Strategic Human Resource Management as a Competitive Advantage: A UK Perspective

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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Research Questions2

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK3

Human Resource Management3

Universalistic Perspective3

Strategic Human Resource Management4

Best Practices Approach5

Configurational Approach7

CHAPTER 3: EMPIRICAL LITERATURE REVIEW9

Moving From Administrative to Strategic Management in HR9

Sustainable Competitive Advantage through SHRM12

CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY14

Primary Data14

Participants14

Data analysis15

REFERENCES16

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

"With the evolution of electronic commerce, globalisation, consolidations, and intricate strategic alliances, companies will be challenged to do their work well" (Wei, 2006, 49). The competitive environment both domestically and overseas is pressing human resource (HR) professionals to bring adequately talented workers on board, while they themselves need to be competent at strategising and partnering with a clear understanding of the organisational business (Tsui & Wu, 2005, 115). Conway and Sheehan (2003) observation about HR's achievements, reflects contemporary discussions and research on HR competencies: The continuous problem or worry of all the HR administrators is that they are unable to prove their importance and contribution to the organisation (p. 292).

The personnel administrators, commonly known as HR professionals today, predominantly served the needs of managers and employees in the past, and therefore, their role as a strategist or partner is relatively new. Expectations are that they develop expertise at all levels of the organisation and use their knowledge for organisational growth and competitive advantage (Mak & Akhtar, 2003, 511). It is, thus, no longer sufficient for these professionals to possess good social interaction skills. Now, their successes come in part from delivering business-oriented services and in part from partnering with their internal and external customers, which hinges on their ability to improve their competencies, effectiveness, and value.

The intention of this study is, therefore, to examine the strategic nature of human resource management in the 21st century. Furthermore, the research will analyse the relationship between strategic human resource management and organisational performance.

Research Questions

The research will answer the following research questions:

What are the various theories related to strategic human resource management?

How can human resource management be seen from a strategic point of view?

What is the relationship between human resource management and organisational performance

How can strategic human resource management lead an organisation to a sustainable competitive advantage?

How can strategic human resource management improve organisational performance?

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Human Resource Management

The HRM, which proposes to develop the dynamic input of human capital of a firm and at the same time attempts to accomplish other social and personal aims of workers, have gone through drastic changes in the last few years.

Human Resource Management is related to the “individuals”. Considering the fact that Human Resource Management helps in attracting, training, motivating and maintaining the prominent workers because it gives both efficiency and effectiveness to the operations of the company, it is now being applied strategically. This strategic use of HRM is called Strategic human resource management (SHRM) (Björkman & Fan, 2002, 854).

Universalistic Perspective

The universalistic perspective suggests that there is a set of practices which are regarded as 'best practices in HRM' and work in all organisations regardless of ...