CHANGES IN THE WORLD OF WORK: A SUMMARY

 Job insecurity perceptions and organisational transience

 New career patterns, concern with employability and the transactional
psychological contract
 Customer aspirations and power
 The war for talent, employer branding and the new paternalism
 Globalisation and internationalisation of goods, service, finance, information and
workers
 Continuing demographic and labour market change
 ICT exploitation and diffusion, including e-commerce
 Continuing corporate restructuring, takeovers and mergers
 Global economic recession and public spending cuts

‘The shape of HRM in the twenty-first century?’ and below we summarise 10 key HRM
themes.
1.) There is an emergent body of research that good HR practices equals good
business – but what are the good HR practices and what is the role of the line
manager in turning HR strategy into effective practice?
2.) It is increasingly being recognised that people are the organisation’s principal
sustainable source of competitive advantage.
3.) Technical HR competence is no longer enough; HR practices need to add value
in the pursuit of corporate objectives and organisational sustainability – raising
the question of how added value can be measured.
4.) In pursuit of competitive advantage, HR policies and practices need to be
aligned with corporate strategy and with each other – vertical integration and
internal coherence.
5.) Compliance with employment law is essential but this does not on its own add
value to the organisation – compliance is a critical failure factor, but added value
is the critical success factor for HR practice.
6.) ‘Best practice’ HR still needs to be applied contingently to fit the organisation –
there are no simple HR solutions.

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7.) Proactivity in HR delivery is necessary rather than just reacting to events.
8.) Outsourcing of HR activities – a threat to the HR function or an opportunity to
engage in beneficial partnerships?
9.) Harnessing the potential of ‘shared services’ and ‘e-enabled HR’ may enable a
reconfiguration of HR functional activity.
10.) HR professionals perhaps need to be business managers first and functional
specialists second.