Hrm Management

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 Decline in traditional industries with high

demands for manual labour, while service

and information processing industries

grow.

Emerging ‘knowledge' workers likely to

have confidence, knowledge and labour

market power to pursue their interests

individually.

Companies tailor individual incentives to

respond to this trend.

 Associated with W. Edwards Demming.

 Employee involvement in all quality

processes rather than quality inspection.

 Requires a radically different approach to

employee management.

 Personnel specialists had suffered from a low

status relative to accountants and marketers,

because of its historic welfare and

operational origins.

 Promoting the strategic significance of HRM

has given HR Managers the opportunity to

raise their status through developing HR

strategies which link with corporate

strategies.

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 There are two broad approaches to linking HRM

to strategy

 One approach advocates ‘best practice' or

‘universalism' and argues that firms will be

better off if they adopt best practices in the way

they y organise work and manage people,

irrespective of the specific business strategy

used by the firm.

 The other approach is variously known as the

‘best fit', ‘contingency', or ‘matching' school.

This approach argues that firms must adapt their

HR strategies to other elements of the firm's

business strategy and to its wider environment.

 Best Practice/Universal Models

 Walton (1985); Pfeffer (1998)

 Best fit/Contingency/Matching Models (Closed)

 Those which argue a key link to stages of an

organisation's development: Fombrun et al (1984);

Baird and Meshoulam (1988); Kochan and Barocci

(1985)

 Those which argue a key prescribed link to specific

organisational strategies: Schuler and Jackson (1987);

Miles and Snow (1984).

 Best fit/Contingency/Matching Models (open)

