What is Strategic Human Resource Management?
In Human Resource (HR) and management circles nowadays there is substantially talk about Strategic Human Resource Management and countless costly books can be seen on the shelves of bookshops. But what precisely is SHRM (Strategic Human Resource Development), what are its important characteristics and how does it differ from regular human resource management?
SHRM or Strategic human resource management is a branch of Human resource management or HRM. It is a fairly new field, which has emerged out of the parent discipline of human resource management. Substantially of the early or so called classic HRM literature treated the notion of technique superficially, rather as a purely operational matter, the outcomes of which cascade down throughout the organisation. There was a sort of unsaid division of territory among individuals-centred values of HR and harder enterprise values where corporate strategies seriously belonged. HR practitioners felt uncomfortable in the war cabinet like atmosphere where corporate strategies had been formulated.
Definition of SHRM
Strategic human resource management can be defined as the linking of human resources with strategic objectives and objectives in order to strengthen business efficiency and develop organizational culture that foster innovation, flexibility and competitive advantage. In an organisation SHRM indicates accepting and involving the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation and implementation of the company's tactics via HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, education and rewarding personnel.
How SHRM differs from HRM
In the last two decades there has been an escalating awareness that HR functions were like an island unto itself with softer many people-centred values far away from the difficult world of true business. In order to justify its personal existence HR functions had to be observed as even more intimately connected with the strategy and day to day operating of the enterprise side of the enterprise. Several writers in the late 1980s, started clamoring for a far more strategic approach to the management of persons than the regular practices of regular management of folks or industrial relations models. Strategic human resource management focuses on human resource programs with extended-term objectives. Rather of focusing on internal human resource challenges, the focus is on addressing and solving troubles that impact men and women management programs in the lengthy run and quite often globally. For that reason the main objective of strategic human resources is to raise employee productivity by focusing on organization obstacles that happen outside of human resources. The major actions of a strategic human resource manager are to determine important HR areas where techniques can be implemented in the extended run to improve the overall employee motivation and productivity. Communication between HR and top management of the provider is very important as with no active participation no cooperation is doable.
Crucial Characteristics of Strategic Human Resource Management
The important features of SHRM are
- There is an explicit linkage between HR policy and practices and general organizational strategic aims and the organizational atmosphere
- There is some organizing schema linking individual HR interventions so that they are mutually supportive
- A lot of the responsibility for the management of human resources is devolved down the line
Trends in Strategic Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management experts are increasingly faced with the troubles of employee participation, human resource flow, performance management, reward systems and high commitment work systems in the context of globalization. Older solutions and recipes that worked in a local context do not perform in an international context. Cross-cultural difficulties play a key role right here. These are some of the main matters that HR pros and best management involved in SHRM are grappling with in the 1st decade of the 21st century:
- Internationalization of market place integration.
- Increased competition, which might possibly not be local or even national via free of charge marketplace ideology
- Rapid technological adjust.
- New ideas of line and general management.
- Consistently altering ownership and resultant corporate climates.
- Cross-cultural issues
- The economic gravity shifting from 'developed' to 'developing' nations
SHRM also reflects some of the principal contemporary challenges faced by Human Resource Management: Aligning HR with core company method, demographic trends on employment and the labour market place, integrating soft abilities in HRD and lastly Information Management.
References
- Armstrong, M (ed.) 192a) Methods for Human Resource Management: A Total Organization Method. London:Kogan Page
- Beer, M and Spector,B (eds) (1985) Readings in Human Resource Management. New York: Cost-free Press
- Boxall, P (1992) 'Strategic Human Resource Management: Beginnings of a New Theoretical Sophistication?' Human Resource Management Journal, Vol.two No.three Spring.
- Fombrun, C.J., Tichy, N,M, and Devanna, M.A. (1984) Strategic Human Resource Management. New York:Wiley
- Mintzberg, H, Quinn, J B, Ghoshal, S (198) The Technique Process, Prentice Hall.
- Truss, C and Gratton, L (1994) 'Strategic Human Resource Management: A Conceptual Approach', International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol.five No.3