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Role Of Strategic Human Resource Management

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Introduction
As human resource (HR) management started to replace personnel management to become one of the important inter-functions of the organization, some people may question what make this subcategory of management has important impact on the operation of organisation. Then started to research the strategic value of human resources. Hendry and Pettgrew (1986, cited in Storey, 2007) define that strategic human resource management (SHRM) is a usage of planning consistent HR practices or policies that align with strategy of the organisations to create sustainable competitive advantages (SCA). There are three main approaches in SHRM, which are the best practice (universalist), the best-fit (contingency) and the resource-based. Below this article will briefly introduces theses three approaches, and critically analyse the limitation of these approaches.

The Best Practice Approach
The assumption underlies in this approach is that there are some ‘best’ human resource practices, which can universally apply to any organisations and will lead to the improvement of organisational performance, such as improvement in employees’ attitudes and productivity (Beardwell & Claydon, 2010:57; Purcell, 2001:60). It is a unitary perspective that assumes all employees would pursue the goals generated by organisations (Wilton, 2010: 278). One of the most well-known models is Pfeffer’s (1994,1998, cited in Beardwell & Claydon, 2010:57) ‘putting people first’, which identify seven HR practices

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