Strategic Human Resource Management

Section Two

resource management can play a key role in the organization’s
competitive strategy and in the development of distinctive
competencies.^6

Economic turbulence also has increased the importance of
the strategic role of human resource management. Turbulence,
globalization, technology, dramatically changing demographics,
and differences in workforce values have created almost
unprecedented environmental uncertainty. Strategic human
resource management and the subprocess of human resource
planning are increasingly being seen as means of buffering
environmental uncertainty. Not surprisingly, human resource
management is becoming integrated into the strategy
formulation and planning process.^7 As human resource
management becomes a more important component of a
company’s competitive strategy, general management has an
incentive to ensure alignment and consistency between
strategy and human resource practices and policies.^8 The first
alignment challenge comes with finding the answer to the
following question: “What kinds of people will be needed to
lead the organization in the years to come?”^9 The expectation is
that people and practices, which are aligned with future
strategic needs, produce superior organizational performance.
While the evidence on this point is mixed, some recent
empirical studies have found higher performance to be related
to integrated, strategic human resource management.^10 There