Strategic HRM is an approach to making decisions on the intentions and plans of the organization concerning the employment relationship and its recruitment, training, development, performance management, reward, and employee relations policies and practices. It is an essential component of the organization's corporate or business strategy. (Armstrong, Michael 2006, 45-67)
Strategic HRM is concerned with the relationship between human resource management and strategic management in the firm. Strategic HRM refers to the overall direction the organization wishes to pursue in achieving its objectives through people. It is argued that, because human capital is a major source of competitive advantage, and in the last analysis it is people who implement the strategic plan, top management must take these key considerations fully into account in developing corporate strategies. Strategic HRM is an integral part of those strategies.
Explanation
The Meaning Of Strategic Hrm
According to Hendry and Pettigrew (1986), strategic HRM has four meanings:
1. The use of planning.
2. A coherent approach to the design and management of personnel systems based on an employment policy and manpower strategy and often underpinned by a 'philosophy'.
3. Matching HRM activities and policies to some explicit business strategy. (Armstrong, Michael 2006, 45-67)
4. Seeing the people of the organization as a 'strategic resource' for the achievement of 'competitive advantage'.
The main features of strategic HRM as defined by Dyer and Holder (1988) are:
Organizational level - because strategies involve decisions about key goals, major policies and the allocation of resources, they tend to be formulated at the top.
Focus - strategies are business - driven and focus on organizational effectiveness; thus in this perspective people are viewed primarily as resources to be managed toward the achievement of strategic business goals.
Framework - strategies by their very nature provide unifying frameworks that are at once broad, contingency - based and integrative. They incorporate a full complement of HR goals and activities designed specifically to fit extant environments and to be mutually reinforcing or synergistic.
Roles - as the foregoing suggests, strategy - making generally is the responsibility of line managers, with personnel playing a supportive role. (Armstrong, Michael 2006, 45-67)
Origins of the concept
The concept of strategic HRM was first formulated by Fombrunet al (1984) who wrote that three core elements are necessary for firms to function effectively:
1. Mission and strategy.
2. Organization structure.
3. Human resource management.
They defined strategy as a process through which the basic mission and objectives of the organization are set, and a process through which the organization uses its resources to achieve its objectives.
They also made a distinction between the three levels of managerial work: