Utility of Programs Affecting Work Group Composition

ABSTRACT Utility analysis offers numan resource management a powerful framework for decision making. Previous research has indicated that this framework can provide dollar-valued estimates of the consequences of human resource decisions. Moreover, this framework provides a general model of decision costs and benefits that can help organize and integrate human resource management decisions and research. Utility analysis can be applied to a broad family of employee movement phenomena, ;.ncluding recruitment, selection, internal movement, and outward movement. Such applications compare the quantity and quality of employee movements to the cost incurred to accommodate those movements. What is needed is future research proceeding from this decision-theoretic perspective. Where utility models are developed (primarily for inward acid outward movement), applications are needed that demonstrate the models and suggest refinements to make the models more realistic and generalizable. Where utility models are just emerging (primarily in internal movement), further conceptual development, followed by empirical research to apply and improve the basic models, is needed. This research is also likely to have practical applications, enabling human resource managers to more readily integrate their decisions and analyses with those of other management functions. (BL)