New Clues for Analysing the HRM Black Box

This book serves to illustrate the difficulty in explaining the role of human resources and the complexities implicit in the management of people working together in various kinds of organisations, and, more specifically, the existing links between the management of human capital and the functioning of the organisation. Several chapters provide an accurate picture of topics and issues that are relevant today in the area of human resource management, by bringing together different approaches and levels of analysis that undoubtedly enrich one another. The opening chapters are theoretical reviews and approaches of differing degrees of abstraction that explain the connections between human resources management and the performance of the organization, including such topics as the importance of correctly implementing the processes of human resources management, and the role that the Human Resources Department can play in this; the importance of these management practices being interiorised and embedded in the whole organisation; and the debate on the effects that management systems based on both control and commitment have on the behaviours of individuals.

Delving into the relationship between human resources management and organisational performance, the second part of the book investigates the effect that social networks and work groups have on an organisation’s results; the effect of job satisfaction on the differences and disagreements between an organisation and employee with respect to the behaviours expected; and finally the measurement of happiness at work with regards to three dimensions: engagement, job satisfaction and affective organisational commitment.

These eight chapters were considered the best papers presented at the 9th International Workshop on Human Resources Management, held on October 30th–31st, 2014, at Pablo de Olavide University, Seville, Spain.