Title: Strategic Human Resource Management
Author: Mitali Mane
Roll No: 0222035
Literature Review:
1. Social Capital Into Strategic HRM
Cynthia A. Lengnick-hall et al. (2021) states that building relationships improve strategic HRM at the individual, group and organisational level to create productive work groups, a useful mechanism for bridging HR issues. Integrating social and human capital into SHRM is of great importance as the former is needed to put the latter in use, and they should be studied in conjunction due to their complex interplay. Incorporating the structural, relational and cognitive dimensions of social capital as well as social networks into conceptual design and application would aid SHRM in yielding desired performance. Overall, they explain the working of SHRM activities and offer mechanisms for establishing SHRM frameworks to look into a wide range of problems. (Lengnick-hall et al. 2021)
2. Developing A Strategic Intent
Priyanka Gupta (2020) states that strategic intent enables optimal implementation of HRM through best practices. Human resources add economic value to businesses, essential for attaining economic growth and sustaining competitive advantage. During the third industrial revolution, studies showed that organizations could gain competitive advantage through a strategic application of HRM. She lists the seven utilitarian practices (internal career openings, formal training systems, appraisal measures, profit sharing, employment security, voice mechanisms and job delineations), and states the most popular universalistic HRM practice linking monetary compensation to performance. She discusses the people-centric strategy of Southwest Airlines, along with Ulrich’s Model of HR, Balanced Scorecard Model and Human Capital Model. (Gupta 2020)
3. Ethio Telecom: SHRM Principles
Worku M. Tadesse and Mahelet W. Jembere (2020) states the four principles of SHRM, whose successful implementation would help organizations contributing to the overall organisational performance, and the implementation problem of SHRM principles in Ethio Telecom company. SHRM means an organisation’s ability to improve their performance by utilising its human resources effectively amidst competition. They discuss the fast and proactive nature of SHRM, and its range of focus (short, medium or long-term) as well as its flexible controlling mechanism. The case study of Ethion Telecom proves that SHRM principles indeed have a positive impact on organisational performance, and are implemented at a moderate level. The only drawback is that it mainly revolves around the management employees of said company and excludes the non-managerial employees’ perspective. (Tadesse and Jembere 2020)
4. Strategic HRM Influence In Health Care
John J. Rodwell and Stephen T.T Teo (2008) states that commercialization acts as a stimulus to HRM function in the public sector to orient from personnel management to a strategic focus by linking HR planning with business planning process. They’re concerned about learning how HR practices (varying) affect individual and organizational performance in healthcare organizations in Australia. They suggest the practitioners scrutinize value-adding activities to contribute to the attraction, retention and accessibility of human capital in said industry. They urge strategic approach to HRM for sustaining in the competitive environment, which can help the public and not-for-profit HS organizations catch up to their private sector competitors. Public and not-for-profit HS organizations with SHRM have higher performance than those without it. Conclusively, SHRM is capable of significantly contributing to the organization’s overall performance in the health industry. (Rodwell and Teo 2008)
5. Teams And Strategic HRM
Christian Hopp and Lukas Zenk (2012) states that power within teams is pernicious for team performance, its accumulation calls for a fundamental role for strategic HRM. They urge to discern why certain teams perform better than the others. They suggest mentoring and training programs for cohesiveness, investing in the bigger picture of social networks through extracting information and sharing it among employees. SHRM can align team members, since differing goals within teams might be a severe blow to the organization’s growth and sustainability amidst competition. The results obtained through their study offer significant insights into the role of social networks in determining team performance and derive implications for strategic HRM. They emphasize striking a balance between nurturing and monitoring working teams, including the varying needs and conflicts among members, which is a delicate yet tricky and important task for strategic HRM. (Hopp and Zenk 2012)
6. Strategic HRM In A Global Context
Patrick M. Wright et al. (2005) states that SHRM has existed for only about a quarter of the existence of personnel management and human relations. Their article is a collection of papers––however, varying viewpoints––written by global scholars who presented on ‘New Models of Strategic HRM in a Global Context’ at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labour Relations in 2003. They discuss the first theme, generalizability of SHRM theory, with some scholars implicitly accepting a universalistic approach to country or culture and explicitly rejecting the notion of organizational strategy. The second theme deals with the differing perspectives of scholars regarding the generalization of SHRM practices with respect to the countries and cultures having unique characteristics. The third theme urges broadening the actors influencing HR, namely internal and external conditions and various decision-makers. They conclude by agreeing on one point: differences in institutional environments and cultures serve as boundary conditions with respect to the generalizability of their models and empirical results. (Wright et al. 2005)
7. Technological Innovations And Strategic HRM
Steve W.J. Kozlowski (1987) states the forecasted innovation in manufacturing technologies over the next two decades, subdividing it three parts: technological innovation, programmed automation technology, diffusion of programmed automation. He further discusses its repercussions such as job displacement (low-skilled factory workers are replaced by automated production systems), skill obsolescence (rapid technological change eroded the knowledge and skills of the high-level technical and managerial professionals, thus reducing their effectiveness), and resistance against technological innovations. Technological innovation promises to bring in both flexibility in production system and greater discretion at the task level, thus taking over the old management orientation. He asserts that SHRM addresses issues of creating climates supportive of innovation by presenting his conceptual model of a HRM Strategy for Technological Innovation, thoroughly describing it in simple words. (Kozlowski 1987)
8. Economics Meets Strategic HRM
Bruce E. Kaufman and Benjamin I. Miller (2011) states an economic model based on standard microeconomic production theory since no economic model before has explicitly considered firm’s choice of HR practices. Their model generates the HRM demand curve and the HRM demand function. They indulge into an alternate explanation of HRM frequency distributions, enlightening us on the limitations of SHRM propositions. They claim it to be the first major alternative to “Huselid-type” regression model that dominated HRM empirical research for the past fifteen years. Their model treats HRM as a factor input into production, and that firms’ demand for HRM is systematically linked to a range of economic, technological, organizational, and management attributes. They also claimed to have revealed serious weaknesses in the answers provided by SHRM researchers, and to have advanced an innovative economics-based model that yields new tools and insights for advancing this research program. (Kaufman and Miller 2011)
9. “Fit” In SHRM And HR Scorecard
J. Barton Cunningham and Jim Kempling (2011) states that HR Scorecard is used to apply “fit” in two public sector organisations (Victoria Cool Aid Society and Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection) since some models of strategic HRM encourage linking HRM’s practices to “fit” line directors’ needs for enforcing their strategies. SHRM involves assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats––important for improving organisational performance––however, there’s debate over what specific practices should be used. They’ve developed HR Scorecards and summarised its implementation in five steps: identifying HRM’s internal clients, assessing its performance, identifying overall strategic themes, creating a strategy map, and identifying initiatives, owners, measures of success and targets. Their illustration of HR Scorecard can be used to facilitate a better “fit” between HR’s practices and organizational strategies, as organisations will be more effective if its various parts fit well together. (Cunningham and Kempling 2011)
10. Intended And Implemented SHRM
Shaista E. Khilji and Xiaoyun Wang (2006) states the tendency of researchers to explore HRM at the top management levels, which captures only the intended HR policies and ignores implemented practices. They’ve selected the service industry to develop a broader understanding of SHRM implications, examining differences between intended and implemented, exploring the HR-performance relationship in Pakistan, and proposing that minimizing the gaps results in higher HR satisfaction and organizational performance. HR satisfaction levels depend largely upon the implementation of practices, with an underlying need to enhance them. They list the four significant factors for minimizing gaps between intended and implemented HRM, which are also the fundamental causes of differences between ‘high’ and ‘medium and low’ implementation organizations. However, this study comes with its limitation: a strong assumption that organizations intend what is good for employees and make a case of minimizing gaps between intended and implemented HRM. Thus, managers need to establish consistency between them as one cannot consider how HRM and performance are linked without understanding how HR policies are translated into practice. (Khilji and Wang 2006)
Conclusion:
Incorporating social capital into SHRM is as essential as using HR Scorecards to facilitate a better “fit” between HR practices and organisational strategies, eventually yielding the desired performance. Tying compensation to performance can give both economic value to the firm and competitive advantage. Although SHRM principles are applied moderately and explicitly discriminate against non-managerial employees, they still seem to have a positive impact on the overall organisational performance. SHRM has the potential to contribute greatly to the growth of the health industry, only when it focuses on value-added activities, invests in social networks, and strikes a balance between nurturing and monitoring teams at workplaces, including various needs and conflicts among members. Technological Innovation tied to SHRM brings in comfort and ease in working, but even more repercussions that pose a serious threat and yet an intriguing challenge to HRs’. It’s necessary to minimize gaps between intended and implemented SHRM as it ultimately leads to higher HR satisfaction and organizational performance.
References:
Barton Cunningham, J.; Kempling, Jim (2011), Promoting Organizational Fit in Strategic HRM: Applying the HR Scorecard in Public Service Organizations. Public Personnel Management, [s. l.], v. 40, n. 3, p. 193–213, 2011. DOI 10.1177/009102601104000302. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=cc2808ad-926b-32bf-b8b1-3361d7ed9d1f. Acesso em: 10 maio. 2023.
Gupta, Priyanka (2020), Sustaining Competitive Advantage through Hrm: Developing Strategic Intent. Annamalai International Journal of Business Studies & Research, [s. l.], v. 12, n. 1, p. 67–80, 2020. DOI 10.51705/AIJBSR.2020.v12i01.007. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=04b95aeb-7f0f-319d-a58f-7b41c8631099. Acesso em: 8 maio. 2023.
Hopp, Christian; Zenk, Lukas (2012), Collaborative team networks and implications for strategic HRM. International Journal of Human Resource Management, [s. l.], v. 23, n. 14, p. 2975–2994, 2012. DOI 10.1080/09585192.2011.637063. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=f5f68661-7f11-31d4-a171-6254b09cd00f. Acesso em: 8 maio. 2023.
Kaufman, Bruce E.; Miller, Benjamin I (2011), The Firm’s Choice of Hrm Practices: Economics Meets Strategic Human Resource Management. ILR Review, [s. l.], v. 64, n. 3, p. 526–557, 2011. DOI 10.1177/001979391106400306. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=c1003e4a-0fe3-3d6f-b346-5e504b8d8bc7. Acesso em: 8 maio. 2023.
Khilji, Shaista E.; Wang, Xiaoyun (2006), “Intended” and “implemented” HRM: the missing linchpin in strategic human resource management research. International Journal of Human Resource Management, [s. l.], v. 17, n. 7, p. 1171–1189, 2006. DOI 10.1080/09585190600756384. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=1a0b2be3-0169-31a1-8058-02d46d1c70e3. Acesso em: 10 maio. 2023.
Kozlowski, Steve W.J (1987), Technological Innovation and Strategic HRM: Facing the Challenge of Change. Human Resource Planning, [s. l.], v. 10, n. 2, p. 69–79, 1987. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=600e349a-2647-3506-90a2-39f3134ddc8b. Acesso em: 8 maio. 2023.
Lengnick-Hall, Cynthia A.; Lengnick-Hall, Mark L.; Neely, Andrea R.; Bonner, Robert L (2021), Something Old, Something New: Reframing the Integration of Social Capital into Strategic Hrm Research. Academy of Management Perspectives, [s. l.], v. 35, n. 3, p. 535–556, 2021. DOI 10.5465/amp.2018.0028. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=20f77009-44af-3840-b667-bc48091e7a35. Acesso em: 8 maio. 2023.
Rodwell, John J.; Teo, Stephen T.T (2008) The influence of strategic HRM and sector on perceived performance in health services organizations. International Journal of Human Resource Management, [s. l.], v. 19, n. 10, p. 1825–1841, 2008. DOI 10.1080/09585190802323934. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=9594686d-9dc7-3aa4-8cbf-5454ce90fa4b. Acesso em: 8 maio. 2023.
Tadesse, Worku Mekonnen; Jembere, Mahelet Wendimu (2020), Strategic HRM Principles Implementation & Organizational Performance: The Case of Ethio Telecom. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations, [s. l.], v. 55, n. 4, p. 636–652, 2020. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=0b9213a2-0813-3eff-9e3a-b88ce3c8a6fe. Acesso em: 8 maio. 2023.
Wright, Patrick M.; Snell, Scott A.; Dyer, Lee (2005), New models of strategic HRM in a global context. International Journal of Human Resource Management, [s. l.], v. 16, n. 6, p. 875–881, 2005. DOI 10.1080/09585190500120814. Disponível em: https://discovery.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=19bda9af-8b9e-35cc-bdf7-cddbc1fc9866. Acesso em: 10 maio. 2023.