Literature Review - Research Paper Example

A Review of the Literature on Strategic Human Resource Management First and of A Review of the Literature on Strategic Human Resource Management IntroductionHuman resource management is a vital component of any organization. Organizations have their human resource management department to equip its employees with the right number of skills to attain targeted goals. In this paper, the article of Buller and McEvoy, which tackled generalized arguments, and Ridder et al.’s article that focused on NPO, prove that the performance of the organization is attributable to HR practitioners in shaping the organization and the employees.

Buller and McEvoy’s ArgumentThe article, written by Buller and McEvoy (2012), entitled "Strategy, Human Resource Management and Performance Sharpening Line of Sight," examines the existing correlation among an organizations management strategy, its human resources, and performance, as its end product; its emphasis was more on the side of the HR practitioners who are in charge of HR functions in a firm. More than their obligation to manage HR activities, according to Buller and McEvoy (2012), HR professionals contribute to how the entire organization performs.

The authors have linked the efficiency of HR practitioners to the so-called "line of sight." This points to the level of influence that "an employee has on a performance measure (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2012, p. 407). Therefore, when employees’ line of sight increases, their determination to work efficiently, in order to obtain rewards or incentives, will develop, resulting to an increased level of performance. Also stressed is the relevance of establishing an organizational architecture to enable the firms management to meeting its goals.

Ridder et al.’s Point of ViewOn the other hand, Ridder et al.s (2012) article entitled "The Whole is More Than the Sum of its Parts? How HRM is Configured in Nonprofit Organizations and Why it Matters" has explored the usefulness of HRM practices in the context of a non-profit organization (NPO). Similar to Buller and McEvoys (2012) article, Ridder et al. (2012) also mentioned the term architecture in their written piece, but this time it is specified with human resource. Ridder et al. (2012), have studied and provided a picture of how HR architecture is being done through using NPOs as its subject ("Human Resource," 2002).

HR architecture shapes a firm’s infrastructure, which takes into account the process of standard selection, response of a supervisor in dealing with problems, promotions as well as pay-change policies. Most of the time, the establishment of HR architecture is dependent on the size of a firm. Similarities and Differences.Buller and McEvoy (2012) did not specify what type of organization is likely to develop and employ organizational architecture. On that note, they may have assumed that all organizations should create a well-ordered organizational architecture.

On, the other hand, with Ridder et al. (2012), NPOs were used to illustrate the point of making human resource architectures, and relating it with how HRM is utilized to improve organizational performance. Furthermore, in the article, Ridder et al. (2012), argues regarding the impact of HRM strategies to employees, and on how these employees react to the strategies imposed by the HRM. Buller and McEvoy (2012) and Ridder et al. (2012) both have the same position when it comes to the association of HRM and performance.

However, Buller and McEvoy’s (2012) arguments were more generalized since it tackled the human resource, organizational architecture, strategies, and performance in a way that is broad and applicable to any form of organization. Meanwhile, Ridder et al. (2012) has focused on NPOs all throughout their article. ConclusionThe articles written by the two authors pose the relevance of enhancing performance through organizational or human resource architecture, in order to develop precise methods in handling strategic human resource management.

It goes to show how immense the role of HRM in any type of organization. Achieving the aims of the organization will not be possible if its employees do not perform their tasks well. The way to keep employees motivated is through satisfaction, and this satisfaction means that the organization is able to provide them with their needs. Hence, the methods and techniques applied to gauge employees’ motivation and focus at work such as the line of sight and organizational or human resource architecture are indeed useful in today’s complex organizational structure.

ReferencesBuller, P., & McEvoy, G. M. (2012). Strategy, human resource management and performance: Sharpening line of sight. Human Resource Management Review,22 (1), 43-56. Human resource architecture: The key to organizational change. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.idsperformance.com/PDF/products/Performance%20Mgmt/HR%20Architecture.pdfJackson, S. E., Schuler. R. S., & Werner, S. (2012). Managing human resources.Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Ridder, H. G., Baluch, A. M., & Piening, E. P. (2012).

The whole is more than the sum ofits parts? How HRM is configured in nonprofit organizations and why it matters. Human Resource Management Review, 22 (1), 1-14.