Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action

(Rick Simeone) #1

This is a plausible picture of what may happen, and it is backed up by
some empirical research; for example, a study by Schuler and Jackson (1987)
found evidence that firms with products in the growth stage placed higher
priorities on HR management innovation and planning than firms with
products in the mature phase. But it is a model of what might happen rather
than what should happen. There seems to be no good reason why the HR
function in a mature firm should rest on its laurels: quite the opposite.
Perhaps the model can serve most usefully as an analytical tool that can be
used to alert HR planners to what is happening in the firm.


Best fit and competitive strategies


Three strategies aimed at achieving competitive advantage have been iden-
tified by Porter (1985):



  1. innovation– being the unique producer;

  2. quality– delivering high-quality goods and services to customers;

  3. cost leadership– the planned result of policies aimed at ‘managing away’
    expense.


Schuler and Jackson (1987) claim on the basis of their research that ‘effec-
tiveness can be increased by systematically melding human resource
practices with the selected competitive strategy’. They described the
HR characteristics of firms pursuing one or other of the three strategies
(Table 3.1).


Strategic configuration


Another approach to best fit is the proposition that organizations will be
more effective if they adopt a policy of strategic configuration (Delery and
Doty, 1996) by matching their strategy to one of the ideal types defined by
theories such as those produced by Mintzberg (1979) and Miles and Snow
(1978). This increased effectiveness is attributed to the internal consistency or
fit between the patterns of relevant contextual, structural and strategic
factors.
The typology of organizations produced by Mintzberg (1979) classified
them into five ideal types: simple structure, machine bureaucracy, profes-
sional bureaucracy, divisionalized form and adhocracy.
Miles and Snow (1978) identified four types of organizations, classifying
the first three types as ‘ideal’ organizations:



  1. Prospectors, which operate in an environment characterized by rapid and
    unpredictable changes. They react to this environment by focusing on


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