Letter to Students

Dear Student,

This book has a history of using orchestra themes as a cover picture. A high performance organization can be compared to a well-managed symphony orchestra, made up of dedicated individuals united in a common purpose and under the guidance and leadership of a conductor.

Creating that high-performance organization begins with effective human resource management. Like the conductor of the orchestra, the HR professional takes responsibility for seeing the whole become larger than the sum of its parts. Through strategic planning, thorough recruitment, careful selection, onboarding, ongoing training, helpful feedback, and progressive rewards, the HR professional can help create an efficient organization and a positive work environment.

In this thirteenth edition, an orchestra is again featured on the cover of the book. This time, the photo captures musicians from the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO). Like all of us who have been going through the COVID-19 pandemic, the musicians at DSO have learned to adapt and be conscious of the needs of humankind. As a diverse group, they’ve drawn upon technologies ranging from simple face masks to digital tools that foster the creation of enriching digital experiences. The same trends impact the practice of HR, and you’ll find current advances reflected in the content, examples, and “how to” steps used throughout this book.

Each chapter in this book includes many common elements, such as learning objectives, terms for review, discussion questions, and a short case incident. Within all chapters, you will find a Spotlight on HRM box. These timely articles illustrate a manager’s or consultant’s point of view on HR or offer a sharing of practical HR experiences relevant to the chapter. Each chapter also contains a Spotlight on Ethics, where an ethics issue relevant to the chapter content is raised.

Photos of real job situations offer insights into work environments the book is discussing. Cartoons add some humour to the otherwise quite serious content. The References provide you with the sources for the information given in the chapter. They can also be used as a starting point for more detailed research.

There is a short case and two in-depth cases associated with each chapter. The short cases are intended to be a quick read before launching into the practical application of material from the chapter. Each chapter has an independent case focusing on individual and relevant contexts and a running case, which is available on Connect. The cases provide discussion questions for application and reflection of the chapter content within the case contexts.

If you have any feedback regarding the readability of the textbook or suggestions on how we could improve the next edition, please contact Krista Uggerslev via the email address given below.

Good luck with your studies!

kristauggerslev@gmail.com