This timely Research Handbook brings together 24 chapters with a wide range of different theoretical perspectives, empirical research, and innovative thought provoking ideas relating to an area of organisation and management that has been neglected for many decades - line managers. With a resurgence of interest in the topic in recent decades, this Research Handbook argues that line managers are a critical element of both employee experiences and organisational performance and worthy of close attention. Split into three sections, chapters present various ways in which line managers can implement HRM practices in the organisation, considering the implementation of a variety of HRM policies and practices (content), a variety of implementation processes (process), and a variety of line management actors. It also develops future directions for research on line managers, such as the future of work, digitalisation, robotisation and AI and the gig economy. Integrating theoretical and empirical research, the Research Handbook on Line Managers will be a key resource for scholars in the fields of business leadership, human resource management and organisation studies. It also provides managerial practices for organisations and line managers who are looking to improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of their work.

This book on human resource management (HRM) research builds upon and extends the work of Professor David P. Lepak who was the Berthiaume Endowed Chair of Business Leadership in the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Professor Lepak was an internationally renowned HRM scholar who believed in giving back to his profession and was committed to introduce his research findings to students as well as the business community. In addition to being a tribute to Professor Lepak and his work, this volume aims to help organizations and managers understand how to use human resource management to benefit employees while achieving organizational effectiveness. The chapters in this volume focus on strategic management of human capital resources, strategic HRM and multilevel HRM -areas of research that were central to Professor Lepak's academic contributions. These chapters together provide important theoretical and practical implications for understanding how organizations can use HRM to generate and utilize their strategic human capital resources and how HRM interacts with internal and external factors to influence important employee and organizational outcomes. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of The International Journal of Human Resource Management.