How do firms cope with changing environments? Is flexibility really the solution? Based on an Igor Ansoff Award winning study, Building the Flexible Firm shows how flexibility has become the new strategic challenge for contemporary firms. Offering a wealth of insights and based on extensive interviews with practitioners, Henk Volberda provides a strategic framework which explains what types of flexibility are effective under different organizational conditions and environmental characteristics. He also demonstrates an integrated method for diagnosing a firm's flexibility and for guiding the transition to greater flexibility and responsiveness.

Bang & Olufsen, the famous Danish producer of high-end home electronics, is well known as an early exponent of value-based management: the idea that there should be consistency in what the organisation does, a certain continuity between what the company develops and sells, and the beliefs and practices of the employees. This study investigates how company values are communicated and the collective identity is articulated through the use of such concepts as 'culture', 'fundamental values', and 'corporate religion', as well as how employees negotiate these ideas in their daily working lives. As this book reveals, the identification of values, meant to create cohesion and solidarity among employees, came to symbolise and engender a split between the staff and the other parts of the company. By examining the rise and fall of the value-based management approach, this volume offers the indispensible insight of anthropological enquiry to expose how social realities challenge conventional management strategies and therefore must be considered in the development of new management techniques.

The pace of change in the business world is becoming faster. This book provides a detailed account of the network-like organization forms that some firms are adopting to make themselves more flexible and responsive to changing technologies and customer demands. As these organizations become more pervasive, the winners will be those firms that develop the specific capabilities that are needed to thrive in a networked world. Paradoxically, such capabilities are developed not only at the firm level, but also in the relationships the firm has with its external network and in the operating units within the firm. This perspective has implications for the 'resource-based view of the firm' in the field of strategic management, suggesting that the development of capabilities is a more complex and multi-level process than was traditionally thought. This book brings together eleven chapters, each focusing on a particular aspect of capability development in the networked firm. It is based on research in five big Swedish firms (Ericsson, Volvo, Skandia, Pharmacia & Upjohn, SE Banken) as well as a number of other well-known firms such as HP and ABB. The book will be essential reading for advanced students in strategy and international business wanting to keep abreast of current thinking and company practices.

People Resourcing is the leading textbook for students taking the CIPD People Resourcing module. The text provides a highly practical and accessible text for students taking modules in this area. All the main elements of people resourcing are examined in detail. There is a particular focus on human resource planning, recruitment advertising, performance management, dismissal and redundancy and retirement. A wide range of examples drawn from different sectors and occupational groups illustrate the core concepts. The author is one of the CIPD's national examiners for Leadership and Management, and has a wide range of experience as an examiner and lecturer in the Human Resource Management area.

This is the leading textbook for students taking the CIPD professional qualification and has been fully revised and rewritten to take account of the new academic standards that will be taught from September 2002. The title has been changed from Core Personnel and Development to People Management and Development to reflect the change in the standards.

The 2009 edition of CIMA's Official Learning Systems has been written in conjunction with the Examiner to fully reflect what could be tested in the exam. Fully revised with additional readings and examples the 2009 Learning Systems provide complete study material for the May and November 2009 exams The fully revised paperback editions feature colour throughout and includes: * practice questions throughout * complete revision section * topic summaries * recommended reading articles from a range of journals * Q & A's CIMA Learning Systmes are the only study materials endorsed and recomended by CIMA

A fully updated and revised tenth edition of this classic, best selling textbook. It remains the primary text for all students studying HRM - both undergraduate and postgraduate, as well as for students of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) diploma. The Handbook also continues to be an essential reference source for all managers concerned with personnel and HRM issues. This new edition of A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice contains a number of significant additions and revisions including substantial revisions to seventeen chapters and new chapters on: Human Capital Management, the Role of the Front Line Manager; HR Strategies; Developing and Implementing HR Strategies and Learning and Development. The new edition also contains updated material based on recent developments in HRM policy and practice and a wide range of surveys and research projects conducted by professional associations and research bodies.