HR Strategies and Business Strategies - Essay Example

H.R STRATEGIES AND BUSINESS STRATEGIES by   Department Proffessor’s of the March 21st , Outline Introduction Fit as strategic integrations and its application to organization. Fit as an ideal set of practices and application to organization. Fit as contingency and application to organization. Fit as bundles and application to organization. Conclusion. Reference list. Introduction Business organizations use the resources available to compete with other companies. These include physical resources (for example plant, equipment, and technology), organization merits, and human resources. The personnel include the experienced, skilled, trained and committed of employees. It is allocation and integration of resources that a company needs for competitive advantage. Human resources are directly or indirectly related to all organizational processes and thus are important in allowing an organization to gain and sustain a competitive advantage. To be maximally effective, the personnel management function must be integrally involved in any company strategic management process (Armstrong, 2008, pp 135). Research demonstrate that when HR practices are strategically linked, they result to an economic significant impact on both employees’ outcomes and short and long term measures of corporate financial performance. Some of the interesting aspects of HRM are not just acquiring personnel, building performance, rewarding employees, and maintaining human resources, but also the fusion of these elements with strategic goals of the organization. In any organization, the challenge is managing the interplay of resources, including human resources, to gain and sustain a competitive advantage (Benedict & Davies, 2004, pp 110). There are some approaches that are used in development fit between HR strategy and business strategy and they include fit as (strategic, an ideal set of practices, contingency, bundles) they can also be applicable to an organization. Where a business strategy is defined as the process in which a particular business intends to secure its preferred market against its competitors niche now and in the near future (Wright, 2008, pp 96). Fit as integration and its application to organizations. This is a type of approach in which HR strategies which are linked with aspects like quality, cost of leadership and innovations are closely related to business strategy known as congruent. In such business environments, organization dynamics are keenly taken into consideration. Organization dynamics are referred to as competencies that relate to the general organization structure and the interrelations of different units or departments. The main role of taking a keen consideration of organization dynamics is that it contributes by recognizing the roles and other contributions expected from each unit in the organization. The approach creation of organization is a very key issue for it gives the general direction of organization of what is expected to be achieved in future. The vision can be created through communication within the organization (Decenzo & Robbins, 2010, pp 178). The organization dynamisms include the culture created within, which influences how people work in the organization. Such cultures have resulted into application of performance management, where performance management involves practices done within the organization to make sure that each goal is consistently being met in an effectively and efficient way. It mainly focuses on performance of employees, organization, or other processes to improve a product. In this approach, performance management works when it is linked with the workforce and what is to be achieved developmentally. The result of this is to put all the employees’ expectations in a motivating way so that they are able to achieve goals (Armstrong, 2008, pp 138). The strategic fit approach uses dynamism which enables all individuals, employees, middle, mid and lower level management interests to be integrated and made useful by the HRM strategies. The organization uses the link to come up with strategic plans to set up what the business is expected to achieve in terms of goals and targets. The approach involves both hard HRM which mainly is the use of available resources in the organization with innovation and quality results expected, and soft HRM whose main focus is the work force with communication being the main outcome expected. In this type of approach, majority of decision making policies and practices are influenced by HRM concepts. The approach can be productive to an organization as it encourages dynamisms, creativity, communication and innovations among its employees (Wright, 2008, pp 97). Fit as an ideal set of practices In this type of approach, the organization business strategy and other HRM practices and policies are seen to be tight, meaning that they are to close, and as a result they need to be intergrated in an organization in order to get directions of achieving organization goals. A consideration is taken regarding business corporate objectives as they need to be created and implemented, where business corporate objectives is developing mission statements, aims, objectives, plans or strategies at the highest levels of the organization. In this approach there are main issues that need to be put into consideration: Suitable persons or employees need to be selected or recruited to meet business needs. The business belief is that orgnizations’ performance is directly related to the kind of employees working for the organization. Business objectives set in the organization become the guide and direction when the organization is seeking a better performance or achievement. Feedback is important and is taken as a major consideration; this relates to feedback to the employees and organization on how the organization is performing. The approach also takes an interest in good performance which should be rewarded, it becomes a motivating factor to an organization. It can also improve employees’ productivity. Employees and other human resource skills and knowledge need to be developed to continue meeting the dynamic business needs; these can be achieved by in-trainings or refresher courses. From analysis of the strategic fit, the main focus is on the employees who are expected to be productive in the organization by applying their skills, knowledge and experience. Through this strategic fit, the organization only adopts a general HRM policy to achieve organization goals. It may also adopt some best practices which may include continuous development, performance related pay and bench marking its activities to increase productivity. The main point of the approach is to match the planned HRM model to meet the business objectives (Benedict & Davies ,2004, pp 110).. The approach can have some advantages, for example, it directly improves performance of an organization; by motivating employees, production can increase; use of best practices can improve productivity in the organization; it is also business objective focused type of production which can work with set targets. But the limitations of the approach are: best practices at times cannot increase productivity; it may lead to other complications and employees have divergent views which can conflict with the objectives of the organization (Wright, 2008, pp 97). Fit as contingency In this type of strategic fit approach, the organization identifies that the HRM strategies, policies and practices need to be in line with the circumstances of the organization. The use of vertical intergration between the HRM and other depaartments, or between the levels of employees is evident in this type of approach where communication and decisions flow vertically within the organization. The management who use this approach do associate or intergrate individuals’ objectives with the broad organizations goals. Harmonization takes place so as to reduce issues that could have resulted due to conflict of interest between the two. The other key point of this kind of approach is that it is links all soft HRM in the organization. These include processes, policies and procedure s which are seen to be part and parcel of the people management approach. But a bit of hard HRM is used in the process which include some practices of benchmarking (Decenzo & Robbins, 2010, pp 178). The best practice of such strategic fit is that in can compliment internal business enviroment which include internal policiesand procedures of accomplishing tasks, which are then intergrated and measured using external market strategies. This helps the organization to improve its internal processes and procedures with using some of the external good practices to bench mark. The approach gives the organization a competitive advantage over its rivals or competitors. The strategic fits of contingency method has been used universally or world-wide because of its ability to identify, intergrate and compare internal and external factors within the organization. External and internal factors directly influence how an organization is managed, with some of the factors being manageable while other are not manageable, it gives the business the challenge to plan and manage such factors(Decenzo & Robbins, 2010, pp 175). The method if applied in the organization, increases the productivity of the organization because its major focus is to have a competitive edge in the market. It also gives the organization the opportunity and flexibility to apply the best practices and plan for the factors influencing its employees’ activities within the organization (Beardwell & Claydon,2007, pp144). Fits of bundle In this type of approach, there is intergration of HR practices and policies which co-exist with business strategies. The approach is then divided into three types of internal fits. The first is a fit to deal with set of practices; this was designed to deal with issues that are seen to be ideal in the organization, normal and accepted practices. The second is the fit of contingency which creates an enviroment that allows a number of dynamic practices; it is flexible in its usage. The third is the fit of bundles which is a set up made of a number of practices in the organization. It has some distictive types of patterns that can be used to address a number of aspects in the organization (Decenzo & Robbins, 2010, pp 178). The approach uses analytical and wide perspective dynamism, which does develop and implements a number of clear bundles of individual characteristics. The strategy is linked with development strategy, where the employes are allowed to perform tasks with their motivations being dependent on the strategic bundles set. There is a clear link between the HRM and organizations performance, with no clear differentiations of emerging situations. It uses majority of other approaches and techniques. The combination of HRM practices leads to success in the organization. The main focus is on both hard HRM ( competence frame work) and soft HRM ( development strategies). The organization that uses the approach does have a unique and unitrist perceptions. The advatage of the method is the use of analytical method in conceptualizing various activities and decisions(Beardwell & Claydon,2007, pp148). conclusion The bundle approach strategic fit is the most comprehesive approach that can be used in the organization to bring positive results because it comprises a bundle of other methods. Any organization can use it to increase its productivity. The approach has less limitations compared to the other methods. It is the role of the HR to come with the best strategic fit that is competitive. Reference lists Armstrong, H, (2008). A handbook of human resource management. New York, US, Routage publishing, pages 123-456. Benedict, FW & Davies (2004) ‘Implementing business strategies: The best strategies’, The Journal of change and management of change, vol. 5, no. 9, October, pp. 109-14. Beardwell, D & Claydon, C (2007) human resource management: a contemporary approach:London, UK, prentice Hall. Pages 23-156. Decenzo, D. & Robbins, S. (2010). Fundamentals of human resource management, Nepal, India, wiley publishers. Pages 134-345. Wright, H. (2008) ‘Management theory and practices. Achieving Affectivity and Efficiency’, The Journal of implementing organisational changes, vol. 2, no. 3, May, pp. 91-98. Read More