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US guru wins top award for international 'people management'
The world's most prestigious award in the field of managing people at work has been won by United States academic, writer and consultant Dave Ulrich, Professor of Business Administration at the University of Michigan. The Georges Petitpas Memorial Award is presented every two years by the World Federation of Personnel Management Associations in recognition of the winner's outstanding contribution to international HR management.
The award, a crystal globe, was presented by WFPMA past president and chair of the judging panel Alberto Fuster de Carulla on the final day of the Federation's 8th World Congress on Human Resource Management, held in Paris from 29-31 May.
From a personnel professional's perspective, the key aspect of Ulrich's work has been his classification of four interdependent dimensions of the HR role* in language which resonates with line managers and chief executives.
By putting people issues at the centre of business change, organisation performance and shareholder value, he has given HR practitioners a way of communicating how and why their expertise is crucial. Not least, his 'model' has helped them better understand themselves the various elements that make up the HR contribution, how they fit together and what they can deliver for the organisation.
One senior HR professional with global responsibilities said one of the strengths of Ulrich's model was that it was a framework as opposed to a prescription, and that it could be adapted to different organisational as well as different national cultures.
WFPMA President Mike Losey (also President and CEO of the US Society for Human Resource Management), who co-edited a book with Ulrich in 1997, highlights the practical nature of Ulrich's approach: "He is a good business person himself, and that comes through to people."
Geoff Armstrong, who is Secretary General of the WFPMA (and Director General of the Instititute of Personnel and Development for the UK and Ireland), describes Ulrich's work as 'groundbreaking'. "By articulating his ideas in a simple way, which reflects what managers do and what organisations need, he has helped to mainstream the HR contribution to business management."
Libby Sterbakov, former head of Digital's own company management 'institute' for leadership development, describes Ulrich's role in designing and initially part-running this venture as "instrumental in helping us create the DNA for leadership talent. We heard from many senior executives that their participation in the institute changed the way they led their organisations, people and teams."
* The four key roles which Ulrich holds are all equally vital for effective human resource management are 'strategic partner' (responsible for defining the organisation's culture, governance, work processes, etc); 'change agent' (helping replace resistance to change with excitement about its possibilities); 'employee champion' (engaging employee commitment and monitoring morale); and 'administrative expert' (improving efficiency in organisational processes, which in turn builds HR's credibility).
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