4.Boxall, Peter. Strategic Human Resource Management..doc

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Strategic Human Resource ManagementBoxall, Peter. "Strategic Human Resource Management."

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) is a major field of human resourcemanagement (HRM) concerned with the wa s in which HRM is critical to the!ia ilit of the firm and with the wa s in which it ma la a asis for sustainedcom#etiti!e ad!antage. $ reasona l effecti!e human resource (HR) strateg is anecessar condition of usiness !ia ilit % $ll firms need to recruit and moti!ate

#eo#le who ha!e the s&ills to concei!e and conduct the firm's usiness. utstandingHR strategies can hel# firms to achie!e su#erior #erformance.

Conceptual Overview

Strategic HRM is interested in relationshi#s among HR acti!ities and in relationshi#s etween #atterns of HR acti!ities !ariousl called HR strategies, models, undles,

st les, or s stems and the firm's internal and external contexts. *t is concerned withma##ing the HR strategies firms ado#t, with understanding wh the do so, and with

uilding theor on how HR strateg can e used to enhance organi+ationaleffecti!eness. oing e ond a shareholder to a sta&eholder #ers#ecti!e, it is alsoconcerned with the lin&s etween HRM and em#lo ee and societal well- eing.

he identification and diagnosis of HR strateg is no eas tas&. nl the largest firmstend to ha!e ex#licit goal statements for their o!erall HR strateg . /!en when the do,one must e careful in ta&ing them at face !alue. *n HRM, as#irational rhetoric mamas& a more o##ortunistic and #ragmatic realit , and road #olicies are alwa s o#ento the inter#retations of managers, oth general and s#ecialist, and sometimes theiracti!e su !ersion. 0urthermore, #articular #atterns of HRM are laid down at certaincritical moments in an organi+ation's histor , and managers find themsel!es wor&ingwithin these traditions without necessaril eing a le to ex#lain how all the #ieces gothere. HR goals ma not e seriousl anal +ed unless some &ind of crisis emerges inthe firm's growth or #erformance that forces reconsideration and restructuring. hecom#lexities are greatest in large, di!ersified, and transnational firms where HRstrategies t #icall !ar across jo categories, worlaces, industries, and countries.

$nal sis must start somewhere, howe!er. he field of SHRM gained im#etus fromthe wor& of Michael Beer and his colleagues at Har!ard Business School whode!elo#ed an im#ortant conce#tual framewor& in 1234. his framewor& seesmanagers interacting with sta&eholder interests (such as those of shareholders,em#lo ees, and, where the exist, unions) and situational factors (such as usinessstrateg , the la or mar&et, and technolog ) to de!elo# their own HR choices. heselead to HR outcomes (such as !arious le!els of em#lo ee com#etence andcommitment), which, in turn, ha!e longer-term im#acts on organi+ationaleffecti!eness and on societal and indi!idual well- eing.

he Har!ard framewor& sought to integrate the huge range of HR choices that might e ado#ted considering the differences etween bureaucratic, market , and clan models of HRM. he fundamental goals of HRM are seen to differ across these st les

or models. he ureaucratic model is concerned with control and efficienc , usingtraditional authorit and such sta#les of #ersonnel management as jo descri#tions


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and jo e!aluation to #ro!ide order and e5uit . his HRM a##roach is regarded asrele!ant to mar&ets with sta le technolog and em#lo ment le!els. he mar&et HRMa##roach, on the other hand, aims to treat em#lo ees more li&e su contractors,fostering short-term exchanges and #erformance-related #a s stems. his is seen asrele!ant to fast-changing en!ironments such as high-fashion merchandising,

ad!ertising, and #rofessional s#orts. 0inall , clan HRM s stems are seen as uildingmore diffuse &inshi# lin&s, fostering shared !alues, teamwor&, and strongcommitment in organi+ations see&ing long-term ada#ta ilit . his is seen as rele!antto firms #ursuing 5ualit and inno!ation. 6om ining as#ects of two or e!en threemodels is seen as useful when facing com#lex en!ironments.

he main message in the Har!ard framewor& is that HRM goals can, and should, !ar ased on contextual factors and that firms should aim to de!elo# a relati!elconsistent st le. his em#hasis was echoed in im#ortant models de!elo#ed RandallSchuler and Susan 7ac&son in 1238, 9ee : er and erald Holder in 1233, and 7ames Baron and :a!id ;re#s in 1222, among others. /xternal fit, or alignment withthe firm's roader strateg and en!ironment, and internal fit, or alignment within its

#ortfolio of HR acti!ities, are thus &e conce#ts within SHRM.

*n , Peter Boxall and 7ohn Purcell noted that achie!ing these forms of fit is mademore difficult the fact that cost effecti!eness in the current com#etiti!een!ironment, while extremel im#ortant, is onl one strategic goal. $s man studiesha!e em#hasi+ed in the #ast


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#osition to de!elo# !alua le and uni5ue intellectual ca#ital. *n 122D, Boxall noted thatwhen such #eo#le are managed through su#erior organi+ational #rocesses (such ashighl #roducti!e forms of cross-functional teamwor&), then firms can de!elo#sources of Ahuman resource ad!antage that are dee#l em edded and hard tore#licate.

Critical Commentary and Future Directions

Research in SHRM is dominated, as it should e, studies of the relationshi#s etween HR s stems and organi+ational #erformance. his has een made difficult lac& of consensus on how HR s stems should e defined? lists of #ractices to eincluded !ar enormousl . *t hel#s, as Brian Bec&er and Barr erhart argued in122D, if HRM s stems are defined in terms of their under#inning #rinci#les and &e

#rocesses rather than solel at the le!el of s#ecific #ractices (such as different t #es of #a , a##raisal, and training #ractices), which are ine!ita l affected the s#ecific

contexts of firms, industries, and societies.

@hile some writers continue to argue for the uni!ersal a##lica ilit of their list of HR #ractices, most are s&e#tical a out indiscriminate ad!ocac of an HR model that isculturall ound (such as models de!elo#ed in the lightl unioni+ed and highlindi!idualistic E.S. context). :ifferent societies regulate HRM in different wa s, andwor&forces in different countries exhi it different ca#a ilities and cultural norms, asis widel recogni+ed in the literature on international HRM.

Eni!ersalism at a dee#er le!el should not, howe!er, e written off. @hile s#ecific HR #ractices and institutions !ar across contexts, Bec&er and erhart, and Boxall and

Purcell, among others, argue that research is ca#a le of highlighting principles ofmore general a##lica ilit in terms of how wor& should e designed and #eo#lemanagement #rocesses de!elo#ed if #articular effects are desired in a gi!en context.

*n terms of research and #ractitioner interest, an im#ortant line of en5uir centers onthe im#acts and desira ilit of high-performance work systems (HP@Ss, also!ariousl defined as high-involvement work processes and high-commitmentmanagement ). HP@Ss contain a mix of #ractices designed to enhance em#lo eea ilities, moti!ation, and o##ortunit (the $M framewor&) to contri ute. *n 122F, aE.S.- ased stud Mar& Huselid of around 1,=== firms found that HP@Ssim#ro!ed financial #erformance, largel through #ositi!e im#acts on em#lo eeretention and #roducti!it .

He did not, howe!er, find much e!idence that these associations were enhanced external and internal fit. his is most li&el due to the wa s in which these conce#tswere theori+ed and measured. Huselid's wor& hel#ed to s#ar& a major methodologicalde ate. @hile it included o jecti!e data on com#an #erformance, data on the firm'scom#etiti!e strategies and HR #ractices were o tained from a single res#ondent (thesenior HR manager). Co data were o tained from line managers (who ma !ariouslinter#ret, a##l , and su !ert HR #olicies) or from em#lo ees (who ma !ariouslcom#l with, e moti!ated , or resist the o!ertures of their managers). $s Purcellnoted in 1222, this means that !ital information on #rocesses on how effecti!el

#olicies ha!e een im#lemented is missing.


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Res#onses to these sorts of criticisms ha!e lead to im#ro!ed model uilding, s#ellingout more full the lin&ages in!ol!ing line managers and em#lo ees within the A lac&

ox of the firm, as shown in wor& in Purcell and his colleagues. Models ofinter!ening !aria les are im#ortant in the theori+ation of how HR s stems wor&, andare essential if we are to understand when and how costl in!estments in human

resources can ecome sources of sustaina le com#etiti!e ad!antage. he est studiesa!aila le ha!e ensured that em#lo ee res#onses to HR #ractices are measured. 0orexam#le, wor& in 1222 Ro ert Ganden erg, Hettie Richardson, and 9orrina/astman incor#orated em#lo ee #erce#tions of high-in!ol!ement wor& #rocesses andshowed that higher le!els of these #rocesses were associated with etterorgani+ational #erformance in a sam#le of insurance com#anies. *n the line ofresearch concerned with HP@Ss, #rogress de#ends on oth theoretical im#ro!ementand on dealing with tough methodological challenges. he general challenge inSHRM research is to im#ro!e the understanding of the HR strategies firms actuallado#t, wh the do so, the &e #rocesses in!ol!ed in ma&ing them wor&, and theim#lications of #articular HR models for organi+ational effecti!eness and em#lo eeand societal well- eing.

Peter Boxall

Entry Citation:

Boxall, Peter. "Strategic Human Resource Management." International Encyclopedia

of Organization Studies .

4.Boxall, Peter. Strategic Human Resource Management..doc

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