Strategic Human Resource Management - Michigan and Harvard Models - Coursework Example

Strategic Human Resource Management Name Institution Course Date Strategic Human Resource Management Executive Summary According to this report, SHRM primarily deals with the ways in which an organization can work towards achieving organizational goals through putting their concerns at the centre. This report analyses the value & purpose of the SHRM using Michigan model which concentrates on ensuring there is employee motivation which can be done through the recruitment and development processes. The report further utilizes Harvard model which focuses on creating value for the employees which will help them to achieve organizational purposes as well as personal career goals. According to the report, just like the Michigan model, some HR interventions will also be essential in implementing this model like the recruiting and development processes. The ways in which SHRM is effective in performing the management function is also analysed like improving employee and organizational performance, incorporating stakeholders, and increasing comparative advantage. The report finally addresses recruitment and development as some of the HR inventions that can work towards enhancing employee performance. 1.0 Introduction Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) can be defined as the practice of attracting, training, offering rewards and retaining the employees in an organization (Bracker, 1980). The Human Resource (HR) departments that strive to partake the practice of SHRM often interact with other departments of the organization so that they can understand their goals (Leat, 2007). Following this, the department creates strategies that are in line with those goals and those of the entire company. Additionally, SHRM often utilizes the opportunity and talent that it has within the HR department with the aim of making other departments more efficient and stronger (Leopold & Harris, 2009). Following this, SHRM has some purposes and values that are associated with an effective SHRM function. Also, the paper will evaluate recruiting and development as HR interventions which assist in enhancing the performance of employees in an organization. 2.0 Purpose and Value Adapting the SHRM usually demands a hands-on and a proactive approach both by the HR department as well as the management of the organization as a whole (Baird, and Meshoulam, 1988). This approach is regarding the vast activities that range from staffing, training, mentoring and the management performance. For example, recently organizations have hired managers whose primary role is to focus on addressing the fulfilling and enabling needs of the organizational resources. This marked the significant change where people are treated as just assets and resources (Pilbeam & Corbridge, 2002). This is what has led to many firms leveraging upon the abilities if their employees so that they can ensure that their ‘human capital’ is nurtured and nourished as a part of enhancing its competitive advantage (Barney, 1991). Following this, the HR department has resorted to entirely deal with employees’ issues as opposed to it treating the department a line management function. The Michigan model and Harvard model are used in the analysis of the purpose and value of SHRM. The Michigan model is considered as ‘hard’ HRM since it concentrates on the treatment of the workers as a means of achieving the organization’s purpose (Noe, 2010). The employees are often utilized in a purely rational and calculative manner and are perceived to be resources that aid in the achievement of the purpose of achieving the organization’s competitive success which in the end creates more value to the organization and its strategies (Truss, and Gratton, 1994). Given that the Michigan model concentrates on keeping employees motivated, it is, therefore, essential to incorporate some HR interventions which will, in turn, enhance the employee performance. Examples of these interventions include recruiting, selection, and development. When the employee performance is enhanced, it means that the organizational performance will be improved as well which will increase its value as well as enable it to achieve its ultimate purpose as defined in their vision (Stewart & Rigg, 2011). The Harvard model acknowledges that the issues that are involved in personnel management can be tackled only when the management team develops a clear viewpoint about how they want to see the value of their employees being enhanced by the company (Boxall, 1992). This will then lead to the HR department to develop practices and policies which will, in the end, result in the achievement of that purpose (Johnson et al., 2013). Like the Michigan model, the central focus of its implementation is creating organizational value through enabling employees to achieve their purpose which will, in turn, significantly aid in achieving the ultimate organizational vision (Katzenbach & Smith, 2005). Following this, HR interventions will be essential in during implementing SHRM to ensure that the employees’ value is enhanced. In the line with purpose and value, it’s crucial to consider the effectiveness of SHRM. In the past decade, the compensation systems have been perceived to be a way of deploying the HR management systems in a strategic manner (Becker, and Gerhart, 1996). It is, therefore, an approach that is used in the decision-making process on the plans and intentions of the organization to shape programs and policies that will enhance both organizational and employee performance (Katou, and Budhwar, 2007). Therefore, the SHRM is effective since it incorporates all the stakeholders including the managers at all the levels of organization which enables it to be prepared to manage the company inclusive of all the aspects that relates to it (Harvey & Allard, 2008). The SHRM is a clear representation of the transformation that is rather new in the field of human resource management (Johnson et al., 2013). A central role of SHRM concerns focusing the overall organizational management towards its employees and viewing them as tools that will enable the organization to gain competitive advantage (Wright et al., 1994). Following this, the effectiveness of SHRM comes in when the organizations become aware that successful practices and policies regarding human resources have the ability to enhance its value, regarding the performance in the variety of areas like financial performance, quality, and productivity (Brief, 2008). The theoretical research in the field of SHRM has documented that the HR systems of practice could result in elevated organizational performance (Delery, and Doty, 1996). Also, the effectiveness of SHRM has been related to the enhancement and sustenance of a high competitive advantage through adapting practices and systems that are difficult to imitate, casually ambiguous, and unique (Ghemawat, 2010). Additionally, the SHRM practices have been linked to improving the business performance if they are aligned internally with each other with the aim of managing employees in such a way that it would result in enhancing its competitive advantage (Guest, 1997). The effectiveness of SHRM can also be related to designing of workflow processes. SHRM emphasizes the importance of developing an effective organizational design and the effect it has on resource and employee planning (Lengnick-Hall, and Lengnick-Hall, 1988). As the Harvard and Michigan theories stipulate, the human resource is at the centre of management because of the role that it plays in enhancing the organization’s competitive advantage (Gennard & Judge, 2010). SHRM entails cultivating the soft skills which encourage a ‘greater work autonomy and the horizontal and vertical task compressions.’ Therefore, SHRM enables the development of high-performing work systems while at the same time encouraging the organizational managers to carry out the company’s purpose (Katou, and Budhwar, 2007). SHRM significantly identifies the values that are related to the development of workplace learning programs which assist managers and employees in achieving the organization’s purposes (Miller, 1991). This workplace learning educates the employees on how to commit to the company’s purpose, and its action plan which will, in the end, enable them to be flexible in their particular work approaches together with aiming at achieving a high value of their inputs (Schuler, and Jackson, 1987). The learning that SHRM enables can be in the form of higher education sources, training programs. SHRM is also flexible enough to enable the learning process to be integrated as a part of the mentoring process between the managers and the employees (Taylor, 2010). 3.0 Strategic HR Inventions 3.1 Recruiting Numerous strategic HR inventions exist which show the ways in which an organization can enhance the performance of its employees; for example, recruitment and development. Traditionally, the central goal of the hiring process was just to identify the candidates that are promising so that they could fill up the open positions in the company (Chakravarthy, and Doz, 1992). Recently, the primary focus of the recruiting process is to improve the employee performances as well as reduce their turnover. Recruitment, as a means of enhancing employee performance, needs the HR to focus in selecting diverse talent through carefully reviewing its practices and policies to identify the opportunities and barriers for improvement (Sonnefeld, and Peiperl, 1988). Reviewing the HR practices and policies with diverse lens play a central role in highlighting proper selection and recruitment practices which will, in turn, assist the organizations to build a workplace that is diverse (Rose, 2008). In doing this, the organization needs to pay attention to some areas that are involved in the recruitment process which will assist in enhancing the employee performance in the long run (Huselid, 1995). Some of the areas include reducing bias during the process and having broad recruitment efforts (Osterman, 1987). Having broad recruitment efforts involves having a proactive recruitment and outreach efforts which focus deliberately on enhancing candidate diversity which can, in turn, help the organization to get competent employees (Miller, 1991). This can be done through various ways; for example, getting the word out, building relationships with organizations and cultural groups that work together with diverse communities, promoting the organization as a viable workplace, and connecting with the volunteer base (Millmore et al., 2007). In reducing recruitment bias, the organization needs to focus on the needs that require being achieved and having separate non-essential and essential qualifications (Schuler, and Jackson, 1987). When an organization takes the time to take all these issues into consideration in the recruitment process, then they will end up choosing competent employees who will improve organizational performance in the long run through continuous development (Osterman, 1987). The practical application of the recruiting intervention can be explained using L’Oreal as an example. Given that the company has branches in various countries, it seeks to engage its staff from a very early stage. They ensure that their recruitment process is as transparent as possible and that they select the right employees for the right job positions Wright, 1994). One of its main aims is to ensure that they maintain low employee turnover. Before coming up with the final list of potential employees, L’Oreal subjects all of the potential employees to an induction program to evaluate whether their skills match what they want. This is a critical aspect of the recruitment process as it allows the selection of the best employees who meet organizational goals and mission (Capon, 2009). After selecting the intended talents, efforts to ensure that they are retained and satisfied with their jobs kicks off, one of them being training and development (Corby et al., 2008). 3.2 Development Numerous reasons exist for developing employees. Particularly, after a successful recruitment process, the newly selected employees will need to know and understand clearly how to perform the work at hand and how it relates to achieving the organizational goals (Youndt et al., 1996). The primary reasons for training are because that there are rapid technological changes, new modifications and introductions of policies as well as because procedures keep changing to maintain the organization’s comparative advantage (Sonnefeld et al., 1988). Development goes a long way in enhancing employee job satisfaction and fulfilling their needs and expectations. When the employees are satisfied with their jobs increases their loyalty to the organization which will motivate them to achieve the goals of the organization, and that will improve their work performance. Additionally, the development strategies need to meet the needs and expectations of the employees which will also enhance the commitment they have to the company (Campbell et al., 2011). The importance and the role that development plays in improving employee performance can be illustrated using Walmart as an example. Walmart frequently seeks to determine how the particular wok activities befit their employees and how these same activities befit their business environment (Osterman, 1987). This is done through analysing whether the needs of the workers are satisfied and whether the employees satisfy the requirements of the organization (Ghemawat, 2010). After these analyses, the business’ management determines the strategies and changes that are required in the workforce which will be implemented during the development process. Finally, after a successful training program implementation, its effectiveness needs to be analysed which can be done using some performance indicators like sales as in the case of Walmart. Feedback from the employees, supervisors, and customers can also are important indicators of the effectiveness of training (Taylor, 2010). 4.0 Conclusion It is the primary goal of every organization to be unique and gain a comparative advantage over its competitors. In analysing the purpose and value of an effective strategic HR management function, two models can be put into perspective; they include Michigan and Harvard models. These models assist in evaluating the role that SHRM plays in dealing with employees so that they increase the value of the organization through achieving its purpose. The ways in which SHRM is effective in enhancing organization performance and function has also been highlighted. In assessing the HR inventions that can increase employee performance the recruitment and development aspects need to be taken into consideration. These strategies have worked in companies like Wal-Mart, and L’Oreal. These companies have implemented some strategic inventions in their organizations which have overseen their performance enhancement over the years and their gaining a significant comparative advantage as well. 5.0 References Baird, L. and Meshoulam, I 1988, Managing Two Fits of Strategic Human Resource Management. Academy of Management Review, vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 116–128. Barney, J.B 1991, Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 99–120. Becker, B and Gerhart, B 1996, The Impact of Human Resource Management on Organisational Performance: Progress and prospects. Academy of Management Journal, vol. 39, no. 4, pp. 779–801. 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