November 2007 Vol. 52, No. 11	Books in Brief Partnership HR; Resolving Conflicts on the Job; The Team-Building Tool Kit Mass Career Customization.

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"The biggest mistake modern business ever made was outsourcing or reducing HR to token levels to save money," writes consultant and professor Irving H. Buchen. In Partnership HR, Buchen argues that HR is central to today's organizations, where getting and keeping talent is essential.

But Buchen wants HR professionals to improve their departments in vital areas that are often too weak: recruitment, performance evaluation and training.

According to the book, HR is now involved in the following new partnerships:

• HR works with both traditional research institutions (universities, government, their own in-house research departments) and new-model researchers covering niches important to HR (technology job markets, e-learning practices and more).

• Technology now gives HR the tools to track almost all productivity and performance, to detail every competency and skill, and to evaluate training effectiveness. Buchen says one of HR's tasks today is to produce "data documentation" to back up its work.

• HR operates as a coach and consultant for executive searches and is the manager's "window … to the recruiting world." With the increased credibility that comes from better data, HR has become a closer ally of middle managers in recruitment, hiring and retention.

Buchen discusses how these new relationships redefine HR's mission. He outlines mistakes organizations make, from relying on gut reactions when interviewing, to assuming that those involved in hiring share information adequately. Buchen favors a more interactive "job inquiry system" that can benefit both employers and candidates. To assess whether new employees continue to fit in, he advocates using "proactive talent testing" that re-examines employees' fit after six and 12 months.

He provides tips on helping job candidates create reflective personal profiles that give the employer a better sense of how the candidate views work. To bolster retention, Buchen recommends "employee mission statements" that show how individual employees' relationships, performance and job satisfaction fit into the business's mission.

Performance evaluation gets a boost from performance profiles that employees create for themselves, bringing self-evaluation to the workplace and giving managers a larger, not smaller, role in guiding their unit. Buchen also looks at HR's future, touching on how metrics, corporate universities, strategic planning and the knowledge-based company culture will affect HR operations.

Resolving Conflicts on the Job
By Bill Withers and Jerry Wisinski
AMACOM, 2007
List price: $12.95, 93 pages
ISBN: 978-0-8144-7413-6

This workbook examines the clashes people may encounter at work, whether with bosses, peers or subordinates, and allows readers to work through potential solutions to their specific conflicts directly on the pages of the book.

Resolving Conflicts on the Job provides examples of why workplace conflicts erupt and offers readers advice on how to listen better, how to take and give feedback, how to stay calm in heated situations, and more. Tools include a template of questions to answer whenever a conflict arises, to help readers work through conflict and its true causes.

"Conflict can help build relationships," authors Bill Withers and Jerry Wisinski maintain as they demonstrate how people's different backgrounds and values create different priorities that drive conflicts. They look at how competition, accommodation, avoidance and compromise all leave the embers of conflict burning, and how collaboration benefits everyone.

Readers get basic information on active listening, including tips on using silence, paraphrasing what others say and handling excessive talkers. Seven rules on giving and receiving feedback cover where and how to express feedback and, when necessary, how to deal with angry employees.

One chapter teaches readers how to evaluate and react to the other person's style in a conflict. Case studies look at conflicts with bosses, peers and employees, while questions prod the reader to consider how he would handle those situations.

Conflicts within a team can have their roots in how the team makes decisions, how the members interact and how the leaders play their roles. Leaders get tips on working with teams in conflict.

The Team-Building Tool Kit
By Deborah Mackin
AMACOM, 2007
List price: $17.95, 240 pages
ISBN: 978-0-8144-7439-6

Consultant Deborah Mackin's second edition of her handbook for building effective workplace teams adds new material on team accountability, decision-making and problem-solving.

The Team-Building Tool Kit still covers the fundamentals of forming, running, participating in and assessing teams. Team basics covered include types of teams, steps in forming a new team (from setting its mission to identifying members), determining team authority and accountability, and even disbanding a team whose work is done.

A chapter on team meetings probes how meetings go wrong and how to improve results. Readers learn how to set an agenda and stick to it, as well as the detailed responsibilities of the team leader, secretary, timekeeper and others. Mackin provides advice on issues such as absences, lack of input, use of phones during meetings and more.

Mackin sets out rules for team behavior and rules for individual team members' behavior, adding that individuals may have to learn to take responsibility, voice opinions, offer constructive options and take other actions they haven't had to take as solo workers. The book identifies helpful vs. destructive team behaviors and warns team facilitators about actions they should avoid, such as manipulating the team or being too casual about their job as facilitator.

Readers learn a four-step method for resolving team conflicts. Mackin also outlines how trained, in-house mediators can help. She examines team problems such as too much conformity, a dominant member and groupthink that shuts out new ideas. A chapter on accountability reminds teams that they're still accountable to other parts of the organization. Team members get detailed lists of the conditions they need to meet to gain increased accountability. Mackin also outlines steps for making team decisions and explains how consensus works.

Teams solve problems collectively, and the book offers a problem-solving approach to identify and analyze problems, generate ideas, and select a solution. Charts, diagrams and other problem-solving tools are included. Mackin shows teams and leaders how to measure and chart team performance and provide meaningful feedback. She walks readers through formal team assessments, reviews of individual team members and self-directed team evaluations.

Mass Career Customization
By Cathleen Benko and Anne Weisberg
Harvard Business School Press, 2007
List price: $29.95, 240 pages
ISBN: 1-4221-1033-8

Forget the corporate ladder. Employees at all levels are increasingly on a "corporate lattice" that lets them move up, sideways and even down as needed, according to authors Cathleen Benko and Anne Weisberg.

To give employers a framework for adopting rather than resisting these changes, Benko and Weisberg devised what they call "mass career customization." Unlike an up-or-down career ladder, the framework detailed in the book helps employers make sense of the lattice on which people may take multiple routes upward, move faster or slower, change directions completely, and make their careers better fit their lives.

Employers need to change their traditional workplaces to better align them with the increasingly nontraditional workforce and the emphasis on knowledge-driven services, Benko and Weisberg say.

But weren't flexible working arrangements supposed to take care of employees' needs? Such arrangements don't fit the bill for change throughout a whole organization. Flexible arrangements are hard to scale up to most of the workforce, can create resentment among co-workers and spur misunderstandings about employees' commitment, the authors say.

At the book's core is the framework's four elements: pace, workload, location and schedule, and role. Employers develop profiles for each employee.

• Pace covers the employee's options for how fast his or her career progresses. For instance, some law firms that have deadlines for associates to get promoted to partner alter the pace by extending those deadlines for associates who work less than full time.

• Workload covers the number and types of assignments expected. When calculating workload, employers should include not only the tasks employees would be responsible for but also their contributions to recruitment, mentoring, etc.

• Location and schedule are options for when and where work gets done. Retailers, for example, might restrict location and schedule because "face time" with customers is vital. However, one retailer allows employees to work "when and where they like, as long as they get the job done."

• Role is about choices in positions and responsibilities.

The four elements affect each other. An example: A three-day schedule would also affect workload, which would affect pace because a reduced workload would limit the employee's ability to get experience needed for promotion. Mass Career Customization includes examples of how employee profiles change over time with pace accelerating or decelerating as an employee ramps up or decreases workload.

Detailed case studies demonstrate how real firms used the principles and concepts contained in the book.

A chapter on adopting the framework in your own organization shows how to make a business case for the idea and addresses criticisms you may encounter, such as the idea that it is just another flexible working arrangement or the fear that it will create a sense of entitlement among employees.

Compiled by Leigh Rivenbark, a freelance writer and editor in Vienna, Va., and SHRM Editorial Coordinator Nicole Gauvin.

Inclusion of a book does not imply endorsement by SHRM or HR Magazine.