Back to the future: implications for the field of HRM of the multistakeholder perspective proposed 30 years ago

Beer, M., Boselie, P. and Brewster, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5314-1518 (2015) Back to the future: implications for the field of HRM of the multistakeholder perspective proposed 30 years ago. Human Resource Management, 54 (3). pp. 427-438. ISSN 1099-050X doi: 10.1002/hrm.21726

Abstract/Summary

Thirty years on from the seminal works on human resource management (HRM) by Beer et al., we examine how the subject has developed. We offer a normative review, based on that model and 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.