businessstrategyandHRM

BusinessStrategyandHumanResourceManagement:SettingtheSceneEdvanSluijs&FritsKluytmansMERITOpenUniversityThisarticleisbasedonajourneythroughthewildernessofstrategichumanresourcemanage-ment.Part1givesanoverviewoftherecentliteratureonthistopic,particularlypertainingtothewtwoissueswhichreceivedhavemostattentionuntilnow:therelationalaspectsandthecontentaspects.Inpart2,wegodeeperintothewildernessandexploretheleastknownaspectofstrate-gichumanresourcemanagement,namelytheprocessaspects.Thisexplorationisbasedonthesimultaneousstudyofthe(scarce)literatureandfourcases.Finally,theconnectionbetweenthethreeaspectsisinvestigated.INTRODUCTIONnIncreasedintegrationbetweenhumanresourcemanagementandbusinessstrategyisoneofthemostmimportantdemandsthatareplaceduponmodernstrategichumanresourcemanagement.Inboththemanagementandtheacademicliterature,itisgenerallyacknowledgedthatthestrategicdeploy-mentandmanagementofpersonnelcancontributetothesuccessandcontinuityofthefirm.Somegoevenfurtherbystatingthatafirm’shumanresourcesformthebasisofthefirm’scompetitivead-vantage.Inthisview,thehumanresourcesarethemostimportantassetsofanorganisation.Atthesametime,inadditiontotheimportanceofthehumanresourcesassuch,itisbelievedtobeimpor-atantthatthemanagementofthehumanresourcesshouldbeinperfectfitwiththemanagementoftheorganisationasawholeanditsstrategicplans.However,despitetheseoptimisticaccounts,itisclearthattheimplementationofstrategichumanresourcemanagementisdifficultandtodate,hasdiffusedonlytoalimitedextent(Rowland&Summers,1981;Lorange&Murphy,1984;Nkomo,1984;Golden&Ramanujam,1985;Mills,1985;Buller&Napier,1993).Theliteratureoftenreferstoarelativelysmallnumberofsuccessstories.Inotherinstances,theliteratureprovidesrathernormativemodelsofstrategichumanresourceman-agement,modelswhicharestillinneedofbeingthesubjectofpracticalexperiencesandempiricaletesting.Also,ingeneral,mostliteratureismainlyconcernedwith‘what’strategichumanresourcemanagementisandmuchlesswith‘how’toimplementit(Truss&Gratton,1994).Wewouldliketodistinguishthreeaspectsoftheintegrationbetweenbusinessstrategyandhumanresourcemanagement.Theseaspectscanbefoundincompaniesandotherorganisations,andarealsoveryhelpfulinclassifyingtheavailableliterature.BusinessStrategyandHumanResourceManagement1Thefirstisconcernedwiththerelationalaspectsbetweenbusinessstrategyandhumanresourcemanagement:whatisthepositionofpersonnelandhumanresourcemanagementinrelationtootherninternalfactorssuchaseconomic,technologicalandfinancial?Thisconfigurationalissuefocusesontherelativeimportanceofthevariousfactorsandactors.Thesecondissuereflectsthecontentofbothstrategyandhumanresourcemanagementandiscon-cernedwiththeconnectionbetweenacertainbusinessstrategyontheonehandandacertainhumanresourcemanagementontheother.Thefollowingissueofcontingencyisatstakehere:givenacer-atainX,whichapproachtoYisbestsuited?OnemaybeinclinedtoreadbusinessstrategyforXandhumanresourcemanagementforY.However,forthemomentwewillrefrainfromdoingso,becausehthisrelationshipmightorperhapsshouldbeviewedtheotherwayround,ormaybeevenmorecomplex.Thirdandfinally,theprocessaspectsrefertothewaysinwhichtheintegrationbetweenbusinessstrategyandhumanresourcemanagementisrealisedandcontinued.Asmentionedbefore,thisaspecthasreceivedlittleattentionsofar,butforanumberofreasonsitisofgreatimportance.Itwillpro-videinsightintothewaysinwhichtheintegrationbetweenbusinessstrategyandhumanresourcemanagementisactuallyrealised.Also,itnotonlyprovidesknowledgeconcerningtheprocessofstrategyformulationbutalso,andperhapsmoreimportant,concerningtheprocessofstrategyimple-mentation.Finally,givingattentiontotheprocessaspectswillprovidecluesfortheoptimalisationofsuchprocesses.STRATEGICHUMANRESOURCEMANAGEMENT:RELATIONALANDCONTENTASPECTSAspreviouslymentioned,therelationalandcontentaspectsoftheintegrationbetweenbusinessstrategyandhumanresourcemanagementhavereceivedthemostattentionsofar.Inthispart,wewillprovideabriefoverviewoftheliteratureontheseissues.Indoingso,wedonothavetheambi-itionofbeingexhaustive.Instead,wewillpresentsomeofthemostimportantandinfluentialideaswithrespecttotheseaspects.Also,wewillconnectthecontentwiththerelationalaspects.Thecon-nectionbetweenthecontentandrelationalaspectswiththeprocessaspectwillbefurtherexploredinthethirdpartofthisarticle.TherelationbetweenbusinessstrategyandhumanresourcemanagementTherelationalaspectoftheintegrationbetweenbusinessstrategyandhumanresourcemanagementreferstotherelationshipsbetweenthefactorsandactorsinvolved.Inotherwords,whatisatstakehere,istherelativeimportanceofhumanresourcemanagementincomparisonwiththebusinessstrategy.Thisisconsideredmoreorlessregardlessofthecontentofbothpolicyareasandalsore-gardlessthewayinwhichbothareasaregivenshapeinconcretesituations.ThisissuehasreceivedBusinessStrategyandHumanResourceManagement2agreatdealofattention,bothinpracticeandintheliterature.Underthisheading,itisoftenadvo-catedthattheseniorhumanresourcemanagershouldbeamemberoftheboardofdirectorsorman-agementteam.Also,thelengthydiscussionsintheNetherlandsandothercountriesaboutth