Section Two
A more comprehensive academic definition of strategic
human resource management specifies the following:
Strategic human resources management is largely
about integration and adaptation. Its concern is
to ensure that: (1) human resources (HR)
management is fully integrated with the strategy
and the strategic needs of the firm; (2) HR
policies cohere both across policy areas and
across hierarchies; and (3) HR practices are
adjusted, accepted, and used by line managers
and employees as part of their everyday work.^14Patrick Wright and Gary McMahan have offered a similar
definition of strategic human resource management.^15 Their
definition is “the pattern of planned human resource
deployments and activities intended to enable an organization
to achieve its goals.”^16
Given these definitions of strategic human resource
management, a comprehensive theoretical framework can now
be used to organize knowledge of how human resource
practices are affected by strategic considerations. Such a
theoretical framework has been developed by Patrick Wright
and Gary McMahan and is presented in Figure 2-1. This
framework presents six theoretical influences, four of which