Essay on "Strategy and Human Resource Management"

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The senior management identifies the goals of the organization and gives it a sense of direction.

The second step is an analysis of the organization's internal and external environment. A SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) assessment is a part of this process.

Based on the analysis, the next step is to come up with a strategy that will help the organization to reach its goals.

The implementation of the strategies constitutes the next step and this involves the use of different techniques to achieve the goals of the organization.

The final step is to evaluate the different strategies and make changes as and when needed.

Despite the HR model that is used by different organizations, the above mentioned processes are followed. A brief overview of the different SHRM models are discussed below:

Control-based model

In the control-based model, the management directs and controls the employee's role and performance. "According to this perspective, management structures and HR strategy are instruments and techniques to control all aspects of work to secure a high level of labour productivity and a corresponding level of profitability" (Bratton, 2001, p.50). This approach was based on the idea of performance and productivity by industrial sociologists who believed that close monitoring and constant pushing is needed for employees to perform better. The managers assign tasks, allocate the time and resources required for the completion of the task and monitors whether the employee completes it within the allotted time. The rewards are based on the performance of the employee and his or her completion of the allotted task.

Though it can be successful in boosting the performance of employees in the short run, this model offers little room for any form of creativity and thinking from employees and there is a high possibility for the employees to feel frustrated after a point of time. Moreover, control and hierarchy differs from organization to organization and this invariably leads to a lot of tensions between the employees and the management. The HR strategies that follow this model is likely to use monetary incentives as a way to motivate employees and help them to sustain a higher performance.

Resource-based model

The resource-based model, on the other hand, believes that employees are critical for the organization's growth and development and their knowledge, learning, creativity, understanding and culture can determine the future of the organization. According to Shields (2007, p.97), "The key to sustained competitive advantage lies in having a workforce equipped with organizationally specific knowledge, skills and abilities that are difficult if not impossible for competitors to either duplicate or poach." Also, a company can gain a sustained competitive advantage when it has human resources that are valuable, rare, difficult to imitate and are supported by the organization (VRIO).

This model is ideal for companies that operate in a rapidly changing environment because they always have to come up with new ideas and innovative ways to cope with the changes. It also makes the best use of the individual talents and uses them to the organization's advantage. The human resources feel recognized and happy and this motivates them to work harder, thereby leading to a higher performance.

Integrative model

Bamberger and Meshoulam (2000) integrate the control-based and resource-based models to come up with a new approach that combines the two. They believed that both the models constitute the ends of a spectrum and they came up with an approach that provided a mid-point for these two models. The two main pillars of this theory are acquisition and development and locus of control. The acquisition and development aspect is about providing the right training for employees within the organization so that their performance is superior. On the other hand, organizations can also buy high-quality talent from the labor market so that the overall performance of the company is high. Locus of control, on the other hand, is about monitoring employees by creating a sense of belonging and mutual trust and making the employees feel responsible for their own high performance. The HR strategies in this model will focus on creating the mutual trust so that performance comes automatically. The rewards are internal promotions that aim to help employees to stay with the company for longer periods of time.

There are four variations of this model and these can be viewed as the four quadrants with locus of control on the y-axis and the acquisition policy on the x-axis. The commitment HR strategy is based on high locus of control and internal acquisition and this strategy aims to empower employees and motivate them to work towards promotions and rewards. The traditional HR strategy follows an external acquisition policy with low locus of control and the collaborate strategy is about outsourcing work to external consultants and monitoring their performance based on their end result or outcome of their efforts. The final strategy is the paternalistic strategy which has a low locus of control and internal acquisitions. In this strategy, the company offers internal promotions for their compliance with the established processes and work tasks (Bratton, 2001). Bamberger and Mesoulam (2000) suggest that most North American companies follow the traditional or the commitment HR strategy.

Case studies

UC, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley is one of the top educational institutions in the world with the highest number of distinguished graduate programs in the U.S. Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, this institution offers more than 300 graduate and undergraduate degree programs across various disciplines.

Such a mammoth university requires a large number of teaching and non-teaching staff and many of these employees come from diverse backgrounds. According to the HR department at UC Berkeley, women constitute 60% of the workforce while non-whites account for 43% of its total employees. As an organization, UC Berkeley has to provide child care, health care, disability payments, flexible work schedules and so on.

To cope with this, the university lays down the skills and competencies required by employees to work effectively in a diverse environment and employees are recruited based on the presence of these skills. The HR department ensures that all its recruiters use good faith without any form of bias while recruiting minorities and women. Besides the skills required for the job, they also focus on the transferable skills and prior experience of the applicants. The interview process includes a diverse panel to eliminate bias and to have different perspectives of the applicants so that the right candidate can be identified unanimously. Finally, there is an understanding of the cultural differences so that everyone is cordial and respectful of others. This is a part of their organization's culture and this makes it easy for the university to cope with diversity (Human Resources at UC Berkeley, 2010).

This organization uses the integrative approach model and the HR strategies revolve around helping the employee to generate a mutual trust and understanding. Moreover, the employees are smoothly integrated into the organization and they become responsible for their performance. There is an overall sense of belonging with the university and it gives employees pride to be a part of UC Berkely. All this has a positive impact on their performance.

Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk is a company based in Denmark and is a world leader in diabetes care. It has international production facilities in seven countries around the world and has a global workforce of about 29,000 people. It also markets… READ MORE