The term human resources has two different meanings. It may refer to the people within an organization who are performing the work or it may refer to the human resources (HR) function�a collection of related activities that pertain to the management of personnel within the organization. It is the second reference that is being discussed here.

A holding company is a CORPORATION that owns other companies or corporations. Holding companies typically own stock in or otherwise exercise managerial control over the companies they own; their controlling interest is usually at least 50 percent.

Hofstede�s dimensions refer to a well-known study of five dimensions of international cultural differences in workrelated values. The five dimensions, first published in 1980, include uncertainty avoidance, power distance, masculinity-femininity, individualism-collectivism, and Confucian dynamism.

See MASLOW�S HIERARCHY OF NEEDS.

The Herfindahl Index, also referred to as the Herfindahl- Hirschman Index, is a measure of MARKET CONCENTRATION, the degree to which a few firms control the pricing and output in a market. In perfectly competitive markets there are many firms, and no one firm is large enough to influence the market outcome.

Hedging is any business and INVESTMENT activity entered into to reduce RISK rather than to produce earnings. For example, a farmer makes a decision on how much wheat to plant. At the current price of wheat, he will make a good PROFIT, and if the price of wheat rises, it will be especially profitable, but if the price falls, it will be unprofitable.

A hedge fund in the United States is a private PARTNERSHIP that engages in a variety of high-risk INVESTMENT strategies for PROFIT. Investors should not think that a hedge fund provides them with protection against risk; in fact the opposite is true.

A health maintenance organization (HMO) provides comprehensive health care to its members on the basis of a prepaid CONTRACT. HMOs function both as INSURANCE companies, collecting periodic premium payments; and as health-care providers, contracting with doctors and hospitals to provide services at predetermined rates. As such the HMO is an example of managed care, the goal of which is high-quality medical care at a reasonable cost.

The Hawthorne experiments, conducted from 1924 to 1932, were designed to assess whether improvements in physical working conditions would increase employee productivity. Scientist Elton Mayo and his colleagues manipulated multiple aspects of the work environment for a selected group of workers at the Hawthorne Plant of the Western Electric Company and subsequently measured their productivity.

The Harmonized Tariff System (HTS) is an international system of numeric classification of PRODUCTS. With HTS, products are classified using a 6- to 10-digit number. The first six digits are standardized worldwide, while some governments use additional numbers to further distinguish products.