Strategic Management of Human Resources - Essay Example

1. The strengths based approach encourages people "to focus on aspects of work organization that lead to success rather than trying to correct failures" (case study). In this sense its approach to managing workforce is different from the SHRM approach. The SHRM approach focuses on types of people and skills needed, while the strengths based approach applies a wider perspective. It draws not on skills or things that people are good at, but on strengths which are defined as "pre -existing capacities for a particular way of behaving, thinking or feeling that is authentic and energising to the user and enables optimal functioning, development and performance". 2. SHRM is concerned with the contributions human resource strategies make to organizational effectiveness, and the ways in which these contributions are achieved (see Boxall & Purcell, 2000 and Delery & Shaw, 2001).

The strengths based approach interpreted with regard to the SHRM model, is also a human resource strategy to increase organizational effectiveness. . In this sense the strengths based approach can be seen as HPHRS since the focus is not on achieving a set organizational goal or being concerned with work systems or context, the idea is to change the organizational culture so that overall business performance improves (case study). However achievement of certain goals may still be targeted as seen in the case study where the board is allotted projects according to their strengths.

As working on these projects is more energizing for the people since they are better matched to the types of tasks, better organization performance can be hoped for. It is about "focusing on aspects of work that lead to success". 3. The strengths based approach fits with what the SHRM scholars have suggested, for example, they suggest that certain employee behaviors and certain human resource strategies produce certain employee behaviors, and that the task of the human resource strategist is to uncover and test these linkages (Cappelli & Singh, 1992; Schuler & Jackson, 1987).

Strengths based approach, does not identify behaviour but is a human resource strategy that matches strengths of people to certain tasks. Thus the SHRM strategist is needed to make these links between people and roles based on strengths assessment in a strengths based organization. 4. Interpretation of the strengths based approach according to the 5 Ps model of SHRM (Schuler & Jackson, 1987) is given below:1. Philosophy- How the organization values and treats its employees. Essentially the culture of the organization.

In the case study, BAE values its leadership team despite their apparent inability to solve certain tricky projects. Instead of classifying them as lacking in certain way, the organization shows respect for its people and changes