HUMAN RESOURCE STRATEGY

Human Resource Strategy

Human Resource Strategy

The case presents a picture of an organization that has a clear business objective to deliver shareholder performance. The company aims at dividends. The company has a clear goal and at the same time acknowledges that its people are important in achieving its goals. Cadbury's approach to SHRM is something that can be considered as “contingency approach”. The company manages its human resources in a contingent manner. Let us discuss the underlying theory of this approach.

Kraft conducted a number of internal focus groups to probe into the impediments employees were facing, and what they would like to see happen at Kraft to improve their outlook. The recommendations from those sessions turned into a serious endeavour the Work-Life Harmony Initiative to address employee's challenges and put effective policies and programs in place. In order to build a solid foundation and ensure that programmatic elements were backed up by a supportive culture, Kraft was careful to create a philosophy towards work-life balance based on cultural values not additions to the Human Resources manual (Kerr and Von Glinow 2007 115-120).

The other key aspect of Krafts approach is the understanding that flexibility needs to be a joint commitment of Kraft and its employees: the proper balance can only be found when both the organization and individual work toward sustaining Krafts vision of a supportive and flexible culture. "We need to be flexible, they need to be flexible," says Quigg. Knowing that the organization values the harmonization of employees work and personal responsibilities provides the freedom for individuals to meet their professional commitments while still being able to attend to personal commitments as well. The underlying theory of Cadbury's approach to managing its human resources is Contingency Theory of SHRM. Advocates of the contingency perspective of SHRM argue that a firm can be effective if its practices and strategy are aligned with other aspects and strategies of the firm. According to Theibert (2001 2832) HR must be closely integrated into the planning process of the firm. They also believed that a firm can achieve success if it is able to develop HR policies and practices that complement and support other HR policies and practices and other elements of the organization's strategic plan.

It is evident from the case that Cadbury views its people as a source of competitive advantage and the main contributors to the company's success. The company seeks changes; it has clear objectives and goals. It realizes that in order for it to achieve its goals and objectives, it must align the efforts of its people. This can only be done through SHRM. Through SHRM the company aligns the HRM activities to its business objectives; SHRM is used in order to integrate the policies, practices and activities of the HR department to the goals of the organization. Perhaps, communication plays an important role in the company's approach. In order to successfully align the efforts of its human resources, the company communicates its plans, strategies and current situation to its ...