Section Twofocused segment of the industry. Such business competitive
strategies are important to human resource strategy
formulation because different human resource practices are
consistent with different competitive strategies.^32 Raymond
Miles and Charles Snow’s adaptive model of business strategy
provides insights into how firms adapt themselves for better
alignment with their competitive environments. Their model is
addressed later in this section.
Planning in Strategic Business Units
Human resource management can play an important role in
strategic planning at the level of the strategic business unit
and, as noted, is one of the links in value chain analysis. This
role may be examined in the context of human resource input
in the development of strategic alternatives. For example, a
strategic business unit’s marketing group may identify an
opportunity during its planning processes. Marketing planners
then develop alternative strategies for exploiting the oppor-
tunity. As a part of the planning process, representatives from
the functional areas such as production, finance, and human
resources make inputs on the strengths, weaknesses, and
resource requirements. Human resource management would be
expected to provide an analysis of the staffing implications of
each alternative. The product of these planning processes is
then submitted to the corporate top management team for