Human Resource Management Must-Reads: #5
The latest issue of the academic journal
Human Resource Management celebrates the prestigious publication’s 50th anniversary. In honour of this celebration, TribeHR is counting down the five most influential papers to ever grace its pages.
Each of these papers is a leading publication in human resources. To improve your practice, read them and come to understand them. It won’t necessarily be easy, but it will be worth it. We’ve provided links to free online access where possible.
Management researcher Thomas Kochan, MIT
MIT management professor Thomas Kochan and his team received significant media coverage when they published their
controversial research findings in 2003. Their paper smashed the operating assumptions of diversity programs for the previous 30 years, arguing that diversity training is not always effective, team diversity has little effect on performance, and that racial diversity can be quite problematic, especially when compared to gender diversity.
Kochan recommended that HR practitioners take a more analytic approach to their diversity programs, while seeking out and supporting valid reasons for diversity beyond business success. His findings supported the view that diversity training for managers was much more effective than for rank-and-file employees.
Kochan’s research was so influential, and his findings so controversial, that in the intervening decade, dozens of researchers have tried to disprove him, occasionally with
success. Understanding the case for—and against—workplace diversity is key to managing it with a suitably balanced approach. Despite its faults, this paper will help you find that balance.
Ranking Methodology: A list of 38 leading papers was created by combining the top-20 most cited papers in Human Resource Management from each of the Scopus, ISI Web of Knowledge, and Google Scholar databases. Citation scoring was completed by comparing a paper’s number of citations relative to the leader in each database. Final rankings were determined by calculating the mean score for each paper. Spearman’s rank correlation was determined to be relatively strong at 0.57, lending credence to the final outcome.
Check back tomorrow for
#4 on our list.
