Introduction to Research Handbook on Contemporary Human Resource Management for Health Care

The delivery of accessible, equitable, high quality, and affordable health care is a formidable challenge to governments internationally. In this volume we highlight contemporary research on human resources for health care, broadly conceived, in supporting the delivery of patient care within health systems. Human resource management (HRM) is concerned with the management of people and the work that they do. Often focused on organisational contexts, HRM is shaped by a range of external stakeholders too. In health care, organisationally oriented HRM is complemented by a national and supranational focus in the human resources for health care community, evident in the practice of policy work and that of organisations including the OECD, ILO and World Health Organization. This volume takes account of both perspectives and recognises interdependence between these aspects of health systems: the management of people and work through organisational strategies, practices and processes, and the broader sectoral and policy contexts in which this occurs. This introductory chapter provides an overview of the structure of the book and indicates some of the broad themes that arise throughout the volume. We highlight the overarching pressures and challenges arising in health care organisations, indicate the role that HRM might play in addressing them, and the range of levels and levers through which this may occur.