APPROACHES TO HUMAN RESOURCES STRTEGY
Introduction
The changing organizational environment has necessitated the need for organizations to develop various management strategies that can help improve their performance. Human resource management practices have been developed to conform to the changing business environment (Allen &Wright 2010). A number of human resource management strategies have been developed to help organizations realize their aims and objectives. Two main approaches that have been developed and used widely towards the management of human resources in organizations include universal and contingent approaches to human resource strategy. This essay evaluates the advantages and disadvantages that are associated with universal and contingent approaches to human resource strategy.
Advantages of the Universal Approaches to Human Resources Strategy
There are a number of benefits that are associated with the use of universal approaches to human resources strategy. The benefits that are associated with universal approaches to human resources management can be attributed to its effectiveness in ensuring enhanced performance of employees and the organization. Some of the advantages that are associated with universal approaches to human resources strategy include attraction of qualified and skilled personnel, identification of weaknesses and strengths of past approaches, motivating people to change and help in setting directions and policies.
Attraction of Employees
One of the major advantages of the universal approaches to human resource strategy is that it can help attract qualified and experienced personnel. Universally approaches to human resource management in most cases involve the use of attractive human resources management practices that can help attract skilled and qualified labour force. Some of the human resource practices that can be applied under the universal approaches to human resource strategy include employment security, attractive pay, incentive packages, training and selective recruiting (Youndt et al 1996). These human resource management practices can help attract skilled labour force in an organizations. For example, majority of employees are interested in working in organizations that are having employment security and attractive salary and packages. When organizations offer attractive pay and packages, it will be able to attract qualified and skilled personnel. This will ensure that the performance of the organization is improved.
Enables Learning From Others Successes and Mistakes
Best practices are also having an advantage of enabling people to learn from the successes and mistakes of the past human resources management practices. Since the concept of universal approaches to human resource management practices have been practiced by a number of firms, it is possible for the human resource managers to identify various weaknesses and strengths that are associated with a particular human resource management practice. Identification of the weaknesses and strengths that are associated with human resources management practice can enable organization to select the best practices that are powerful and effective in improving the performance of organizations. This can be achieved through adjusting the human resource practices so as to capitalize on their strengths and limit their weaknesses. This can enable organizations to reduce mistakes associated with a particular human resource practice hence improve the performance of the organization. It can also allow the organization to identify and apply the human resources practices that have been successful and avoid the ones that have failed in various organizations hence ensures accuracy.
Motivate People to Change
The use of universal approaches to human resources strategy can also enable organizations to motivate its employees to change. Most of the universal approaches to human resource practices have been tested and proved in various firms and organizations (Beardwell & Claydon 2010). This make them appropriate towards development of policies that can enhance the performance of people. It is also important to note that best practices in most cases are having various incentives that are attractive to both employees and employers. This is because the universal approaches to human resources in most cases focus on the welfare of employees and employers as opposed to the welfare of organization. This can enable the employees of an organization to have a feeling that that they are valued and motivate them to change and improve their performance.
Helps In Setting Direction and Priorities
Best practices can be used by organizations to make informed decisions on what practices are most likely to fit the specific needs and objectives of the organization provided that the human resources management practices applied is understood. This can help organizations to set the direction and priorities that can enable them realize their goals and objectives. It is however important for the human resources managers to determine the suitability and reason behind using a particular human resources management practice and also the reasons for regarding a particular human resources management practices as the best (Wright et al 2001). This can also be possible if the managements of organizations are aware of what needs to be done to ensure that the human resources management practices work in the context of the organization. The idea of universal human resources management strategy is more appropriate for identifying the principle underlying the choice of practices as opposed to the human resource practices themselves. This can help in initiating programs that are focused and able to move the company from its current position to a better future position.
Disadvantages of the Universal Approaches to Human Resources Strategy
The concept of universal approaches to human resources management strategy has also been subjected to various criticisms from different scholars and human resource management experts. The criticisms levied on the universal approaches to human resource management strategies are associated with its failures and various shortcomings in the management of human resources in organizations. Some of the limitation that have been identified regarding the universal approaches to human resources management strategy include lack of connection from the goals and objectives of organizations, lack of consideration of the differences in the management practices and culture and lack of competitive advantage by organizations.
Disconnection from the Company Goals
Universal approach has been criticized by various opponents of the theory as lacking connection with the goals and objectives of organizations. This type of human resource management practices is applicable to all organizations hence is not aimed at meeting the specific objectives of an organization (Sun 2007). This can make universal human resources management approach to be ineffective and fails to meet the aims and objectives of the firm. Since the best practices approach to human resources management disregard organizations objectives and goals, it cannot be effective in ensuring that organizations meet their aims and objectives. This approach can therefore hinder the performance of organizations hence affects their productivity.
Disregard of National Differences Such As Management Practices and Culture
Another major limitation of the universal approach theory is that it does not consider the differences in organizational environments. Organizational environment differs in various forms such as the cultural background and the management practices (Soliman & Spooner 2000). It has been proved that an effective organizational environment should be able to incorporate the differences in cultures and management practices. In the case of the best practices approach, cultural and management differences are disregarded. The failure of the universal approach to human resources management practices to recognize the difference in culture and management practices makes it inappropriate to solve unique problems that are associated with a particular organizational environment. It can also make the employees become discouraged in their work. For example, if the policy adopted by an organization does not match the cultural background and practices of the employees, it is likely that the policies will be rejected hence leads to low performance of the organizations as the employees might not adopt the policies.
Inconsistency of the Approaches
It can be argued that the universal human resource management practices cannot be applicable to all organizations around the world (Snell et al 2000). This is because all organizations have unique resources, aims and objectives to be achieved. Implementing a universal human resources management strategy that works best for an organization cannot necessarily mean that it works best for another organization. This is because a single human resources management practice cannot fit the specific strategy, management style, technology, culture and technology of different organizations. This implies that in order for organizations to ensure that they achieve optimum results, it is necessary for them to adopt policies that can best suit their specific needs.
Contingent Approaches to Human Resources Management Practices
The contingent approaches to human resource management practices also known as the best fit human resource policies are consistent with other aspects of the organization. The best fit human resource management approaches considers various aspects of the organizations environment such culture, strategies and the management styles among others (Huselid 1995). This form of human resource management approach has been applied by various organizations around the world. Some of the management experts are in support of the theory while other disagrees with this type of human resources management strategy. The proponents and opponents of this human resources management approach has come up with various advantages and disadvantages that are associated with this theory.
Advantages of the Contingent Approach to Human Resources Management Practices
The supporters of the contingent approach to human resources management approach strategy have praised the effectiveness of the theory towards increasing the performance of employees and organizations. They have been able to identify and support various benefits that are associated with this theory. Some of the advantages in support of this human resources management theory include enabling the company to gain competitive advantage, effective in solving specific problems of organizations, connections with the goals of the company and encouragement of innovation and inventions.
Competitive Advantage
The use of the contingent approaches to human resource management practices can enable organization to develop specific strategies that are appropriate for meeting its own aims and objectives (Becker & Huselid 2006). This implies that an organization can develop a unique strategy that is difficult to copy by other organizations hence enable it to gain competitive advantage in the market. This is as opposed to the universal approaches to human resources strategies where organizations can implement a well known strategy that has been used by a number of firms hence easy to copy and imitate by other organizations. Gaining of competitive advantage by organizations is an important step towards improving the performance of organizations. Hence firms will be able to gain competitive advantages through adoption of human resources practices and this can enable them to increase their performance.
Effectiveness in Solving Specific Problems of Organizations
An effective human resource management practices should be able to solve the problems that are being experienced by organization. Since there is a significant difference in problems of different organizations, it is possible for the best fit practices to solve the problem that are associated with a particular organization (Miles & Snow 1984). This makes this management approach to be appropriate in solving the problems that are associated with specific organization. This is because contingent human resources management strategy considers the organizations problems. This means that the selection of the human resource practices should be based on the specific problem of organizations rather than the general problems of organizations. This can ensure that it solve effectively the problem associated with the organization hence enhance its performance.
Connection with Company Goals
The best fit human resource strategies are also goal oriented. This means that the human resources management practices that are applied in organization focuses on the goals and objectives of the organizations hence help the organizations in accomplishing its objectives (Colbert 2004). The connection of the contingent human resource management practices to the goals of organization makes it a suitable strategy that can enable an organization to realize its goals and improve the performance. This is because organizations are formed with an aim of accomplishing specified set of goals and objectives. This makes it important for organization to focus their strategies on meeting the specified goals and objectives hence best fit approaches will help provide an appropriate platform of ensuring that strategies implemented are in accordance to the objectives of the organization.
Encourages Invention and Innovation
Contingent human resources management approach strategy can be argued as being able to facilitate invention and innovation in organizations. This is because this theory of human management approach focuses on the strategic strategies that are able to provide unique solution to an identified problem (Datta et al 2005). This requires employees of organizations to think widely when making major decisions towards the management of the organizations. In this case, the employees of organizations will not rely on the available strategies that are well known but focus on developing appropriate strategies that are unique to a particular organization. This can enable them to come up with new ideas that are unique.
Disadvantages of the Contingent Approach to Human Resources Management Practices
Although the contingent approach to human resource management practices have been praised by a number of experts and human resources managers, it has however faced a lot of criticism from various opponents of the approach. The opponents of this approach have been able to raise a number of issues that concerns its effectiveness in motivating employees for improved performance of organizations. Some of the limitations that have been levied against this approach of human resource management strategy include discouraging employees and being unreliable.
Disregards the Employees
One of the major limitations of the contingent approach to human resources management is that it can discourages employees of an organizations hence lowers their performance. This is because the best fit approach strategy of human resources management focuses more towards the interest of organization as opposed to the interest of employees. This type of human resources management strategy is mainly aimed at meeting the specific objective of organizations hence the strategies developed will only be geared towards meeting the specified goals of organization (Boxall & Purcell 2000). This can make employees of organizations feel that they are not valued hence get discouraged to perform their duties effectively. This can lead to reduced performance of the employees and the organization. Disregarding employees of an organization can make them discouraged to work for the organization hence look for other alternative employment opportunities. This can make organizations to lose qualified and skilled personnel as well as fail to attract the most qualified and skilled personnel.
Unreliability
The use of contingent approaches to human resources management has been identified as unreliable in meeting the objectives of organizations. The unreliability of the best fit theory can be based on the fact that these theories have not been tested before hence it can be difficult for the management of organizations to establish whether they are accurate or not (Claydon & Thompson 2010). The application of these human resource practices is purely based on trial and error method since they is lack of proof towards their effectiveness. This can lead to various mistakes and errors in organization hence affect the performance of organization.
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