mutually reinforcing set of HR policies and practices have been developed that
jointly contribute to the attainment of the organization’s strategies for matching re-
sources to organizational needs, improving performance and quality and, in commer-
cial enterprises, achieving competitive advantage.
The process of bundling HR strategies (horizontal integration or fit) is an important
aspect of the concept of strategic HRM. In a sense, strategic HRM is holistic; it is
concerned with the organization as a total entity and addresses what needs to be
done across the organization as a whole in order to enable it to achieve its corporate
strategic objectives. It is not interested in isolated programmes and techniques, or in
the ad hocdevelopment of HR practices.
In their discussion of the four policy areas of HRM (employee influence, human
resource management flow, reward systems and work systems) Beer et al (1984)
suggested that this framework can stimulate managers to plan how to accomplish the
major HRM tasks ‘in a unified, coherent manner rather than in a disjointed approach
based on some combination of past practice, accident and ad hoc response to outside
pressures’.
The problem with the bundling approach is that of deciding which is the best
way to relate different practices together. There is no evidence that one bundle
is generally better than another, although the use of performance management
practices and competence frameworks are two ways that are typically adopted to
provide for coherence across a range of HR activities.Pacethe findings of MacDuffie,
there is no conclusive proof that in the UK bundling has actually improved
performance.
METHODOLOGY FOR STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT
Amethodology for formulating HR strategies was developed by Dyer and Holder
(1998) as follows:
- Assess feasibility– from an HR point of view, feasibility depends on whether the
numbers and types of key people required to make the proposal succeed can be
obtained on a timely basis and at a reasonable cost, and whether the behavioural
expectations assumed by the strategy are realistic (eg retention rates and produc-
tivity levels). - Determine desirability – examine the implications of strategy in terms of sacrosanct
HR policies (eg, a strategy of rapid retrenchment would have to be called into
question by a company with a full employment policy).
140 ❚ HRM processes