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“This book delivers detailed and engaging contributions by leading authors. An
important point of distinction for the book is the emphasis on critical analysis of
topics that matter in HRM. I recommend it for advanced students and managers
interested in HRM.”
– Helen De Cieri, Professor of Management,
Monash University, Australia
“This revised edition provides a much-needed critical reflection on HRM cov-

ering the field’s most up-to-date challenges. Questioning both content and
context, we are provided with a deeper understanding of HRM than hitherto
available to both professionals and scholars.”
– Elaine Farndale, Associate Professor, The Pennsylvania State
University, USA, and Tilburg University, The Netherlands
“This wide-ranging critical text places human resource management appropri-

ately in its broader social scientific and historical contexts. It makes a distinctive
and accessible contribution to the field and will appeal to many of those who seek
a more reflective and critical approach to the subject.”
– Richard Croucher, Professor of Comparative Employment Relations,
Middlesex University Business School, UK, and Adjunct Professor,
Norwegian School of Economics, Norway
Human Resource Management
Despite over three decades of debate around the nature of human resource
management (HRM), its intellectual boundaries and its application in practice, the
field continues to be dogged by a number of theoretical and practical limitations.
Written by an international team of respected scholars, this updated textbook
adopts a critical perspective to examine the core management function of HRM
in all its complexity – including its darker sides.
Human Resource Management: A Critical Approach opens with a critique of the
very concept of HRM, tracing its development over time, and then systematically
analyses the context of HRM, practice of HRM and international perspectives on
HRM. New chapters commissioned for this second edition look at HRM and the
issues of diversity, migration, global supply chains and economic crisis.
This textbook is essential reading for advanced and inquisitive students of
HRM, and for HRM professionals looking to deepen their understanding of the
complexities of their field.
David G. Collings is Full Professor of Human Resource Management and

Associate Dean for Research at Dublin City University Business School, Ireland.
Geoffrey T. Wood is Dean and Professor of International Business at Essex

Business School, UK.
Leslie T. Szamosi is Senior Lecturer and MBA Academic Director at the

University of Sheffield International Faculty, CITY College, Greece.
Human Resource
Management
A Critical Approach
Second Edition
Edited by David G. Collings,

Geoffrey T. Wood and
Leslie T. Szamosi
Second edition published 2019
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2019 selection and editorial matter, David G. Collings, Leslie T.
Szamosi and Geoffrey T. Wood; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of the David G. Collings, Leslie T. Szamosi and Geoffrey T.
Wood to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the
authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 2009
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Collings, David G., editor. | Wood, G. (Geoffrey), editor. |
Szamosi, Leslie T., editor.
Title: Human resource management : a critical approach / edited by
David G. Collings, Geoffrey T. Wood And Leslie T. Szamosi.
Description: Second edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY :
Routledge, 2019. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018019061 | ISBN 9781138237544 (hbk) |
ISBN 9781138237551 (pbk)
Subjects: LCSH: Personnel management.
Classification: LCC HF5549 .H78414 2019 | DDC 658.3—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018019061
ISBN: 978-1-138-23754-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-138-23755-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-29955-6 (ebk)
Typeset in Galliard
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
To Dad. The best pal a guy could wish for.
D.G.C.
To Vicky, Alice and the Labradors.

G.T.W.
To my dearest wife, Katerina, my three angels,

Maria-Lorna, Margarita and Dimitris, Dad (Gabor),
and Giagia (Maroula). You give me wings to
keep flying.
L.T.S.
Contents
List of figures xii

List of tables xiii
About the editors xiv
About the contributors xvi
1 Human resource management: a critical approach 1

D AVI D G . C O L L INGS , GEO FFREY T. WO O D A ND LESLIE T. SZ AMOSI
PART I 25
2 HRM in changing organizational contexts 27

P H I L J O H N S O N A ND L ES L IE T. S ZA MO S I
3 Strategic HRM: a critical review 49

J AAP PAAU W E A ND CO RINE BO O N
4 HRM and organizational performance 74

S TE P H E N W O OD
5 HRM: an ethical perspective 98

M I C K F R Y ER
6 HRM practices to diversity management:

individualization, precariousness and precarity 117
D ARRE N T. BA KER A ND EL IS A BET H K. KEL A N
7 Organizational outsourcing and implications for HRM 135

FANG LEE COOKE
x Contents
8 Reconfiguration and regulation of supply chains
and HRM in times of economic crisis 156
P H I L J O H N S O N, GEO FFREY T. WO O D, PA ULINE DIBBEN,
J O H N CU LL EN, JU L IA NA MEIRA , DEBBY BONNIN, LUIZ MIR ANDA,
G ARE TH CRO CKET T A ND CA RO L INE L INHAR ES
9 Knowledge and organizational learning and its

management through HR practices: a critical perspective 171
CL AI RE G U BBINS
10 HRM in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) 194

TO N Y D U N D O N A ND A DRIA N WIL KINS O N
PART II 213
11 Recruitment and selection 215

RO S AL I N D H. S EA RL E A ND RA MI A L -S HA RIF
12 HR planning: institutions, strategy, tools and techniques 238

ZS U ZS A KI S PA L -VITA I A ND GEO FFREY T. WOOD
13 Performance management 262

AN TH O N Y MCDO NNEL L , PAT RICK GU NNIGLE AND
KEVI N R. MU RP HY
14 Reward management 280

S U ZAN N E RICH BEL L A ND GEO FFREY T. WOOD
15 Human resource development 295

I REN A G RUGU L IS
16 Industrial relations and human resource management 311

G I LTO N KLERCK
PART III 335
17 Human resource management in emerging markets 337

FRANK M. HORWITZ AND KAMEL MELLAHI
18 Comparative HRM: the debates and the evidence 358

CH RI S B REWS T ER A ND WO L FGA NG MAY RHOFER
Contents xi
19 International human resource management 378
D AVI D G . C O L L INGS , HU GH S CU L L IO N A ND DEIR DR E CUR R AN
20 HRM in crisis 396

J I L L RU B ER Y A ND MAT H EW JO HNS O N
Index 412
Figures
3.1 The Harvard approach 54

3.2 The Michigan approach – the human resource cycle 54
3.3 Aspirational framework for strategic HRM 64
3.4 The contextual SHRM framework 66
8.1 Reconfiguration and regulation of supply chains and HR
practices 163
12.1 The human resource planning process 243
13.1 Stages of a typical performance management system 265
13.2 Unanticipated side effects to performance measures 268
18.1 Units of analysis in comparative HRM and their social
complexity 364
20.1 Change in output in the 2008–2009 recession 398
Tables
1.1 Definitions of HRM 7

2.1 Bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy compared 39
3.1 Thee modes of strategy synthesis 52
3.2 Outside-in versus inside-out perspective 56
3.3 The content of HRM bundles 57
7.1 Summary of main motives/reasons and theoretical explanations
of outsourcing 136
7.2 Implications of outsourcing for HRM in outsourcing client
and supplier organizations 140
10.1 From small is beautiful to bleak house 197
10.2 People management strategies in large and SME firms (%) 199
10.3 Employee communication channels in SMEs (%) 203
10.4 New HRM in SMEs (1998–2004) 206
12.1 Strategies for managing shortages of surpluses in the workforce 257
15.1 Approaches to workforce development 300
About the editors
David G. Collings is Professor of HRM and Associate Dean for Research at

Dublin City University Business School in Ireland. Prior to joining DCU,
he held faculty positions at the National University of Ireland, Galway and
the University of Sheffield. He has held visiting positions at King’s College
London, Nanyang Business School in Singapore and Cornell University as a
Fulbright Scholar. He is a leading international expert on talent management
and global mobility. His current research explores issues such as the shifting
nature of employment and managing performance in organizations. He has
been named as one of the most influential thinkers in the field of HR for four
consecutive years by HR Magazine (2014–2017). He has published numerous
papers in leading international outlets, including Human Relations, Industrial
& Labour Relations Review, Journal of Management and Journal of Vocational
Behaviour, and eight books; his work is regularly cited in media and other
outlets. His most recent project, The Oxford Handbook of Talent Management,
with Wayne Cascio and Kamel Mellahi, was published in 2017. He sits on
multiple editorial boards, including Academy of Management Review, Jour-
nal of Management and the Journal of Management Studies, and is currently
joint Editor-in-Chief at the Journal of World Business and former editor of the
Human Resource Management Journal and the Irish Journal of Management.
He is also permanent chair of the European Institute for Advanced Studies in
Management’s workshop on talent management. Twitter @collingsdg
Geoffrey T. Wood is Dean and Professor of International Business at Essex Busi-
ness School. Previously he was Professor of International Business at Warwick
Business School, UK. He has authored/co-authored/edited 16 books, and
over 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He holds honorary positions at
Griffith and Monash University in Australia, and Witwatersrand and Nelson
Mandela Universities in South Africa. Geoff’s research interests centre on
the relationship between institutional setting, corporate governance, firm
finance, and firm-level work and employment relations. Wood is Editor-in-
Chief of the British Journal of Management, the Official Journal of the British
Academy of Management (BAM). He also serves on the BAM Council. He is
also Co-Editor of the Annals of Corporate Governance and Associate Editor
About the editors xv
of Academy of Management Perspectives. He is also editor of the Chartered
ABS Journal Ranking list. He has had numerous research grants, including
funding councils (e.g. ESRC), government departments (e.g. US Department
of Labour; UK Department of Works and Pensions), charities (e.g. Nuffield
Foundation), the labour movement (e.g. the ITF) and the European Union.
Leslie T. Szamosi is Senior Lecturer and Academic Director of the MBA pro-
gramme at the International Faculty of the University of Sheffield, CITY
College and Founder and Co-Director of the Laboratory for Strategic People
Management. He is a member of the International Faculty of the Associa-
tion of MBAs (AMBA) and is an evaluator and assessor of European Union
and various nationally funded projects. He has worked as a private consultant
across North America and Europe, including diverse organizations such as
the European Union (KOMVER II Project), Digital Electronics (now part
of Compaq Computers), Human Resources Development Canada, Industry
Canada and KPMG Management. He is a highly sought-after speaker and
workshop leader in the areas of HRM, specializing in change management
and organizational development, and has presented to companies such as
Heineken, Deutsche Telecom, MTel, the International Finance Corpora-
tion and the World Bank. His current research areas are in the area of HRM,
organizational change, resistance to change, knowledge management and
population groupings and brain drain (e.g. Generation X, Generation Y).
He has published in leading journals in the area, including the International
Journal of Human Resource Management, British Journal of Management and
International Business Review.
About the contributors
Rami Al-Sharif is at the University of Coventry.

Darren T. Baker is Assistant Professor in Business in Society, University College
Dublin, Ireland.
Debby Bonnin is Associate Professor, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa.
Corine Boon is Associate Professor of HRM, University of Amsterdam, the
Netherlands.
Chris Brewster is Professor of International Human Resource Management at
Henley Business School, University of Reading, in the UK; and at Nijmegen
University in the Netherlands.
David G. Collings is Full Professor of Human Resource Management and
Associate Dean for Research at DCU Business School, Dublin CIty UNiver-
ity, Ireland.
Fang Lee Cooke is Professor of HRM and Chinese Studies at Monash University,
Australia.
Gareth Crockett is Research Associate, Sheffield University Management School,
University of Sheffield, UK.
John Cullen is Professor of Management Accounting, Sheffield University Man-
agement School, University of Sheffield, UK.
Deirdre Curran is Lecturer in HRM at J.E. Cairnes School of Business and Pub-
lic Policy National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland.
Pauline Dibben is Professor of Employment Relations, Sheffield University
Management School, University of Sheffield, UK.
Tony Dundon is Professor of HRM & Employment Relations, Alliance Man-
chester Business School, the University of Manchester, UK.
Mick Fryer is Teacher in Business Ethics and Business Environment at Cardiff
Business School, Cardiff University, UK.
About the contributors xvii
Irena Grugulis is Professor of Work and Skills, Leeds University Business School,
University of Leeds, UK.
Claire Gubbins is Associate Professor of HRM and OB, Dublin City University
Business School, Dublin City University, Ireland.
Patrick Gunnigle is Professor of Business Studies, Kemmy Business School,
University of Limerick, Ireland.
Frank M. Horwitz is Professor of International Human Resource Manage-
ment – Emerging Markets, Cranfield School of Management, University of
Cranfield, UK.
Mathew Johnson is at Alliance Manchester Business School, the University of
Manchester, UK.
Phil Johnson is Professor of Organisation Studies, Sheffield University Manage-
ment School, University of Sheffield, UK.
Elisabeth K. Kelan is Professor of Leadership, Cranfield School of Management,
Cranfield University, UK.
Zsuzsa Kispal-Vitai is Associate Professor, University of Pécs, Hungary.
Gilton Klerck is Head of the Department of Sociology, Rhodes University,
South Africa.
Caroline Linhares is Teaching Fellow in Accounting, University of Leicester
School of Business, University of Leicester, UK.
Wolfgang Mayrhofer is Professor at Interdisciplinary Unit for Management and
Organisational Behaviour, WU Wirtschaftsuniversitaet Wien, Austria.
Anthony McDonnell is Professor of Management, Cork University Business
School, University College Cork, Ireland.
Juliana Meira is Lecturer in Management Accounting, Sheffield University Man-
agement School, University of Sheffield, UK.
Kamel Mellahi is Professor of Strategy, Warwick Business School, University of
Warwick, UK.
Luiz Miranda is Professor of Accounting, Federal University of Pernambuco,
Recife, Brazil.
Kevin R. Murphy is Kemmy Chair of Work and Employment Studies, Kemmy
Business School, University of Limerick, Ireland.
Jaap Paauwe is Professor of HRM at Tilburg University, the Netherlands.
Suzanne Richbell was Senior Lecturer in HRM at Sheffield University Manage-
ment School, UK.
xviii About the contributors
Jill Rubery is Professor of HRM, Alliance Manchester Business School, the Uni-
versity of Manchester, UK.
Hugh Scullion is Professor of Organisational Behaviour and HRM at Hull Uni-
versity Business School, University of Hull, UK.
Rosalind H. Searle is Professor in Human Resource Management and Organ-
isational Psychology, Adam Smith Business School, Glasgow University, UK.
Leslie T. Szamosi is Senior Lecturer, CITY College, International Faculty of the
University of Sheffield, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Adrian Wilkinson is Professor and Director, Centre for Work, Organisation and
Wellbeing and the Department of Employment Relations, Griffith Business
School, Griffith University, Australia.
Geoffrey T. Wood is Dean and Professor of International Business, Essex Busi-
ness School University of Essex, UK.
Stephen Wood is Professor of Management, University of Leicester School of
Business, University of Leicester, UK.
1 Human resource management
A critical approach
David G. Collings, Geoffrey T. Wood
and Leslie T. Szamosi
Introduction
In recent years, many countries – most notably the US and the UK – have
had to contend with much economic and political turbulence and uncertainty.
Bound up with this has been the issue of how firms employ, manage and reward
their people. On the one hand, systematic failures to generate and maintain
occupational and employment security and to provide decent livings in either
employment or retirement for a significant proportion of the population have
been blamed as one of the principal causes of populist backlashes (Wood and
Wright 2016). Despite almost three decades of debate in the mainstream litera-
ture around the nature of human resource management (HRM), its intellectual
boundaries and its application in practice, the field continues to be dogged by a
number of theoretical and practical limitations. On the other hand, exponential
increases in managerial pay, and a dislocation between pay and organizational
well-being and sustainability, have been blamed on failures in managing and
governing the reward systems aimed at senior managers. This book is intended
to provide students with a relatively advanced and critical discussion of the key
debates and themes around HRM as it is conceptualized and operationalized
in the early part of the twenty-first century. Thus, the current contribution is
intended to be in the tradition of Storey (2007) and Legge (1995) and aims
to provide students with a well-grounded and intellectually rewarding critical
overview of the key issues surrounding HRM from theoretical and practical per-
spectives that combine theory with practice. In doing so, we draw on contribu-
tions from leading scholars in the field who provide detailed discussions on key
debates in their respective offerings.
In this introduction, we provide the context for the book though considering
a number of overarching themes within which key debates in the field of HRM
are situated. Specifically, we provide a summary discussion of the theoretical and
intellectual boundaries of HRM, consider its emergence in historical context
and identify some of the pervasive contradictions and limitations which prevail
in the literature. Finally, we provide a short outline of the structure and content
of this volume.
2 David G. Collings et al.
HRM defined
Our discussion begins by considering what HRM actually means. Although in
the broadest sense it may be taken to denote all aspects of recruitment and hir-
ing, planning, development and reward, the human side of the organization of
work and of the employment contract, HRM has also been taken to incorporate
a strategic dimension. In other words, it is not just about the choice and imple-
mentation of particular policies and practices towards the management of people
but also the adoption of a dynamic and adaptive (as adverse to purely administra-
tive) purpose, in line with wider organizational strategic choices (Wilkinson et al.
2014). Others have argued that HRM has an ideological dimension; recognizing
people are an active resource may be superior to one that simply sees them as
passive subjects. However, it also suggests that, as with any other resources, they
should be deployed and dispensed with in line with perceived organizational pri-
orities, rather than as individuals who should be treated with a degree of empathy,
in both their interests and for the longer-term sustainability of the organization.
Given the importance of definition in understanding the boundaries of a field, this
issue is clearly an important point of departure. However, this question is more
difficult to answer than one would expect, since from its emergence HRM has
been dogged by the still largely unresolved ambiguity surrounding its definition.
As Blyton and Turnbull (1992: 2) note, ‘The ways in which the term is used by
academics and practitioners indicates both variations in meaning and significantly
different emphases on what constitutes its core components’.
One of the dominant definitions (in the UK at least) has been to see HRM as
a contested domain, with rival soft and hard approaches. The soft approach to
HRM is generally associated with the Harvard School and in particular the writ-
ings of Michael Beer and colleagues, and with a later tradition of UK scholarship,
associated with the Human Resource Management Journal (see Beer et al. 1984;
Beer et al. 2015; Beer and Spector 1985; Walton and Lawrence 1985). As with
the hard school, the soft school emphasizes the importance of aligning HR poli-
cies with organizational strategy, but it also emphasizes the role of employees as
a valuable asset and source of competitive advantage through their commitment
adaptability and quality, rather than being treated simply in instrumental terms
(Legge 1995; D’Art 2002; Wood and Vitai 2014). It stresses gaining employee
commitment to the organization through the use of a congruent suite of HRM
policies. Soft HRM may itself be divided into two sub-strands. The first strand,
soft HRM, draws on behavioural sciences in particular, building on strong reso-
nance with the Human Relations school. The latter emphasized the importance
of communication and recognizing the need to give employees the opportunity
to grow while the concept of human growth, which is central to its theory, echoes
‘all-American’ theories of motivation, from McGregor’s Theory Y to Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs (Legge 1995). Hence, it is sometimes conceptualized as
‘developmental humanism’ (Storey 1989; Legge 1995). HRM is operationalized
in terms of strategic interventions designed to develop resourceful employees and
to elicit their commitment to the organizational goal (Storey 1992). Critics have
Human resource management 3
charged that it assumes that a lot of problems can be solved by good commu-
nication and through reducing the space for misunderstandings, and discounts
the impact of pay on productivity and motivation and, indeed, any benefits that
might flow from giving employees a genuine say in the running of the enterprise
(Wilkinson et al. 2014). HRM is operationalized in terms of strategic interven-
tions designed to develop resourceful employees and to elicit their commitment
to the organizational goal (Storey 1992). However, sceptics have conceptualized
soft HRM as the ‘iron fist in the velvet glove’, suggesting that it could be argued
that this theory of soft HRM
reduced . . . the complex debate about the role of people in work organiza-
tions to the simplistic dogma of an economic model which even its ‘creator’
Adam Smith would probably not have wished applied in such an indiscrimi-
nate manner.
(Hart 1993: 29–30)
Another uncharitable definition of soft HRM is that it constituted a desperate

rear-guard action by liberal academics and practitioners, mostly writing in the
United States, to sell more humane forms of managing people to essentially
conservative owner interests that have in increasing numbers ruthlessly pressed
for a maximization of short-term profits, regardless of the cost to both employ-
ees and the long-term good of the organization (Wilkinson et al. 2014; Mellahi
et al. 2010). In other words, soft HRM is about trying to encourage firms to be
‘nicer’ to their people, on the basis that such ‘niceness’ is likely to translate into
greater commitment and productivity and, hence, even more profits. As such,
moral issues are ignored. A second sub-strand of soft HRM has been one associ-
ated with a body of scholars rooted in the industrial relations tradition (which,
in turn, focused on the employment contract, the inherent tensions around the
amount employees are paid and how the contract is enforced) (Wilkinson et al.
2014). This strand is inherently pragmatic; rather than rejecting the notion of
HRM on the basis that it is management (rather than employee) centred, it
accepts that HRM has become the main broad framework through which firms
manage and engage with their people. This approach seeks to synthesize the tra-
ditional industrial relations tradition (with its interest in the nature and extent of
workplace tensions and imbalances, the role of unions and the interplay between
conflict and compromise) with the insights provided by empirical research on
other aspects of people management, for example, human resource development
and planning (Brewster et al. 2012). The result is an analytical framework that
seeks to draw connections between different areas of HR policy and practice (for
example, between the degree of training and employment security provided).
This approach would recognize the possibility of providing solutions to particular
issues and challenges, without denying inherent tensions and imbalances.
Soft HRM stands in contrast with the hard variant. Hard HRM is gener-
ally associated with the Michigan School (Forbrun et al. 1984). Its emphasis
is on the use of human resource (HR) systems to ‘drive’ the attainment of the
strategic objectives of the organizations (Forbrun et al. 1984). While soft HRM
emphasizes the human element of HRM, the emphasis of the hard approach is
very much on the resource as a means of maximizing shareholder value over the
short term. The duty of managers is quite simply to make money for owners, and
a focus on other issues such as employee rights is simply a distraction: rather, by
focusing on returns, the organization will perform most efficiently, which ulti-
mately is in the interests of all.
It has been argued that, in the tradition of Taylorism and Fordism, employ-
ees are viewed as a factor of production that should be rationally managed and
deployed in quantitative and calculative terms in line with business strategy
(Tyson and Fell 1986; Storey 1992). However, rather different to classic Tay-
lorism or Fordism, job security in the new hard HRM is seen as an unnecessary
luxury, while pay rates are to be kept to the lowest level the external labour market
would permit. There is little mention in the literature illustrating how hard HRM
echoes Henry Ford’s famous commitment to a (then very generous) 5 dollar/day
wage (however hardline Ford was towards trade unions and, indeed, concerned
with managing the personal lives of employees). In other words, hard HRM is
far removed from past notions of paternalist management, which, while assuming
that decision-making should be centralized in the hands of senior management,
also acknowledged that the firm had long-term responsibilities to its workers.
However, hard HRM also embodies an element of sophistication. For example,
it would allow for quite sophisticated reward systems to ensure senior managers
genuinely follow the interests of shareholders (Wood and Vitai 2014). Again,
there is an implicit assumption of trickle down (a prosperous organization will be
better equipped to provide jobs and have the capacity to pay genuinely hardwork-
ing and effective employees well), and there is a basis for enthusing employees
around this (Brewster et al. 2011). Indeed, many employers associated with
hard HRM – such as McDonald’s and Walmart – set great store around collec-
tive employee expressions of enthusiasm, whether those marshalled are happy or
not (cf. Smith 2011). In contrast, under the traditional sweatshop model, there
would be no such underlying assumptions nor any commitment to developing
or refining HR systems; rather, the main focus would be around ensuring the
maximum amount of labour is extracted from employees, and pay is kept as low
as possible.
Hard human resource policies in the hard variant are designed to be both inter-
nally consistent and externally aligned with the organizational strategy. These
interventions are designed to ensure full utilization of the labour resource, not
just in terms of physical output but also in ensuring that employees excel (Wood
and Vitai 2014; Storey 1992). It is legitimized by and finds its impetus from a
market-responsive frame of reference (Storey 2007). At the extreme, implicit
contracts regarding pensions and tenure are seen as hampering effective manage-
ment; these should, if possible, be jettisoned, with employee rights being pared
back as much as possible. Critics of this point of view have argued that such a
focus is likely to make for higher staff turnover rates, with the inevitable loss of
job-specific skills and accumulated wisdom, low trust, low levels of organizational
commitment and, hence, higher transaction costs (see Marsden 1999). Cascio’s
(2006) comparison of Walmart, an archetype of hard HRM, with Costco, a com-
pany defined by high ethical standards and a softer approach to HRM, confirms
the limitations of the former approach. Walmart, a company that prioritizes
shareholders as stakeholders and maximum amount of labour extracted from
employees, has been consistently outperformed by Costco over the past number
of decades (Blinn 2013; Cascio 2006; Ton 2014). This translates into signifi-
cantly better sales and profit per employee and shareholder returns. Similar results
are evidenced in organization such as QuikTrip, Mercadona and Trader Joe’s,
where investment in employees means larger labour budgets but translates into
stellar operational execution and higher sales and profits. Employees also work
more efficiently and find work more fulfilling while delivering improved customer
service (Collings 2014; Ton 2014). In other words, hard HRM is likely to make
organizations less efficient, and in practice, differences from the sweatshop model
are not always clear-cut. It could be argued that most successful incrementally
innovative high value-added manufacturing firms have shunned hard HRM.
In contrast, hard HRM has been more widely deployed in more volatile areas
of economic activity, such as financial services, and across the service economy,
although, in the case of the latter, it often appears to degenerate towards the
sweatshop model.
A second and simpler way of viewing things is that the soft/hard divide in
the narrow sense can be defined as a strategic approach to managing employees,
which came to the forefront in the liberal market economies, particularly the US
and the UK, in the 1980s. While having both soft (‘people friendly’) and hard
(‘people as a resource to be deployed, utilized and, if need be, disposed of’)
variations, common to this approach was an emphasis on optimal shareholder
outcomes, with enhancing outcomes for other stakeholders being at best a sec-
ondary objective and, at worst, an unnecessary distraction. This ‘two sides of the
same coin’ point of view argues that, since the end of the long boom that lasted
from the post–World War II period up until the 1970s, there has been a period of
erratic and unstable growth and recession. This period has been characterized by
employers gaining the upper hand over employees, on account of the very much
weaker bargaining position of the latter (cf. Kelly 1998). Given this, managers –
particularly in the liberal market economies such as the US and UK, where work-
ers have historically had fewer rights under both law and convention – have taken
the opportunity to fundamentally change the way they manage people. This has
taken the form of systematic attempts to undermine collective bargaining with
unions, replacing this with weak forms of consultation with individual employees.
Collective employment contracts – where workers performing similar jobs are
rewarded according to a pre-agreed pay scale – are replaced with individual ones,
with employees being rewarded on the basis of regularly appraised performance
and/or through pay rates simply being linked to outputs. In other words, the
role of the employee in the firm is not a dynamic and, in some sense, negotiated
relationship, but rather simply the deployment of a resource, in the same way a
firm would deploy other physical resources such as raw materials.
A third way of looking at things is to simply conceptualize HRM as little
more than a renaming of personnel management. In this vein, writers such as
Armstrong (1987) describe HRM as ‘old wine in new bottles’, while Guest
(1987) pointed to the fact that many personnel departments changed their
names to HRM departments, with little evidence of any change in role. In
practice, this would suggest that much HR work really concerns the admin-
istration of systems governing the administration of pay, promotion and
recruitment procedures, etc. In turn, this would imply that HR managers are
likely to lack power within the organization and have little say in setting real
organizational strategies.
Finally, HRM may be defined broadly in terms of including all aspects of
managing people in organizations and the ways in which organizations respond
to the actions of employees, either individually or collectively. The value of this
catch-all term is that it describes the wide range of issues surrounding the employ-
ment contract, situations where an employment contract has yet to be agreed on
(recruitment and selection) and ways in which employees may be involved and
participate in areas not directly governed by the employment contract to make
working life more agreeable and/or to genuinely empower people. In other
words, it goes beyond simply ‘industrial relations’ or ‘employment relations’. The
terms ‘personnel administration’ or ‘personnel management’ would not provide a
totally accurate label, given their administrative and non-strategic connotations.
Although this would be in line with the pragmatic strand of soft HRM, this
approach is somewhat broader in that it does assume that any type of relationship
between employers and employees is optimal.
Some insights into the different ways HRM has been conceived were provided
by the Keele University affair in 2007–2008. A conservative university adminis-
tration resolved to restructure business and management studies in the university
through the simple device of making academics that had formally specialized in
‘industrial relations’ redundant. In many respects, this was a surprising decision,
given robust student numbers and the fact that industrial relations research was
one area where Keele had gained an excellent reputation. Backed up by the find-
ings of a committee of external ‘experts’, university administration implied that
industrial relations academics were likely to be less capable of teaching HRM,
and, by implication, had skills sets not relevant to modern business education.
Tellingly, a petition signed by many leading HRM and industrial relations aca-
demics in Britain in response to this decision included a statement that HRM
could not be separated from industrial relations, and that the skills necessary to
teach industrial relations could broadly be applied to understanding HRM. In
other words, HRM was simply a collective noun describing work and employ-
ment relations in the broadest possible sense and was not really about special new
skills or a new and different agenda (see www.bura.org.uk).
The preceding discussion highlights the ambiguity around the boundaries
of HRM. These differences are summarized in Table 1.1. The tension around
definition persists in the literature, and a central theme in this volume is high-
lighting the contradictions between these two broad understandings of HRM.
Table 1.1 Definitions of HRM
Definition Implication
Contested domain HRM is a contested domain, with two rival paradigms,

hard and soft HRM
Two sides of the Whether hard or soft, HRM is about the management of
same coin people in a particular, new way. This may involve the use
of strategy to manage people, or simply reflect structural
changes that have strengthened management at the
expense of employees
‘New wine in old HRM is little more than the extension of traditional
bottles’ personnel management
Collective noun HRM is a commonly reflected description for a range of
practices associated with managing work and employment
relations
We argue that for ethical and sustainability reasons, more stakeholder-orientated

approaches to people management are preferable, with shareholder-dominant
approaches facing quotidian micro-crises at both firm (encompassing problems
of human capital development and commitment) and macro-economic (encom-
passing problems of excessive speculation-driven volatility, industrial decline and
chronic balance of payments problems) levels.
HRM and personnel management compared

As noted above, a key point of reference in definitions on HRM is through com-
paring it with its predecessor – personnel management. Although this debate is
somewhat dated, it remains important. Thus, it merits summary discussion.
During the early days of HRM’s emergence as a mainstream approach to
people management, a number of commentators were sceptical about the extent
to which it represented something different to its predecessor – personnel man-
agement. Over time, it has become apparent that there are substantive differences
between the two, at least at a theoretical level. In illuminating these differences
a brief discussion on personnel management is merited (for a full discussion, see
Legge 1995).
While there are a number of accepted definitions of personnel management,
some of which in the US context are closer to accepted definitions of HRM (see
Kaufman 2001; Strauss 2001), there is a degree of consensus as to its key char-
acteristics. First, personnel management is largely conceived as a downstream
activity with a limited strategic role. And, despite the rhetoric, HRM is often
not that strategic: after all, both hard and soft HRM ultimately depict HRM
as a transmission belt, passing down an agenda of shareholder value. Further,
personnel management is generally considered to be reactive and piecemeal
with little integration between its various elements. One of the greatest man-
agement thinkers – if popular management writing can be considered thought
at all – of the last century, Peter Drucker (1961: 269), neatly summarized the
personnel role as
a collection of incidental techniques with little internal cohesion. As person-

nel administration conceives the job of managing worker and work, it is
partly a file clerk’s job, partly a housekeeping job, partly a social worker’s job
and partly fire-fighting to head off union trouble or to settle it.
This limited role is alluded to by Legge’s (1995: 88) observation that ‘in the
UK “personnel management” evokes images of do-gooding specialists trying to
constrain line managers, of weakly kowtowing to militant unions, of both lacking
power and having too much power’. Indeed, it has been argued that the per-
ceived welfare role of the personnel function was one aspect of it that limited its
credibility as a managerial function. It also resulted in females playing a key role
in personnel in its formative years in the UK context (Legge 1995). A scrutiny
of the gender composition of classes at many Chartered Institute of Personnel
and Development approved training centres provides some corroboration for the
gendered nature of much HR work.
A further dimension of the broad personnel role in the UK was its key role
in negotiating with trade unions, a characteristic which points toward the fire-
fighting role of personnel. Indeed, it was this element of the role that bought
increasing numbers of males into the profession (Gunnigle et al. 2006). However,
more recent evidence in the UK points to a shift in the balance towards a greater
feminization of the HR function (Kersley et al. 2006: 69). This engagement
with trade unions points to a collectivist orientation and, owing to the histori-
cal prominence of trade unions, particularly in the UK and Ireland, personnel
management became infused with a pluralist frame of reference (Flanders 1964).
Given the importance of bargaining, managing the industrial relationship gained
a distinct identity: it is worth noting that the divide between basic personnel
management and industrial relations persists in the academic literature, with, as a
general rule, those academic journals focusing on the former having low prestige,
and the latter high prestige. Newer, explicitly HR journals represent something
of a crossover and incorporate aspects of both, as well as insights from, other
disciplines.
The preceding discussion suggests that HRM and personnel management – and
industrial relations – may differ in a number of substantive ways. The first is that
HRM is conceived as having a more strategic role and hence elevated to the top
management table, suggesting a more upstream role, even if, in practice, this has
been little more than wishful thinking. For example, researchers at the University
of Southern California found little difference in how HR practitioners spent their
time between 1996 and 2016 (Lawler 2017). HR practitioners continued to be
overwhelmed by managing poor performers, implementation of HR policies and
supporting change initiatives. This meant they spent less than 15 per cent of their
time on strategic issues. Nonetheless, HRM does concern attempts to develop an
integrated and congruent set of HR policies as opposed to the piecemeal approach
apparent in the traditional personnel role. Furthermore, HR policy and practice
are also targeted at the individual level. This is reflected in the preference for indi-
vidual performance-related pay, individual communication mechanisms, employee
opinion surveys and the like. A final key distinguishing factor is that, reflective
of the individualist orientation, HRM is premised on a unitarist understanding
of conflict. Unitarism suggests that there are no intrinsic conflicts of interest in
the employment relationship as all within the organization are working toward a
common goal for the success of the organization. The common goal is reflected
in the idea that there is a single source of authority within the organization –
management. Given that there are argued to be no conflicts of interest within
the organization, conflicts are caused by breakdowns in communication or by
troublemakers. Conflict should be suppressed by improving communication or
removing troublemakers from the organization. Unions are opposed on two
grounds: (1) there are no conflicts of interest within the workplace and thus they
are unnecessary and (2) they would represent an alternative source of authority.
Alternatively, unions may be co-opted to the managerial agenda, through ‘partner-
ship’, with unions trading off militancy for continued recognition and the benefits
that would arguably flow from greater organizational competitiveness. More criti-
cal strands of the HR literature suggest that this focus is mistaken, that employees
often retain a collective identity, and that managerial power will inevitably con-
tinue to be challenged in ways that would make new accommodations necessary if
the organization is to work in the most effective way.
HRM enters the mainstream

It is generally agreed that human resource management gained mainstream accep-
tance as an approach toward people management, particularly in the UK and
the US, in the 1980s. However, it should be noted that the roots of the HRM
approach can be traced some 20 years earlier in the US context (see Strauss 2001).
It was during the 1980s, however that HRM became widely embraced by practi-
tioners and academics alike. For practitioners, it offered a new agenda to replace
the lacklustre image of personnel management and the adversarial rhetoric of
industrial relations; not only did it hold out the prospect of less conflictual ways of
resolving workplace issues, but also that of a more professional status for its adher-
ents. For academics it represented an opportunity for rebranding and reorientating
careers away from industrial relations and personnel management, topics which
many feared were losing their import as academic subjects (Guest 2001; Strauss
2001). The emergence of HRM is generally traced to a confluence of factors. The
impact of the external context on HR function is reflected in Beer et al.’s (1984:
34) observation that ‘HRM policies and practices are not and cannot be formed in
a vacuum. They must reflect the governmental and societal context in which they
are embedded’; it is generally recognized that a number of political, economic and
social factors prompted the emergence of HRM at this time.
Guest (1990) argues that perhaps the most significant of these factors were
external pressures on industry, of which the most important were increasing
competition – and the UK and the US’s decline of industrial competitiveness – in
the US and international marketplace combined with concerns over the retarded
rate of productivity growth in the US. The greatest competitive threat, to the US
and the UK in particular, at this time came from the rise of the Pacific economies,
most notably Japan but also South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore, who competed
through technological advantages and initially cheaper labour costs, but also from
the increasingly outward orientation of German manufacturing. These trends
and, notably, Japanese firms’ entry into the US market threatened traditional
strongholds of US industry, in particular the auto makers who had previously
enjoyed an oligopolic position in the US marketplace; the same could be said for
Germany auto makers in the case of the UK. Japanese competitors could provide
high-quality products at a very competitive price. In the UK, similar threats were
experienced from other large European economies and the shift from ‘command’
to ‘market’ economies in central and eastern Europe (Legge 1995). This increas-
ing competition was reflective of the growing globalization of the marketplace,
a trend which was facilitated by improvements in information technology and
transportation, and free trade agreements, meaning that the barriers traditionally
created by national borders were being broken down. Concomitantly, levels of
technological differentiations became blurred as technological advances limited
the potential of technology as a source of competitive advantage. There was
a gradual recognition that part of the recipe of German and Japanese success
were highly skilled and motivated workforces. Thus, as indicated above, firms
were subject to far greater competitive pressures than they had been historically
accustomed to. These factors influenced the shift in emphasis towards employees
as a source of competitive advantage. This view was very much consistent with
the ‘excellence literature’ in the US (Peters and Waterman 1982). Their work
traced the success of high-performing companies to the motivation of employees
through involved management styles which were responsive to market changes
(Beardwell 2001). This excellence literature was very influential and also influ-
enced the shift toward HRM in organizations.
The increasing competition should also be considered in the context of the dif-
ficult economic conditions of the early 1980s. Specifically, the oil crises of the latter
part of the 1970s and early 1980s precipitated a global economic recession which
further influenced the climate in which organizations operated. At a political level,
the Reagan government in the US and the Thatcher government in the UK cer-
tainly facilitated the emergence of a new individualist approach to management of
employees, which gave impetus to the declining role of trade unions in these coun-
tries. The free market ideology of these governments was most visible in Reagan’s
showdown with the air traffic controllers in the US, which ultimately resulted in
the dismissal of the striking employees. In the UK, Thatcher’s high-profile standoff
with striking miners had broadly similar connotations. This led to mine workers
being defeated, but also the wilful destruction of much of the mining industry,
over-exploitation of North Sea oil and gas reserves, the frittering away of revenues
to support tax cuts and various ideological projects, and an overvalued currency
(with, in turn, seriously adverse consequences for manufacturing), reflecting the
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East. At Pao-Ting Fu, where women were said to have suffered
indescribable brutalities before being slain, investigation by
an American military officer convinced him that "there is no
evidence of any peculiar atrocities committed upon the persons
of those who were slain"; and the American Board of
Commissioners for Foreign Missions has publicly announced:
"While forced to believe that our missionaries in Shan Si and
at Pao Ting Fu were put to death by the Chinese, we have never
credited the published reports concerning atrocities connected
with their slaughter."
CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March).

Withdrawal of American troops, excepting a Legation guard.
The following order was sent by cable from the War Department
at Washington to General Chaffee, commanding the United States
forces in China, on the 15th of March: "In reply to your
telegram Secretary of War directs you complete arrangements
sail for Manila with your command and staff officers by end
April, leaving as legation guard infantry company composed of
150 men having at least one year to serve or those intending
re-enlist, with full complement of officers, medical officer,
sufficient hospital corps men and, if you think best, field
officer especially qualified to command guard. Retain and
instruct officer quartermaster's department proceed to erect
necessary buildings for guard according to plan and estimates
you approve."
CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March-April).

Discussion of the question of indemnity.
Uneasiness concerning rumored secret negotiations of
Russia with the Chinese government relative to Manchuria.
As we write this (early in April), the reckoning of

indemnities to be demanded by the several Powers of the
Concert in China is still under discussion between the
Ministers at Peking, and is found to be very difficult of
settlement. There is understood to be wide differences of
disposition among the governments represented in the
discussion, some being accused of a greed that would endeavor
to wring from the Chinese government far more than the country
can possibly pay; while others are laboring to reduce the
total of exactions within a more reasonable limit. At the
latest accounts from Peking, a special committee of the
Ministers was said to be engaged in a searching investigation
of the resources of China, in order to ascertain what sum the
Empire has ability to pay, and in what manner the payment can
best be secured and best made. It seems to be hoped that when
those facts are made clear there may be possibilities of an
agreement as to the division of the total sum between the
nations whose legations were attacked, whose citizens were
slain, and who sent troops to crush the Boxer rising.
Meantime grave anxieties are being caused by rumors of a

secret treaty concerning Manchuria which Russia is said to be
attempting to extort from the Chinese government [see, in this
volume, MANCHURIA], the whispered terms of which would give
her, in that vast region, a degree of control never likely to
become less. The most positive remonstrance yet known to have
been made, against any concession of that nature, was
addressed, on the 1st of March, by the government of the
United States, to its representatives at St. Petersburg,
Berlin, London, Paris, Vienna, Rome, and Tokio, as follows:
"The following memorandum, which was handed to the Chinese

Minister on February 19, is transmitted to you for your
information and communication to the government to which you
are accredited: "The preservation of the territorial integrity
of China having been recognized by all the powers now engaged in
joint negotiation concerning the injuries recently inflicted
upon their ministers and nationals by certain officials and
subjects of the Chinese Empire, it is evidently advantageous
to China to continue the present international understanding
upon this subject. It would be, therefore, unwise and
dangerous in the extreme for China to make any arrangement or
to consider any proposition of a private nature involving the
surrender of territory or financial obligations by convention
with any particular power; and the government of the United
States, aiming solely at the preservation of China from the
danger indicated and the conservation of the largest and most
beneficial relations between the empire and other countries,
in accordance with the principles set forth in its circular
note of July 3, 1900, and in a purely friendly spirit toward
the Chinese Empire and all the powers now interested in the
negotiations, desires to express its sense of the impropriety,
inexpediency and even extreme danger to the interests of China
of considering any private territorial or financial
arrangements, at least without the full knowledge and approval
of all the powers now engaged in negotiation.
HAY."
----------CHINA: End--------
CHINESE TAXES.
See (in this volume)

LIKIN.
CHING, Prince:
Chinese Plenipotentiary to negotiate with the allied Powers.

CHINA: A. D. 1900 (AUGUST-DECEMBER).
CHITRAL: A. D. 1895.
The defense and relief of.

INDIA: A. D. 1895 (MARCH-SEPTEMBER).
CHITRAL:A. D. 1901.
Included in a new British Indian province.

INDIA: A. D. 1901 (FEBRUARY).
CHOCTAWS, United States agreements with the.

INDIANS, AMERICAN: A. D. 1893-1899.
CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, The Young People's Society of.
The nineteenth annual international convention of Young

People's Societies of Christian Endeavor was held in the
Alexandra Palace, London, England, from the 13th to the 20th
of July, 1900, delegates being present from most countries of
the world. Reports presented to the convention showed a total
membership of about 3,500,000, in 59,712 societies, 43,262 of
which were in the United States, 4,000 in Canada, some 7,000
in Great Britain, 4,000 in Australia, and smaller numbers in
Germany, India, China, Japan, Mexico, and elsewhere.
{145}
The first society, which supplied the germ of organization for

all succeeding ones, was formed in the Williston
Congregational Church of Portland, Maine, on the 2d of
February, 1881, by the Reverend Francis E. Clark, the pastor
of the church. The object, as indicated by the name of the
society, was to organize the religious energies of the young
people of the church for Christian life and work. The idea was
caught and imitated in other churches—Congregational,
Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and others—very rapidly,
and the organization soon became, not only widely national,
but international. In 1898, it was reported that Russia then
remained the only country in the world without a Christian
Endeavor Society, and the total was 54,191. In the next year's
report Russia was announced to have entered the list of
countries represented, and the number of societies had
advanced to 55,813. In 1900, the numbers had risen to the
height stated above. The Epworth League is a kindred
organization of young people in the Methodist Church.

EPWORTH LEAGUE.
CHRISTIANS AND MOSLEMS:

Conflicts in Armenia.

TURKEY: A. D. 1895.
CONFLICTS IN CRETE.

TURKEY: A. D. 1897 (FEBRUARY-MARCH).
CHUNGKING.
"Chungking, which lies nearly 2,000 miles inland, is, despite

its interior position, one of the most important of the more
recently opened ports of China. Located at practically the
head of navigation on the Yangtze, it is the chief city of the
largest, most populous, and perhaps the most productive
province of China, whose relative position, industries,
population, and diversified products make it quite similar to
the great productive valley of the upper Mississippi. The
province of Szechuan is the largest province of China, having
an area of 166,800 square miles, and a population of
67,000,000, or but little less than that of the entire United
States. Its area and density of population may be more readily
recognized in the fact that its size is about the same as that
of the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky combined,
but that its population is six times as great as that of those
States. Its productions include wheat, tobacco, buckwheat,
hemp, maize, millet, barley, sugar cane, cotton, and silk."
United States, Bureau of Statistics,

Monthly Summary, March, 1899, page 2196.
CHURCH OF ENGLAND: A. D. 1896.

Papal declaration of the invalidity of its ordinations.

PAPACY: A. D. 1896 (SEPTEMBER).
CIVIL CODE: Introduction in Germany.

GERMANY: A. D. 1900 (JANUARY).
-------CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: Start-----
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1893-1896.

Extensions of the Civil-Service rules by President Cleveland.
"Through the extensions of the Federal classification during

President Cleveland's second administration, the number of
positions covered by the civil-service rules was increased
two-fold. On March 3, 1893, the number classified was 42,928.
By a series of executive orders ranging from March 20, 1894,
to June 25. 1895, 10,000 places were added to the list,
bringing the total, approximately, to 53,000. Meanwhile, the
Civil Service Commission had recommended to the President a
general revision that would correct the imperfections of the
original rules and extend their scope to the full degree
contemplated by the Pendleton Act. After much correspondence
and consultation with department officers, and careful work on
the part of the Commission, the rules of May 6 [1896] were
promulgated. They added to the classification about 29,000
more places, and by transferring to the control of the
Commission the system of Navy Yard employment, established by
Secretary Tracy, brought the total number in the classified
service to 87,117. The positions in the Executive branch
unaffected by these orders included those classes expressly
excluded by the statute—persons nominated for confirmation by
the Senate and those employed 'merely as laborers or
workmen'—together with the fourth-class postmasters, clerks in
post-offices other than free delivery offices and in Customs
districts having less than five employees, persons receiving
less than $300 annual compensation, and about 1,000
miscellaneous positions of minor character, not classified for
reasons having to do with the good of the service—91,600 in
all. Within the classified service, the list of positions
excepted from competitive examination was confined to the
private secretaries and clerks of the President and Cabinet
officers, cashiers in the Customs Service, the Internal
Revenue Service and the principal post-offices, attorneys who
prepare cases for trial, principal Customs deputies and all
assistant postmasters—781 in all. The new rules provided for a
general system of promotion, based on competitive examinations
and efficiency records, and gave the Commission somewhat
larger powers in the matter of removals by providing that no
officer or employee in the classified service, of whatever
station, should be removed for political or religious reasons,
and that in all cases like penalties should be imposed for like
offenses. They created an admirable system, a system founded
on the most sensible rules of business administration, and
likely to work badly only where the Commission might encounter
the opposition of hostile appointing officers. President
Cleveland's revised rules were promulgated before the
Convention of either political party had been held, and before
the results of the election could be foreshadowed. The
extensions were practically approved, however, by the
Republican platform, which was adopted with full knowledge of
the nature of the changes, and which declared that the law
should be 'thoroughly and honestly enforced and extended
wherever practicable.' … Mr. McKinley, in his letter of
acceptance and in his inaugural address, repeated the pledge
of the Republican party to uphold the law, and during the two
months of his administration now past he has consistently done
so. He has been beset by many thousands of place-seekers, by
Senators and Representatives and by members of his own
Cabinet, all urging that he undo the work of his predecessor,
either wholly or in part, and so break his word of honor to
the nation, in order that they may profit. … At least five
bills have been introduced in Congress, providing for the
repeal of the law. … Finally, the Senate has authorized an
investigation, by the Committee on Civil Service and
Retrenchment, with the view of ascertaining whether the law
should be 'continued, amended or repealed,' and sessions of
this Committee are now in progress. … Mr. McKinley, by
maintaining the system against these organized attacks, will
do as great a thing as Mr. Cleveland did in upbuilding it."
Report of the Executive Committee of the New York

Civil Service Reform Association, 1897.
{146}
In his annual Message to Congress, December, 1896, President

Cleveland remarked on the subject:
"There are now in the competitive classified service upward of

eighty-four thousand places. More than half of these have been
included from time to time since March 4, 1893. … If
fourth-class postmasterships are not included in the
statement, it may be said that practically all positions
contemplated by the civil-service law are now classified.
Abundant reasons exist for including these postmasterships,
based upon economy, improved service, and the peace and quiet
of neighborhoods. If, however, obstacles prevent such action
at present, I earnestly hope that Congress will, without
increasing post-office appropriations, so adjust them as to
permit in proper cases a consolidation of these post-offices,
to the end that through this process the result desired may to
a limited extent be accomplished. The civil-service rules as
amended during the last year provide for a sensible and
uniform method of promotion, basing eligibility to better
positions upon demonstrated efficiency and faithfulness."
United States, Message and Documents (Abridgment),

1896-1897, page 33.
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1894.

Constitutional provision in New York.

CONSTITUTION OF NEW YORK.
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES: A. D. 1897-1898.

Onslaught of the spoils-men at Washington.
Failure of the Congressional attack.
"During the four months following the inauguration [of

President McKinley] the onslaught of place-seekers was almost
unprecedented. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of them
discovered that the office or position he desired was
classified and subject to competitive examination. The tenure
of the incumbent in each case was virtually at the pleasure of
the department officers; removals might easily be made; but
appointments to the places made vacant could be made only from
the eligible lists, and the lists were fairly well filled. It
is true that the rules permitted the reinstatement without
examination of persons who had been separated from the service
without personal fault within one year, or of veterans who had
been in the service at any time, and that some removals were made
to make room for these. But the appointments in such cases
went but a very little way toward meeting the demand. The
result was that almost the whole pressure of the
office-hunting forces and of their members of Congress was
directed for the while toward one end—the revocation or
material modification of the civil service rules. President
McKinley was asked to break his personal pledges, as well as
those of his party, and to take from the classified service
more than one half of the 87,000 offices and positions it
contained. … But the President yielded substantially nothing.
… The attack of the spoils-seekers was turned at once from the
President to Congress. It was declared loudly that the desired
modifications would be secured through legislation, and that
it might even be difficult to restrain the majority from
voting an absolute repeal. In the House the new movement was
led by General Grosvenor of Ohio; in the Senate by Dr.
Gallinger of New Hampshire. … The first debates of the session
dealt with civil service reform. The House devoted two weeks to
the subject in connection with the consideration of the annual
appropriation for the Civil Service Commission. … The effort
to defeat the appropriation ended in the usual failure. It was
explained, however, that all of this had been mere preparation
for the proposed legislation. A committee was appointed by the
Republican opponents, under the lead of General Grosvenor, to
prepare a bill. The bill appeared on January 6, when it was
introduced by Mr. Evans of Kentucky, and referred to the
Committee on Reform in the Civil Service. It limited the
application of the civil service law to clerical employees at
Washington, letter carriers and mail clerks, and employees in
principal Post Offices and Customs Houses, proposing thus to
take from the present classified service about 55,000
positions. A series of hearings was arranged by the Civil
Service Committee, at which representatives of this and other
Associations, and of the Civil Service Commission, were
present. A sub-committee of seven, composing a majority of the
full committee, shortly afterward voted unanimously to report
the bill adversely. About the same time, the Senate Civil
Service Committee, which had been investigating the operation
of the law since early summer, presented its report. Of the
eight members, three recommended a limited number of
exceptions, amounting in all to probably 11,000; three
recommended a greatly reduced list of exceptions, and two
proposed none whatever. All agreed that the President alone
had authority to act, and that no legislation was needed. …
The collapse of the movement in Congress has turned the
attention of the spoilsmen again toward the President. He is
asked once more to make sweeping exceptions."
Report of the Executive Committee of the

New York Civil Service Reform Association, 1898.
CIVIL-SERVICE REFORM IN THE UNITED STATES:A. D. 1897-1899.

Temporary check in New York.
Governor Black's law.
Restoration of the merit system under Governor Roosevelt.
"In June [1897]—after the Court of Appeals … had declared that

the constitutional amendment was self-executing, and that
appointments made without competitive examination, where
competitive examinations were practicable, must be held to be
illegal—steps were taken to secure a reduction of the exempt
and non-competitive positions in the State Service. A letter
was addressed to Governor Morton, by the officers of the
Association, on June 8, asking that the service be
reclassified, on a basis competitive as far as practicable.
The Governor replied that he had already given the subject
some thought, and that he would be glad to give our
suggestions careful consideration. On the 4th of August he
instructed the Civil Service Commission to prepare such a
revision of the rules and classification as had been proposed.
On the 11th of November this revision, prepared by
Commissioner Burt, was adopted by the full Commission, and on
the 9th of December the new rules were formally promulgated by
the Governor and placed in immediate operation. … The
Governor, earlier in the year, had reversed his action in the
case of inspectors and other employees of the new Excise
Department, by transferring them from the non-competitive to
the competitive class. … This marked the beginning of a
vigorous movement against the competitive system led by
chairmen of district committees, and other machine
functionaries.
{147}
Governor Morton's sweeping order of December completed the
discomfiture of these people and strengthened their purpose to
make a final desperate effort to break the system down. The
new Governor, of whom little had been known prior to his
unexpected nomination in September, proved to be in full
sympathy with their plan. In his message to the legislature,
Mr. Black, in a paragraph devoted to 'Civil Service,' referred
to the system built up by his predecessor in contemptuous
language, and declared that, in his judgment, 'Civil service
would work better with less starch.' He recommended
legislation that would render the examinations 'more
practical,' and that would permit appointing officers to
select from the whole number on an eligible list and not
confine them to selections 'from among those graded highest.'
Such legislation, he promised; would 'meet with prompt
executive approval.' Each house of the legislature referred
this part of the message to its Judiciary Committee, with
instructions to report a bill embodying the Governor's ideas.
… Within a few days of the close of the legislative session,
the measure currently described as 'Governor Black's bill was
Introduced. … The bill provided that in all examinations for
the State, county or municipal service, not more than 50 per
cent. might be given for 'merit,' to be determined by the
Examining Boards, and that the rest of the rating,
representing 'fitness,' was to be given by the appointing
officer, or by some person or persons designated by him. All
existing eligible lists were to be abolished in 30 days, and
the new scheme was to go into operation at once. … A hearing
was given by the Senate Committee on the following day, and
one by the Assembly Committee a few days later. … The bill,
with some amendments, was passed In the Senate, under
suspension of the rules, and as a party measure. … It was
passed in the Assembly also as a caucus measure."
"Early [in 1898] after time had been allowed for the act to
prove its capabilities in practice, steps were taken toward
commencing a suit to test its constitutionality in the courts.
… Pending the bringing of a test suit, a bill was prepared for
the Association and introduced in the Legislature on March
16th, last, one of the features of which was the repeal of the
unsatisfactory law. … The bill … was passed by the Senate on
March 29th. On the 31st, the last day of the session, it was
passed by the Assembly. … On the same date it was signed by
the Governor and became a law. This act has the effect of
exempting the cities from the operation of the act of 1897,
restoring the former competitive system in each of them."

"As a result of the confusing legislation of [1897 and 1898]

at least four systems of widely differing character had come
into existence by the first of [1899]. New York city had its
charter rules, … the state departments were conducted under
two adaptations of the Black law, and in the smaller cities
the plan of the original law of 1883 was followed. In his
first annual message, Governor Roosevelt directed the
attention of the Legislature to this anomalous condition and
strongly urged the passage of an act repealing the Black law
and establishing a uniform system, for the state and cities
alike, subject to state control. Such an act was prepared with
the co-operation of a special committee of the Association. …
After some discussion it was determined to recast the measure,
adopting a form amounting to a codification of all previously
existing statutes, and less strict in certain of its general
provisions. … The bill was … passed by the Senate by a
majority of two. … In the Assembly it was passed with slight
amendments. … On the … 19th of April the act was signed by the
Governor, and went into immediate effect. … The passage of
this law will necessitate the complete recasting of the civil
service system in New York, on radically different lines."

Modification of Civil Service Rules by President McKinley.
Severe criticism of the order by the National Civil
Service Reform League.
On the 29th of May, 1899, President McKinley was persuaded to

issue an order greatly modifying the civil service rules,
releasing many offices from their operation and permitting
numerous transfers in the service on a non-competitive
examination. This presidential order was criticised with
severity in a statement promptly issued by the Executive
Committee of the National Civil Service Reform League, which
says: "The National Civil Service Reform League, after mature
consideration, regards the order of President McKinley, of May
29, changing the Civil Service rules, as a backward step of
the most pronounced character. The order follows a long
succession of violations, of both the spirit and the literal
terms of the law and rules, in various branches of the
service, and must be considered in its relations to these. Its
immediate effects, which have been understated, may be set
forth as follows:
(1) It withdraws from the classified service not merely 3,000

or 4,000 offices and positions, but, as nearly as can be now
estimated, 10,109. It removes 3,693 from the class of
positions filled hitherto either through competitive
examination or through an orderly practice of promotion, and
it transfers 6,416 other positions in the War Department,
filled hitherto through a competitive registration system,
under the control of the Civil Service Commission, to a system
to be devised and placed in effect by the present Secretary of
War.
(2) It declares regular at least one thousand additional
appointments made temporarily, without examination—in many
cases in direct disregard of the law—in branches that are not
affected by the exceptions, but that remain nominally
competitive.
(3) It permits the permanent appointment of persons employed

without examination, for emergency purposes during the course
of war with Spain, thus furnishing a standing list of many
thousands which positions in the War Department may be filled,
without tests of fitness, for a long time to come.
(4) It alters the rules to the effect that in future any

person appointed with or without competitive examination, or
without any examination, may be placed by transfer in any
classified position without regard to the character or
similarity of the employments interchanged, and after
non-competitive examination only.
{148}
(5) It permits the reinstatement, within the discretion of the

respective department officers, of persons separated from the
service at any previous time for any stated reason.
The effect of these changes in the body of the rules will be

of a more serious nature than that of the absolute exceptions
made. It will be practicable to fill competitive positions of
every description either through arbitrary reinstatement—or
through original appointment to a lower grade, or to an
excepted position without tests of any sort, or even by
transfer from the great emergency force of the War Department,
to be followed in any such case by a mere 'pass' examination.
As general experience has proven, the 'pass' examinations, in
the course of time, degenerate almost invariably into farce.
It will be practicable also to restore to the service at the
incoming of each new administration those dismissed for any
cause during the period of any administration preceding. That
such a practice will lead to wholesale political reprisals,
and, coupled with the other provisions referred to, to the
re-establishment on a large scale of the spoils system of
rotation and favoritism, cannot be doubted."
In his next succeeding annual Message to Congress the

President used the following language on the subject: "The
Executive order [by President Cleveland] of May 6, 1896,
extending the limits of the classified service, brought within
the operation of the civil-service law and rules nearly all of
the executive civil service not previously classified. Some of
the inclusions were found wholly illogical and unsuited to the
work of the several Departments. The application of the rules to
many of the places so included was found to result in friction
and embarrassment. After long and very careful consideration
it became evident to the heads of the Departments, responsible
for their efficiency, that in order to remove these
difficulties and promote an efficient and harmonious
administration certain amendments were necessary. These
amendments were promulgated by me in Executive order dated May
29, 1899. All of the amendments had for their main object a
more efficient and satisfactory administration of the system
of appointments established by the civil-service law. The
results attained show that under their operation the public
service has improved and that the civil-service system is
relieved of many objectionable features which heretofore
subjected it to just criticism and the administrative officers
to the charge of unbusinesslike methods in the conduct of
public affairs. It is believed that the merit system has been
greatly strengthened and its permanence assured."
United States, Message and Documents

(Abridgment), 1890-1900, volume 1.
At its next annual meeting, December 14, 1900, in New York,

the National Civil Service Reform League reiterated its
condemnation of the order of President McKinley, declaring:
"The year has shown that the step remains as unjustified in
principle as ever and that it has produced, in practical
result, just the injuries to the service that were feared, as
the reports of our committee of various branches of the
service have proved. The league, therefore, asserts without
hesitancy that the restoration of very nearly all places in
every branch of the service exempted from classification by
this deplorable order is demanded by the public interest and
that the order itself should be substantially revoked."

Civil Service Rules in the Philippine Islands.
"An Act for the establishment and maintenance of an efficient

and honest civil service in the Philippine Islands" was
adopted, on the 19th of September, by the Commission which now
administers the civil government of those islands. The bill is
founded on the principles of the American civil service in
their stricter construction, and its provisions extend to all
the executive branches of the government. The framing of rules
and regulations for the service are left to the Civil Service
Board provided for in the act. A correspondent of the "New
York Tribune," writing from Manila on the day after the
enactment, states: "W. Leon Pepperman, who has long been
connected with the civil service in the United States, and who
has made a personal study of the systems maintained by Great
Britain, France, and Holland in their Eastern colonies, will
be on this board, as will be F. W. Kiggins of the Washington
Civil Service Commission. The third member probably will be a
Filipino. President Taft had selected for this post Dr.
Joaquin Gonzalez, an able man, but that gentleman's untimely
death on the eve of his appointment has forced President Taft
to find another native capable of meeting the necessary
requirements. Mr. Kiggins probably will act as Chief Examiner,
and Mr. Pepperman as Chairman of the board:" According to the
same correspondent: " Examinations for admittance to the
service will be held in Manila, Iloilo, and Cebu, in the
Philippines, and in the United States under the auspices and
control of the Federal Civil Service Commission." At the
annual meeting of the National Civil Service Reform League of
the United States held in New York, December 13, 1900, the
above measure was commended highly in the report of a special
committee appointed to consider the subject of the civil
service in our new dependencies, as being one by which, "if it
be persevered in, the merit system will be established in the
islands of that archipelago, at least as thoroughly and
consistently as in any department of government, Federal,
State or municipal, in the Union. This must be, in any case,
regarded as a gratifying recognition of sound principles of
administration on the part of the commission and justifies the
hope that, within the limits of their jurisdiction at least,
no repetition of the scandals of post-bellum days will be
tolerated. The ruling of the several departments that the
provisions of the Federal offices established in the
dependencies which would be classified if within the United
States is also a matter to be noted with satisfaction by the
friends of good government."
{149}

The "spoils system" of service in the House of Representatives.
The "spoils system" maintained by Congressmen among their own

immediate employees, in the service of the House of
Representatives, was depicted in a report, submitted February
28, 1901, by a special committee which had been appointed to
investigate the pay of the House employees. The report,
presented by Mr. Moody, of Massachusetts, makes the following
general statements, with abundance of illustrative instances,
few of which can be given here: "The four officers elected by
the House, namely, the Clerk, Sergeant-at-Arms, Doorkeeper,
and Postmaster, appoint the employees of the House, except the
clerks and assistant clerks of members and committees, four
elevator men, the stenographers, and those appointed by House
resolutions. The appointments, however, are made on the
recommendation of members of the House, and very largely,
though not entirely, of members of the dominant party in the
House. If a member upon whose recommendation an appointment is
made desires the removal of his appointee and the substitution
of another person, the removal and substitution are made without
regard to the capacity of either person. In case a member upon
whose recommendation an appointment has been made ceases to be
a member of the House, an employee recommended by him
ordinarily loses his place. Thus the officers of the House,
though responsible for the character of the service rendered
by the employees, have in reality little or no voice in their
selection, and, as might reasonably be expected, the results
obtained from the system which we have described are in some
cases extremely unsatisfactory. This method of appointing
House employees has existed for many years, during which the
House has been under the control of each party alternately. We
believe that candor compels us to state at the outset that
some of the faults in administration which we have observed
are attributable to the system and to the persistence of
members of the House in urging upon the officers the
appointment of their constituents and friends to subordinate
places, and that such faults are deeply rooted, of long
standing, and likely to continue under the administration of
any political party as long as such a system is maintained."
The committee found nothing to criticise in the

administration of the offices of the House Postmaster or
Sergeant-at-Arms. With reference to the offices of the Clerk
and the Doorkeeper they say: "We have found in both
departments certain abuses, which may be grouped under three
heads, namely: Transfers of employees from the duties of the
positions to which they were appointed to other duties,
unjustifiable payments of compensation to employees while
absent from their posts of duty, and divisions of salary.
"First. Transfers of employees from the duties to which they
were appointed to other duties.—Some part of this evil is
doubtless attributable to the fact that the annual
appropriation acts have not properly provided for the
necessities of the House service. An illustration of this is
furnished by the case of Guy Underwood, who is carried on the
rolls as a laborer at $720 per annum, while in point of fact
he performs the duty of assistant in the Hall Library of the
House and his compensation is usually increased to $1,800 per
annum by an appropriation of $1,080 in the general deficiency
act. Again, a sufficient number of messengers has not been
provided for the actual necessities of the service, while more
folders have been provided than are required. As a result of
this men have been transferred from the duties of a folder to
those of a messenger, and the compensation of some has been
increased by appropriation in deficiency acts. But evils of
another class result from transfers, some examples of which we
report. They result in part, at least, from an attempt to
adjust salaries so as to satisfy the members that their
appointees obtain a just share of the whole appropriation,
instead of attempting to apportion the compensation to the
merits of the respective employees and the character of the
services which they render. …
"Second. Payments of compensation to employees while

absent.—The duty of many of the employees of the House ceases
with the end of a session, or very soon thereafter. Such is
the case with the reading clerks, messengers, enrolling
clerks, and many others who might be named. Their absence from
Washington after a session of Congress closes and their duties
are finished is as legitimate as the absence of the members
themselves. But many employees who should be at their posts
have been from time to time absent without justification, both
during sessions and between sessions. In the absence of any
record it is impossible for the committee to ascertain with
anything like accuracy the amount of absenteeism, but in our

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Human Resource Management A

Critical Approach 2nd Edition David G.

Global Talent Management David G. Collings

Fundamentals of human resource management David A.

Strategic Compensation: A Human Resource Management

The Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management 2nd

Human Resource Management in the Pornography Industry:

Human Resource Management Robert L. Mathis

Human Resource Management, 15e Joseph Martocchio

Human Resource Management 11th Edition Derek Torrington

“This revised edition provides a much-needed critical reflection on HRM cov-

“This wide-ranging critical text places human resource management appropri-

David G. Collings is Full Professor of Human Resource Management and

Geoffrey T. Wood is Dean and Professor of International Business at Essex

Leslie T. Szamosi is Senior Lecturer and MBA Academic Director at the

Edited by David G. Collings,

To Vicky, Alice and the Labradors.

To my dearest wife, Katerina, my three angels,

List of figures xii

1 Human resource management: a critical approach 1

2 HRM in changing organizational contexts 27

3 Strategic HRM: a critical review 49

4 HRM and organizational performance 74

5 HRM: an ethical perspective 98

6 HRM practices to diversity management:

7 Organizational outsourcing and implications for HRM 135

9 Knowledge and organizational learning and its

10 HRM in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) 194

11 Recruitment and selection 215

12 HR planning: institutions, strategy, tools and techniques 238

13 Performance management 262

14 Reward management 280

15 Human resource development 295

16 Industrial relations and human resource management 311

PART III 335

17 Human resource management in emerging markets 337

18 Comparative HRM: the debates and the evidence 358

20 HRM in crisis 396

3.1 The Harvard approach 54

1.1 Definitions of HRM 7

David G. Collings is Professor of HRM and Associate Dean for Research at

Rami Al-Sharif is at the University of Coventry.

Another uncharitable definition of soft HRM is that it constituted a desperate

Contested domain HRM is a contested domain, with two rival paradigms,

We argue that for ethical and sustainability reasons, more stakeholder-orientated

HRM and personnel management compared

a collection of incidental techniques with little internal cohesion. As person-

HRM enters the mainstream

CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March).

CHINA: A. D. 1901 (March-April).

As we write this (early in April), the reckoning of

Meantime grave anxieties are being caused by rumors of a

"The following memorandum, which was handed to the Chinese

See (in this volume)

See (in this volume)

See (in this volume)

See (in this volume)

CHOCTAWS, United States agreements with the.

See (in this volume)

CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR, The Young People's Society of.

The nineteenth annual international convention of Young

The first society, which supplied the germ of organization for

See (in this volume)