Michael Armstrong is an honours graduate in economics from the London School of Economics, a Companion of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultancy.
He has hands on experience as a personnel practitioner, initially in the engineering industry, specializing in industrial relations, and then in the engineering and food industries as an employee development specialist.
For 12 years he was an executive director with responsibility for HR in a large publishing firm and for a further 10 years he headed up the HR consultancy division of Coopers & Lybrand. He now practices as an independent consultant. This experience has been supplemented recently by a number of research projects carried out on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. These covered the personnel function's contribution to the bottom line, strategic HRM, incentive pay, job evaluation, team rewards, broad-banded pay structures, and performance management.
His publications include Reward Management, Performance Management, How to Be an Even Better Manager, A Handbook of Management Techniques and Managing People.