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  • May–June 2015
  • Article
  • Human Resource Management

Back to the Future: Implications for the Field of HRM of the Multi-stakeholder Perspective Proposed 30 Years Ago

By: Michael Beer, Paul Boselie and Chris Brewster
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Abstract

Thirty years on from the seminal work Managing Human Assets (MHA) by Beer et al., we examine how the subject has developed. We offer a normative review, based on that model, and we critique the assumption that the business of HRM is solely to improve returns to owners and shareholders. We identify the importance of a wider view of stakeholders to practitioners and how academic studies on the periphery of HRM are beginning to adopt such a view. We argue that the HRM studies so far have given us much valuable learning but that the subject has now reached a point where we need to take a wider, more contextual, more multilayered approach founded on the long-term needs of all relevant stakeholders. The original Beer et al. model remains a valuable guide to the next 30 years of HRM.

Keywords

Management; Human Resources

Citation

Beer, Michael, Paul Boselie, and Chris Brewster. "Back to the Future: Implications for the Field of HRM of the Multi-stakeholder Perspective Proposed 30 Years Ago." Human Resource Management 54, no. 3 (May–June 2015): 427–438.
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About The Author

Michael Beer

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    • March 2022
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    Developing Strategic Human Resource Theory and Making a Difference: An Action Science Perspective

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    • Journal of Change Management

    Reflections: Toward a Normative and Actionable Theory of Planned Organizational Change and Development

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More from the Authors
  • Developing a Sustainable High Commitment, High Performance System of Organizing, Managing, and Leading: An Actionable Systems Theory of Change and Development By: Michael Beer
  • Developing Strategic Human Resource Theory and Making a Difference: An Action Science Perspective By: Michael Beer
  • Reflections: Toward a Normative and Actionable Theory of Planned Organizational Change and Development By: Michael Beer
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