Manajemen | Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji 08832320309598622

(1)

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at

http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20

Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] Date: 12 January 2016, At: 23:57

Journal of Education for Business

ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20

The Relevancy of Graduate Curriculum to Human

Resource Professionals' Electronic Communication

Robert C. Hoell & Gordon O. Henry

To cite this article: Robert C. Hoell & Gordon O. Henry (2003) The Relevancy of Graduate Curriculum to Human Resource Professionals' Electronic Communication, Journal of Education for Business, 78:6, 329-334, DOI: 10.1080/08832320309598622

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832320309598622

Published online: 31 Mar 2010.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 13

(2)

The Relevanc

Graduate Currici

/

‘lum

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

of

to

Human Resource Professionals’

Electronic Communication

ROBERT C. HOELL

Georgia Southern University

Statesboro, Georgia

n applied fields such as human

I

resource management, the relevancy of the academic curriculum to actual practice must be maintained and combined with pedagogical educational goals. Successful academic institutions offer programs that both educate and assist students in realizing their career aspirations by keeping their academic offerings current with the issues encountered by practitioners in the field. Institutions can accomplish this through systematic analyses of their curricula, evqo, though such analyses can be difficult because of a variety of economic and practical obstacles. In this article, we describe one attempt to perform such an analysis and its results. Schools and colleges of business are particularly vexed by the problem of curriculum currency because of the rate at which changes take place in their applied environments. Programs in human resource management (HRM) face an especially hectic pace of change, given the dynamic nature of economic, demographic, legal, and social environments of business (Greer, 1995; Schuler, 1998). Towers Perrin (1992) reported that the primary concern of human resource professionals is integrating the business systems of organizations that were combined through the fast-paced world of acquisi- tions. To illustrate how extensively

ABSTRACT. In this study, the authors examined the relevancy of graduate curricula in the area of human resource management. They conducted a quantitative analysis of the content of graduate courses and the electronic communication of human resource management professionals to identify areas that were being either undertaught or overtaught. The authors analyzed the iden- tified areas of discrepancy and offer suggestions for revising the graduate curriculum, where necessary. General- ly, their findings indicate that the content of most graduate courses closely mirrors the topics being discussed online by human resource management professionals.

human resource jobs have changed in recent years to accommodate such envi- ronmental changes, Storey (1 992) offered 27 points of difference between the historic job of personnel administra- tor and the contemporary job of human resource manager.

Because of its prominence in coping with these changes, the human resource (HR) function increasingly is being considered an important strategic part- ner in determining the success of contemporary businesses (Baron & Kreps, 1999; Pfeffer, 1994). In fact, many authors (Becker, Huselid, & Ulrich, 2001; Pfeffer, 1998) have made the case that the human resources function of a firm is its single remaining competitive

GORDON

0.

HENRY

Indiana University Southeast

New Albany, Indiana

advantage in today’s market. Human resource professionals, acknowledging this increasing strategic importance, have increased their demands for current, accurate information. This need caused the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) to grow from 50,000 members in 1989 to over 150,000 currently (SHRM, 2000).

Though publications and professional meetings sponsored by professional organizations such as SHRM provide traditional methods for HR practitioners to remain current, advances in electron-

ic technology have allowed faster access

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

to this essential information. Through

participation in Web-based discussions of various sorts, electronic communications regarding human resource management issues have flourished. Human resource management practitioners now widely report (Towers Perrin, 1992) that the World Wide Web is an indispensable source of the timely and accurate information needed for successful perfor-

mance of their jobs.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

HR professionals also are clamoring

for formal academic training in an attempt to update their skills. In response, the number of colleges and universities offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in human resource management has increased dramatically in recent years (About GOALS, 2000). A

concern, though, is whether the content

July/August 2003 329

(3)

of these educational programs has kept pace with the rapid changes in the field (Kaufman, 1994).

In this study, we addressed this concern by comparing the content of academic programs with the content of HR practitioners’ communications with their peers and human resource experts. The electronic record of Web-based communications affords an opportunity to do just that. Through an analysis of electronic discussions in which HR professionals participated, we attempted to examine the relationship between online discussion content and the curricula of graduate human resource management programs. Our results provide information regarding (a) those content areas in which academic curricula adequately reflect the concerns of human resource professionals and (b) opportunities for improvement in tailoring those curricula

to better meet students’ needs.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Method

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Analysis Criteria

The Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI) publishes an outline of the body of knowledge considered appropriate for a professional in HRM to master (Human Resources Certifica- tion Institute, 2000). This body of knowledge is divided into seven primary categories: management practices; general employment practices; staffing; human resource development; employee and labor relations; and health, safety, and security. Each of these categories is further divided into secondary and tertiary categories. We used the primary and secondary categories of this body of knowledge (shown in Table 1) as the basis for ana- lyzing both the content of the electronic communications and the topics covered in advanced degree programs.

Analysis

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

of Electronic Communication Content

To gather data regarding the communication of HR professionals, we moni- tored the electronic bulletin board and the online discussion group generating the most “traffic.” We placed all comments made in these media for 1 week in each of 6 consecutive months into a primary and secondary category from HRCI’s body of knowledge. This approach resulted in a total of 3,066 comments for analysis according to their content.

Analysis

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

of Course Content

Similarly, we analyzed the content of course descriptions from 23 universities offering stand-alone master’s degrees in human resource management (e.g., HRM degrees that were not a track TABLE 1. Primary and Secondary Categories of the HRCI Body of Knowledge

Primary categories

Secondary categories

Health,

General Human Employee safety,

practices practices Staffing development and benefits relations security

Management employment resource Compensation and labor and

Role of HR in organizations

H R planning

Organization design and development

Budgeting, controlling, measurement

Quality and performance management

Performance appraisals

Legal factors

Individual employment rights

Job analysis, description, specification

Workplace behavior problems

Employee involvement

Employee attitudes and satisfaction Leadership

International HRM

Motivation

HR research

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

EEOIAA

Recruiting

Selection

Career planning and development

Organizational exit

HR training and the organization

Needs analysis

Training and development program

Evaluation of training effectiveness

Taxes and accounting

Economic factors

Compensation philosophy and strategy

Compensation programs

Job pricing, pay structures, administration

Union Health

Safety representation

Collective

bargaining Security

Employer unfair practices

Union unfair practices

Mainaining nonunion status

Employee Public sector benefit labor programs relations

Job evaluation

Managing benefits

Compensation evaluation

Ethics

330 Journal of Education for Business

[image:3.612.49.561.342.739.2]

(4)

within an

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

MBA program). We also categorized each topic covered in each

course, as indicated by the course descriptions, using the primary and secondary categories of HRCI’s body of knowledge. A total of 800 topics identi- fied in the course descriptions were

placed into appropriate categories.

Interobsewer Agreement

To measure the reliability of these content analyses, a second researcher independently categorized both the electronic communication comments and the topics contained in the course descriptions. We used the following for- mula to calculate the agreement

between the two researchers’ analyses:

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

x

100

No.

of agreements No. of agreements

+

No. of disagreements

We found agreement between researchers’ observations to be 98.1 %

(3009/3066 x 100) for the electronic communications and 97.3% (778/800 x

100) for the course description topics.

In the case of the disagreements, we consulted an additional subject matter expert to resolve the dispute, with the decision of that expert regarding the appropriate category for the message or topic being final.

Results

Overview

As depicted in Table 2, at first glance we noticed some differences between the proportion of time that HR professionals spent discussing a particular topic and the proportion of coverage that that topic was given in academic curricula. The primary categories, presented in italic type, represent summa- tions of all their secondary categories. For example, the primary category of management practices accounted for 12.55% of all online discussions and 26.88% of course topics within human resource management college curricula. The secondary category data indicate how often specific topics were discussed online and in graduate classes- for example, 3.7 1 % and 1 .OO%, respec- tively, for the role of HR in

TABLE 2. Percentage of Online Versus Course Content Allotted to Primary and Secondary Topics

Amount of content allotted (%) Online Course

1. Management practices Role of HR in organizations

HR planning

Organizational design and development Budgeting, controlling, measurement Motivation

Leadership

Quality and performance management, total quality

Employee involvement strategies Human resource research

International human resource management Ethics

2. General employment practices Legal and regulatory factors

Job analysis, description, specification Individual employee rights

Performance appraisals Workplace behavior problems

Employee attitudes, opinions, satisfaction

Equal employment opportunitylaffirmative action Recruitment

Selection

Career planning and development Organizational exit

Human resource training and the organization Training needs analysis

Training and development programs Evaluation of training effectiveness

Tax and accounting treatment

Economic factors affecting compensation Compensation philosophy, strategy, policy

Compensation types, characteristics, advantages/disadvantages

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

of evaluation methods

Job pricing, pay structures, pay rate administration Employee benefit programs

Managing employee benefit programs

Evaluating total compensation strategy and effectiveness

Union representation of employees Employer unfair labor practices

Union unfair labor practices, strikes, boycotts Collective bargaining

Managing organizatiodunion relations Maintaining nonunion status

Public sector labor relations 7. Health, safety, and security

Health Safety Security

8. Other Total

management

3. StafJing

4. Human resource development

5. Compensation and benefits

6. Employee and labor relations

12.55 3.71 6.60 0.29 0.20 0.07 0.29 0.34 0.02 0.41 0.00 1

.oo

19.04 12.52 I .54 0.14 0.49 3.45 0.90 20.22 0.79 8.43 6.40 0.79 3.82 4.09 1.30 0.63 1.63 0.53 33.00 3.45 1.54 0.80 4.06 4.17 2.72 12.46 3.81 0.00 0.26 0.00 0.12 0.00 0.14 0.00 0.00 0.00 4.99 1.62 2.04 1.34 5.84 100.00 26.88

1

.oo

5.25 2.88 3.25 3.25 1.63 0.88

1

.so

3.25 2.75 1.25 9.13 4.13 0.75 0.00 0.38 2.75 1.13 14.50 4.38 2.50 3.13 2.38 2.13 9.00 2.13 2.00 2.63 2.25 23.25 2.38 2.38 3.00 2.50 2.88 3.38 3.00 1.88 1.88 16.25 1.75 1.38 1.38 3.75 4.13 2.13 1.75 0.88 0.38 0.38 0.13 0.13 100.00

July/August

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

2003 331

(5)

organizations. Category

8, “Other,” was

not an HRCI primary category, but we added it to the analysis to include such diverse topics as r h m 6 writing, per- sonal counseling, and parking concerns-issues not included in any other

primary category.

Content Analysis: Primary Categories

In Table 3, we show the results of a

statistical analysis examining the relationship between the primary categories when data from the subcategories were “collapsed’ into these categories. The differences in the proportion of comments devoted to the various primary categories between online discussions and the topics covered in HR courses did not appear to be significant. In other words, when the data were amalgamated within the primary categories, any detailed differences in communication content were hidden. To shed light on the exact nature of the differences in content from the .two sources used, we focused our attention on those differences that were found at the secondary category level.

Content Analysis: Secondary Categories

To accurately identify the differences in content between the two data sources, we also analyzed the data as subgroups within the primary topic categories established by HRCI. We conducted this analysis to determine whether the proportions of topics discussed within any one primary category online differed from the proportions of topics addressed in courses. Because the data were standardized as proportions and were non-normally distrib- uted, we used a Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test (see Chou, 1989 for a complete description of this test). We show the

results of this analysis in Table

4.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Through this comparison of all the subtopics under each primary category, we found three significant differences between the content of online discussions and course descriptions. The management practices, human resources development, and employee and labor relations categories were found to be significantly different, meaning that the

[image:5.612.46.387.407.734.2]

content of online discussions regarding

TABLE 3. Comparison of Topics Discussed Across Primary

Category Headings

No. of Test statistic Asymp. sig. Categories analyzed categories (Z) (2-tailed)

Primary categories 8

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

-.

140 3 8 9

TABLE 4. Comparison of Topics Discussed (as Proportions of Total Con- tent Items): Online Discussions Versus Course Descriptions

No. of Test statistic Asymp. sig. Topic subtopics (Z) (2-tailed) Management practices 1 1 -1.956 .050**

General employment practices 6 -1.572 .I 16

Staffing 5 -.674 SO0

Human resources development 4 -1.826 .068* Compensation and benefits 9 -.652 .515

Employee and labor relations 7 -2.371 .018**

Health, safety, and security 3 -1.604 .I09

*Significant at .I0 level. **Significant at .05 level.

secondary topics within these primary categories did not mirror the topics taught in graduate human resource management courses.

Though these analyses indicated whether the proportions of topics discussed online and in class were different, they did not indicate which secondary topics received lesser or greater coverage in the college curricula. Hence, we made a post hoc analysis of the secondary level categories to achieve greater understanding of those

differences. In Table 5 ,

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

we present those specific topic areas that were signifi-

cantly overrepresented or underrepresented in college course descriptions, as compared with the representation in online discussions.

For those topics having a significant difference, the proportion of items covered in class was typically greater than that discussed online. Although discrepancies between college course content and professional communications appeared to exist, these results must be judged cautiously, because it is possible that various practical and academic considerations could have accounted for these discrepancies.

Discussion

Our results indicated that two topics within the management practices area- the role of HR in organizations and HR planning-were discussed more online than they were taught in the class. All other discrepancies between course content and online discussion content, in the primary areas of management practices, human resource development, and employee and labor relations, appeared to result from topics being overtaught.

Interpreting these findings is prob- lematic because multiple explanations are plausible. For example, regarding the two apparently undertaught subtopics in the management practices area, it is very plausible that colleges simply are not spending enough time on these topics in their curricula. This situ- ation would suggest a needed increase in time spent on those topics. However, it may have been that these topics did not lend themselves to a standard college

educational format. These two topics-

332

Journal

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

of Education for

Business

(6)

TABLE 5. Topics Over- and Underrepresented In HRM Master’s Programs

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

Topics overrepresented Topics underrepresented

in graduate programs in graduate programs

Management practices area

Organizational design and development Budgeting, controlling, measurement

Motivation

Leadership

Quality and performance management/TQM Employee involvement strategies

HR research International HRM

Ethics

Role of HR in organizations

Human resource planning

Human resource development area

HR training and the organization Training needs analysis

Training and development programs Evaluation of training effectiveness

None

Employee and labor relations

Union representation of employees None

Employer unfair labor practices

Union unfair labor practices, strikeshoycotts Collective bargaining

Managing organizatiodunion relations Maintaining nonunion status

Public sector labor relations

the role of HR management in organizations and HR planning-are decidedly strategic in nature. Such topics may require a more nontraditional pedagogical approach than would the technical mechanics of a human resource system. Alternatively, these strategic topics may have been difficult to transfer from the college classroom to actual implementa- tion. If this were the cause of the observed discrepancy, the issue becomes one not of time allocation but of pedagogy. Perhaps a greater emphasis on participatory learning or other methods conducive to emphasizing strategic level material is required.

How to address the two underrepresented HR topics may seem an insignif- icant consideration given the large number of topics that apparently are being overtaught in college settings. A total of 21 subtopics were being taught more frequently than they were being discussed online. From ethics to public sector labor relations, these subtopics did not appear in the electronic discus-

sions in the same proportions that course descriptions indicated that they were being introduced in the classroom. Again, multiple and at times opposing explanations for these observed discrepancies are possible.

One possibility is that the emphasis given these topics in academic curricula results in their being discussed less often. That is, those topics are so well understood by human resource practitioners upon their graduation that they do not need additional guidance on them. The topics are being transmitted in school and understood to an appropriate degree,

which in turn drives down the number

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

of

questions being posed online.

As a corollary, it might be that these particular topics themselves are relatively easy to understand and implement. Because the ideas are not difficult to implement in actual practice, no further discussion is necessary. For instance, organizational design is often treated conceptually in a classroom set- ting, with a strong reliance on the intro-

duction of new terminology. It might well be that, once introduced to organizational design concepts, any graduate can apply them easily to his or her employing organization and will need little if any further discussion with peer HR professionals. However, examina- tion of the topics being overtaught also reveals some instances in which this explanation probably would not be the case. Motivation of employees, for example, typically is thought of as a subject that is especially difficult for managers to place into practice, no matter how familiar they may be with the relevant vocabulary (Krumm, 2001;

Schultz

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

& Schultz, 1998). A final issue to consider when exam-

ining the observed discrepancies is whether the importance of a particular

topic warrants the significant class time devoted to it, if that topic is encountered relatively infrequently on the job. For example, in spite of the well-documented decrease in unioniza- tion in many sectors of contemporary business (Hunter, 1999), would we really want colleges’ curricular coverage of employee and labor relations (in this study, 16%) to mirror the exact time (in this study, 0.26%) spent discussing it online? Because of the con- tinued extreme importance of this topic to many organizations, universities- some of which offer entire master’s degrees in this specialization-may very well respond in the negative.

Conclusion

Our research question considered the differences between topics discussed online by human resource professionals and the topics taught in graduate programs that specialize in human resource management education. We sought to determine whether the two are in align- ment. That is, should more or less time be spent on specific topics in HR courses, given the time they are discussed by professionals? At first glance, one might be tempted to reduce the time spent on topics that, according to the present data collected, are overtaught and increase the time spent on undertaught items. Howev- er, the actual reasons for these observed differences may be counterindicative of

such an immediate reaction.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

July/August

2003 333 [image:6.612.50.385.58.408.2]

(7)

For instance, if the reason for more online discussion is the inherent diffi- culty of some subject matter to be understood or applied, it might well be better to change teaching methods and pedagogy rather than the amount of time spent on that subject. If a topic does not translate well from theory to actual practice, perhaps a more “hands-

on”

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

or experiential approach is neces-

sary. Case analyses, in-class exercises, out-of-class experiences, or even a cooperative experience such as a practicum or internship might better facilitate student mastery of these topics. In such cases, it may be that more time spent on these topics (assuming appropriate pedagogy), rather than less, would be beneficial.

Obviously, it is important for colleges to cover material that is timely and useful to the working human resource professional. However, it is also important to temper pure application with problem solving and other advanced skill-set development. Although human resource research, for instance, is not widely discussed online, should the concept not be taught? Is not an understanding of how and when to delve into previous studies and analyses as useful as being able to develop a training program? Although the first temptation might be to decrease the time spent on a topic, as indicated by the results, an academic treatment also must be incorporated. Certain topics will be taught for development of the “whole” student, and they might not be reflected directly in the online discussions. But even long-time human resource managers might agree that such academic development is necessary for the level of thought and decision making

that

HR practitioners will need. Another consideration related to the

role of academic curricula in developing well-rounded graduates has to do with those topics that are of obvious importance but may be encountered infrequently in the field. In such instances, would it be proper to reduce further the

amount of consideration given these topics in class? For instance, in our sam- ple we found that only 1.25% of all course topics taught related to ethics. Yet, this amount is still more than the

1 .OO%

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

of online discussions related to

this topic. Relying on these data alone, would it be prudent for instructors to decrease the time spent on ethical issues in class and to redistribute this time to other topics? The extreme importance of appropriately dealing with ethical conflicts when they arise in the workplace, though this may occur very infrequently, argues against this solution.

A final consideration affecting the conclusions that may be drawn from these results is whether discussions

among peers in a profession

should

mirror the topics addressed in their academic training. The argument could be made that such redundancy in learning environments is detrimental to the overall development of those professionals. The most effective training program may be one in which different topics are addressed in settings most appropriate for their mastery. The present results provide no evidence indi- cating that this may not be the case already in the training of human resource professionals.

Clearly, further investigation of all the possible reasons for observed differences between discussion and course topics is needed before strong conclusions can be made about the appropri- ateness of academic curricula. The data that we have presented in this article reveal that subtopics within only three of seven major topics of study differed with regard to online discussion and course coverage. This result, compounded with the fact that no significant differences turned up when we amalgamated topics under their primary headings, shows that there is more evidence supporting the similarities across these items than their differences. So, considering the variety of explanations that can be proffered regarding the few observed differences,

and without more detailed investigation of these proposed explanations, we believe that the most appropriate current solution for this problem is none at all. That is, current systems in place to update and make relevant the content of human resource graduate courses should be continued, and at this time we recom- mend no significant shift in emphasis

based on the current analysis.

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

REFERENCES

About GOALS. (2000). Industrial relations coun-

cil on graduate opportunities for advanced

level studies. Retrieved January 12, 2001 from

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

http://www-cba.gsu.edu/goals/about.htm.

Baron, J. N.,

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

& Kreps, D. M. (1999). Strategic

human resources: Frameworks f o r general managers. New York: Wiley.

Becker, B. E., Huselid, M. A., & Ulrich, D. (2001). The HR scorecard: Linking people,

strategy and performance. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Chou, Y.-L. (1989). Statistical analysis for busi-

ness and economics. New York, N Y Elsevier Science Publishing Co.

Greer, C. R. (1995). Strategy and human

resources. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Human Resources Certification Institute. (2000).

Certification information handbook. Alexan- dria, VA: The Society for Human Resource Management.

Hunter, R. P. (1999). Michigan labor law: What

every citizen should know. Midland, MI: Mack- inac Center for Public Policy.

Kaufman, B. E. (1994, September). What compa- nies want from HR graduates. HRMagazine, 39(9), 84-86.

Krumm, D. (2001). Psychology at work: An intm-

duction to

zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

industriaWorganizationa1 psycholo- gy. New York Worth Publishers.

Pfeffer, J. (1994). Competitive advantage through

people: Unleashing the power of the workforce.

Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Pfeffer, J. (1998). The human equation: Building

profits by putting people first. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Schuler, R. S. (1998). Human resource manage- ment. In M. Poole & M. Warner (Eds.), The

handbook of human resourre management (pp. 122-142). London: International Thomson Business Press.

gy and work today: An introducrion to industri- al and organizational psychology. Upper Sad- dle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Society for Human Resources (SHRM). History.

SHRM at a glance. Retrieved January 15,2001 from http://www.shrm.org/press/default.asp?

page=history.html

Storey, J. (1992). Developments in the manage-

ment of human resources. London: Blackwell. Towers Perrin. (1992). Priorities for gaining com-

petitive advantage. New York Towers Perrin. Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E. (1998). Psycholo-

334 Journal of Education for Business