Strategic Human Resource Management Case Study

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The concept of strategic human resource management (SHRM) originated in the USA soon after the development of the concept of human resource management (HRM) in the 1960s and 1970s (Kazmi & Ahmad, 2001). HRM and SHRM are considered identical and used interchangeably by some authors. For example, (Mathis & Jackson 1985, in Kazmi & Ahmad, 2001) define HRM as "the strategic planning and management of human resources for an organization and HRM is more broadly focused and strategic in nature". This means, HRM is seen as a strategic function focusing on tasks such as human resource planning or devising compensation policies and strategies. Bratton & Gold (2007) defined strategic human resource management as "the process of linking the human resource…show more content…
It also argues that the firm should know what is applicable in general terms and what lessons can be learned to be adopted in order to fit its strategic and operational requirements. According to Schuler & Jackson (1987-1989), employee role behaviors are found to be instrumental in the implementation of the competitive strategies. This approach also highlights the notion of both external and internal factors which calls for a fit between an organization's business strategy and its HR strategy (Lengnick-Hall, et al., 2009). In the same line of argument, (Baird & Meshoulam, 1988, in M.L. Lengnick-Hall, 2009) further expanded the notion of the strategic fit to combine both the external and internal components. The limitations to this approach that it does not focus on the exact aspect of business strategy that helps in deciding how to adopt the HR practices. Another shortcoming of this model is in the external fit concept that, the external focuses more on the reduction of cost, quality enhancement and innovation thereby neglecting the interests of the employees. The other limitation is the inability of the fit system to be flexible in structure suggesting unwillingness to change (Becker & Gerhart, 1996, in M.L.…show more content…
The resources of the firm should possess high value in the sense that the strategic resources should add value to the organization. In the same manner, the resources must be very scarce, meaning it should not be commonly found to help in distinguishing a firm that has the potential of attaining competitive advantage. It is very important for organizations to have resources that cannot be reproduced or imitated and this makes the firm stand out from its competitors. And, the resources should not be substitutable if the firm is to stand out from its competitors. These strategic characteristics are very crucial if any firm is to achieve a sustained competitive advantage from its pool of resources. Precisely, the resource based model highlighted that competitive advantage depends on organizations strategic characteristics of its
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