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Mark A. Huselid, Brian E. Becker, and Richard W. Beatty. The Workforce Scorecard: Managing Human Capital to Execute Strategy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 2006. 256 pages. $29.95 hardcover.
Although it might not be Lord of the Rings, this book is, in many ways, the third book of a trilogy. Its lineage can be traced back to Kaplan and Norton's (1996) seminal publication that brought the concept of the balanced scorecard (along with leading and lagging indicators) to the forefront. Becker, Huselid, and Ulrich (2001) brought further focus to this powerful tool with an in-depth treatment of The HR Scorecard. And now we have The Workforce Scorecard by the two primary authors (Ulrich does the Foreword now) and the addition of Beatty.
This book causes me to recall a little parable (which I will mercifully shorten) about a man who spends all weekend rebuilding his worn front sidewalk, only to have a dog walk through the wet cement, causing the man to shoot the dog. He is brought in to court to account for his actions, and he tells the judge, "Your Honor, I really do love dogs in the abstract, just not in the concrete." So it has been with our attempts to bring the value of human resources into "the concrete," including the adoption of the concept of human capital, with mixed results. To some, human capital is an intangible asset, but here we see how it can be treated (and measured) in tangible ways that can be not only tied back (or from) strategy but also managed with the same type of processes and accountability as other tangible assets. This opportunity quickly becomes a necessity once you buy into their premise that workforce management is the strategic lever...