Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy

Chapter 5Relationship Builder

“Everybody on this planet is separated by only six other people.”—John Guarre

Organizations are networks of relationships. There are many internal relationships that affect organizations, such as supervisor-employee; union-management; line-staff; mentor-protégé; and co-worker–co-worker. There are also many external relationships that affect organizations, such as those with suppliers, customers, regulators, competitors, and other stakeholders. However, HRM has traditionally focused on individuals—hiring, training, evaluating, rewarding, and other activities have mostly centered around the individual employee (Uhl-Bien, Graen, & Scandura, 2000). This is sometimes described as “having the right people in the right ...