Strategic Human Resource Management

Section Two

Conditions Under Which Integration May
Not Be Appropriate

Strategic integration is appropriate only after the human
resource management function has progressed through earlier
forms of development. In fact, Baird and Meshoulam state that
a partial determinant of the effectiveness of an organization’s
human resource management is the degree to which it matches
the organization’s developmental stage. For example, without
managerial comprehension of such processes as environmental
scanning, strategy development, and managerial succession,
the resources devoted to strategic integration efforts will be
wasted. Additionally, a sophisticated compensation program
may fail because the information and administrative systems
required for its implementation may be undeveloped. It also
follows that the stage of development in human resource
management should match the stage of development of the
parent organization.^105

The five stages of organizational development are as follows:

1. Initiation, the start-up or entrepreneurial stage
   characterized by informality


2. Functional growth, the stage at which functional
   specialization and a more formalized structure develops