Popular Prescriptions: Implications for Human Resources in the 1990s

Three recent management books by well-known authors have become very popular among practicing managers. These books: Rosabeth Moss Kanter\u27s (1989) When giants Learn to Dance, Tom Peter\u27s (1987) Thriving on Chaos, and Robert Waterman\u27s (1987) The Renewal Factor, each prescribe a number of radical changes that must be made by U.S. corporations if they are to be competitive in the global marketplace. Included in their prescriptions, either explicitly or implicitly, are a number of practices involving the human resource (HR) function. This review of the three books examines these sometimes conflicting prescriptions and discusses their implications for the future of the HR function