Preface

This text is designed to introduce university- and college-level students to the practice of human resource management (HRM) in Canada. Its unique feature is that it combines a traditional introduction to the technical aspects of HRM with an ongoing exploration of the political economy of day-to-day HR practice. This mixed approach reflects our experience that good technical solutions to HR issues require practitioners to understand the interests of different actors, acknowledge that these interests sometimes conflict, and devise solutions that accommodate (or at least anticipate) these conflicts.

To this end, the 11 chapters introduce the major domains and techniques of contemporary human resource practice while also identifying and exploring how power, conflict, and intersectionality affect this practice. The last chapter contains six short case studies that draw together many of the concepts and techniques introduced in the book and illustrate their application to real-world problems.