The Age of HR
Delivering Stakeholder Value Through Strategic Organizational Capability: Talent, Leadership, and Culture
A landmark collection of 62 chapters from the world’s foremost thinkers in HR strategy, talent management, and organizational leadership—written at the inflection point where AI, geopolitical uncertainty, and evolving stakeholder expectations are reshaping the future of work and the humans at its center.
Free to share under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Non-commercial use only. No derivatives.
HR is not about HR. It’s about creating value for all stakeholders who are human-employees and executives inside the organization, and customers, investors, and communities outside it.
Dave Ulrich
Rensis Likert Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan Partner, The RBL GroupWhat’s Inside
Business Context
Mastering the macro forces reshaping HR—AI, geopolitical uncertainty, longevity, and the evolving expectations of boards and investors.
Business Agenda
How HR drives growth, change, and competitive advantage—from C-suite succession to workforce orchestration in the age of agentic AI.
Talent
Timeless principles and timely actions—workforce analytics, employee experience, skills-based organizations, hybrid work, and AI adoption in HR.
Leadership
Building leadership pipelines and succession systems that translate individual capability into enduring organizational advantage.
Culture
The architecture of high-performance culture—mental health, learning-first organizations, well-being, Blue Zone companies, and the case for culture.
The HR Function
Reinventing HR itself—from business partner to value creator, decision architecture, executive pay as communication, and sustainable agility.
Personal Growth
Becoming the future HR leader—policy fluency, executive presence, the human capital narrative, and strategic partnership in an era of scrutiny.
The challenges and complexity facing the modern HR leader have never been greater. But there’s also never been a better time to make a meaningful impact. We are operating in a unique moment where the old ways of managing are giving way to a more intentional, human-centric partnership between people and technology.
Ashley Goldsmith & Chris Ernst
Contributing Voices
Sixty-two chapters from practitioners and scholars at the frontier of HR strategy, organizational behavior, and executive leadership.
Today, we stand at yet another inflection point. The world feels massively different, and so does the mandate for HR. The next decade will be shaped by forces that demand not incremental change but reinvention.
Anita Graham & Mike Ulrich
About the Editors
Anthony J. Nyberg
Director, Center for Executive Succession. Distinguished Professor of Management, Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina.
Rebecca R. Kehoe
Professor, ILR School, Cornell University. Research focused on strategic human capital, talent management, and HR systems.
Dave Ulrich
Rensis Likert Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan Partner, The RBL Group
Patrick M. Wright
Thomas C. Vandiver Bicentennial Chair in Business, Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina. Co-founder, Center for Executive Succession.
Elite organizations adopt a simple but demanding principle: leaders are stewards of talent to the same degree they are stewards of capital.
Marcia Avedon & Anthony Nyberg
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