The Parts in this book reflect where HR management is headed: They focus on outcomes, not actions, and results, not activities.

With sections on e-mail etiquette, Maslow\'s hierarchy of needs, communication theory, paginating a publication and running meetings, authors Lyn Smith and Pamela Mounter attempt to cover a lot of territory in the field of internal communication. Unfortunately, they end up being overly general and diffuse. In addition, they are oriented toward the United Kingdom, and their language and some of their corporate examples assume that the reader is familiar with events there. So, this book may not be terribly useful for American readers or for those who already have experience in internal corporate communication. We recommend it to anyone who needs a primer on why internal communication is increasingly important in the corporate world.

At least 30 percent of American companies, from American Express and Bank of America and IBM to Marriott, Procter & Gamble, Time Warner, and a host of smaller firms, subject their employees to one or more personality tests each year. Why do they do it? Employers want to hire and retain employees who are qualified, confident, resilient, even-tempered, and loyal. Personality assessments, like coaches, help them identify potential problems. The corporate world is intense. Employers need to know how their staff will deal with the inevitable pull of priorities between a regimented corporate life and family responsibilities.

My intention is to stimulate a debate about the role of HR in helping organisations move forward on their knowledge management journey. HR has come under a lot of criticism as it is perceived not to be taking a proactive role in the knowledge management arena. In many organisations it is business teams, or IT teams, that have taken the lead. In practical terms this means that while the systems aspects are addressed, the people and cultural aspects are sadly often overlooked.

A cynical view of the role of HR in managing knowledge could be that HR do not have the skills and knowledge needed to be proactive in the knowledge management arena. After all aren’t HR just administrators? What do they know about business and how to make businesses more efficient?

That may have been the old view of HR, but just as the business world has been changing in recent years, so too has the agenda for HR. There are now many good examples of where HR professionals are performing the business partner role, a role which Dave Ulrich suggests is the new mandate for HR. This does not mean that HR have abandoned their administrative role, instead they are finding ways of delivering this part of their work more efficiently, and in doing so are creating the much needed space to operate more strategically.