) System directly influences an organization's human capital and the engagement of its employees. These psychological and behavioral states, in turn, drive key organizational outcomes: productivity, quality of work life, and profitability. The model emphasizes that effective people management is a strategic lever for achieving sustainable competitive advantage.

Key ideas

Strategic HRM System: An organization's integrated set of policies and practices for managing employees, comprising the core functions of staffing, retention, development, adjustment, and managing change, which are consciously aligned with the organization's overall business strategy to achieve competitive advantage.
Human Capital: The collective stock of knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (competencies) of the workforce that holds economic value for the organization. It represents the potential and realized capacities of individuals and groups that can be leveraged to achieve strategic objectives.
Employee Engagement and Satisfaction: A multidimensional positive attitude held by employees toward their job and organization. It encompasses job satisfaction (a pleasurable feeling about one's job), organizational commitment (an emotional bond to the organization), and engagement (a state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption in one's work).
Workforce Stability: The extent to which an organization maintains its workforce over time, characterized by high levels of employee retention and low levels of unscheduled absenteeism. It reflects a predictable and dependable workforce free from the disruption of frequent departures and absences.
Productivity: An operational measure of efficiency, defined as the ratio of the output of goods and services to the input of resources (labor, capital, equipment) used to produce them. Higher productivity means creating more value with the same or fewer resources.
Quality of Work Life (QWL): Employees' collective perception of their physical and mental well-being at work. It reflects the degree to which the organizational environment supports the full range of human needs, including safety, social belonging, esteem, and self-actualization through work.
Organizational Profitability: The ultimate measure of an organization's financial success, representing the financial gain after all costs and expenses are subtracted from total revenues. It is the bottom-line result that indicates the firm's ability to generate value and ensure its long-term survival.