Where's the ‘Human’ in Human Resource Management Managing Work in the 21st Century By MichaelGold and ChrisSmith. Bristol University Press. Sep 6, 2022, 470 pages, ISBN: 978–1529213805, Price GBP 39.99

In the era of the ‘Great Resignation’, ‘Quiet Quitting’ and ‘Loud Labourers’, this is a timely and welcome book. The title aptly addresses the question many workers are asking and reflecting upon, namely, ‘Where's the “Human” in Human Resource Management?’ This volume, which is styled as an academic textbook and as a general reader for managers of people and work, is written by two UK Emeritus Professors in Employment Relations who reflect a critical management perspective with themes of power, control, resistance and conflict permeating the 19 chapters. This lens is set in the introductory chapter with a quote from Fleming's 2017 book The Death of Homo Econmicus: Work, Death and the Myth of Endless Accumulation, which talks about the forces of neo-liberalism, the degradation of work and the extractive nature of contemporary capitalism. The introduction sets the scene for exploring the shifting and evolving nature of work and people management. The trajectory of the book is divided into three parts, with Part 1 setting the historical, institutional, legal, social and global contexts of ‘Where we've been?’. The chapter on the employment relationship is a focal point of this section. It dissects the work-effort bargain, the commodification of work, the division of labour and the shifting frontiers of control and trust, which have recalibrated employment status into new and more precarious forms of employment including the gig and platform economy. This logically segues into the chapter on conflict and resistance and how a ‘structured antagonism’ underpins the worker−employer relationship, with a residue of the archaic terms of master−servant still evident. It supports this hypothesis with interesting examples on sabotage and wage theft from multinational corporations. Part 2 addresses the question ‘where we are heading?’ and illustrates how themes in Part 1 have influenced and shaped the direction and substance of contemporary people management. Central to this section is the chapter on ‘New Unitarism’ as the emergence of a hybrid people management approach between ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ HRM is visible in some of the perceived best places to work, such as the hi-tech sector. This hybridity is further illustrated with specific chapters on how employers deploy and how employees experience such issues as flexible and atypical working, aesthetic and emotional service labour, migrant employment, corporate social responsibility and ‘woke’ capitalism. Part 3 refocuses the discussion on the professional practice of Human Resources, with the question, ‘what this means for HRM?’ and traces the implications of Part 1 and Part 2, along the Human Resource Management cycle from recruitment to training and development to reward management to HR analytics. The chapter on discrimination and diversity is a key to this section, as it looks to explain discrimination and what HR can do to provide solutions in practice and outcome to creating a fair, inclusive and equitable workplace, with an interesting vignette on the menopause. Changing HR practices and how they are developed, operationalized and ‘humanized’ are captured in the remaining chapters, including recruitment via social networking, strategic pay models, employee voice and participation, deskilling and artificial intelligence and worker wellbeing and work−life balance. The circle is closed on these three questions in the final summary and conclusion chapter, where the authors explore the possibility of alternatives while still working within a capitalism framework. While it does not suggest any panacea to the inherent contradictions within the employment relationship, it ponders reform along both revolutionary and evolutionary lines, with no guarantees on improvement. Regardless, it leaves the door open to new and innovative forms of working relationships and ownership, enlightened employers, a new breed of managers and radical trade unionism. In reaching this point, the book navigates a wide variety of subjects and issues confronting people managers in a changing world of work and organizational life. While its critical perspective is a welcome and legitimate lens in which to look for the human in human resources, it remains a minority view as the structural-functionalist managerialist approach still dominates. But it is a perspective any student of work and people should be exposed to. With business educators in mind, this well-researched, logically structured and reader-friendly volume covers all the standard topics expected in an introductory HRM textbook, plus a welcome focus on new and emerging issues on the people management landscape, which is supplemented by vignettes in each chapter on applied topics and practice. It includes 10 case studies on a range of issues from artificial intelligence to lorry driver shortages. It also provides a list of films about HR along with a standard glossary of key concepts. Each chapter ends with reflective questions and a concise list of further reading. Overall, in terms of presentation, it could be enhanced with greater use of colour and illustrations and a wider range of examples and literature beyond the UK. This is a welcome addition to the Human Resource Management textbook corpus in reflecting the underrepresented perspective of the worker and their lived experience in the contemporary workplace. This neatly aligns with the critical management outlook of the volume in recognizing the reality of control and conflict which is an intrinsic and inescapable element of being both a human ‘resource’ and a ‘resourceful human’ in the 21st-century workplace, whether you care to acknowledge it or not!

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