This book is about human resource (HR) strategy – the decisions, processes, and choices that organizations make about managing people. It is designed as a primer for students in master of business administration (MBA) or HR programs, as well as for HR and organization leaders and general managers. It aims to provide an overview of the elements of human resource plans at the strategic, operational, unit, and functional levels.

It is more than that, however. A unique aspect of this book is that we have incorporated a consistent perspective that human resource or human capital strategy is also about risk optimization and management. It is difficult to consider any arena of management without attention to risk, and this is especially true in the arena of human capital. Integrating risk into human resource strategy is a less traditional way to approach the topic, but an increasingly uncertain world demands such a perspective.

Not only is it important to incorporate risk more explicitly into the framework of human capital strategy, but also, we believe, doing so will enhance and extend the paradigms of human capital planning in new and useful directions, producing a unique perspective for leaders inside and outside the HR function. We will have much more to say about risk optimization and management in later chapters. The purpose of this opening chapter is to explore some of the fundamental ideas that underpin organizational strategy in general, because organizational strategy is the foundation of human resource strategy.