Introduction

There are several learnings one can have by studying how changes and differences in an organization’s macroeconomic, legal, political, social, cultural, and technological context impact managing people, or what we generally refer to as human resource management and employment relations (HRM and ER). A significant case in point from the twenty-first century is the catastrophic impacts of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic on managing people in the organizations directly affected by it (Malik and Sanders, British J Manage. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12484 , 2021; Laker et al., How leading companies are innovating remotely. MIT Sloan Management Review: MIT’s J Manage Res Ideas. Retrieved from https://sloanreview-mit-edu.ezproxy.newcastle.edu.au/issue/ , 2020a, Job crafting: how managers can help to make jobs more satisfying. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved from https://sloanreview-mit-edu.ezproxy.newcastle.edu.au/issue/ , 2020b, What to do when you become your friend’s boss. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/09/what-to-do-when-you-become-your-friends-boss , 2020c). The approach taken by this book is to embed learning using theoretical insights balanced with learning from case studies from different contexts. I believe a case-based approach is critical in providing insights into applied disciplines such as HRM and ER and allowing the learner to engage in higher-order learning skills. To this end, this chapter begins with an overview of the case-based approach to learning, highlighting the conditions where such an approach is most effective. A facilitator of learning skills is also acknowledged as necessary in bringing the most out of the specific cases. This chapter also provides an overview of the structure of the book and its associated case studies for developing a higher-order understanding of strategic HRM and ER.