Today, human resources are seen as "the available talents and energies of people who are available to an organization as potential contributors to the creation and realization of the organization's mission, vision, strategy and goals" (Jackson and Schuler, 2000, p. 37).There exist two models that seek to describe what strategy is and how an organization should develop such strategy. The first model known as the Industrial Organization (I/O) model is based on the assumption that firms competing in the same industries are homogenous and emphasizes the external environment as the basis for organizational decision making. The second model, called the Resource Based View contrasts the I/O model by assuming that individual firms are unique and composed of distinct bundle of resources. According to the resource based perspective, firms attempt to develop and exploit distinctive competencies based on the physical, organizational and human capital resources under their control. Eventually, these distinctive competencies may lead to sustainable competitive advantages and superior performance. The emphasis on human capital resources leads to understanding the role of strategic human resource management in gaining competitive advantage.
Wright and McMahan defined Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) as "the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable an organization to achieve its goals" (1992:298). This field moves away from traditional personnel management' and heads toward the view that employees play an integral role in the development of an organization's competitive advantage and as such carefully planned HR initiatives should be implemented to increase their value to the firm. SHRM conceptualized with Walker's (1978) article, which highlighted the need for linkage between strategic planning and human resource planning. However, it originated with Devanna, Fombrum and Tichy's (1984) article which analyzed in great detail the link between business strategy and HR. The field of SHRM has enjoyed a remarkable ascendancy during the past two decades as both an academic literature and focus of management practice.
While RBV may not have contributed directly to this evolution of SHRM, it did play a major role in its development. The development of SHRM only initiated when HR researchers realized that RBV provided a compelling explanation as to why HR practices led to competitive advantage. RBV highlights the necessity of internal factors and resources as sources of competitive advantage and this conjecture catapulted the great importance of employees (human resource) to the forefront of HR theory. RBV has placed people' on the HR map thereby justifying the concepts laid out by SHRM.
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).
Snell, S. A., Youndt, M. A. and Wright, P. 1999. Establishing a framework for research in strategic human resource management: Merging resource theory and organizational learning. Human resource management: critical perspectives on business and management, 371.
In the globalized world, in which we now live economies are rapidly growing, in turn pushing firms to compete in products and service delivery. The best services and products have been produced due to the increase in the bettering of the human resources. A firm needs to implement unique survival techniques within its environment for competitive advantage. Sources have ultimately evolved from being financial resources to technological resources and now its human capital. These propose that the success of a firm is dependent on the attitudes of the employees, skills and competencies. These are the ability to build trust and assurance, communicate effectively and work within a diverse group (Armstrong, 2010). This essay will examine closely how the Resource Based View (RBV) helps organisations build resources that are essential in sustaining a competitive advantage. First, the key concepts used in the essay will be defined. Secondly, models in human resources will be identified, and then thoroughly discussed on how they contribute to generating sustained competitive advantage. Lastly, a conclusion will be presented.
Armstrong ( 2010) defined Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) as “an approach to making decisions on the intentions and plans of the organisation in the shape of the policies, programmes and practices concerning the employment relationship, resourcing, learning and development, performance management , rewards and employee relationships,” ( p. 115). There is a paradigm shift from a functional role to a tactical one through the strategic management process. SHRM is very important to the effectiveness of my learning organisation because it ensures that the needs of the learning community are met and provides the opportunity for instructional leaders to “add value to the learning community” (Introduction to Human Resource Management, 2012, p.6) while achieving the goals and objectives of the institution.
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 article is about the three modes of theorizing strategic human resource management and their applications to organizations. The articles goes into depth about the use of different theories to maximize the company’s goal by using different variables.
The field of Strategic human resource management (SHRM) has become a “happy hunting ground for academics” and Colbert (2004) validates it by stating that SHRM is an accumulated “plethora of statement, theories, concepts and arguments”. It is evident from these statements that there are various theories and approaches to SHRM. According to Boxall & Purcell (2000), Strategic human resource management refers to the alignment of human resource practices to strategic goals of an organization. Amongst many approaches to SHRM such as best practice, best fit or contingent approach and bundling approach, resource based view (RBV) has been instrumental to development of SHRM (Dunford, et al., 2001). This essay will infer different approaches to SHRM
To cope with the dynamic environment, the Strategic Human Resource Management should be introduced to the organization’s operation. SHRM refers to the approach which is used to manage people for the sake of achieving the organizations goal by integrating HR strategies, policies and practices with business strategies. (Armstrong, 2011) Three main models are usually used to achieve high performance in the organization, which are the Universalist approach, Contingency approach and Resource Based View.
The concept of Strategic Homo Resource management has been field over the old age by academics and there have been a variation on the issues of its definition and relationships with other aspects of occupation planning and strategy. Bratton & Gold (2007) defined strategic human resourcefulness management as ”the physical process of linking the human resource function with strategic objectives of the organization in order to improve performance ". In general terms, SHRM is the integration of human resource activities and insurance
Wright, P., McMahan, G., & McWilliams, A. (1993). Human Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage: A Resource-Based Perspective. Center for Effective Organizations, 1-34.
In the fields of management and business, Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) has been a powerful and influential tool in order to motivate employees to perform productively. (Ejim, Esther, 2013). According to Armstrong (2011), SHRM refers to the way that the company use to approach their strategic goals through people with a combination of human resource policy and practices. The purpose of SHRM is to produce strategic capability that the organisation must ensure such that employees are skilled, committed, and well-motivated in order to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage, (Armstrong, 2011). Particularly, the organisation must be able to carefully plan strategic human resource ideas, aimed to increase the productivity.
The third wave (current) looks at the strategic implications of HRM, known as Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) (Bratton John 2007)
Strategic planning directly impacts towards the organizational performance. The level of organizational performance directly depends on the level of performance of the managers and the individual workers in the organization. The human resources (HR) of the organization define the capabilities and capacities of the organization in order to change an address employees issues, needs, and challenges. As a result, it is necessary for the managers to ensure that the strategic planning process would be able to bring out the best possible productivity levels from the human resources of the organization. The alignment of the strategic planning process of specific characteristics of the human resources of the organization will directly determine the natural ability of the organization to perform according to the desired goals and objectives of the business.
In the 1980’s, the birth of a new concept called ‘Human Resource Management’ was born. This trend comes after an intense period of Taylorisation, Fordism and now, McDonaldisation. HRM came to counter balance these trends and to consider the concept of the Man as a Man and not as a machine. For the last several decades, the interests of companies in "strategic management" have increased in a noteworthy way. This interest in strategic management has resulted in various organizational functions becoming more concerned with their role in the strategic management process. The Human Resource Management (HRM) field has sought to become integrated into the strategic management process through the development of a new discipline referred to as Strategic Resource Management (SHRM). In current literature, the difference between SHRM and HRM is often unclear because of the interconnections linking SHRM to HRM. However, the concepts are slightly different. Thus, we can ask, what is strategic human resource management? What are the main theories and how do they work? What do they take into account and how are they integrated? What are the links between SHRM and organization strategy? In order to answer to these questions, we will precisely define strategic human resource management, followed by a look at the different approaches built by theorists, and finally, we will see the limits between the models and their applications depending on the company’s environment. Discussion Strategic Human Resource Management: definition Strategic human resource management involves the military word ‘strategy’ which is defined by Child in 1972 as "a set of fundamental or critical choices about the ends and means of a business". To be simpler, a strategy is "a statement of what the organization wants to become, where it wants to go and, broadly, how it means to get there." Strategy involves three major key factors: competitive advantages (Porter, 1985; Barney, 1991), distinctive capabilities (Kay, 1999) and the strategic fit (Hofer & Schendel 1986). Strategies must be developed with a relevant purpose to sustain the organizational goals and aims. SHRM is one of the components of the organizational strategies used to sustain the business long-term. SHRM defined as: “all those activities affecting the behaviour of individuals in their efforts to formulate and implement the strategic needs of the business. (Schuler, 1992)” or as “the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable the firm to achieve its goals.
The human resource management stands for the management of an entity’s workforce and all that relates to the workforce. The significance of human resource management includes recruitment, orientation, and the ability to retain employees. The human resource management with other managers utilizes these practices in order to produce a solution that relates to challenges. A competitive advantage refers to the business ability to gain the advantages of its economic activities that, it recognizes the organization’s ability to survive and overcome competition in the marketplace. This paper will discuss the concept of competitive advantage in human resource.