Back to the Future: Implications for the Field of HRM of the Multistakeholder Perspective Proposed 30 Years Ago

• Date: 01 May 2015
• Published date: 01 May 2015
• Author: Chris Brewster,Michael Beer,Paul Boselie
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21726

Human Resource Management, May–June 2015, Vol. 54, No. 3. Pp. 427–438

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21726

Correspondence to: Michael Beer, Harvard Business School, Soldiers Field, Boston, MA 02163, Phone: 617-495-6655,

Fax: 617-495-8736, E-mail: mbeer@hbs.edu

MacMahan, 1992), which developed into empiri-

cally testing the link between HRM and long-term

success in terms of economic measures of firm

performance (Paauwe, Guest, & Wright, 2013).

The added value focus that was established then,

however, defined outcomes mainly in terms of

economic value (productivity and efficiency),

and neglected employee well-being and soci-

etal well-being (though with notable exceptions;

see, for example, J. C. Collins & Porras, 1997;

Pfeffer, 1994, 1998). Ironically, this neglect of the

human and societal outcomes as equally impor-

tant with organizational outcomes for assessing

Human Resource Management (HRM) as

an academic discipline is now 30 years

old, if we take the publication in 1984

of the classic textbooks by Beer, Spector,

Lawrence, Mills, and Walton and by

Fombrun, Tichy, and Devanna as the date of

birth. Since then, HRM has established itself,

gained popularity, and developed a strong posi-

tion. The 1980s were characterized by debates

on the definition and the nature of the concept

of HRM (Guest, 1987). The following decade

saw the emergence of the concept of strategic

human resource management (SHRM) (Wright &

BACK TO THE FUTURE:

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FIELD OF

HRM OF THE MULTISTAKEHOLDER

PERSPECTIVE PROPOSED

30 YEARS AGO

MICHAEL BEER, PAUL BOSELIE,

ANDCHRISBREWSTER

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 contex-

tual, 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. ©2015Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: human resource management, multistakeholder perspective, context,

Harvard approach, Michigan approach