Delivering Results: A New Mandate for Human Resource Professionals

As Organizations Search For Better ways to build workplaces that engage and empower their employees, their managers have turned to the Harvard Business Review for both the landmark ideas and the hard-won experiences that shape the field of human resources. Delivering Results collects the best of these articles into an accessible and engaging resource that documents the most influential thinking on effective human resource management. Here are the actionable strategies that yield results from the factory line to the boardroom.

Dave Ulrich wants human-resources managers to start doing "the real work" of companies: improving customer service and increasing shareholder value. Ulrich, a business professor at the University of Michigan, is editor of Delivering Results, a collection of 15 Harvard Business Review articles on managing human resources. In the lead essay, "A New Mandate for Human Resources," Ulrich argues that many companies pigeonhole human-resources managers as "incompetent, value-sapping support staff" useful only for shuffling paperwork and dealing with red tape. "It's time to destroy the stereotype and unleash HR's full potential," Ulrich writes. HR should be focused on results--for example, by executing strategy and developing better ways to manage benefits and information, he says.

The articles in this book are aimed at helping HR pros excel at work. "Good Communication That Blocks Learning," authored by Chris Argyris, says that to be truly creative, managers and employees must start asking tougher questions of each other and worry less about politics. "Changing the Way We Change," written by Richard Pascale, Mark Millemann, and Linda Gioja, examines successful turnarounds at Sears, Shell, and the U.S. Army. In "Opening the Books," John Case writes that employees are more motivated if management shares financial goals and income statements. The book also includes Harvard Business classics like "The Core Competence of the Corporation" by C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel and "What is Strategy?" by Michael Porter. HR professionals, company executives, and people interested in business management will enjoy this book and profit from it. --Dan Ring