Definition Of Strategic Human Resource Management

This paper is an informative guide that will cover the definition of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHIRR). Importance of HER in organization, also the analysis framework of the SHIRR. Further, the guide also includes the understanding of the formulation and implementation of HER strategies that would analyses SHIRR process, assessment of the roles in SHIRR and lastly, the analysis of the development and implementation of HER strategies.

 Definition of strategic human resource management The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development or CUPID (2013) identified that SHIRR is an approach of the management within the organization that sets strategic framework that concerns business goals and outcomes including the long-term people issues such as their quality, structure, values and commitment.

Subsequently, Britton (2013) described SHIRR as a process involving human HER in the organization (2007) affirmed that SHIRR is a concept of integration of HER and the strategies of the organization is being achieved that includes how HER to get there, the coherence and supporting the strategies HER to be developed and implemented. According to Storey (2001), SHIRR is a distinctive approach to employment management which seeks to achieve competitive advantage through the strategic deployment of a highly committed and capable workforce using an array of cultural, structural and response techniques.

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Another approach to 'defining' SHIRR is to treat the task as the demarcation of an academic field of enquiry and/or a general field of practical activity. This is essentially what Boxful and Purcell (2003) do when they describe how their definition 'allows for a wide variety of management styles'. They go on to state that 'Human resource management (alternatively employee relations or labor management) includes the firm's work systems and its models of employment. It embraces both individual and collective aspects of people management.

It is not stricter to any one style or ideology . In summary, SHIRR is all about the management of human resource in terms of labor and personnel in an organization by a specified approach in order to achieve the organization's goals in the future. B. An explanation of the importance of human resource management in an organization . Facilitates Organization's Growth Human resource is important because it facilitates the organization's growth by producing effective employees by means of recruitment in order to attain its goals.

Recruitment is a major responsibility of the human resource team. The HER managers need to come up with plans and strategies for hiring the right kind of people. They design the criteria which is best suited for a specific Job description. Their other tasks related to recruitment include formulating the obligations of an employee and the scope of tasks assigned to him or her which would be the basis of the employee's contract. HER manages the employment process from screening resumes to scheduling interviews to processing new employees.

Typically, they determine the most effective methods for recruiting applicants, including assessing which applicants are best suited for the organization's needs. An organization's growth is dependent on the strength of its work force and recruitment is one of the key functions of human resource. Provides guidance and mentoring Human resource provides guidance and mentoring to employees, such as one- to-one coaching which gives the necessary support to them. When needed, HER managers also provide training to the employees according to the requirements of the organization.

Thus, the staff members get the opportunity to sharpen their existing skills or develop specialized skills which in turn, will help them to take up mom new roles. Through this, it will enhance the knowledge and skills of employees Armstrong (2012). Mayhem (2013) stressed that as HER develops the organization, it identifies the capabilities and strengths of employees that could lead to leadership roles within the business. Handles People's Problem Another importance of HER is handling the employee's problems such as viewed this as an important part of the transactional role of HER.

Human Resource could address the employees' negative behavior and under-performance by encouraging them to work according to their potential and by giving them suggestions that could help them improve their work. Performance appraisals help motivate employees since these enable them to form an outline of their goals with best possible efforts. HER may tackle the problem of absenteeism by initiating incentive plans and programs such as flex-time, wellness programs, and project completion perks, these are proven to increase morale and productivity of employees.

Maintains Harmonious Work Atmosphere

Another significant importance of HER is the role it plays in maintaining a harmonious work atmosphere, this is a vital aspect of HER because performance is argyle driven by the work atmosphere or work culture that prevails at the workplace. A good working condition is one of the benefits that the employees can expect from an efficient human resource team. A safe, clean and healthy environment can bring out the best in an employee.

Ensures Compliance and Manages Labor Disputes

Another important aspect of human resource is its role in ensuring lawful employment for all the personnel.

HER ensures that the organization complies with the country employment laws. They complete paperwork necessary for documenting that the company's employees are eligible to work. They also monitor compliance with applicable laws for organizations that receive government contracts, through maintaining applicant flow logs, written affirmative action plans and disparate impact analyses. HER also manages some aspects of labor conflicts, it is the human resource department which acts as a consultant and mediator to sort out those issues in an effective manner.

Grievances are heard from the employee's end and HER will come up with a solution that encourages amicable settlements and alternative dispute resolutions.  Sustains the Business Lastly, HER is important because it sustains the business. HER deliverables such as reasonable pay and competitive benefits; workforce diversity; a happy, healthy, and productive workforce; useful training and career development; dispute resolutions; positive community relations, and good working conditions for employees are elements of sustainability and all are crucial to the business's ongoing success and stability.

An analysis of the framework of strategic human resource management The SHIRR framework provides HER strategies to be integrated with the organizations strategies. Strategy is the approach selected to achieve defined goals in the future. Strategic human resource management determines long term goals and objectives of an enterprise, and the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for carrying out those goals.

It is worthy to note that critics have been questioning the effectiveness of the different frameworks and strategic models, the crucial issue is whether a particular business or enterprise needs for its continued development and success. It is imperative that we study and analyses some of the HER frameworks. HARM Integration and Strategic Fit Perhaps the most significant feature of HARM is the importance attached to tragic integration, which flows from top management's vision and leadership, and which requires the full commitment of people to it.

David Guest (1991) believes that a key policy goal for HARM is strategic integration, by which he means the ability of the organization to integrate HARM issues into strategic plans, to ensure that the various aspects of HARM cohere and to provide for line managers to incorporate an HARM perspective into their decision making. Karen Allege (1989) considers that one of the common themes of the typical definitions of HARM is that human resource policies should be integrated with tragic business planning.

Keith Session (1990) suggests that a feature increasingly associated with HARM is a stress on the integration of HER policies both with one another and with business planning more generally. Strategic fit has received a lot of criticism for many years because its strategy has been systematically and intentionally designed to the business needs when developing HER strategies to achieve congruence between the HER strategies and the organization's business strategies within the context of its external and internal environment.

As pointed out by (Buddha and Aware, 2013) strategic fit ignores employee's interest, it is inflexible and somewhat lacks adaptability. This framework is more inclined to be more pro-management rather than taking into consideration the employee's welfare when it is so important that there must be a balance between the employer-employee relationship. Best Practice Model This approach is based on the assumption that there is a set of best HARM practices that are universal in the sense that they are best in any situation, and that adopting them will lead to superior organizational performance.

A number of lists of "best practices" have been produced, the best known was produced by Prefer (1998) namely: Employment security; Selective hiring; Self-managed teams; High compensation contingent on performance; Training to provide a skilled and motivated workforce; Reduction of status differentials; and Sharing information Patterson et al (1997) associated "best practice" with sophisticated selection and recruitment processes; sophisticated induction programmer; sophisticated training; coherent appraisal systems; flexibility of workforce skills; Job variety on shop floor; use of formal teams; frequent and comprehensive communication to workforce; use of quality improvement teams; harmonize terms and conditions; basic pay higher Han competition; and use of incentive. "Best Practice" as a framework had been commented by many authors as over stated in the sense that if it works in an organization will not necessary work for other strategy due to culture, management style and working practices. Eisenhower and associates (2000) argued that whilst such routines and "elements of best practice" that constitute dynamic capability, work effectively during times of stability, they break down under more turbulent conditions and experiment replaces Eugene Breach (2011) claims that the work necessary to deem and practice the "best" is rarely done.

Most of the time, one will find "good" practices or "smart" practices that offer insight into solutions that may or may not work for a given situation. Scott Ambler (2011) challenges the assumptions that there can be a recommended practice that is best in all cases. Instead, he offers an alternative view, "contextual practice," in which the notion of what is "best" will vary with the context. It appears that the "best practice" model may be beneficial to HARM but it also has certain flaws, before adopting this framework, it is necessary for HER managers is to identify what are most likely the organization's needs and the practice that can be seed to address such needs.

Best practice often fails to take into consideration the organizational context and specific needs of an organization. As a strategy, best practice could more often than not become too rigid and inflexible to cater to employee's needs, resulting in unrest.

Best Fit Model

The best fit model has three different models (life cycle, Competitive Strategies and strategic configuration). To give focus on the life cycle that demonstrate the development of the organization in starting-up, growth, maturity, and decline Armstrong (2011) suggest that HARM needs to use its full potential, to realize its full attention, it must fit to the organization stages of development, he added that as it continues to grow the more it becomes complicated.

The main thrust of the argument for the "best fit model" is that HER strategy becomes more efficient when it is linked or tailored to its surrounding context or environment of the business. Thus, strategic management and organizational effectiveness follows from achieving the best fit between an organization and its external environment. Strategic HARM has borrowed the central concepts of environmental analysis, organization-environment fit, competitive advantage, strategy formulation and implementation, as well as physical, organizational, and human resources. This strategy involves stakeholders as it considers different aspects that could influence the effectiveness of the organization.

This is what is meant of strategic configuration, wherein HARM policies and practices should fit or match the organization's internal environment specifically its workforce, business strategies, management philosophies and interaction styles and external environment such as labor market conditions, unions, task technology, laws and social values. Broadly speaking, I am more inclined to agree with Armstrong conclusion that mongo the SHIRR frameworks, the best fit model is more realistic compared to other frameworks because it is more capable of addressing the different needs and aspects that influence organizational strategies. It offers highly customized and flexible solutions that are designed by balancing business and HER goals, and the company culture and processes. These solutions enable the organization to gain a competitive advantage by meeting the company's specific needs which leads to enhanced business results.

Analyses the strategic human resource process The first part of the human resource process is recognizing the organizational sign and this determines how the organization should be structured and the different organizational functions. The organizational design should serve as a link between human resources management and the overall strategic plan of an organization. Specifically, Armstrong (2007) investigated that the management combines different integration of organizational operation whether there is precariousness in the external environment. This shows that HER managers should be involved in creating the organizational design which makes them vital in human resource planning.

Reilly (2003) stated that it process in which an organization attempts to estimate the demand for labor and evaluate the size, nature and sources of supply which will be required to meet the demand. Hence, HER has the full understanding of the whole organization's behavior, its specific needs and the best possible course of action for proper implementation of such strategies. Moreover, the organizational structure determines the roles and responsibility of the people working within the organization. It also specifies the powering authority and communication. This structure can be identified as centralized or decentralized. Part II: Development and Implementation

The second part is the development and implementation of HER strategies, it is the responsibility of the line managers to implement and enact the policies within organization. They ensure that the policies are put into practice, hitting the organization's targets and goals as they are expected to be done. HER must initially identify the infrastructure and system requirements to support full implementation; it must develop the competency profiles; implement the competency profiles in a staged-way to demonstrate benefits; and lastly report the success stories as competency profiles are implemented. When needed, HER must develop, revise and update competency profiles to meet changing demands of the organization and its personnel.

It must also monitor and evaluate applications to ensure that they are meeting organizational needs, and adjust programs and plans to meet evolving needs. Proper training for development could serve as guide for better execution of HER strategies. Assess the roles in strategic human resource management Armstrong (2012) identifies the various strategic roles of HER professional. He viewed these roles as an essential part of business strategies as they are involved in he implementation and development that is structured with one another. HER professionals. Managers also shape the lives of HER professionals as they strive to become "strategic partners".

For HER professionals, the work of construing their modern social identity can be exciting as well as stressful (Glover & Butler, 2012). Looking ahead, we anticipate increased interest in understanding the dynamics of effective strategic partnerships between HER professionals and managers, for the promise of strategic HARM systems is more likely to be realized when this partnership thrives. The interdependence that characterizes elements of an HARM system extends to the organizational players who enact the system through their daily work. HARM systems come alive in social interactions among organizational members, including HARM system. This set of players HER professionals, line managers, and target employees-?is sometimes referred to as the "HER Triad" Jackson & Schuler, 2003).

HER professionals have become more actively involved in the business planning process; formal policies have become more subject to interpretation by individual managers as they strive to respond to specific and rapidly changing situations. One of the most important role is board of director they ensure that the organization will meet its goals and mission that is operated competently to the best interest of its stakeholders council (2013), in general their responsibility includes strategic planning, finances, organizational operation and human resources therefore the board must have expertise in all aspects to provide hands on management of In assessing the roles in strategic human resource management, it is significant to note that the concepts of partnership and interdependence play in the success of the organizational operation for HER professionals.

There must be high levels of interactions and coordination for HER professionals and the different departments of the organization. Analyses the development and implementation of human resource strategies. Who are involved, how are they involved, and extent of involvement In the analyzing the development and implementation of human resource strategies, we must first take into consideration the organization as a whole and decide who involved, how are they involved and the extent of their involvement. The persons involved are board and senior managers; line managers; and human resource. Primarily, the role of the board and senior managers is to approve and agree as to the strategic plan of the HER.

There may take disagreement in some ways but they will need to come up with certain decisions regarding the company's human resource strategy and its implementation. Communication plays an important role in this decision making process especially when the changes involve the people within the organization as Armstrong (2001) expounded that there should be an appropriate temperate and leadership when managing changes. Incongruous goals, opinions, and policies among upper-level executives can obstruct the cross-system cooperation squired by the strategy. This impediment must be avoided at all times. Line managers identify the staffing needs that are incorporated in the HER strategy, they help HER define the performance criteria for employees and assist in developing the selection tools.

They are closely involved with HER in the implementation of HER strategy by allowing a dynamic partnership to thrive between them. HER has the responsibility to implement and enact the policies within the organization's targets and goals as they are expected to be done. HER must establish itself as the driving force behind the strategy implementation effort. It must be emphasized that HER has the power to generate opportunities to bring employees together with managers and executives, leading from behind the scenes. Implementing the strategy means that HER must help employees to understand the HER strategy and comprehend the reason for the strategy.

HER must also ascertain that employees commit to the strategy and take all possible opportunity to augment the HARM practices can be substantial (Canter 1985) because the successful implementation of HER strategies depends upon the behaviors of employees, and employee behaviors depend, in turn, upon the HARM practices a firm uses. Canter (1984) claimed that employees within the company should at a certain extent be compliant to the policies and procedure of the organization. Adherence to company policies and procedure gives focus and direction to the organization's targets and goals as they are expected to be done leading to a more effective HER strategy.

Besides ensuring compliance, HER must also encourage a culture of pride in the firm's own achievements; reductions of layers in the hierarchy; but also the improvement of lateral communication and giving increased information about company plans. Translate HER Strategies In To Policies Armstrong (2012) cited Canter's phrase that HER strategies are action vehicles, they must be translated to policies that provide guidelines on decision-making and HER practices which enable the strategy to work. As action vehicles, the strategies determine the long term goals and objectives of an organization, and the adoption of courses of action wherein the objectives and other deliverables are clear, fixed and stated.

Organizational Needs Must Be Identified

Armstrong (2011) believes that a significant stage in development and implementation of HER strategy is the identification of organizational needs to know he existing resources. Identifying organizational needs can be crucial for the company and it must be as precise as possible to deal with the various resources. An organization must identify the priorities and importance of the organization needs. There could be a need for training and development, career development, and organization development. HER must examine these in view of their importance to the organizational goals, realities, and constraints.

HER must determine if the identified needs are real, if they are worth addressing, and specify their importance and regency in view of the organizational needs and requirements. HER Plans Must Be Up -or Date Lastly, HER strategies must be up to date a regular basis by evaluating the success of the plan and so the benchmark is being measured. This will determine the overall strategic plan if it became successful in achieving the organization's mission. Keeping an up-date-to-date HER plan is beneficial to an organization, as the plan is always relevant to changing times and the needs of the company. It is also an opportunity for the organization to review, assess and make improvements or make necessary changes on the HER strategy.

It's a good practice to monitor the implementation of the HER strategy, it could be the guiding force in the organization's reviewing of employee performance, awarding promotions, approving leave, hiring and other related concerns. Report strategies will be assessed and applied to the Boston Chocolate and Truffles Company as a rapidly growing business. HER strategies suggest what the organization intends to do to HARM policies as they are aligned and incorporated to the business strategies and company's goals, objectives and intended deliverables wherein strategies are action. Armstrong (2012) stated that different organizations have also different strategies and that there is no such thing as a standard strategy.

However, some strategies and their intentions are quite general others are not they set out two types of HER strategies: general and specific. General HER strategy focuses on the whole organizational in a macro perspective point of view. It's a strategy wherein its proposal will be put into practice which will later have a positive result to the organization performance. This strategy is likely to be expressed as broad-brush statement of aims and purpose, which set the scene for ore specific strategies. It provides a general framework for the plan's goals and define the scope of what the department must undertake and implement to achieve the plan's goals.

General or Overarching HER strategy may be applied to Boston Chocolate and Truffles Co to some extent because it provides the general framework for the company's goal-specific plans and paves the way to more intricate details as regards to objectives, mission, goals and deliverables within the company. General HER strategy impacts everything the department undertakes and what it expects to achieve. Overarching HER strategy is geared towards the development of the entire company and encompasses its overall business activities . There are three main approaches which are: High performance management, high commitment management and high involvement management.

High performance working involves the development of a number of interrelated processes that together make an impact on the performance of the company through its people in such areas as productivity, quality, levels of customer service, growth, and profits. This is achieved by 'enhancing the skills and engaging the enthusiasm of employees'. If one were to apply this particular approach to Boston Chocolate and Truffles Co, the focus will be the company's performance based on the skills and enthusiasm of the employees. The benchmark would then be on productivity, quality, levels of customer service and profits. However, the disadvantage is that high performance approach pushes the employees to be productive. Areas of personal development, training and career enhancement for employees are often neglected.

High commitment management approach emphasized the importance of enhancing mutual commitment. High commitment management has been described as 'A form f management which is aimed at eliciting a commitment so that behavior is primarily self regulated rather than controlled by sanctions and pressures external to the individual, and relations within the organization are based on high levels of trust. Boston Chocolate and Truffles Co could also adopt high commitment management because this approach gives importance to the company's employees by engaging the mechanism for "checks and balance" is self-regulated and based on high level of trust which could be detrimental.

High involvement management approach involves treating employees as partners n the enterprise whose interests are respected and who have a voice on matters that concern them. It is concerned with communication and involvement. The aim is to create a climate in which there is a continuing dialogue between managers and the members of their teams in order to define expectations and share information on the organization's mission, values and objectives. This establishes mutual understanding of what is to be achieved and a framework for managing and developing people to ensure that it will be achieved. The best approach for Boston Chocolate and Truffles Co is high involvement management, this approach focuses on communication and involvement.

The continuing dialogue between managers and of their teams to define expectations and share information regarding the organization's mission, values and objectives through high involvement management is vital if not crucial to the Boston Chocolate and Truffle Company's success. Next, is the specific HER strategies that covers areas such as: human capital management, knowledge management, corporate social responsibility, engagement, organizational development, resounding, talent management, learning and developing, reward and employee relation. Significantly, as the Boston Chocolate and Truffle Co strives to expand and continue to produce finest quality products it has to give focus particularly on the specific HER strategies that are applicable.

Since, one of the company's objectives is to value employee, customers and other stakeholders, the employee relation strategies had been given emphasis since these strategies aid in defining Boston Chocolate and Truffle Co as an organization. At Boston Chocolate and Truffle Co we give emphasis on employee relations strategies which include guidelines coaching managers and employees on how to handle employee relations issues to avoid grievance aggravation and its legal impacts, we advise them how to handle and document corrective action plans and disciplinary action. These also include investigating, obtaining statements, and making recommendations for further action.

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