Resource Management

Read Complete Research Material

RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Resource management



Resource management

Introduction

Competitive business strategies are emphasising the “management” aspects over and above the human aspects of strategic human resource management (HRM) Strategy is being coopted into HRM lexicon to indicate a system-wide intervention that links HRM to strategic planning and cultural change. The need for transformational change in Australia continues to be driven by an economic agenda that aims to improve the productivity and flexibility of Australian organizations in order for them to survive in this age of international competitiveness. The re-regulation of Australia's industrial relations system has significantly affected HRM by changing the frame of reference for the employment relationship, as well as for working life in general. Australian workers are increasingly being viewed as a commodity in a labour market, which has led to greater job insecurity and lower job satisfaction.

Stategic orientation

Put simply, the strategic process answers such basic questions as: “Where do we as an organization stand today? Where do we want to be in the future? How do we get there?” A strategic lens affords an organization a framework through which to select a course of action or optimum strategy to gain competitive advantage (Pettigrew, 1985). Strategy integrates the goals and actions of an organization into a unified whole.

According to Glueck (1980), strategy is a unified, comprehensive and integrated plan . . . designed to ensure basic objectives of the enterprise are achieved. When viewed as a “logical”, “rational” thought process, strategy sits comfortably with a dominant problem-solving and decision-making approach, one which assumes that senior managers have the power to introduce and implement rationally devised strategic plans and to implement them. Such a view would appear to substantiate Porters' depiction of the strategy process as “deliberate and deductive”, where the strategy cascades and drives the organization (Porter, 1985). A deliberate strategy is therefore initiated and controlled from the top.

However, Pettigrew (1985) noted that strategy development is often more political and disorganised than the above rational decision-making model implies. In fact, the business environment may be too complex and chaotic for managers to try to control. Managers have to recognise opportunities as they emerge. Mintzberg's (1987) conceptualisation of strategy as craft introduced a major debate on the relative value of deliberate and emergent strategies. He recognised that strategy also emerges from a closeness and awareness of an inward focus, essentially being in touch with the situation. Strategy, when deliberately conceived, offers guidelines and sets directions. Strategy, when it emerges guides the collective behaviour of the organization.

Plan Resources Needed To Meet Objectives

Increasingly, HRM literature is using the term “strategic” to support the above managerial orientation towards the achievement of organizational goals. Strategic HRM endorses the belief that an organization's effectiveness will be enhanced if human resource considerations are taken into account when selecting business strategy.

According to Walker (1992), it is the business strategy which defines a company's plan for its future growth, development and profitability, whilst the human resources strategy helps focus, mobilise and direct human resources activities on issues that will affect ...
Related Ads