Strategic Leadership at Marks and Spencer - Case Study Example

The paper “Strategic Leadership at Marks and Spencer” is a thrilling example of the case study on management. The birth of the field of "Strategic Human Resource Management" (Strategic HRM) arguably took place less than 20 years ago with an article titled "Human Resources Management: A Strategic Perspective" (Devanna, Fombrum, & Tichy, 1981). In such a short time, however, an explosion has occurred in writing and research on Strategic HRM (Wright, 1998). In 1996 both Academy of Management Journal and Industrial Relations devoted special issues to the topic of HRM practices and firm performance and in 1997 International Journal of Human Resource Management published a special issue on Strategic HRM and firm performance (Wright, 1998). The almost exponential growth of interest in understanding the strategic role that HRM can play in firm performance implies a mindset of "more, more, more" with regard to research on Strategic HRM. However, before we heed the simplistic call for more, more, more, perhaps we need to step back and reflect on where we've been, where we are, and where we need to be. The purpose of this issue is to identify the current state of the art in Strategic HRM research and to propose a future research agenda for the field as we approach the 21st Century (Wright, 1998).

Consistent with this idea, SHRM has been based in large part on the notion that a firm must align its human resource management (HRM) practices to support business objectives (Delery, 1998). As such, researchers have focused predominantly on two forms of "fit," vertical and horizontal (Wright & McMahan, 1992). Horizontal fit refers to the alignment of HR practices into a coherent system of practices that support one another. Vertical fit refers to the alignment of HR practices with the specific organizational context. Although there have now been several empirical investigations of the effectiveness of both forms of "fit," there is relatively little empirical evidence to suggest that such alignment is necessary or beneficial (Delery, 1998).