Often, we have seen the custodian of human capital the Human Resources function becomes a scapegoat for Management decisions. It is a pity that, while HR is liable for employees’ well-being, motivation and morale, they are considered to be a liability to organizations/employers sometimes. What makes them so? Is it a myth that HR does what CEOs wants them to do? or are they sandwiched between employer and employees to maintain a diplomatic figure? or do they not understand what the expectations of the organization or management are? A must-read book for all Managers/Leaders as everyone is a human resource manager when they deal with individuals/teams or even at home when you deal with your own people. Some interesting factual stories/case studies will make you realize how important the above questions are. Also, this book will make you aware of practical issues faced in the day-to-day life of HR professionals, the dilemmas faced by them with management and employees, how they can become an able business HR leader, and a few worthy solutions you can deal with. This will also help CEOs to understand how to deal with human capital better. I’m sure this book will inspire you to change your mind-set on Human resources.

President Bush's number-one management initiative for the federal government is the Strategic Management of Human Capital. According to Knowledgeworkers.com, human capital is the accumulated value of an individual's intellect, knowledge, and experience. In the U.S. federal government, a human capital crisis exists. The factors contributing to a human capital dilemma include a knowledge bleed due to retirement eligibility, changing perspectives on work, and escalating knowledge loss. According to a Joint Hearing on the Federal Human Capital, by 2005, more than half of the 1.8 million non-postal civilian employees will be eligible for early or regular retirement. An even greater percentage of the Senior Executive Service, the government's core managers, will be eligible to leave. All government agencies are required to develop a human capital strategy by 2005. Many of these agencies have scored a "red" (lowest rating) on the Government Scorecard in the way they are approaching their strategic management of human capital. This book is an executive briefing on developing a successful human capital strategy based on lessons learned from analyzing existing strategies at government agencies such as NASA. Using a knowledge management perspective, Liebowitz identifies four pillars of an effective strategy and gives examples of these in practice.

Capital Dilemma: Growth and Inequality in Washington, DC uncovers and explains the dynamics that have influenced the contemporary economic advancement of Washington, DC. This volume's unique interdisciplinary approach using historical, sociological, anthropological, economic, geographic, political, and linguistic theories and approaches, captures the comprehensive factors related to changes taking place in one of the world's most important cities. Capital Dilemma clarifies how preexisting urban social hierarchies, established mainly along race and class lines but also along national and local interests, are linked with the city's contemporary inequitable growth. While accounting for historic disparities, this book reveals how more recent federal and city political decisions and circumstances shape contemporary neighborhood gentrification patterns, highlighting the layered complexities of the modern national capital and connecting these considerations to Washington, DC's past as well as to more recent policy choices. As we enter a period where advanced service sector cities prosper, Washington, DC's changing landscape illustrates important processes and outcomes critical to other US cities and national capitals throughout the world. The Capital Dilemma for DC, and other major cities, is how to produce sustainable equitable economic growth. This volume expands our understanding of the contradictions, challenges and opportunities associated with contemporary urban development.

The only resource of an organization that has life and can be motivated is its employees. Like any other resources, this area also requires investment that involves risk. This paper aims at emphasizing the necessity of investing on human capital as well as the risks involved in such investment from firms' perspective. The bases of this descriptive paper are the previous literatures only. The authors hope that this investigative paper and the suggestions made based on experts' view will be helpful to the academicians for further research and the top level decision makers specially the HR departments to take investment decisions on their employees more wisely and with utmost care.

The decision to move Germany's government seat from Bonn to Berlin by the year 2000 poses an epic architectural challenge and has fostered an international debate on which building styles are appropriate to represent German national identity. Capital Dilemma investigates the political decisions and historical events behind the redesign of Berlin's official architecture. It tells a complex and exciting drama of politics, memory, cultural values, and architecture, in which Helmut Kohl, Albert Speer, Sir Norman Foster, and I. M. Pei all figure as players. If capital city design projects are symbols of national identity and historical consciousness, Berlin is the supreme example. In fact, architecture has played a pivotal role throughout Germany's turbulent twentieth-century history. After the fall of the monarchy, Germany gave birth to the Bauhaus, whose founders argued that their own revolutionary designs could shape human destiny. The century's warring ideologies, Nazism and Communism, also used architecture for their own political ends. In its latest incarnation, Berlin will become the capital of the fifth German state in this century to be ruled from that city. How will the official architecture of reunified Berlin, a democratic capital being built amid totalitarian remains, be different this time around? Th e Federal Republic of Germany, a highly stable democracy in stark contrast to its predecessors, has been struggling with burdensome architectural legacies. In the process, it has considered remedies as varied as outright destruction, refurbishment, and, in the case of the former Nazi Central Bank now being converted into the new Foreign Ministry, physical concealment.

This volume presents a human capital (people's) agenda to meet the nation's contemporary social and economic challenges and dilemma. Beginning with an introductory chapter that makes the case for human capital investment, the contributors identify the demographic imperatives and some major target groups. They also examine the agenda's components with particular emphasis on education and training, and cover organizational and financing issues, and social services. ISBN 0-8018-4143-7: $45.00.

The principles of sound human resource management are generally understood, but too often practitioners believe the same policies and programs will work in all contexts. The effectiveness of any system is highly dependent on the context within which it must function. And due to globalization and increased workforce diversity, the contexts across and even within organizations have become more varied. The Most Important Asset is a story about new graduates entering the human resources field, encountering and dealing with workforce management challenges and issues and developing their own professional competence through experience. Principles are presented and alternative solutions to problems are explored, providing the reader with a roadmap for analyzing situations and making decisions as to how to act. Placing the characters in different types of organizations provides insights into how different contexts call for different strategies. Alternative strategies for staffing an organization, developing its people, defining, measuring and rewarding performance are used to illustrate how what is done should be compatible with the mission, culture, organizational strategy, and internal and external realities.