Unit 6

I. Information for study.

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Strategic human resource management (hrm)

At 3M, a company famous for fostering employee innovation, human resource issues are increasingly an integral part of strategic management. Thus 3M is at the forefront of a trend toward recognizing human resources as a crucial element in the strategic success of organizations. In a growing number of organizations, such as 3M and CARE, high-level managers within the human resource management function participate directly in strategy implementation. They also help coordinate human resource aspects of strategy implementation. In this section, we review major aspects of the human resource management process before exploring in greater depth the main reasons for the growing strategic role of human resource management.

The hrm Process: An Overview

As suggested by the HRM process shown in Figure 12-1, human resource management encompasses a number of important activities. One critical aspect of the process, human resource planning, assesses the human resource needs associated with strategic management and help identify staffing needs. The staffing component of the process includes attracting and selecting individuals for appropriate positions. Once individuals become part of the organization, their ability to contribute effectively is usually enhanced by various development and evaluation efforts, such as training and periodic performance evaluations. Compensating employees for their efforts is another important factor in the HRM process, because adequate rewards are critical not only to attracting but also to motivating and retaining valuable employees. Finally, managers must respond to various issues that influence work-force perceptions of the organization and its treatment of employees.

In order to explore human resource management in an orderly fashion, the various activities that make up the HRM process are discussed sequentially in this part. The components, though, are actually highly interrelated. For example, when a group of British financiers took over the British arm of F.W. Woolworth from its American parent in 1982, the chain of 1000 stores had a tarnished image and 30,000 employees with a reputation for poor service. Investigation revealed many interrelated problems, such as poor employment interviewing practices (interviews typically lasted 10 minutes), little training for either sales staff mangers, and a components of the HRM process collectively reinforced the service problems.

Human resource professionals operating within human resource departments typically play a major role in designing the various elements in the HRM process and in supporting their use by line managers. Nevertheless, line managers ultimately are responsible for the effective utilization of human resources within their units and, thus, carry out many aspects of the HRM process, particularly as they relate to implementing strategic plans

Fig. 12 – 1