Chapter 1- Strategic Human Resource Management Flashcards
What is Human Resource Management?
HRM is the leadership and management of people within an organization using systems, methods, processes, and procedures that identify, select, motivate, and enable employees to achieve outcomes individually and collectively that enhance their contribution to the organization’s goals.
Supports and enables organizations to:
Meet short and long-term economic, social, and environmental goals
The Interconnectivity of Human Resource Management Activities
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Strategic Human Resource Management
The process of integrating the strategic needs of an organization into the choice of HR systems and practices to support the overall mission, strategies, and performance
The choice of HR tools will depend on what the organization is trying to achieve
HR activities must align with and contribute to the organization’s strategies
Each HR practice should generate value for the organization
A Model of Strategic HRM
Five Steps
1. Organizational Mission, Goals, and Strategy Analysis
2. Environmental Scan
3. Analysis of Organizational Character and Culture
4. Choice and Implementation of Human Resource Strategies
5. Review, Education and Audit of Human Resource Strategies
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Step 1: Organizational Mission, Goals, and Strategy Analysis
Mission statement
-Statement outlining the purpose, long-term objectives, and activities the organization will pursue and the course for thefuture
Three generic business strategies:
-Cost leadership strategy
-Differentiation strategy
-Focus strategy
Step 2: Environmental Scan
Continuous monitoring of economic, technological, demographic, and cultural forces
The major forces:
Economic
Technological
Demographic
Socio-Cultural
Legal
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Four Critical Economic Forces
- Economic cycles
-Refers to the periodic fluctuations in economic activity.
-Includes phases of expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. - Global trade
-Involves the exchange of goods and services across international borders.
-Influenced by trade agreements, tariffs, and geopolitical factors. - Productivity and Innovation Improvement
-Focus on enhancing efficiency, output, and introducing new technologies.
-Key drivers for economic growth and competitiveness. - Knowledge Workers
-Employees whose primary contribution to the organization is knowledge-based.
-Dependent on intellectual capabilities, creativity, and expertise.
Economic Force: Economic Cycles
Canadian economy goes through boom and bust cycles
-Often linked to other economies
During recessionary periods, HR faces challenges
-Layoffs, wage concessions, lower morale
During boom cycles, HR must consider
-How to recruit and develop talent
Economic Force: Global Trade
International trade has always been crucial to Canada’s prosperity and growth
Canada ranks high among exporting nations
Canadian jobs and economic prosperity depend upon international trade
How Competitive is Canada Compared to Other Nations?
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Economic Force: Productivity and Innovation Improvement
Productivity: Ratio of an organization’s outputs to its inputs
Productivity improvement is essential for long-term success
For over a decade, U.S. productivity has been consistently outpacing Canada
Without innovation, productivity differences tend to increase
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Economic Force: Knowledge Workers
Extractive industries (e.g., mining and fishing) have decreased
Industries relying on knowledge workers (e.g., education, health care, tourism, trade, public administration) have increased
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Three Critical Technological Forces
- Flexible Work Design
- Connectivity
- Automation
Technological Force: Flexible Work Design
Connectivity influences organizations and the way people work
Unprecedented degree of technology
-Changed the way we work, play, study, and entertain ourselves
-Access to information has affected the way organizations conduct business
Technology has brought flexibility
-When and where work is carried out (e.g., telecommuting)
Technological Force: Connectivity
Knowledge Management
-Process of capturing organizational knowledge and making it available for sharing and building new knowledge
Intranets and integrated information systems help store and access information quickly and accurately
Internet has a profound impact on HR activities
-social networking sites, video-sharing, etc.
Technological Force: Automation
Organizations automate to:
-Increase speed
-Provide better service
-Increase flexibility
-Increase predictability in operations
-Achieve higher standards of quality
May use robots to replace boring or hazardous jobs
Four Critical Demographic Forces
- Gender balance in the workforce
- Educational attainment of workers
- Aging population
- Generational shift
Demographic Force: Gender Balance in the Workplace
47% of the workforce assigned female at birth (2020)
Participation rate of biologically female in health care and professional, scientific, and technical services continues to grow
Raises importance of:
Child care
Work-family balance
Dual career families
Employment equity
Demographic Force: Shift Towards Knowledge Workers
Shift from primary and extractive industries to service, technical, and professional jobs
-All services combined currently account for more than 75 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Knowledge workers have been the fastest growing type of workers
-Need to attract, retain, and retrain
Demographic Force: Educational Attainment of Workers
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Demographic Force: Aging Population
Average age of the workforce is increasing
-Impending “old age crisis”
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Demographic Force: Generational Shift
Although the differences within groups may be wider than the differences between groups, some managers find benefit through understanding that not all generations view the world through the same lens that they do
Baby Boomers, Generation X, Generation Y (Millennials), and Generation Z and soon Generation Alpha, are all in the workforce
Different people have different expectations from their workplaces
Generational diversity creates an interpersonal dynamic for all leaders
Two Critical Cultural Forces
- Diversity and social justice
- Ethics
Cultural Force: Ethics
Ethical conduct of business is becoming an increasingly important issue
Managers should understand ethical perspectives and consider ethical implications
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Cultural Force: Diversity and Social Justice
Canadian society is a cultural mosaic
Canada encourages maintaining unique culture and heritage vs. U.S. “melting pot”
Continued inequalities articulated by social justice advocates for Indigenous, Black, and other racialized people of colour attributed to systemic bias
Social justice has become central to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the workplace
Step 3: Analysis of Organizational Structure and Culture
Human resource strategies should be formulated only after a careful look at the organization’s structure
-Employees, objectives, technology, size, age, unions, policies, successes, failures
Structure reflects the past and shapes the future
Each organization has a unique culture
-Core beliefs and assumptions that are widely shared by all organizational members
Step 4: Choice and Implementation of Human Resource Strategies
There should be a clear line of sight between HR strategy and corporate goals
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HR must continuously focus on five groups of activities:
1. Planning Human Resources
2. Attracting Human Resources
3. Placing, Developing, and Evaluating Human Resources
4. Motivating Employees
5. Maintaining High Performance
Step 5: Review, Evaluation, and Audit of Human Resource Strategies
HR Strategies should be examined periodically in consideration of changing factors (e.g., technology, environment)
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The Organization of HRM
HR Department in a small organization
-Separate HR department emerges when HR activities becomes a burden
-Often emerges as a small department or individual reporting to a middle-level manager
The Human Resource Department in a Small Organization
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The Organization of HRM
Large HR Department
-As the organization grows, the HR department usually grows in impact/complexity
-Specialists are added
-Vice President title
A Large Human Resource Department
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The Service Role of the HR Department
Staff authority
-HR departments are service departments
-Authority to advise, not direct
Line authority
-Possessed by managers of operating departments (i.e., authority to make decisions)
Functional authority
-HR department may be provided authority to make decisions (e.g., deciding type of benefits)
https://youtu.be/o-LKhdu7mX4
Today’s HR Professional
Enormous growth in the number of HR managers
-HR had been slow to evolve into a profession
Competencies for HR Managers:
-Mastery of HRM Tools, Change Mastery, Personal Credibility
CCHRA is a collaborative effort of HR associations
-Coordinates national designation - CPHR https://www.cphrsk.ca/
Case: We Connections
Imagine that Alex has asked you to advise him
as he is about to develop the strategic human
resource management process for WEC.
Describe for him how economic, demographic,
technological, and cultural forces are likely to
affect WEC.
Test Yourself:
1. People are the common element in all social organizations.
True
- Organizational goals are an organization’s short- and long-term outcomes that human resource management aims to support and enable.
True
- The field of human resource management is unrelated to key organizational goals, product-market plans, technology, and innovation.
FALSE
- Since human resource management is central to all organizations, all organizations have a dedicated human resource department.
FALSE
