I would also like your comments on the kind of facilities that Google provides to its people, which indeed is a revolutionary set of practices. This videos just shows how far we have moved from command and control to a need- and people-oriented workplace, especially in some sun-rise industries. The video is many years old. Things have moved l far ahead now. Is the workplace getting revolutionized? There must be other even simpler practices that too might be viewed as quite revolutionary by some; your comments awaited?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xXXulphhH8

The New Science of Human Capital - Harvard Business Review

http://hbr.org/video/2226602170001/the-new-science-of-human-capital

Predictive Analysis to Motivate Employees - Workplace Wrangler

http://blog.seattlepi.com/workplacewrangler/2013/09/21/predictive-analysis-to-motivate-employees/

The New Science of Building Great Teams - Harvard Business Review

http://hbr.org/2012/04/the-new-science-of-building-great-teams?goback=%2Egde_3044917_member_257617004

I advise modern HR manager to focus more on the spiritual needs of the workforce taking in considerations the diversity of believes.

A good source of information with examples can be found on:

http://www.octanner.com/institute/global-research/

I have found that Daniel Pink in his popular book, Drive, has brought to light the current challenge of 21st century HR environment: employees need an environment that is focused on autonomy, mastery and purpose. A good example of this is what the ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) movement is doing and even Ricardo Semler (Semco) from Brazil

In fact, I am working now on my paper entitled, "Work Engagement: A New Measurement and Test of its Relationship with Organizational Trust and Job Performance".

Developing competitive workplaces depends mainly on human resource competency. We cant create the competitive status without hiring the right inspired people, motivate them and continually develop them. Additionally, we should develop the policies to comply with such needs.

Frank Shipper

My colleagues and I have written a book that will be out in mid-August from Palgrave-Macmillan on employee owned companies that have a culture that stimulates entrepreneurial behavior. We believe that the research now suggests that this is an effective alternative for many industries. There should be some materials on it at the AOM Meeting in August at the Palgrave-Macmillan booth. Below is a description of it:

Shared Entrepreneurship: A Path to Engaged Employee Ownership

This book focuses on highly progressive organizations that have adopted the exciting new business strategy of Shared Entrepreneurship. These firms engage in cutting edge practices such as shared ownership, shared leadership, shared collaboration, and other processes that foster freedom of employee action. Worker-owners are engaged and rewarded for their contributions and everyone has the opportunity to act with an entrepreneurial spirit. Innovation bubbles-up from everywhere resulting in high organizational success and individual growth. In contrast, the traditional hierarchical business model of many typical firms inhibits creativity and interferes with competitiveness. Such companies, usually located in high labor cost countries, suffer inordinately during recessions and can be stifled by rigidity and stagnation even during the best of times. All the while organizations that practice shared entrepreneurship are continuously developing innovative products, processes, services, and organizational procedures that allow them to develop, evolve, prosper and be highly competitive. These vanguard companies, many of which are featured in this book, include the likes of Southwest Airlines, W. L. Gore & Associates, Herman Miller, and NUCOR, to name just a few. Also, exemplary smaller firms are profiled, from both high and low-tech industries that have adopted shared entrepreneurship practices and enjoyed remarkable results. Shared Entrepreneurship is a book that describes A Path to Engaged Employee Ownership and the innovative entrepreneurial benefits it can help unleash. In addition, it provides an inside look at how organizations, both large and small, are already taking this journey to success.

All of this discussion, so far is directed at the micro-level of the corporate entity, and none on the broad (public policy) context within which these entities are born, function, and eventually morph or die. Corporations depend on a reliable supply of resourceful humans who will be instrumental in adding value to their various processes, directing the production of constructive, and profitable output. As intelligent, discerning consumers, these humans will also constitute a crucial demand element for just these products in the complex socio-economic systems we call communities/nations. Unless we look at these systems in their entirety, and the interface between public and private interest here, we will miss an important opportunity. There are interesting new models in this area, and many countries are wrestling with these problems, for example Azerbaijan, see

http://www.az.undp.org/content/azerbaijan/en/home/library/human_development/blackgold_humangold/

Best practices are defined as “practices which are most appropriate under the circumstances, esp. as considered acceptable or regulated in business; techniques or methodologies that, through experience and research, have reliably led to desired or optimum results” (Dictionary.com, 2007). Part of the challenge in identifying best practices in diversity management is that the field lacks empirical research assessing particular diversity practices to determine if they will produce ‘desired or optimum’ results (Coats, Goodwin & Bangs, 2000; Lauring & Ross, 2004; Pitts, 2006). Most writing is descriptive, relying on brief case studies or anecdotal stories to support the authors’ assertions.

Two core resources for workplace diversity best practices are Aronson’s (2002) article on “Managing the diversity revolution: Best practices for 21st century business” and the U.S. G.A.O.’s (2005) report on “Diversity management: Expert-identified leading practices and agency examples”. Aronson gives an excellent overview of workplace diversity, outlining how to institute a diversity initiative, summarizing the principles on which it should be based, and providing a substantial number of best practices examples implemented by various companies. The GAO’s review included a comprehensive literature review, a detailed analysis of the writings of five diversity experts, and interviews with an additional 14 experts. From this process, they identified nine best practices. The two works compliment each other. Aronson’s business perspective and wealth of best practices detail is balanced by the GAO’s non-profit agency examples and its high-level focus on diversity principles.

The GAO’s nine leading best practices are:

1. Top leadership commitment—a vision of diversity demonstrated and communicated throughout an organization by top-level management.

2. Diversity as part of an organization’s strategic plan—a diversity strategy and plan that are developed and aligned with the organization’s strategic plan.

3. Diversity linked to performance—the understanding that a more diverse and inclusive work environment can yield greater productivity and help improve individual and organizational performance.

4. Measurement—a set of quantitative and qualitative measures of the impact of various aspects of an overall diversity program.

5. Accountability—the means to ensure that leaders are responsible for diversity by linking their performance assessment and compensation to the progress of diversity initiatives.

6. Succession planning—an ongoing, strategic process for identifying and developing a diverse pool of talent for an organization’s potential future leaders.

7. Recruitment—the process of attracting a supply of qualified, diverse applicants for employment.

8. Diversity training—organizational efforts to inform and educate management and staff about diversity’s benefits to the organization (2005, p. 4).

Aronson’s analysis presents top-level best practices but also drills down into more detailed and specific advice and examples of tactics, practices, and policies. He begins with the same requirement as the GAO’s analysis—commitment from the top—with a similar focus on communication and demonstration which he calls concrete actions.

Defining diversity as inclusiveness, he asserts that the second best practice is ‘bringing people on board’. While this practice did not make the GAO’s list, from many diversity experts’ writings (Digh, 1998a; Mor Borak, 2005; Thomas, 1992), employee involvement is critical to building workplace diversity success. His third practice, which is implied by several of the practices the GAO identified, is assessing where an organization currently stands, that is, a diversity audit. His suggestions for how to conduct this audit match the advice given in a number of other textbooks and articles on diversity (Coats, Goodwin, & Bangs, 2000; Love, 2001; Winston & Li, 2000). The fourth, and the most detailed, best practice mirrors the GAO’s second practice. An organization must develop a strategic plan to promote diversity and Aronson’s includes six critical elements:

• A compelling analysis of the business case identifying diversity’s advantage(s) for the organization.

• Recommendations for involving all employees in the diversity effort.

• Institutionalization of the diversity initiative through an office or individual responsible for the strategic plan at the executive level.

• Clearly defined goals tied to the gaps found through the diversity audit and the business goals.

• Diversity metrics to track progress toward those goals.

• Accountability metrics which hold managers responsible for meeting diversity goals (2002, p. 16-18).

After discussing these four best practices, Aronson then describes in detail many policies, processes, and tactics used to incorporate diversity into an organization. He categorizes these more specific best practices into five areas: recruitment and hiring, promotion and career advancement, alternative dispute resolution, management accountability, and human factors. In each section, he provides numerous examples of successful implementation tactics to support that best practice. At the end of his article,

Aronson includes a best practices cheat sheet comprised of 46 one- to two-line suggestions for successfully implementing a diversity initiative.