Strategic Hr

QUESTION (ii):

To what extend do you think it is possible to develop an HRM strategy within the business that influences the overall corporate strategy?

INTRODUCTION

The role of the Human Resource Management (HRM) function in many organizations is at a crossroads. It is increasingly under fire to justify itself and Stewart in his article ‘Taking On The Last Bureaucracy’, 1996 even signaled doom for HR. On the other hand, organizations have an unprecedented opportunity to re-focus their HRM systems as strategic assets. The same competitive pressures that provide an incentive for firms to outsource costly HRM transactions have dramatically increased the strategic value of a skilled, motivated, adaptable workforce, and the HRM system that supports and develops it.

The HRM functions that traditionally focused on transactions, practices and compliance was and is appropriately considered as a cost center. In contrast, the HRM system that develops and maintains an organization’s strategic infrastructure is considered an investment. The HR functions and its processes must now become a strategic player that adds value and scores. If HR can evolve to a role that adds significant economic value to the firm, its security is likely to be substantially enhanced.

HR AS A STRATEGIC PARTNER

Human resource management practices are an integral part of all organization systems and its capability development. In order for an organization’s human resources to contribute to performance, human resource practices must fit with each other and with the strategy and design of the organization. And in order for the members of the human resource function to impact performance, they must be knowledgeable about, have influence on, and be closely connected to the other organization systems, as well as have a solid base of knowledge about human resource practices.

The human resource function must be able to operate at multiple levels of analysis, ie. at the individual,...