Strategic Management of People in the Workplace - Essay Example

The paper "Strategic Management of People in the Workplace" is a wonderful example of a management essay. This paper aims to review the relationship between HRM practices and corporate performance and develop an integrative model for the same. The paper highlights areas of the model that need more research, providing suggestions for future designs as it measures key variables of the model. Early works, (Taylor & Russell, 1939) have shown use of valid selection techniques and an organizationally relevant outcome i.e. percentage of workforce likely to succeed on the job.

Most work on SHRM acknowledges that a firm’s business objective influences the way it manages people. Most SHRM researchers agree that a system of HRM practices rather than single isolated practices are a prerequisite for sustained performance. (Scandura 2000). For a resource like human capital to be a source of competitive advantage, it must be rare, valuable, inimitable and non-substitutable. HRM practices influence knowledge, skills, abilities (KSA) and motivation of the workforce which are the characteristics that add value to the firm.

(Doty & Delery, 1997). In this model it is proposed that HRM practices and job design have the most direct influence on the skills, motivation and empowerment of the workforce. Synergistically, HRM practices can combine in a way to ensure that the necessary skills and motivation of the workforce are focused on organizationally relevant objectives. A high performance workforce could be a source of competitive advantages but it not necessary for the entire workforce hence the need for a strategic core workforce.

Coff (1997) pointed out quite logically that, of all an organization's resources, human resources are least controllable by management. The non-core workforce in this case is best outsourced because it usually has a high turnover. A high level of interdependence between the non-core employee and strategic core groups should increase a high performance work system. For example, ensuring high performance among the administrative staff. It is also evident that technology directly influences the necessary skills and abilities of workers performing a job.

Another factor which influences the management on non-strategic workers is the organization’s culture. This research suggests certain methodological issues should be addressed. Among these issues is the level of analysis which includes distinction among individual ,group and organization levels and also the level of HRM practice measurements in the HR architecture. (Becker & Gerhart, 1996). Measurement of HRM practices is another methodological issue whereby the predominant data collection method is survey research particularly the key informant method.

It is probably impossible for researchers to ascertain levels of knowledge of the informant prior to data collection hence researchers should address this issue. On the other hand organization size is another methodological issue because it determines the number of informants to be interviewed. Measurement of the HRM systems and workforce characteristics is based on assumptions. In conclusion, there appears to a growing acceptance that human resources themselves coupled with the highly complex HRM systems that ensure the firm maintains valuable human resource can be a relatively inimitable source of competitive advantage for an organization.