A comparative study of the contents of personnel and human resource management textbooks

Abstract

The paper reports the results of a contents analysis performed on fifty personnel and HRM texts. It suggests that there is a common set of person-nel/HRM tasks across cultures. Within this common set there are differences in the priority accorded to particular tasks. British HRM texts give priority to organizational theory, American HRM texts prioritize corporate strategy, while personnel texts prioritize industrial relations and collective bargaining. The conclusion considers as possible explanations the divergence in the systems of industrial relations of the two countries and the markets towards which the texts are oriented. It argues that a more likely explanation derives from the differential cultural values which inform managerial research in Britain and America.