human resource strategy

Perspective

Ploy (specific manoeuvres)
Chris Jarvis
10
HRM Strategy
Deliberate and emergent strategies
Unrealised Strategy
Emergent
Chris Jarvis
Source: Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, Lampel, 1998, Strategy Safari, Prentice Hall
Operations Outbound logistics
Marketing and sales
After sales service
Employee management Support Activities Firm’s infrastructure
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Chris Jarvis
HRM Strategy
HRM Strategy
Human Resource Strategy
Chris Jarvis
1
HRM Strategy
The Idea of Strategic HRM

No definitive, robust theory. No agreement on meaning, factors, outcomes. how is SHRM linked with organisational performance? difficult to establish firm relationships given intervening factors: structure, culture & wider environment various typologies of business and associated HR strategies Empirical studies tend to use
Rational, logical versus interpreted & political
Strategic Choice
(bounded rationality, shaping the environment)
Strategy Implementation
(programmes, resources & responsibilities)
Chris Jarvis
2
HRM Strategy
Stages in a Corporate Strategy Process
Organisation Mission and Goals
(Define the business)
Strategic Analysis
(current situation, programmes and performance)
Steerage and Umbrellas

Set direction but unknown waters, move quickly or slowly? Focuses effort unity vs group-think & peripheral vision Defines the organisation a shorthand but slogans may override complexity & distort reality Provides consistency Provide order, a cognitive structure to simplify, explain & facilitate action but creativity thrives on “loose” order
5
Long-term - 5+ yrs Intermediate-term 1- 5 yrs.
Chris Jarvis
HRM Strategy
Standard Corporate Planning Picture
SWOT + STEEPLE Internal & external analysis
11
HRM Strategy
Form and Formation

Strategies have a form and they are formulated

So what is the form of HRM strategy of organisation X? Deliberate broad outlines with details emerging en-route
Manufacturing
Accounting
Marketing
R&D
4
HRM Strategy
Strategy Formulation
Managers analyse the situation & develop strategies to achieve the mission. SWOT analysis: planning to identify

general and specific guides to action. Programme arrangements and allocations. Innovations New initiatives, programmes and projects
Chris Jarvis
7
HRM Strategy
Organizational Corporate & business plans Strengths: manufacturing ability, Short-term - less than 1 yr. marketing skills Functional plans? Weaknesses: high labor turnover, weak Rolling cycle - amend plans constantly? financials. Environmental Opportunities: new markets Threats: economic recession, competitors
Chris Jarvis
8
HRM Strategy
Michael Porter -- Value-Added Chain Analysis
Support Activities
Technology development Procurement
Primary Inbound Activities logistics

(after H Mintzberg)
Chris Jarvis
13
ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱ
HRM Strategy
Corporate strategy develop a plan of policies, allocations, programmes to maximise long-run value
• • • • • •
Chris Jarvis
Concentrate Diversify Globalize Vertically Integrate Down-size Flexible firm
Chris Jarvis
3
HRM Strategy
Planning Levels
CEO Corporate Level Corporate HQ
Business Level
Aviation
Heating
Trucks
Plastics Consultancy
Functional Level
Chris Jarvis
Mintzberg on Strategy
Plan (intended) direction, guide, a course of action. Pattern (realised)

Position

consistency in behaviour over time e.g. high end, low risk, patterns evolved out of the past. What plan have we actually pursued over the last 5 years? Locating our HRM in a position, unique and valuable, involving a set of activities, X marks the spot. look inwards and upwards to a grand vision of the enterprise. The “theory” (mind-set) of the business. Less easy to change than position e.g. from bureaucracy to innovation.
Interpersonal figurehead leader Information Processing liaison monitor disseminator Spokesperson Decision-making initiator/changer resource allocator disturbance handler negotiator
Schools of Strategy
Prescriptive

Descriptive Schools (metaphors)

Design School Strategy (formation as a process of conception) Planning (formal process) Positioning (analytical process and techniques)
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Chris Jarvis
HRM Strategy
CEO and HR Director as strategists

Conceive the big idea? Let everyone else get on with the details? But the job is not like this Mintzberg on managerial roles
• • • •
Grow Stabilize Retrench React/Panic
6
HRM Strategy
Manifestation of Strategy and Policy
Maintenance

Standing plans (programmed decisions) policies, rules, and standard operating procedures (SOP).
Source: Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, Lampel, Enterpreneurial (visionary) 1998, Strategy Safari, Prentice Hall Cognitive (mental) Learning (emergent, adaptation, incremental) Power (a process of negotiation between interests) Cultural (collective values, beliefs and behaviours) Environmental (reactive, contingent) Configuration (process of transformation from one state to another - management of change)

large-scale questionnaire surveys (Storey) case-studies on SHRM.
Theoretical &empirical gaps between rhetoric and real experience - downsizing and redundancies etc.