Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management

Human Resource Management

Introduction

The concept of strategic human resource management (SHRM) became popular in the 1980s with the development of the Harvard Business School's two models integrating strategy and human resource management, namely the matching model and the Harvard framework model. The Matching model was conceptualised by Formbrun et al. (1984, p. 453), who were known as the first formulators of SHRM, and who identified three core elements as necessary for firms to function effectively:

mission and strategy;

organisation strategy; and

human resource management.

These authors emphasised the importance aligning human resource management to organisational strategy. This view is supported by Beer et al. (1984), who have stated that a rapidly changing environment creates an imperative need for a more comprehensive and strategic perspective regarding human resources.

Increasingly, SHRM is becoming ever more popular. Today, human resources are seen as “the available talents and energies of people who are available to an organization as potential contributors to the creation and realization of the organization's mission, vision, strategy and goals” (Jackson and Schuler, 2000, p. 37). Hence, SHRM is not a completely new and revolutionary field - rather its roots can be traced back to the mid-1950s.

Schuler and Jackson (1999, p. 52) defined SHRM as “the pattern of planned human resource developments and activities intended to enable an organization to achieve its goals”. This definition integrates the two main points:

linkage of human resource activities with the organisational strategy; and

harmonisation of various human resource activities.

Research hypotheses

Hypotheses were formulated to test the following: whether a public library's employees have different perceptions of their work from headquarters' (HQ) employees on issues related to SHRM. To test the hypotheses, the participants in this study were categorised as follows: staff working in public libraries (49 participants) and staff working at the HQ (17 participants). It is to be noted that the data collected from HQ has to be used with caution because the number of respondents there was smaller than the respondents from public libraries. The following research hypotheses were investigated:H1. That staff opinion on the qualities required to provide an efficient library service is independent of the status of the library in which they work. H2. That the view of the competencies required by staff during the next five years is independent of the status of the library in which those staff work. H3. That staff perception of the impact of external factors is independent of the status of the library in which they work. H4. That staff opinion on strategic management issues is independent of the status of the library in which they work. H5. That staff perception of motivational factors is independent of the status of the library in which they work. H6. That the general view of staff regarding human resource strategy is independent of the status of the library in which they work.

Methodology for testing hypotheses

The t-test is the most elementary method for comparing two groups' mean scores. It assumes that the variables in the populations from which the sample is ...