Peter A. Bamberger

What is Human Resource Strategy? How are human resource strategies formulated and how can we explain the variance between what is espoused and what is actually implemented? What impact – if any – does human resource strategy have on the organization’s “bottom line,” and how can this impact be explained? Is there one best HR strategy for all firms, or is the impact of HR strategy on performance contingent on some set of organizational, technological or environmental factors? Human Resource Strategy, third edition, provides an overview of the academic and practitioner responses to these and other questions. Applying an integrative framework, the authors review over thirty years’ worth of empirical and theoretical research in an attempt to reconcile often-conflicting conceptual models and equivocal empirical findings. The book supports students in applying theory to practice and presents much of the relevant research in the context of the critical strategic decisions that executives are often forced to make with regard to human resource investments and deployments. As a result, often-complex theoretical models and scientific findings are presented such that they are not only understandable but also highly relevant to non-research-oriented practitioners. This new edition includes new chapters on innovations in HR strategies and diversity and introduces more practical examples. This book is an ideal resource for students and practitioners alike.

What is Human Resource Strategy? How are human resource strategies formulated and how can we explain the variance between what is espoused and what is actually implemented? What impact – if any – does human resource strategy have on the organization’s “bottom line,” and how can this impact be explained? Is there one best HR strategy for all firms, or is the impact of HR strategy on performance contingent on some set of organizational, technological or environmental factors? Human Resource Strategy, third edition, provides an overview of the academic and practitioner responses to these and other questions. Applying an integrative framework, the authors review over thirty years’ worth of empirical and theoretical research in an attempt to reconcile often-conflicting conceptual models and equivocal empirical findings. The book supports students in applying theory to practice and presents much of the relevant research in the context of the critical strategic decisions that executives are often forced to make with regard to human resource investments and deployments. As a result, often-complex theoretical models and scientific findings are presented such that they are not only understandable but also highly relevant to non-research-oriented practitioners. This new edition includes new chapters on innovations in HR strategies and diversity and introduces more practical examples. This book is an ideal resource for students and practitioners alike.

Evidence from both local and national surveys suggests that substance misuse and abuse among older adults in the United States is a "hidden epidemic" that poses a major threat to the welfare and quality of life of older drinkers and their families, and has significant public health implications. Based on their findings from a 10-year, NIH-funded study of retirement, aging, and substance misuse, Peter Bamberger and Samuel Bacharach examine the complex web of factors contributing to the precipitation and exacerbation of substance problems among older adults. They discuss the individual and public health implications of such problems, as well as some of the evidence-based steps that may be taken to prevent their emergence and help those in need of assistance for policy-makers and health practitioners. This book provides a single-source review of the latest research assessing the magnitude and costs of older-adult substance abuse, as well as detailed analysis of the epidemiology of older-adult substance abuse. The authors provide an analysis of the efficacy of alternative prevention and treatment strategies, and present scientific evidence in a user-friendly format, highlighting extensive interview data to accompany their statistical results. The illustrations offered by these real life cases not only provide a sense of richness and understanding to a complex issue, but also offer a fitting reminder to the reader that this is an issue affecting people we know and families like our own.

The ongoing decline in union membership is generally attributed to an increasingly hostile economic, legal, and managerial environment. Samuel B. Bacharach, Peter A. Bamberger, and William J. Sonnenstuhl argue that the decline may have more to do with a crisis of union legitimacy and member commitment. They further suggest that both problems could be addressed if the unions return to their nineteenth-century, mutual aid-based roots. The authors contend that the labor movement is characterized by two models of union-member relations: the mutual aid logic and the servicing logic. The first predominated in the early days and encouraged a sense of community among members who worked to support one another. In the twentieth century, it was largely replaced by the servicing model, which asks little of members, who remain loyal only if their leaders deliver increasing wages and benefits. Regaining legitimacy and strengthening member commitment can only happen, the authors claim, if mutual aid logic is allowed to return. They examine three unions in the transportation industry to judge the effectiveness of new programs created after the old model.

The ongoing decline in union membership is generally attributed to an increasingly hostile economic, legal, and managerial environment. Samuel B. Bacharach, Peter A. Bamberger, and William J. Sonnenstuhl argue that the decline may have more to do with a crisis of union legitimacy and member commitment. They further suggest that both problems could be addressed if the unions return to their nineteenth-century, mutual aid-based roots. The authors contend that the labor movement is characterized by two models of union-member relations: the mutual aid logic and the servicing logic. The first predominated in the early days and encouraged a sense of community among members who worked to support one another. In the twentieth century, it was largely replaced by the servicing model, which asks little of members, who remain loyal only if their leaders deliver increasing wages and benefits. Regaining legitimacy and strengthening member commitment can only happen, the authors claim, if mutual aid logic is allowed to return. They examine three unions in the transportation industry to judge the effectiveness of new programs created after the old model.

What is human resource strategy? How are human resources strategies formulated and how can we explain the variance between what is espoused and what is actually implemented? What impact – if any – does human resource strategy have on the organization's "bottom line," and how can this impact be explained? Is there one best HR strategy for all firms, or is the impact of HR strategy on performance contingent on some set of organizational, technological, or environmental factors? Human Resource Strategy provides an overview of the academic and practitioner responses to these and other questions. Applying an integrative framework, the authors review twenty years worth of empirical and theoretical research in an attempt to reconcile often-conflicting conceptual models and competing empirical results. The authors present much of the relevant research in the context of the critical strategic decisions that executives must actually make with regard to human resource investments and deployments. As a result, often complex theoretical models and scientific findings are presented such that they are not only understandable but also highly relevant to non-research-oriented practitioners. Using real-world illustrations to clarify complex concepts and theories at the same time it provides a strong theoretical underpinning to basic models of HR strategy, Human Resource Strategy offers researchers a thorough review of literature in the field and the practitioner a useable guide to its application.