Victory Through Organization: Why the War for Talent is Failing Your Company and What You Can Do About It

Interesting research and well established arguments on the present and, most importantly, the future of HR. Highly recommended to those who aspire to contribute to the organisation they live in.

Very relevant and informative

Muy buen libro

The best practical insight I can really recommend this book Jan

Many Years ago, Dave Ulrich and his associates began what has since become wide and deep research on HR competency. More specifically: Why it matters; why and how an organization's HR high-priority business practices – information management, integrated HR practices, employee performance, and HR analysis -- should be central to an organization’s operations; and how and why specific individuals (“credible activists”) can help accelerate the achievement of organizational objectives. According to Ulrich, David Kryscynski, Mike Ulrich, and Wayne Brockbank, “In 1987 when we started pour HR competency research, we envisioned a single cross-sectional study of what makes HR professionals effective. Seven rounds and 30 years later we realize that our aspirations to help HR add value is not an event, but a long-term process. “This seventh round of data collection is by far the most complex to date. In Victory Through Organization, we have touched on about 30 to 40 percent of what this current research shows. We have much more refined data on how HR organizations are effective based on organization capabilities, business strategy, organization culture, and skills of HR professionals. In the ensuing months, we hope to ferret out this granular data to further inform on how HR delivers value.” Long ago I realized that all HR issues, marketing issues, financial issues, culture issues, IT issues, talent acquisition issues, etc. are in fact [begin italics] business [end italics] issues. One of the most important is, “How to add value to given business?” This is a challenge that leaders in all organizations face, whatever the size and nature of their organization may be. The co-authors observe in the Preface, “The following six assumptions form much of the basis and context for this book: 1. HR matters. 2. HR research is imperative. 3. HR professionals are changing. 4. HR departments and practices are becoming more important. 5. HR professionals are incredibly gifted. 6. HR is a dynamic and innovative discipline. As they explain, the primary mission in this book “is to further establish HR as a prominent strategic partner of business and embrace HR’s role in creating an organization that is greater – and performs greater – than the sum of its ‘employee’ parts.” These are among the subjects of greatest interest to me: o HR’s unique and compelling importance to the achievement of an organization’s strategic objectives o HR practices of highest priority in areas such as information management and employee performance o The defining characteristics of what the co-authors identify as a “credible activist” (Pages 131-149), a “strategic positioner” (151-176) and a “paradox navigator” (177-198) o HR competencies that deliver strategic value The Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) or equivalent in any organization needs to read this book, to be sure, but I think it is also must reading for all other C-level executives because, as suggested earlier, all issues must be understood, viewed, and then addressed as [begin italics] business [end italics] issues. I commend Dave Ulrich, David Kryscynski, Mike Ulrich, and Wayne Brockbank on the abundance of information, insights, and counsel that they provide in their latest volume of research data analysis. It remains for those who read and (hopefully) re-read the book to work together to establish and then continuously strengthen a workplace culture within which personal growth and professional development are most likely to thrive.

"Victory Through Organization" is an extraordinary accomplishment: data based, original, creative and comprehensive. The case for why HR must re-conceptualize its core responsibility is brilliant. HR must be continuously ready to re-think and re-perceive why it exists; it has to change in the most fundamental ways from a status quo of meeting regulation requirements and the like, which are imposed from outside to being a proactive business partner which contributes to the development of strategy and financial outcomes while being an ongoing source of creativity and reality in terms of human performance. Everything HR must be do, and it must be done for maximum productivity and efficiency, are presented like a blueprint in every chapter. I'm especially impressed by the identification of the most critical levers that must be used to achieve the outcomes that count. To get HR on board as an executive partner with fiscal responsibilities, HR needs to know, that as an organization it will not and cannot gain the respect, and therefore the influence and power it needs unless and until it sees itself very differently. The change is from being a helpful staff organization to being an effective business resource. The change is easily illustrated by comparing HR's traditional measurement of its contribution, for example, of counting the number of training session it holds and the number of attendees. Traditionally they never assessed the effectiveness of their offerings by measuring performance, productivity, or financial outcomes. At one board meeting I attended, the head of HR, a smart and competent woman told the board how and two colleagues had gone to one to the company's call centers because turnover costs were out of site. She reported that the three people from HR spoke individually to employees for 15 minutes. Between them they had interacted with every employee. The result of their intervention was astonishing. The next month there was NO turnover. That's a great result. Having delivered the whole story, she smiled and sat down. After the meeting I took her aside and said, "That was great! Really great! But you might have made a bigger impact if you had told the board how much money was saved as a result of your actions." She looked at me and replied, "How would I know that?"

Although men made up only 36% of HR professionals in their most recent study, and women scored slightly higher than men for competence in HR, the authors' examples of good HR leaders were 100% male. There was a positive example of an unnamed female architect in chapter 10. She was praised for her ability to "listen to the author's desires" and "meet the author's desires."

"Victory Through Organization..." by Ulrich et al. is a good HR reference on the dynamics of internal and external changes which impact businesses continuously. Ulrich discusses technology, the new middle classes globally, trade, investments, the environment, growth, volatility and market dynamics. The book adequately documents the great pace of change, uncertainty, complexity and organizational grey areas of ambiguity. The HR or Human Resources area has been traditionally the function where organizations recruit staff, train employees and seek generalists and sometimes specialists to accomplish these goals. An HR professional has to be competent in training methodologies, the assessment of staff, organizational dynamics ( flat, many levels, fewer levels...), technological innovations impacting business, the design of an organization and chart of accounts, compensation systems, the legal environment, organizational psychology/psychiatry and much more. The book discusses strategic positioning, the role of the credible activist and paradox navigation. In addition, a fine distinction is made between the corporation v. the business strategy in actual design and implementation. The book has good authoritative research sources. Examples are The Journal of Management, The American Journal of Sociology, The International Journal of Business and Management Invention etc. Overall, "Victory Through Organization by David Ulrich is a good reference guide on the dynamics of HR organization, methodologies, techniques and technologies. A strength of the book is its completeness. A weakness is that a prospective HR person might develop a model in implementation that is too complex. The concern here is in falling into the analysis paralysis syndrome of inaction or late action.