This volume presents a perspective on international trends in human resource management, the strategic advances they offer and the companies that have used them to achieve competitive success. It focuses on understanding the complex interrelationships between these innovations and competitive success and in providing managers with an informed perspective on the implications which radical restructuring has for operating efficiency. The text integrates three theoretical perspectives on human resource management throughout - agency theory, transaction costs and the resource based theory of the firm. The work also covers managing without traditional strategic planning, hierarchy, conventional owners, unions, personnel managers, supervisors, quality boundaries and a full-time workforce. It explores how innovative HRM approaches can help achieve competitive success and looks at innovations in organizational design and their implications for managers, personnel practitioners and employees.