Strategic HRM is the interface between HRM and strategic management. It takes the notion of HRM as a strategic, integrated and coherent approach and develops that in line with the concept of strategic management (Boxall, 1996). The business strategies are future oriented, the strategies are designed according to the firm’s resource availability, and there needs to be congruence achieved between the HR strategies and the organizations business strategies within the context of its internal and external environment.
In order to critically evaluate the how the HR strategies align with the organisational business strategies we have considered the two retail giants; Wal-Mart and Tesco.
WAL-MART
"Price Leadership Drives Global Performance" is
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HR ensures that all the employees are held operationally responsible and accountable for maintaining a significant focus on customer service, expense control and always stocking the products. As the company follow a low price business model, the overhead costs are also expected to maintained low. For example: The executives fly economy class and even share hotel rooms with other colleagues. In January 2018, Wal-Mart announced they would be increasing their minimum wage to $11 per hour although the company has been accused of not paying any overtime even when the workers worked more hours. The employees are expected to keep the costs minimum even for heating and cooling of the …show more content…
Wal-Mart is the market leader in supplier-retailer of the consumer goods, hence due to the company’s low price business model strategy the company pushes it suppliers to cut the costs. In the Wal-Mart Effect, author Charles Fishman discusses how the price of a four-pack of GE light bulbs decreased from $2.19 to 88 cents during a 5-year period. (Fishman, Charles, 2006)
Supply chain management effectiveness:
Wal-Mart has one of the best technologically advanced and efficient supply chain systems. Another cost effective strategy in supply chain strategy is that the regional distribution centres have been located at places which has lower labour costs and transportation costs. Also a centralised data base is maintained by Wal-Mart sharing with the suppliers where in the point of sales and real time sales data are recorded so that the suppliers know when the stocks are getting over and when to supply next.
Wal-Mart’s Culture committed to business
These conditions are brought about by the enormous pressure Wal-Mart has put on their suppliers. Their sheer size enables them to negotiate whatever they want. Suppliers rarely dare to request a price increase, and they are very conservative when giving price quotes to Wal-Mart. To lose Wal-Mart as a customer can mean the end of business for many suppliers. It’s hard to combat this downfall when Wal-Mart has so much buying power-- countries send government officials to Bentonville, Arkansas to lobby for production in their country.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is the administration and control of employees. Its purpose is to ensure that the workers and the employer cultivate a valuable relationship. As a result, the company will record an exceptional performance particularly with regard to employee productivity (Paauwe, 2004). Further, the workers will benefit in terms of job satisfaction and self-development (Paauwe, 2004). Some of the activities involved in managing workers include selection and recruitment, training, development, motivation, and appraisal (Sharma, 2009). This paper aims to analyse the role of human resource management in organisations and its linkage to the wider organizational strategy using Tesco and Harrods as illustrations.
Ramlall, S., Welch, T., Walter, J., & Tomlinson, D. (2009). Strategic HRM at the Mayo Clinic: A case study. Journal of Human Resources Education, 3(3), 13-35. Retrieved from http://business.troy.edu/jhre/Articles/PDF/3-3/31.pdf
Wal-Mart’s competitive environment is quite unique. Although Wal-Mart’s primary competition comes from general merchandise retailers, warehouse clubs and supermarket retailers also present competitive pressure. The discount retail industry is substantial in size and is constantly experiencing growth and change. The top competitors compete both nationally and internationally. There is extensive competition on pricing, location, store size, layout and environment, merchandise mix, technology and innovation, and overall image. The market is definitely characterized by economies of scale. Top retailers vertically integrate many functions, such as purchasing, manufacturing, advertising, and shipping. Large scale functions such as these give the top competitors a significant cost advantage over small-scale competition.
In order to succeed, managers have to realize that they cannot do it alone and they must work together on a daily basis with the whole organizations in their supply chains. Because supply chain management involves all functions within an organization, managers need to know what a supply chain is, why it is important, and the impact of supply chain management on the success and profitability of their organization. Today, Wal-Mart topped the list of the America’s biggest companies on the Fortune 500 list, “with sales of almost $345 billion — more than a quarter of a trillion dollars” (Forbs). Wal-Mart’s supply chain management is becoming recognized as a core competitive strategy.
The first Wal-Mart store opened in July of 1962 in Rogers, Arkansas by Sam Walton who believed that the future of retailing was in discounting and to avoid competing with established giants like Sears and Woolworth, Wal-Mart’s stated out of the large cities in the beginning and this strategy help avoid competition, while in rural areas Wal-Mart began growing their customer base by offering ways to save money and shorter travel distance, Sam Walton felt the best way to make customers happy was to provide the low prices every day (Farhoomand, 2006). The company needed to continually find ways to control the operating costs so the savings would then be passed on to Wal-Mart customers in the form of lower prices than the competitors. Walton was opposed to having any kind of employee unions for its company and saw them as a disruption and an inconvenience (Farhoomand, 2006). The continued search for lower prices made him aware of business related travel cost, Wal-Mart executives stayed in low cost hotels when they traveled and the cost related to the services provided by suppliers, Wal-Mart helped suppliers improve operations and efficiency to produce lower cost. Walton wanted the suppliers to correct any nonessential or insufficiencies existing in their business structures as a way of gaining lower prices and higher value products for its Wal-Mart stores. To further push savings Wal-Mart forced cost down by eliminating the middleman and buying directly from the manufacturers. This cost saving also applied to executive salaries Walton felt providing employees with stock options, training opportunities, and allow employees to grow and develop would be a better way to engage and involve them in his vision (Farhoomand, 2006).
Changing Roles. Traditionally, HR has been an administrative position-processing paperwork, benefits, hiring and firing, and compensation. However, recently HRM has moved from a traditional to a strategic role, the emphasis is on catering to the needs of consumers and workers. Before, HR was seen as the enemy and employees believed that HR’s main purpose was to protect management. Now, the position requires HRM to be more people oriented and protect their human capitol, the staff. In addition, human resource management has to be business savvy and think of themselves as strategic partners in the 21st century.
HRM in any company is a weighty issue that needs much attention where business performance is linked to a HR strategy (Caldwell 2008; Ulrich et al. 2008). In the recent past, competition has become stiff, such that organizations need to come up with other means to compete in the extremely dynamic market world. Thus, companies have shifted their emphasis to Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) where they enhance and empower their personnel in order to increase the productivity and the services offered into the market (Mello 2006). This goes against the traditional ways of increasing the means of competition where organizations place emphasis on tangible resources. In the past, organizations competed in terms of machinery and acquisitions. This has changed greatly due to the changing customer tastes and the diversity of the market in the present (Delery & Doty 1996; Lengnick-Hall et al. 2009).
Wal-Mart is known to beone of the best supply chain companies in the world. Throughout the years Wal-Mart has adapted strategies that keep up to their name. Unlike many retailers, Wal-Mart purchases goods directly from manufacturers, skipping a few steps of the supply chain cycle. Buyers use advanced negotiation skills to make sure they are receiving the best price on purchases. Wal-Mart also has their own trucks picking up from warehouses, reducing the price significantly on transportation. Long term relationships with vendors are extremely emphasized to understand prices and cost structure. These practices build Wal-Mart to its name and keeps low prices for retail customers all over the world. Supply Chain studies have shown that in 1998, Wal-Mart would fill up stock in 2 days compared to their competitors which would complete it in 5. Part of the reason Wal-Mart would replenish so
According to this definition, we can see that human resource management should not merely handle recruitment, pay, and discharging, but also should maximize the use of an organization's human resources in a more strategic level. To describe what the HRM does in the organization, Ulrich, D. & Brocklebank, W. (2005) have outlined some of the HRM roles such as employee advocate, human capital developer, functional expert, strategic partner and HR leader etc.
Strategic human resource management involves the development of consistent and aligned practices, programs, and policies geared toward the achievement of an organization’s strategic objectives. It requires human resources (HR) managers to abandon the standard personnel management mindset and focus instead on strategic issues. These programs must be integrated into a larger framework that facilitates the organization’s overall mission and objectives (Mello, 2015). Nordstrom considers customer service to be at the core of the company’s culture (Spector & McCarthy, 2012) and sales is their service.
Understanding the strategic potential of HRM is a relatively recent phenomenon. Strategic HRM attempts to bring HRM to the boardroom. It requires personnel policies and practices to be integrated so that they make a coherent whole, and also that this whole is integrated with the business or organisational strategy.
This paper will attempt to give a broad overview from the available literature within three areas. First, the paper will explore the historical relationships of HR and organizational strategy. Second, the paper will give an overview of current practices and trends. Lastly,...
The gross profit during the year 2015 was actually a $10 billion increase from their fiscal year 2014 (University of San Francisco, 2015). Over the past six years, Walmart continues to generate these types of numbers, representing increases in growth, time and time again. The company’s income was generated by more than 4,500 stores in the United States alone which is supported by a supply chain that moved from number 14 to number 13 on research and analyst company Gartner’s annual ranking (University of San Francisco, 2015). Many business professionals have analyzed and interpreted Walmart’s supply chain management approaches, making it apparent which elements of their strategy have proven effective. These major supply chain components that have shaped Walmart’s success over recent years are their buyer bargaining power (one of Porter’s Five Forces), focus on the overall customer experience, and investments in emerging technologies along with the implementation of these technologies in their business
A comprehensive Human Resource Management Strategy plays a vital role in the achievement of an organisation 's overall strategic objectives and visibly illustrates that the human resources function fully understands and supports the direction in which the organisation is moving. A comprehensive HRM Strategy will also support other specific strategic objectives undertaken by the marketing, financial, operational and technology departments.