Introduction Flashcards
Key functions of HRM
Planning Interfering Resourcing Managing relationship Performance Managing change Development Evaluating Employee relation Competence Talent
Defining HRM 1
A widely acknowledge definition of HRM does not exist (Bratton & Gold,2007)
Defining HRM 2
The general motives of HRM are multiple subject to paradox or strategic tension and negotiated through political and not simply rational processes
(Boxall, Purcell and Wright 2007)
defining HRM 3
Human resource management is a series of activities which: first enables working people and the organisation which uses their skills to agree about the objectives and nature of their working relationship, and secondary ensures that the agreement is fulfilled ( Torrington, Hall, Taylor & Atkinson , 2011)
SHRM
A distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantages through the strategic deployment of highly committed and capable workforce using an array of cultural, structural and personnel techniques
( Storey,2001)
HR process vs. function
The process of managing people in organisation - undertaken by all managers
A functional department in an organisation e.g. HR Department - the personnel Department
Origins of HRM
- social justice e.g Quaker firms such as Rowntree and Cadbury
- Emergence of happy = productive worker
- personnel management
- industrial relations
- Employment legislation
Scope of HRM
Micro HRM = policy and practice
Strategic HRM = how the bits fit together, connect to the broader context and other organisational activities
International HRM = HRM in countries operating across national boundaries
Theoretical Perspectives of Strategic HRM
- Universalist approach
- Fit or contingency approach
- Resource - based approach
Universalist Approach: Best Practice
- Prescriptive model
- Based on 4 HR policy goals - strategic integration, commitment, flexibility and quality
- Policy goals are related to HRM policies which are expected to produce desirable organisational outcomes
- Clarity of goals
Universalist Approach model:
- High commitment model of labour management:
- high performance working practises (HPWP)
- high performance work systems (HPWS)
- high organisational performance in all contexts
- Not dependent of the competitive strategy of the organisation
Best Practise - What type of consistency?
- time, application across all employees, inter and intra - policy
- consistency vs complementarity
- implement consistent practices and the outcome are as desired for each practise
- complementarity refers to the additional impact on performance believed to result from bundles of practices
Best Practices- Criticism???
- Contested nature of individual HR practices aspects of bundles
- Little understanding of processes or nature of cause and effect relationship
- Supporters focus on formal aspects of HR/work organisations:
Written or explicit policies and procedures rather than informal ways in which work is carried out
Fit or contingency approaches
Based on two critical forms of fit:
- external (vertical integration)
- Internal (horizontal integration)
- Harvard (stakeholders, soft) v.s Michigan (product driven, hard)
Both = descriptive not theoretical accounts but are key representations of HRM
What is Resources Based View??
- broader strategic management perspective adopted by HRM
- concerned with the relationships between internal (HR) resources, strategy and form performance- butt driven by HR
- focuses on promoting sustained competitive advantage via developing human capital
What Resources Base View do??
- HR can provide competitive advantage if they are unique and cannot be copied by others
- Focus on behaviour but also on skills, knowledge, attitudes and competencies - fit well with the emphasis on knowledge economy and current focus on talent
- Value created by matching individual competencies to requirements of business
Resources Criteria Required to Sustain Competitive Advantage
- Valuable
- Rarity
- Inimitable - causal ambiguity and social complexity
- Non - substitutability
(Wright et al. 1994)
Scope of employees included
- Attention is often devoted to leaders and too management
- All employees should be in the pool of capital (Wright et al. 1994)
- Human capital pool may depend on resources contribution to competitive advantage, may not be all employees
Why is RBV important?
- fits with current emphasis on firm’s intangible assets
- Intellectual capital and customers relationship - both derived from human capital
- Focus on evaluation of human capital - measuring, reporting and managing it
- Human Capital is loaned to the organisation
Problems with RBV
- Reference to people as human capital: instrumentals
- Focus on competitive advantages: harder to see the relevance in the public sector
- Considerable measurement issues - problems both theoretically and practically
HRM and Employee Behaviour
- HR strategy has been conceived in terms of generating specific employees behaviours
- Identification of employee behaviour required to fulfil a particular business strategy
- Identification of HR policies to bring about and reinforce this behaviour
