INTRODUCTION


 


I agree in what ( 1987 , 1995 ) has said that ‘’HRM has the virtue of emphasizing the need to treat people as a key resource, the management of which is the direct concern of top management as part of the strategic planning processes of the enterprise. Although there is nothing new in the idea, insufficient attention has been paid to it in many organizations. The new bottle or label can help to overcome this deficiency’’. In my understanding, this could mean that the complexities surrounding the issues of personnel management can be as indicative of the contradictions that exist within the discipline labeled human resource management (HRM) such as ( 1992 ) distinction between `hard’ and `soft’ HRM identifies the need for `strategic interventions designed to elicit commitment and to develop resourceful humans’ and `strategic interventions designed to achieve full utilization of labor resources’. This tension within HRM has been noted by several processes used to reward individuals was then inspected (1992; 1995;  1995) rather than any integrated strategy which could be considered part of the distinctive HRM approaches.


 


 


 


 


 


Thus, one of the problems faced by the personnel practitioner is that of defining precisely the boundaries of his job ( 1978) as there is always the additional difficulty of defending the territory from other managers as people management is within the remit of every manager. In recent years, personnel managers have had to work even harder along with the human resource management (HRM), with its promises of participation and strategic focus as the function of general rather than human resource managers ( 1987;1987). Even if many personnel managers still concentrate on the old reliable of recruitment, training and employee relations, the major changes taking place within organizations suggest that there are opportunities for involvement in important areas and considers the role played by the HR function in the construction and implementation of such strategies (1995; 1995) and that human resource function needs to be involved in the construction, delivery and receipt of communication development within the organization because there needs to reside within the organization in the manner of understanding HR strategies and activities as well as the nature of its goals and outcomes as a major part of the strategic planning and process of the organization enterprises.


 


 


 


 


 


INFORMATION GATHERING


 


It is believed that the precise meaning of strategic HRM and HR strategy remains to be unclear to a certain process (  2000) as it involves the process of linking HR practices to business strategy’ (1997, ). Thus,  (2000, p. 6) describe it as ‘the process by which organizations seek to link the human, social and intellectual capital of their members to the strategic needs of the firm’. According to  (1997) ‘HR strategy’ is the outcome: ‘the mission, vision and priorities of the HR function’.  (2000, ) conceptualize HR strategy as an outcome: ‘the pattern of decisions regarding the policies and practices associated with the HR system’ ( 1990) the HR professional has a seat at the strategic table and is engaged in strategy formulation.  (1994) argue that those models which incorporate contextual influences as a mediating variable of HR policies and practices tend to lack ‘precision and detail’ in terms of the precise nature of the environment linkages, and that ‘much of the work on the linkages has been developed at an abstract and highly generalized level’


 


 


 


 


 


 


Furthermore,  (2003) mentioned that ‘’Human Resource Management (HRM) is a strategic approach to managing employment relations which emphasizes that leveraging people’s capabilities is critical to achieving sustainable competitive advantage, this being achieved through a distinctive set of integrated employment policies, programs and practices’’ ( 2003 ) and that ‘’Strategic human resource management is the process of linking the human resource function with the strategic objectives of the organization in order to improve performance’’. ( 2003 )


 


Thus,  (1994) argue that what actually determines HR strategy will be determined by decisions at all three levels and by the ability and leadership style of local managers to follow through goals in the context of specific environmental conditions. The conception of strategic choice might exaggerate the ability of managers to make decisions and take action independent of the environmental contexts in which they do business ( 1995). The concept of integration has three aspects: the linking of HR policies and practices with the strategic management process of the organization the internalization of the importance of HR on the part of the managers the integration of the workforce into the organization to foster commitment with the strategic goals. (1984,)


 


 


There examines the link between organization strategy and HR strategy as ‘Human resource strategies’ are taken to mean the patterns of decisions regarding HR policies and practices used by management to design work and select, train and develop, appraise, motivate and control workers. (2003) Studying HR strategies is appealing because of conceptual models that give HR researchers the ability to compare and contrast the different clusters of HR practices and further develop and test theory (2000).


 


The matching model


 


The interest in the ‘matching’ model was evident in Devanna’s work: ‘HR systems and organizational structure should be managed in a way that is congruent with organizational strategy’ ( 1984 ). According to  (2003) that in Devanna’s model, HRM strategy structure and are influenced by environmental forces with the notion of ‘fit’ between an external competitive strategy and the internal HR strategy is a central principle of the HRM model advanced by  (1984). There must be a ‘fit between competitive strategy and internal HRM strategy and a fit among the elements of the HRM strategy’ (1984, ).


 


 


 


The relationship between business strategy and HR strategy is said to be ‘reactive’ and that HR strategy is subservient to ‘product market logic’ and the corporate strategy. As  (1987, 1992, ) emphasizes, ‘HRM cannot be conceptualized as a stand-alone corporate issue. There is some theorization of the link between product markets and organizational design, and approaches to people management. Thus, the strategy involves a unique set of responses from workers, or ‘needed role behaviors’, and a particular HR strategy that might generate and reinforce a unique pattern of behavior (1992;  1987).


 


The control-based model


 


The first approach to modeling types of HR strategy is based on the nature of workplace control and more specifically on managerial behavior to direct and monitor employee role performance. (, 2003) The management structures and HR strategy are instruments and techniques to control all aspects of work to secure a high level of labor productivity and a corresponding level of profitability and focus on monitoring and controlling employee behavior as a basis for distinguishing different HR strategies in the study of ‘labor processes by industrial sociologists to control and discipline the interior of the organization. ( 2003 )


 


 


As  (2002, ) comment that, ‘control is not an end in itself, but a means to transform the capacity to work established by the wage relation into profitable production’ (, 2001; 1998). Moreover, the variations in HR strategy are not random but reflect two management logics ( 2000). The first is the logic of direct, process-based control, in which the focus is on efficiency and cost containment, whereas the second is the logic of indirect outcomes-based control, in which the focus is on actual results. Thus, when managing people at work, control and cooperation coexist, and the extent to which there is any ebb and flow in intensity and direction between types of control will depend upon the ‘multiple constituents’ of the management process. Implicit in this approach to managerial control is that the logic underlying an HR strategy will tend to be consistent with an organization’s competitive strategy ( 1987) which provides the source of inevitable structural tensions between management and employees ( 1987;  1995; 2002).


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


The resource-based model


 


This HR strategy is grounded in the nature of the reward effort exchange and the degree to which managers view their human resources as an asset as opposed to a variable cost. The sum of people’s knowledge and expertise and social relationships, has the potential to provide non-substitutable capabilities that serve as a source of competitive advantage (1992). The resource-based approach exploits the distinctive competencies of a work organization: its resources and capabilities, organization’s resources can be divided into tangible and intangible resources. According to strategic management theorists, the distinction between resources and capabilities is critical to understanding what generates a distinctive competency (2001). It is important to recognize that a firm may not need a uniquely endowed workforce to establish a distinctive competency as long as it has managerial capabilities that no competitor possesses and adopts one of the control-based HR strategies.


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


The integrative model


 


 (2000) integrate the two main models of HR strategy, one focusing on the strategy’s underlying logic of managerial control, the other focusing on the reward effort exchange. This strand of thinking in HR strategy can be traced back to the ideas of  (1987), who made a distinction between commitment and control strategies (2000). The commitment HR strategy is characterized as focusing on the internal development of employees’ competencies and outcome control. Every HR strategy represents a distinctive HR paradigm, values and assumptions that is important to managers (1999). It is argued that an organization’s HR strategy is strongly related to its competitive strategy. ( 1998; 2002)


 


As HR strategy is associated with some HR practices that develops committed and flexible people, internal markets that reward commitment with promotion and a degree of job security, and a ‘participative’ leadership style that forges a commonality of interest and mobilizes consent to the organization’s goals ( 2000) and the assumption that the organization’s business strategy and HR system have a logical relationship given the evidence that strategy formulation is politically charged and subject to complex contingency factors (2000; 2001)


 


Thus, the notion of aligning business strategy and HR strategy applies only to the ‘classical’ approach to strategy (1995) involving the classical approach to strategic management argues that the image of the manager as a reflective planner and strategist is a myth ( 1986). The rapidly changing global environment with regard to competition and technological advances in the industry and ICL’s subsequent decision to shift from hardware to total systems differentiation, led the MD to pursue a new strategy based on strategic alliances. The main reasoning behind this was that it allowed the company to break into new markets and gain access to new technologies quicker than would be possible if the company were acting on its own. This new focus and the ongoing financial crisis led to the need to restructure the financial side of the organization and were achieved mainly through downsizing in a number of product areas and a series of redundancy procedures as it is difficult to make critical assumptions of the organizations. The availability of resources with the need for skills and financial resources appears to be a justification taken by the company. Armstrong (1999) defining culture as ‘the commonly held beliefs, attitudes and values that exist in an organisation with shifts in the product strategy and the recent collaborations came the difficult task of changing aspects of the cultural values of the organization. The organization embraced what theorists would generally refer to as a role culture and referred to organizations operating in stable environments with focus on hierarchy and bureaucracy rather than dynamism (2000).


 


For the organisation to succeed in the more volatile and competitive environment, its cultural values need to be revised to a certain extent. It started to become necessary that the top management understood the major changes that the company was undergoing and the need for refining of thinking processes and general management values. From the initial response by the organization, it appears that the organization did embrace the new values but as a short-term response to the ensuing financial crisis and not really the understanding of the business’ long term strategy to address strategic need for cultural change, a criticism may be leveled that this approach should have been adopted initially.


Henceforth, ICL’s structure had been based on the concept of functional grouping such as dividing the organisation on the basis of the distinct functions they were aligned with, though the concept did foster good communication and co-operation skills within the functional units, there was the disadvantage of very little or no co-ordination across these functions. In the case of ICL, it was highly apparent in the lack of communication between the product development and marketing functions and the ensuing financial crisis brought about by it. The developers were into designing advanced and very high technology equipment for which marketing had failed to capture a market. With the company’s focus shifting towards product differentiation, decentralization of the organization into smaller self-managing business units based on the matrix structure.


 


 


 


The idea was to bring together the essential functions to work more closely together in achieving the company’s new strategic goals. Thus,  (2000) states the matrix system can be effective in the complex changing environment and the style is applicable to a high need for information processing. The firm has very much shifted its focus from technology to market-driven and there appears to be a danger of the marketing function dominating authority, thereby leading to operational problems along with the shift towards decentralized units and product differentiation within the need to restructure the essential skills of its engineering workforce. The major increase in the development of HR systems was achieved through a combination of upskilling of existing, and creation of a new entry-level grade of service oriented representatives. The majority of the new business initiatives had been implemented to reasonable success. Through various tactical changes made and the new product strategy, the company’s financial situation had stabilized and things were back to normal in the short term. During the period of the financial crisis, it appeared that there was a complete buy-in to the new strategy once the company had started to stabilise, the realisation that the cultural issues still very much remained, began to dawn. In order to achieve the long term strategic goals of the company, that after initial resistance, people gradually started to understand the concepts of the new strategy and the importance of human resources in gaining competitive advantage.


 


 


 


It is assumed that one of the biggest issues in the firm’s HRM strategy had been addressed eventually Shift from Personnel and HR Planning: In response to the significant changes that had been made to the overall strategy of the firm came the need to expand the HR aspect of the organization in lieu to the personnel aspect. The was a significant shift from personnel values such as industrial relations and employee relations towards a much broader, strategic and critical viewpoint of the company’s human resources with an emphasis on competitive advantage as it appears that the focus had shifted from the ‘soft’ to the ‘hard’ side of HRM. In order to achieve its new strategic goals and to ensure long term stability, the personnel function needed to actively forecast the firm’s future HR needs based widely on manpower planning and skills retention through a series of new processes including appraisals, pay flexibility, assessment and career planning. It managed to address most of the major HR issues associated with the implementation of a new business strategy and also added a new dimension to the personnel function of the organisation. A change in culture entails a change in individual beliefs, values and attitudes and the members of the organization require reasons to be willing to make changes to what is of personal assumptions.


 


 


 


 


 


In order to integrate an efficient HR strategy with the business strategy, it is vital to stress the goals of the organisation and also to place an emphasis on the needs and wants of the individual. The other area in which the strategy could be made more efficient is in the re-structuring of the firm. Taking into consideration the environmental factors affecting the company, the matrix structure appears to be ideal as it can be argued that every form of organizational structure has both strong and weak points, a structure that is applicable to the HR context that could be applied. In a growing number of organizations human resources are now viewed as a source of competitive advantage. There is greater recognition that distinctive competencies are obtained through highly developed employee skills, distinctive organizational cultures, management processes and systems. Increasingly it is being recognized that competitive advantage can be obtained with a high quality workforce that enables organizations to compete on the basis of market responsiveness, product and service quality, differentiated products and technological innovation the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation of the company’s strategies in the implementation of strategies through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel.


 


 


 


 


In any business setting, a strategy exists in the formal process implicitly through a shared agenda on HR activities through which an organization is to determine it such as:  


Ø      Marshalling resources that support the business strategy and implementing the chosen strategy


Ø      Utilizing the full potential of the human resources


Ø      Leveraging other resources such as physical assets and capital to augment the human resources advantage


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


ANALYSIS


The nature of HRM has provoked much debate (, 1995) which distinguishes the integration of personnel policies with business planning; a shift of responsibility from specialists to line managers; individualism in the management of employee relations and an emphasis on securing employee commitment and initiative.  (1995, ) identified some common elements, namely, human resources are valuable and a source of competitive advantage; HR policies are integrated with strategic business planning and used to reinforce an appropriate organisational culture; HR may be tapped most effectively by mutually consistent policies that promote commitment and foster a willingness in employees to act flexibly in the interests of the organisation. How organisations recruit, train, reward, motivate and discipline their employees is of central importance to business success ( 1994, ).  (1986) suggest that strategic HRM uses better approach to the design and management of personnel systems underpinned by some philosophy; matching HRM activities and policies to the strategy and seeing the people of the organisation as strategic resources in the achievement of competitive strategy. (1993,)


 


 


 


The strategy of a company, combined with the corresponding organisational structure is linked to appropriate approaches to the functions of selection, appraisal, rewards and development.  (1987) argue that what is needed from employees for the implementation of different strategies will differ and the approach to HRM needs to be designed of choice in HRM practice as planning, staffing, appraising, compensating, training and development and labour-management relations and suggests that internal consistency within these areas along with management values and assumptions regarding the management of people, represent the HRM philosophy of the organisation. However,  (1995) comments, there is little empirical evidence to support these links between business strategy and approaches to HRM in which different groups of employees within an organisation were treated. The importance of the role played by employees, it tends to focus solely on those employees who interface directly with customers. Clearly in many service organisations there are a significant number of employees who do not have direct customer contact. This presents some theoretical limitations when examining the notion of HRM and strategic HRM, since they are based on the idea of holistic approach and of an underpinning philosophy guiding the formulation of mutually consistent policies ( 1995).


 


 


 


Human resource management (HRM) entails planning, implementing and managing recruitment, as well as selection, training, career, and organizational development initiatives within an organization. The goal of HRM is to maximize the productivity of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its employees while improving the work life of employees and treating employees as valuable resources as it encompasses efforts to promote personal development, employee satisfaction, and compliance with employment-related laws. HRM departments focus on these activities: planning, implementation and evaluation. The planning function refers to the development of human resource policies and regulations. Human resource managers attempt to determine future HRM activities and plan for the implementation of HRM procedures to help companies realize their goals. Implementation of HRM plans involves four primary activities: acquisition, development, compensation, and maintenance. Acquisition entails the hiring of workers most likely to help a company attain its goals. The development function encompasses the training of workers to perform their tasks in accordance with company strategy. Thus, the evaluation function includes the assessment of a company’s HRM policies to determine whether they are effective. (2000; 1999; 1997 and  1992)


 


 


 


This is because organizational responses such as delayering, empowerment, work intensification, flexibility and redundancy appear to have gained as much weight as the macro-environmental drivers of HRM such as competition, technology, economic recession and political change (Anthony et al, 1996) as change in the external environment triggers organizational responses which may take the form of restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, splits and cost cutting, which triggers human resource management responses reflected in adoption of new employment patterns and new employer-employee relationships (1995;  1998). There is an agreement that the adoption of HRM signals business oriented and business integrated approach to the management of people (1984; 1985;  1987). Furthermore, HRM controversy has been fueled by the discrepancy between the rhetoric and reality of HRM. As a result,  (1995);  (1993) and  (1998) have raised much concern about the applicability of HRM ideas in organizations in the light of a turbulent and constantly shifting environment as reflected in management’s language and vocabulary which is  soft and the reality is reflected in management action and behavior that can be hard depending on the prevailing changes in the environment in which the organization operates (1999 ,1997, 1999).


 


 


The view that human resources make a fundamental difference in organizations, as it is human capability that distinguishes successful from unsuccessful organizations. Thus, HRM is an organizational matter of strategic importance hence management decisions involving people should be top management issues rather than personnel management’s and the key levers used to activate the HRM approach are clear communication of objectives, calculated deployment of human resources and evaluation of performance (1996). As such, HRM appears to imply a distinctive approach to employment management, which not only seeks to obtain competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and skilled workforce, using an array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques (1999). The emphasis in HRM therefore is on planning, monitoring and control rather than on problem solving and mediation. It is largely identified with management interests and is a management activity more than it is an employee’s activity ( 1992; , 2000). 


 


 


 


 


 


CONCLUSIONS


 


This presentation attempted to explore the deeper aspect of human resource management and its influence within the organizations as it is notable that the HRM concept contains on certain HR status. As several HR proponents agree on the extent to which HRM can be said to be a coherent theory, no alternative concept has been found to challenge the centrality of HRM ideas on management of people centering on strategic integration, management of HRM, high commitment and high performance in having a challenge to the competence and ability of management to sustain the quality of performance necessary to prevent the resurgence of issues (1991). It appears therefore that HRM adoption by organizations may either lead to redefine the practice of organizations to give it a new role. However, the external and internal environments of organizations would be expected to moderate the culture so that it is possible to apply the essential aspects of HRM in any culture of the organization. It can be concluded therefore that the adoption of HRM cannot be assumed to be universal in treating people but it is contingent upon every process of situation in the extent to which HRM has been implemented and its implications for the organizations management.


 


 


 


 


RECOMMENDATIONS


I agree that HRM practices appear to be influenced by ownership characteristics. In newly developed companies’ emphasis appeared to be placed on recruitment, creating a positive organisation culture, devising remuneration policy, training and development of staff, performance appraisal and the implementation of retention strategies. There was some suggested evidence that human resource departments with an HRM focus tended to pay more attention to the effective recruitment of staff in making improvements in the analysis of jobs, the collection and verification of information, the testing of practical skills and the elaboration of the characteristics for specific posts in the form of person specifications. Firms have begun to consider human resource policies and strategies and there have been some attempts to use the business plan as the framework for HRM policies and activities ( 1997; 1992;  1993; 1996;  1991). There is no explicit link made between the characteristics of human resources and the overall performance and continued success of the organization. Instead the focus tends to be on administration and welfare issues with only limited attempts at human resource planning. It is possible that the “strong” notion of HRM. ( 1991)


 


 


 


Human Resource Management need have to focus on the following aspects:


Ø      The desire to achieve significant change in the organization’s management structure


Ø      The emphasis on increasing the qualification level of employees


Ø      The use of better ways for hiring personnel


Ø      The systematic socialization of employees into the organisation and their understanding and acceptance of the goals of the organization


Ø      The design of payment systems with efficiency and quality of work


Ø      The implementation of professional training and development programs


Ø      The development of workplace discipline procedures


Ø      The creation of proper working conditions within the organization


Ø      The organization and enhancement of the organisation’s information system


 


 


 


 


 



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