Strategic HRM Practices

Strategic HRM Practices

Effective Strategies for Transition:

To explore how HRM is changing, and to examine best practice across its array of strategies, we organize this as follows. We present micro- and macro-perspectives on elements of HRM across: (a) a human focus, (b) a resource focus, and (c) a management focus.

A Human Focus:

At its root, HRM focuses on managing the employment relationships and the implicit, as well as explicit agreements that are established between individuals and organizations. In many instances, HR plays the role of employee advocate or 'champion' in ensuring the equitable treatment of employees in order to ensure that the interests of employees as well as the organization are protected.

A Micro Perspective:

From a micro standpoint, HRM includes managing the nature of employment. It also includes issues of employee involvement and participation) that characterize the attachment of individuals to the organization. This raises the importance of the employee's experience at work and outcomes as well as their work-life balance.

A Macro Perspective:

From a more macro perspective, the human element of HRM addresses collective agreements between employees and organizations that characterize industrial relations and collective bargaining as well as formal policies and procedures that ensure rights of redress for discipline and grievances.

From a broad perspective, the human focus of HRM concerns issues related to ethics, equal opportunity, health and safety, as well as fairness and workplace justice during downsizing and redundancy (Snell, Shadur and Wright, 2002, pp.627-49).

A Resource Focus:

Balancing the needs and interests of employees against the needs and interests of the organization is often a difficult task in HRM.

A Micro Perspective:

From a micro perspective, HRM focuses on individual practices that ensure employee ability and motivation to perform effectively. Recruitment and selection for example, constitute important organizational investments to ensure that the best and the brightest talent are brought into the organization to fulfill its particular needs.

Training and development in turn, augment the staffing process to build the talent base of the organization and close the gap on required skills, abilities, and other factors. Management development programs help to ensure a strong cadre of executives is available to succeed current leaders, and to provide a succession of experiences that develops this talent over time. Performance appraisal involves both the administrative and developmental requirements of performance management.

A Macro Perspective:

From a more macro perspective, a resource focus of HRM addresses the set of practices for managing the aggregate of human capital in organizations and nation states. Much of this literature is informed by the resource-based view of organizations as it applies to HRM. From a competitive standpoint, executives recognize that their talent base is a source of advantage, and as a consequence, they take care to develop strategies that build and deploy their work forces in ways that enhance firm performance

A Management Focus:

An important subset of concerns relate to the management of the HR function itself. In many ways, the evolution of the HR function, its organization, and the professionalization of HR managers, represents ...