Lecture 2: Human Resource Management Strategy and Performance (Chapter 3)

Question 1

What are the 5 steps in Management Planning Process?

Answer 1

1. Setting objectives
2. Basic planning forecasts
3. Review alternative courses of action
4. Evaluate the best option
5. Choosing & implementing the plan

Question 2

What is a plan?

Answer 2

It refers to a course of action for getting from where we are to achieve our goals/ objectives.

Question 3

What is the hierarchy of goals?

Answer 3

It view goals from top of firm down to front-line employees.

Question 4

What are policies and procedures?

Answer 4

It refers to day-to-day guidance employees need to do their jobs in a manner consistent w/ the co.’s plans/ goals.

Question 5

What is Strategic Planning?

Answer 5

It is the co.’s overall plan for how it will match its internal strengths and weaknesses w/ its external opportunities and threats in order to maintain a competitive position.

Question 6

What is Strategic Management?

Answer 6

It is the process of identifying & executing the org.’s strategic plan by matching the co.’s capabilities w/ the demands of its environment.

Question 7

What are the 7 steps involved in the Strategic Management Process?

Answer 7

Step 1: Define the current business (in terms of products or services offered by the business)
Step 2: Perform external and internal audits (SWOT analysis)
Step 3: Formulate a new direction of the co. (vision & mission statement)
Step 4: Translate the mission into strategic goals
Step 5: Formulate strategies to achieve the strategic goals
Step 6: Implement the strategies
Step 7: Evaluate performance of planning & execution

Question 8

What are the 3 types of strategies?

Answer 8

1. Corporate strategy: identifies the portfolio of business, how business relate to each other
2. Competitive strategy: a strategy that identifies how to build & strengthen the business’ long-term competitive position in the market place, aka business-level competitive strategy
3. Functional strategy: a strategy that identifies the broad activities that each department must do to help the business accomplish its competitive goals

Question 9

What is competitive advantage?

Answer 9

It refers to factors that allow the co. to differentiate its products/ services from competitors to increase the market share.

Question 10

What does corporate-level strategies consists of?

Answer 10

1. concentration: co. only produces one product in one product line
2. diversification: more than one product line (diversify from original product)
3. vertical integration: produce own raw materials & sell products directly
4. consolidation: reducing in size
5. geographic expansion: enter into a new market

Question 11

What are the 3 standard competitive strategies?

Answer 11

1. cost leadership: low cost leader in the industry
2. differentiation: eg: Volvo stresses on safety (unique industry along dispersions that are widely used)
3. focus

Question 12

What is manager’s role in strategic planning?

Answer 12

Devising the co.’s overall strategic plan is top management responsibility. However, few top executives formulate strategic plans w/o lower-level managers’ input.

Question 13

What are the Strategic HR Management Tools?

Answer 13

1. Strategy map - summarizes how each dep.’s performance contributes to achieving the co.’s overall strategic goals
2. The HR scorecard - process for assigning financial & nonfinancial goals/ metrics to HRM related strategy map chain of activities req. for achieving co.’s strategic aims.
3. Digital dashboards - presents the manager w/ desktop graphs & charts, showing a computerized picture of how the co. is doing on all the metrics from HR scorecard process.

Question 14

What is HR metrics?

Answer 14

It is the quantitative gauge of a HR management activity.

Question 15

What is benchmarking?

Answer 15

It refers to comparing the practices of high-performing co.’s results to your own.

Question 16

What are data analytics?

Answer 16

It refers to the use of statistical & mathematical analysis to find relationships & make predictions.

Question 17

What is strategy-based metrics?

Answer 17

It specifically focuses on measuring the activities that contribute to achieving a co.’s strategic aims.

Question 18

What are HR audits?

Answer 18

It involves using a checklist to review the co.’s HR functions. It is an analysis of completeness, efficiency and effectiveness of the org.’s functions including policies, practices as well as processes.

Question 19

What are high-performance work systems?

Answer 19

They are a set of HRM policies & practices that together produces superior employee performance.

Question 20

What can managers do to improve employee engagement?

Answer 20

• provide supportive supervision
• ensure employees understand how their departments
• see how their efforts contribute to achieving the co.’s goals
• ensure employees get a sense of accomplishment from working at the firm
• ensure employees are highly involved
• employers should hold managers responsible for employee engagement

Question 21

How to measure employee engagement?

Answer 21

• asses how positively employee speaks about the co. & recommends it to others
• who are the ones who stay in the co. for a long time
• who looks at always “striving” for the co.