Armstrong’s Handbook of Management and Leadership

Book Preface

The aim of this book is to explore the key concepts of leadership, management and development as they affect the work of everyone involved in management but with special reference to those concerned with human resource management. The book takes account of the learning objective stated by the CIPD in its description of its Leadership, Management and Development module. This is to help those studying the subject to ‘become effective managers as well as effective HR specialists, managing others fairly and effectively and increasing levels of engagement, commitment, motivation and performance’.

A recurring theme in the fi rst three parts of the book is that in order to make an effective contribution, HR specialists have to be good at management, leadership and developing themselves and others, but in addition they need to be aware of the management and business considerations that affect their work. They function alongside line managers as part of the management of the organization and can only do that well if they understand what managers do, the leadership and development activities managers carry out and how they, as HR professionals, provide guidance, support and services to managers in the performance of the latters’ roles. However, although the business dimension of management, leadership and development is important, there is also an ethical dimension. This too is emphasized throughout the book.

The final part of the book is concerned with enhancing HR skills for business leadership. It concentrates on people management skills and the aim, in the words of the CIPD module, is to ‘develop and improve a range of defi nable skills that are pivotal to successful management practice and to effective leadership. These include thinking and decision-making skills, the management of financial information, managing budgets, a range of team working and interpersonal skills and others associated with developing personal effectiveness and credibility at work.’

The CIPD states that its module for Leadership, Management and Development ‘seeks to familiarise learners with major contemporary research evidence on employment and effective approaches to human resource (HR) and learning and development (L&D) practice. Research focusing on the links between people management practices and positive organisational outcomes is covered, as is research that highlights major contemporary changes and developments in practice.’ References to research are made frequently in the main parts of this book but in addition, summaries of the main findings from a number of recent research studies are provided in the web-based supporting material.

The Appendix provides cross references between the main provisions of the two CIPD modules referred to above and the relevant sections of this book.