Chapter 2 - Strategy and Human Resources Flashcards
Strategic planning
involve a set of procedures for making decisions about the organizations long-term goals and strategies
- Focuses on how the organization will position themselves relative to its competitors to ensure its long-term survival, create value, and grow
Human resources planning (HRP) -
the process of anticipating and providing for the movement of people into, within, and out of an organization
- Help managers deploy their human resources as effectively as possible, where and when they are needed, to accomplish the organizations goals
High-Performance Work Systems
Group of human resource practices that have been proven to increase an orgnizations ability to attract, select, hire, develop, and retain highpreforming employees
- Good HR managers “marry” the HRP to the strategic planning process for their organizations as a whole
Focuses on strategy formulation and strategy implementation
steps
Step 1: Mission, Vision, and Values
Step 2: External analysis
Step 3: Internal Analysis
Step 4: Formulating Strategy
Step 5: Strategy Implementation
Step 6: Evaluation and Assesment
Mission
the basic purpose of the organization as well as its scope of operations
Purpose of org, comp advantage, customers, how fulfill needs
Strategic vision
a statement about where the company is going and what is can become in the future; clarifies the long-term direction of the company and its strategic intent
Core values -
the strong enduring beliefs and principles that the company uses as a foundation for its decisions
Step 2: External analysis
Environmental Scanning
systematic monitoring of the major external forces influencing the organization
Changes in the labour supply can limit the strategies available to firms
The Business Environment
consists of all external factors in the general environment - factors that a firm cannot directly control but can affect its strategy
Economical and Ecological changes -
all firms must react to changes in the economy, including general, regional, and global conditions - economic booms, recessions
Technological changes
tech changes such as automation have a broad effect on business changes that they have had to adapt strategically
Demographic changes
changes in labour supply can limit the strategies available to firms - high growth companies may find it difficult to find the talent they need to expand their business
Social changes
societal attitudes are constantly changing the business landscape for firms in all industries
Legal and Regulatory Changes
government and legislative issues, including laws, have a broad effect on the remote environment
Competitive Environment - five forces:
Customers
rival firms
new entrants
substitutes
suppliers
customers
firms strategy should focus on creating value for customers, who often want different things
Rival firms -
examining the nature of the competition - who is the competitor
New Entrants
companies can establish barriers to keep new firms out of the industry
Substitutes - sometimes, the biggest opportunity or threat in an industry is not from direct competion but from buyers substituting other products
Suppliers
organizations rarely create everything on their own, they have suppliers that provide them with key inputs - inputs can be raw materials for production, money (from banks and stockholders), information and people/labour
Stakeholders
key people and groups that have an interest in a firms activities and that can either affect them or be affected by them
Primary - direct stake in the firm and its success
Secondary - have less of a stake but can be affected by the company - community in which the firm operates, the government, business groups, and the media
Step 3: Internal Analysis
Core Capabilities
integrated knowledge sets within an organiztion that distinguish it from its competition and deliver value to customers
Value creation -
what the firm adds to a product or service by virtue of making it; the amount of benefits provided by the product or service once the costs of making it are subtracted
Differentiate from competitors - processes, systems (technologies), and people
Competitive advantage through people
resources must be rare/valuable, difficult to imitate, organized
Types of Talent and Their Composition in the Workforce
Strategic knowledge workers
have unique skills that directly linked to the companys strategy and are difficult to replace
Core employees
skills are quite valuable to a company but not particularly unique or difficult to replace
Supporting workers -
typically have skills that are less strategic value to the firm and are generally available in the labour market
External partners -
skills are unique but frequently are not directly related to a company’s core strategy
Corporate Culture
Cultural audits
- audits of the culture and quality of work life in an organization
- Examine the values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations of their workforce
Conducting a Cultural Audit
surveys the employees to learn how they feel about a number of issues by askung them questions
Types of corporate culture
- clan
- adhocracy
- marker
- hierarchal
clan
employees are closely knit and exhibit great concern for one another and their customers and loyalty and cohesion are highly valued
adhocracy
culture characterized by risk taking, innovation, and spirit of entrepreneurship
market
encourages competitive, result-oriented behaviours
hirearchal
characterized by formal structures and procedures and in which efficiency and stability are greatly valued
Forecasting
Internal analysis of an orgnaization can revel a great deal about where it stands today
Managers must continually forecast borth the needs and the capabilities of the firm for the future to do an effective job strategic planning
Three elements of forecasting
Forecastig the demand of labour
Forecasting the supply of labour
Balancing supply and demand considerations
Forecasting a Firm’s Demand for Employees Techniques
- trend analysis
- management forecasts
Trend analysis
a quantitative approach to forecasting labour demand based on an organizational index such as sales - relies on a single factors to predict employment needs
Management forecasts -
the opinions (judgements) of supervisors, department managers, experts, or others knowledgable about the organizations future employment needs
Forecasting the supply of employees
- markov analysis
- staffing tables
- skill inventories
- replacement charts
Staffing tables
graphic representations of all organizationla jobs, along with the number of employees currently occupying those jobs and future employment requirements
Markov analysis -
a method for tracking the pattern of employee movements through various jobs
Skill inventories
files of personnel education, experience, interests, and skills that allow managers to quickly match job opening with employee backgrounds
Replacement charts
listing of current jobholders and people who are potential replacements if an opening occurs
Succession planning
the process of identifying, developing, and tracking key individuals for executive positions
Human capital readiness
the proces of evaluating the availability of critical talent in a company and comparing it to the firms supply
Step 4: Formulating Strategy
SWOT analysis
a comparison of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for strategy formulation purposes
Corporate Strategy
markets to compete in, against who, and how
Growth and Diversification
as companies grow, their strategic choices tend to focus on geogrpahic, volume, and expansion
Growth hinges on three related elements
Increased employee productivity
A greater number of employees
Employees developing or acquiring new skills
Mergers and Acquisitions
- coming together with other companies
Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures -
Hr assists in selecting executives and developes teamwork across the respective workforces
Business Strategy -
how the company will compete against rival firms to create value
Low-Cost Strategy: Compete on Productivity and Efficiency -
low cost strategy means keeping your cosrs low enough that you can offer an attractive price to customers (relative to competitors)
Produce more from the workforce they have, or they can produce the same with a smaller workforce
outsourcing
Differentiation Strategy: Compete on Unique Value Added -
provides something unique and distictivbe to customers - often based on high product quality, innovate features, speed to market, or superior service
Functional Strategy: Ensuring Alignment
Vertical fit/ alignment -
focuses on the connection between the business objectives and the major initiatives in HR
Horizontal fit/ alignment -
ensure their HR practices are all aligned with one another internally to establish a configuration that is mutually reinforcing
Step 5: Strategy Implementation
Taking Action: Reconciling Supply and Demand
Dealing with Surplus Employees -
Layoffs
decisions are based on seniority and/or ability
Attrition
- a natural departure of employees from organizations through quits, retirement, and deaths
Hiring freeze -
a practice whereby new workers are not hired as planned or workers who have left the organization are not replaced
Termination
practice initiated by an employer to separate an employee from the organization permanently
Severance pay
a lump sum payment given to terminated employees by an employer at the time of an employer-initated termination
Step 6: Evaluation and Assesment
Evaluation and Assement Issues
- benchmarking
the process of measuring ones own services and practice against the recognized leaders to identify areas for improvement
Measuring A Firm’s Strategic Aligment
Strategy aligment and the balanced scorecard -
a measurement framework that helps managers translate strategic goals into operational objectives
1. Financial 2. Customer 3. Process 4. Learning
Measuring horizontal fit
dentify the key workforce objectives they hope to achieve, identify each of the HR practices used to elicit or reinforce those workfocie objectives, evaluate each HR practice on a scale of -5 (not supportive) to 5 (supportive)
Ensuring Strategic Flexability for the Future
Organizational capability -
the capacity of the organization to act and change in pursuit of sustainable competitive advantage
