Introduction

  Human Resource Strategy

This section examines human resource strategy, its integration with corporate planning, and the development of human resource policies. In the first section we saw that many theorists consider a strong link with strategy to be the key difference between human resource management and earlier philosophies of people management.(...)

This chapter in the book Human Resource Management in a Business Context addresses a number of fundamental questions:

* Is strategic human resource management a reality?
* Are people managers involved in high-level decision-making?
* Are human resource concerns valued as much as financial, production or marketing issues?
* How can human resource strategies and practices be adapted to meet perceived threats and opportunities in a changing business environment?

If people are truly an organization's greatest assets, then their careful selection, development and deployment can lead to a competitive advantage. (...)

Extra detail:  Strategic human resource management requires formulation of HR objectives, strategies and policies. These enable the provision of the skills and abilities needed to meet the requirements of an organisation's overall objectives. In other words, they provide the framework which ensures that an organisation's people needs are met. In modern organisations HR strategy is supported by information technology in the form of human resource information systems and workforce management systems.

 Introducing the topic of strategic thinking, read What is strategy? on bestbooks.biz

Defining strategic human resource management - see
Strategic human resource management on bestbooks.biz

People strategies

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Pages 290-293 (pages 157-160 in the first edition) of Human Resource Management in a Business Context are devoted to a discussion of the relationship between human resource management and business strategy. Strategy is about choice. The underlying assumption is that firms can make deliberate decisions about their markets, the products or services they provide, prices, quality standards and the deployment of human and other resources. Strategic thinking is based on rational decision-making, taking into account the competitive and financial pressures on an organization and the resources available to it, including its people. It imposes orderly, logical thinking on a messy real world, modelling the present situation and predicting the consequences of specific actions. (...)

Personnel management, we are told, was essentially reactive, whereas human resource management - exemplified by HR strategy - is proactive and takes a longer perspective. As we saw in the first section, rhetorical accounts paint a picture of human resource management as being focused and managerial, unified and holistic and driven by strategy. The reality is more complex. (...)

Michael Porter and the Notion of Strategy.

  Relating this topic to modern technology, see  Web-based HR Systems

Extra detail:  Both planning and strategy are dependent on some method of forecasting the future. Strategy takes a broader, more global view whereas planning is concerned with detail. There are many ways of achieving a strategic objective but plans are more prescriptive.

Stanford University research in the USA found that companies which had strong people values did better as a rule over a 50-year period than those which were primarily interested in short-term financial return. Companies of this kind included 3M, General Electric, Wal-Mart and Disney... but Disney has some unusual approaches to people management

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