This volume is the proceedings of a symposium entitled "Creating the Competitive Edge Through Human Resource Applications" which was held at Salve Regina College, Newport, Rhode Island on Jtm.e 16-19, 1987. The meeting was sponsored by the Research Coomi ttee of the Human Resource Plarming Society (HRPS). In developing the agenda, the Research Committee built upon the format of the first HRPS research symposium on "Strategic Human Resource Plarming Applications" held at the University of Pennsylvania in 1985. The intent in both meetings was on the linkage of the state-of-practice with the state-of­ the-art. Particular attention was placed on research studies which were application oriented so that member organizations can see examples of ways to extend current practices with the knowledge presented by the applications ¿ The meeting has sessions on: (1) Reshaping the Organization for the Twenty-first Century, (2) Coping with Major Organizational Change, (3) Organization Downsizing, (4) Evaluating the Human Resource Function and (5) The Impact of Corporate Culture on Future Human Resource Practices. Thirty papers were presented with discussion sessions at appropriate points in the meeting. This volume contains twenty one of these papers along with an introductory paper. A short summary is also provided at the begirming of each major subdivision into which the papers are arranged.

Reshaping the Organization for the Twenty First Century.- Environmental Scanning: Strategic and Functional Approaches.- Baby Boom and Baby Bust: Corporate Response to the Demographic Challenge of 1990-2010.- Work Place Challenges for Managers in the Twenty-first Century.- Forces Reshaping the Future Organization and Management of Work: A Perspective from a Canadian Integrated Oil Company.- Designing the Adaptive Organization.- Coping with Major Organizational Change.- Managerial Careers and Organization-Wide Transformations.- The Role of Human Resources in Organization Consolidation and Relocation.- Innovative Working Relationships in a Traditional Organization.- Analyzing Organizational Strategic Change Using Proactive Labor Force Forecasts.- Coping with Large Organizational Structure Issues at Large Public Industrial Organizations.- Organizational Downsizing.- Organization Downsizing in a Company Committed to Work Force Continuity and People Involvement.- Downsizing as a Positive Experience.- Layoffs: What Does Flexibility Really Cost?.- Evaluating the Human Resource Function.- Process Management vs. Problem Solving: Choosing an Appropriate Perspective for Evaluating Human Resource Systems.- Appropriate Staffing Levels for the Human Resource Function: Is There an Magic Ratio?.- Using Human Resource Data to Select Merger/Acquisition Candidates.- Personnel Policy Analysis Using Entity Level Network Simulation.- Impact of Corporate Culture on Future Human Resource Practices.- International Human Resource Planning & Development: The Emerging Profession.- Corporate Culture and the Concept of Competition.- Implementing Cultural Change in the National Health Service of the UK: Implications for Staff & Resourcing Policy.- Identifying Future Management Development Needs.- Contributors.