What Makes Human Resource Development “ Strategic”.

Stoik Musah,
LBS,Leicester.
United Kingdom.
Stoik_joy@yahoo.com



Human resource development is defined as a set of intentional activities by an organisation to increase employees skills, abilities or knowledge, and direct these skills and abilities for the company’s benefit (Marsick and Watkins 1990).The term refers to the planned procedures through which the human capital of the organisation grows- to people behind that function or to the outcomes of developmental procedures i.e. growth in the skill and knowledge reserve (Marsick and Watkins 1990).Traditionally, within this concept understanding, the existence of different dimensions of strategy, perspectives ,contents and process-helps strategist avoid the pitfall of a single isolated practice on its impact on organisational performance. This essay therefore sort to describe what makes human resource development strategic within these divergent literature perspectives, with particular interest in the systematic logic in its application with organisations internal components issues and people related matters.

Similarly some evolution has taken place in this frame of reference. This entails that for scholars to contribute to the richness of the strategic significance of the concept, the strategic requirements of the organisation need to draw research design from multiple theoretical perspective- this has caused, the focus on internal resources and processes, to be a large part of the discussion. For this reason it can be stated that only the recognition of the internal component has made it possible for issues of adding value to business performance, issues of knowledge skill and ability to meet business objective, issues of gaining synergy from human resource process and practice through horizontal alignment etc, among other people related issues to truly find their way into the strategic arena (Ulrich 1997). Although some other parts of the literature studies see human resource development as a philosophy of management (Beer and Nohria 2000).
Moreover a one central feature to human resource development among these studies is its strategic logic in its application. This has made several authors adopt the findings of the study of Human resource development also from the view point of strategy models. For example Schuler (1989) and Walton (1999) have created integrated frameworks to cover different aspects of human resource development by using a certain approach to business strategy. Here strategy is seen generally as an idea of how a company reaches its goals. This is carried out through the implementation of strategic planning and systematic processes.

In another direction, within the concept literature studies ,another common feature by many writers (McCracken and Wallace 2000, Boxall and Purcell 2000) is the tendency to create one model which is then applied to all people related activities within the organisation (Recruitment, Training, Development, Appraisal etc). This entails an underlying assumption that all these human resource activities share the same basic nature and play a similar kind of role in relation to strategic management. Although there are exceptions, if we wish to analyse the contribution of Human resource development as a whole, to business performance; each activity deserve its own consideration. For this reason human resource development has many applications in modern literature.

But also well represented in the human resource development literature within this definition is Luoma (2000) works on: (i) The Traditional Approaches that can be formed based on conventional views on the strategic role of human resource development and (ii) Organisational Approach to internal capabilities as a central source of competitive advantage to the concept (HRD) application. Within this Luoma (2000) traditional approach to human resource development, it is assume that; (i) human resource development is driven by development needs within the organisation and that (ii) some concept of the subject have their interest in the outer world of the firm. Mabey and Salaman (1995) reiterated this position that a general view of the role of human resource development in relation to strategy within this framework is to see strategy as a means to assess and address skill deficiencies in the organisation. In other words, the task that is being carried out in the organisation has been further broken down into certain roles, and that a competence profile has been identified for each of the role. The company can then pursue its strategy if it’s entire people live up to their roles and possess the appropriate competencies. On the contrary, the reverse will be the case when people fail to accomplish their roles; they face a skill performance opening. This requirement can be closed with the help of human resource development (Pettigrew and Whipp1991).

The adoption of human resource development as the above demands constant monitoring of factors affecting the expected performance of people issues and processes within the organisation. For example a change in any area has to be translated into new competences profiles and any noticeable failing area is closed by human resource development initiatives (Torraco and Swanson 1995). The strategic logic behind this process (HRD) implies that the development within these internal arrangements is being driven from the objectives of the organisation rather than from those of individual personnel. Robinson and Robinson (1990) stressed that since the development is driven by the organisations objective, the approach often tends to be rational, deliberate and a sequential process, starting from the needs assessment and ending in the phase of evaluation-were the results achieved are compared with the learning objectives set earlier in the process. This is strategic in the sense that unless the emerging needs are being taken care of (Organisations Interest), the implementation of the strategy can be compromised by the organisation. This development need approach within the organisation gives human resource development a vital role in the strategy implementation of the situation. Consequently when the company is forging ahead towards its objectives, and the critical parts within the organisation face a lack of appropriate competence, human resource development is used to close the performance skill requirement and so assisting the progress.

Furthermore some literature studies on human resource development also have their strategic logic influenced by interest in the outer world development trends (Beer 1980, Butler et al 1991, French and Bell 1990). In contemporary business environment, those responsible for human resource development unavoidably encounter a constant stream of external developmental options available. The continous supply- from the environment, of this developments, form trends that organisations find very difficult to ignore. The reflections of these trends are (i) Total Quality Management (ii) Teambuilding (iii) Empowerment (iv) Management Development Programmes etc. This trends, Jackson and Schuler (2003) suggest; that synergies can be achieved when bundles of its practices are horizontally aligned with the organisations set objectives- this position the writer re-emphasized; can contribute to a define set of behaviours and performance expectations within the organisation. Likewise, and most recently Guest (2002) strengthened this position that in addition to the above, it is important to have functional and process integration to achieve the economies of scale expected from the application of these practices. The strategic functional integration both writer suggest, emphasize the need to have a high quality human resource development process mechanism to ensure enormous strategic impact. However the strategic rationale behind this horizontal alignment with human resource practices is not only in the direct benefit organisations get for their businesses, but also in the risk of losing in competitiveness, if these trends were ignored.

In addition to the aforementioned illustration, human resources development can be a part of the organisations strategic planning exercise by facilitating the learning process itself as suggested by Agyris (1989). According to Agyris (1989) the internal learning process can be seen as a set of learning experiences to shape employees behaviour where participant are required to make use of skills related to solving problems and interaction between individuals etc. This set of strategic learning activities (as critical reflection, tacit learning and action learning) are designed to facilitate organisational learning. Garavan (2007) posit that the capacity of the human resource development plans to focus on these learning activities is dependent on its capacity to cultivate a working environment of openness with accessibility of information and involvement of individuals at all levels in the organisation.

Furthermore, some writers (Burgoyne 1988) see this strategic learning perspective of human resources development as one of the ultimate level of the strategic integration of management development and business planning. Alternatively, this thinking has led to the second element of Luoma (2000) works on the idea of organisational approach to the internal capabilities as a source of competitive advantage introduced earlier at the onset of this discussion. According to the theorist (Prahalad and Hamel 1990, Pfeffer, Ghoshal and Bartlett 1998) arguing for this theoretical perspective the strategic management literature has traditionally emphasised factors within the organisation about the way people act, and that these factors, when harnessed, will be very difficult for competitors to copy. This is because they constitute knowledge, skills and processes developed over time into workable combinations within the context of a particular organisational setting (Long and Vickers-Koch 1995).It is assume here that the term organisational setting in this respect stands for two important aspect required for the strategic process of human resource development; and they are (i) The Organisational Structure and (ii) The Human Resource Strategy applied. The relationship between these two important aspects of strategic human resource development has been discussed extensively in many notable writings Mintzberg 1990, Galbraith and Lawler 1993, Dalton et al 1996 among others too numerous to mention) on strategic management.

That is to say, in this theoretical perspective, the decisions on structuring are based on the nature of competencies required in different operations. These studies presented frameworks for using the resource based theory in aligning organisational structure with strategy. The central debate within the literature studies emphasize the role of organisational capability as a critical source of competitive advantage- and thus as the determinant of structural decisions. Moreover other research studies on the strategic nature of human resource development process in an organisation structure, is close to Beer et al (1984) age long Matching Model distinction between strategy and organisations structure- that structure follows strategy . The underlying assumption behind this theory is that human resource development strategy and an organisations structure follow and feed upon one another- and this is influenced by environmental forces. The environmental influence the writer assert emerge from the fact that- there must be a fit between competitive strategy, internal human resource development policies and a fit among the elements of human resource practices( ie action learning etc). This relationship is said to be reactive in the sense that human resource strategy is submissive to corporate strategy (Boxall 1992). As Boxall (1991) emphasis; that human resource development cannot be conceptualise as a stand alone corporate issue, strategically it must flow from and be dependent upon the organisations structure- it is therefore seen as strategic by virtue of its alignment with business strategy, organisational structure, and internal consistency.

Furthermore, the other important element of organisational setting consideration in the strategic logic behind human resource development is the human resource strategy. The strategic significance of the human resource development in this direction is to effectively feed the targeted individual behaviour with all those human resource practice that guide employees behaviour in the organisation. For the most part, issues relating to competences emerge in the course of facilitating this process- but even at that, this is not enough to provide the organisation with the requirement, of the capabilities we search to introduce in the understanding of the strategic nature of human resource development. The competences has to be processed to turn into capabilities, alongside sustained and reinforced with the help of other aspects of human resource management i.e. Selection, Appraisal, and Reward (Ulrich and Lake 1990). For this reason human resource development gives the guideline for these practices and thus create a framework for human assets to be exploited and developed (Schuler 1992). This makes the strategic nature of the human resource development concept apparent again. Since at first, human resource development can be used for creating organisational capabilities, that calls for the alignment of other HR practices and secondly it can also be used for the modification of organisation structure to generate desired behaviours, it follows that according to this capability driven approach, human resource development thus support strategy by making the process of strategy happen.

Similarly strategic action process is required to institute the work habit and culture required for the implementation of human resource development policies. For this reason and to effectively shape the organisation working culture in line with strategic human resource development systems; the key to implementing this internal consistency is to institute the visions and values to develop the desired work habits within the organisation- and an effective leadership structure will be the platform to set the scene for this process, like Garravan (2007) suggested in the dynamic framework for strategic human resource development: that leaders set the agenda for the organisation by conferring legitimacy on human resource development policies through strategic action processes, their strategic influence to the human resource development course will be concern with showing bottom-line results i.e. Creating employee commitment to the vision, establishing the fit of all those SHRD systems introduced previously with organisations processes, people and resources.

Consequently, the beauty of these analogies is that, to understand the strategic significance of human resource development , one has to search in depth, the thinking, theories and research studies on the concept(SHRD), and then try to connect these postulations with our understanding of the concept application. The main premise of this reflective exercise is to unearth the strategic logic in the notion of human resource development, and also to comprehend that its application process consists of a multi- level concept whose contribution to the organisation is to enhance its performance in the long-term. This Human Resource Systems processed, can be rewarding if a clear, measurable SHRD systems is put in place, alongside the right leadership structure and culture by the organisation – for this will go a long way to facilitate this process.





















REFERENCES

• Agyris .C. (1989) Strategy Implementation: An Experience in Learning. Organisational Dynamics, Vol18, pp14-15.
• Beer. M. (1980) Organisational Change and Development. Scott-Foresman and Co Publishers.
• Beer. M. and Nohria. M. (2000) Cracking the Code of Change. Harvard Business School Publication.
• Beer. M et al (1984) Managing Human Assets. Free Press, New York.
• Boxall. P (1991) Strategic Human Resource Management: Beginnings of a New Theoretical Sophistication. A Human Resource Management Journal, Vol2, pp60-75.
• Boxall. P (1992) Strategic Human Resource Management: Beginnings of a New Theoretical Sophistication, Human resource Management Journal, Vol2, No3.
• Boxall. P and Purcell. J (2003) Strategy and Human Resource Management. Industrial and Labour Relations Review, Vol57, Issue1, Article84.
• Burgoyne, J. (1988) Management Development for the Individual and the Organisation. Personnel Management, June, pp40-4.
• Butler J et al (1991) Strategy and Human Resource Management. South-Western Publishing, Cincinnati. OH. Chicago.
• Dalton .G et al (1996) Strategic Restructuring. A Human Resource Management Journal, Vol35, No4, pp433-52.
• French. W and Bell. C (1990) Organisational Development: Behavioural Science Interventions for Organisation Improvement 8th Edition, Prentice-Hall.
• Galbraith. J and Lawler. E (1993) Organising for the Future, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco CA.
• Garavan. T (2007) A Strategic Perspective on Human Resource development. Advance in Developing Human Resources Journal, Vol9, No1.
• Ghoshal. S and Bartlett. C (1998) The Individualized Corporation. Heinemann, London.
• Guest. D (2002) HRM, Corporate Performance and Employee Well Being: Building the Worker into HRM. Journal of Industrial Relation, Vol44, No3, pp355-358.
• Jackson. S and Schuler. R (2003) Managing Human Resources Through Strategic Partnership. 8th Edition, Cincinnati. OH.
• Johnson.G and Scholes. K et al (2006) Exploring Corporate Strategy, Prentice-Hall.
• Long. C and Vickers-Koch. M (1995) Using Core Capabilities to Create Competitive Advantage. A Journal of Organisational Dynamics, pp7-22.
• Lundy.O and Cowling.A (1996) Strategic Human Resource Management .Thompson Learning.
• Luoma M. (2000) Investigating the Link between Strategy and Human Resource Development. Personnel Review, Vol29, No6, pp769-790.
• Mabey C. and Salaman G. (1995) Strategic Human Resource Management, Blackwell, Oxford. Management Journal, Vol35, No4, pp433-52.
• Marsick .V and Watkins K. (1990) Informal and Incidental Learning in the Workplace. Routledge, London.
• Marsick V and Watkins K. (1993) Sculpting the Learning Organisation: Lessons in the Art and Science of Systemic Change. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco CA.
• Mazzucato.M (2001) Strategy for Business. Sage Publication, London.
• McCracken. M and Wallace. M (2000) Towards a Redefinition of Strategic Human Resource Development. Journal of European Industrial Training, Vol24, No5, pp281-290.
• Miles.R and Snow.C (1984) Designing Strategic Human Resource Systems. A Journal of Organisational Dynamics.Summer,pp36-52.
• Mintzberg H. (1990) Strategy Formation: School of Thought, In: Fredrickson, J. (eds) Perspectives on Strategic Management. Harper Business, New York.
• Pettigrew A. and Whipp, R. (1991) Managing Change for Competitive Success. Oxford; Blackwell.
• Pettigrew.T and Whittington.R (2001) Hand Book of Strategy and Management. Sage Publication, London.
• Pfeffer. J (1994) Competitive Advantage Through People: Unleashing the Power of the Work Force. Harvard Business School Press, Boston MA.
• Prahalad. C and Hamel G. (1990) The Core Competence of the Corporation. Harvard Business Review, May-June, pp79-91.
• Robinson. D and Robinson. J (1990) Training for Impact. Jossey-Bass Publication, San Francisco CA.
• Schuler.R (1992) Strategic Human Resource Management: Linking the People with the Strategic Needs of the Business. Organisational Dynamics, pp18-32.
• Schuler, R. and Jackson, S. (1999) Strategic Human Resource Management. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
• Torraco. R and Swanson. R (1995) The Strategic Roles of Human Resource Development. Human Resource Planning, Vol18, No3, pp311-35.
• Ulrich. D (1997) Human Resource Champions. Harvard Business School Press. Boston MA.
• Ulrich. D and Lake. D (1990) Organisational Capability: Competing From The Inside Out. Wiley Publication, New York.
• Walton. J (1999) Strategic Human Resource Development. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall.


Special tribute and thanks to Luomo.M, Who contributed greatly to my studies on this subject.
Stoik Musah writes from LBS leicester.Tel:07737251501,01162516339.

A Critical Analysis of In-depth Qualitative Interview in Organisational Research Studies,

By
Stoik Musah.
LBS.Leicester.
United Kingdom.
Stoik_joy@yahoo.com





This essay seeks to obtain knowledge on the research methodology literature studies of indepth qualitative interview. It also sought to critically evaluate its practical application process in an academic journal article, whose report findings was derived using this data collection method. With reference to the above, an indepth qualitative interview is a dialogue between a skilled interviewer and an interviewee. Its goal is to elicit rich, detail material that can be used in research analysis (Lofland and Lofland 1995). The dynamics of this process is similar to a guided conversation, where the interviewer becomes an attentive listener who shapes the process into a familiar and comfortable form of social engagement (Patton 1990). In other words, qualitative indepth interviews typically are much more like conversations. In this type of conversation, the researcher explores a few general topics to help uncover the participants views, but otherwise respects how the participant frames and structures the responses. That is to say, the participant perspective on the phenomenon of interest unfolds as the participant wants, not as the researcher views it. In other words, the task for the qualitative researcher is to provide a framework within which people (interviewee) can respond in a way that represents accurately and thoroughly their point of view on the subject of the interview. By this, both parties behaves as though they are of equal status all through the period of the interview- whether or not this is actually so (Fontana 2002).

In sociological terms, the above illustration often brings about complexities on how the interview framing is being done. This means that; whether the interviewer is just trying to be a nice person or is following a format- these techniques can be varied to meet various situations. Here, Dezin (2004) notes that traditional techniques as the above tell us that the researcher is involved in an informal conversation with the respondent, thus the researcher must maintain a tone of friendly chat while trying to remain close to the guideline of the topics of enquiry the researcher has in mind. That is, the researcher begins by “breaking the ice” with a general questions and gradually moves on to more specific ones, while also – intelligently asking questions intended to check the veracity of statements made by the respondent. As this process continues, the researcher avoid getting involved in a real conversation in which the researcher, provides personal opinion on matters discussed- instead the conversation should entail a real “give and take”, alongside emphatic understanding from the perspective of both parties(Douglas 1985). This particular aspect of indepth interview makes the interview more honest, morally sound and reliable. This is because, it treats the respondent as equal, and it allows the respondents to express personal feelings on the subject of the interview.

In addition to the above Gordon (1980) also noted that effective indepth qualitative interview entails creating a shared concern for each other, in which both the interviewer and the respondent understand the contextual nature of the interview. For instance listening to others without taking notes or trying to direct the conversation is also important to establish rapport and immerse oneself in the conversation realm, while gathering a store of tacit knowledge about the people and the culture being studied (Fine and Sandstrom1988). The point to note in this line of thought is that, to effectively carry out an indepth qualitative interview the researcher must adapt to the world of the individual studied and try to share their concern and outlooks- only by doing so can the researcher learn anything at all. Some researchers use several methods to accomplish this task, while others apply a combination of different methods as the conversation elapse (Fine and Sandstrom1988).

For this reason, Britten etal (1995) in their work on “Qualitative Research Methods in General Practice and Primary Care” emphasis that the most widely used methods in this context, is the structured indepth interview, unstructured indepth interview and semi structure indepth interview. A structure interview is an interview in which questions to be asked and detailed information to be gathered are all predetermined (Dezin and Lincoln 2003). In a structured interview, the interviewer asks all the respondents the same series of pre-established questions with a limited set of response categories. Put differently, there is- generally, little room for variation in responses among the respondents, except where open ended questions may be used. That is, the interviewer controls the pace of the entire conversation by treating the questionnaire as if, it were a planned script to be followed in a straight forward manner. Under this circumstance, all respondents receive the same set of questions asked in the same order by an interviewer who has been trained to treat all interview situations in a like manner – thus there is very little flexibility in the way questions are asked, nothing is left to chance – there is simply little room for error. This is as a result of the inflexible, predetermine nature of the interviewing –which makes the interviewer have relatively minor impact on the response quality (Gordon 1992). However one major drawback in the literature study, the advocates of this method- are unaware of, is that; the interview takes place in a social interaction context and that its influence by that context. As Denzin and Lincoln (2003) observed that good interviewer recognised this facts are sensitive to how interaction can influence responses. In other words, interviewers should comprehend that interviewing skills involve a high order combination of: observation, emphatic sensitivity to these environment response and intellectual judgements.

Furthermore qualitative interviews can also be carried out in an unstructured manner in order to contrast them with the above highlighted form of interview method. An unstructured interview is a spontaneous conversation, not a set of questions asked in a predetermined order (Herman and Bentley1993). Here you have a focus and you welcome information on different aspects of the subject question from the interviewee. In this type of qualitative method of interview, you can direct your conversation in any direction- that is to say: you proceed in an order that is natural. The important point to note, in this type of interview method is to gather and record information on every aspects of the subject in question. Besides you can always return to an earlier subject that you did not explore at the time it was mentioned, to ask more about certain topics that require clarification (Herman and Bentley1993).Unstructured interviews are simple, informal and saves time when preparing for the interview. It provides a general understanding of the important concepts, relationships and general rules on the subject content, and this make way for problem solving strategies that can guide future enquiries in the course of the conversation. This informality aspect of the unstructured interview helps the researcher to get quickly to the basic structure of the subject domain. On the contrary this form of interview generally lacks the organisation that allows for preparation as the previously discussed structured form of interviewing. Besides both parties –in the course of the conversation- usually find it very difficult to express some of the important elements of their knowledge. In the same way the data acquired from an unstructured interview is often unrelated; existing at various levels of complexity and its difficult for the interviewer to review, interpret and integrate (Bashir and Besim 1997).Accordingly, many studies employ a combination of these two types often called a semi structured interview. This kind of interview combines both methods to bring forth the foreseen information- and also apply open ended questions- to elicit unexpected types of information. Semi structured interviews are flexible as well, unlike the structured interview which have a set of questions. In this method of interviewing, the interviewer may have a framework of themes in mind, at the onset- to explore, like it is in a structured interview, but as the conversation commence- a different method of interview, new questions and clarifications can be brought up as a result of what the interviewee says.

Consequently, the above excerpt gives a concise, yet informative synopsis of what an indepth interview entails- what is important now is to lay out the primary issues that selecting this method demand. For instance indepth qualitative interview is usually based on sample sizes (Minichielli etal 1991), and the most common form of sampling techniques used in indepth interviews is most often snowballing sampling and theoretical sampling. The snowballing sampling involves interviewing initial contacts in the organisation and then asking these contact persons who they think is appropriate to interview- to gain insight on a particular subject issue (Rubbin 1995). On the other hand the theoretical sampling involves the generation of conceptual or theoretical categories during the research process(Bowling 1997).The principles behind this method application process, is that sampling aims to locate data and to develop or challenge emerging hypothesis –this process stops when no new analytical insights or hypothesis is forthcoming.

Turning to another line of thought in this subject, that is similar to the above excerpt - is the question of having a valid research indicator to measure a concept. That is, would other researchers reach similar conclusions if they apply the same method in their research analysis? For this reason indepth interviews arguably have the greatest problems with validity of any research method(Remenyi etal 1998).In other words, while an individual may hold a matter as true and valid it may not correspond across the whole population or even among other researchers in that area of study. However, the most striking aspect in this area of validity and measurement of concept in many papers reporting the results of qualitative research is the absence of detail accounts of methodology and data analysis to describe exactly what was done in the research work. For this reason Bryman. and Burgess (1994) argues that journals need assessors who are properly equipped to evaluate qualitative reports using criteria appropriate to the methods used. In particular, an example of this application process is a critical assessment of Fang Lee Cook study entitled “Outsourcing of Public Services and Implications for Managerial Knowledge and Careers” in the Journal of Management Development Dated 00/05/ 04. The purpose of this study was to explore how the nature of work and career prospects may have changed for managers in both the public and the private sector under the public/private outsourcing relationship. It investigates managers new roles, problems, new relationships and multiple principal-agency relationships they confront, as a result of this public/private organisations outsourcing practices.

Notably, one positive outcome of the research findings was the insight in revealing interestingly unexplored issues confronting managers in these outsourcing relationships. The researcher discussed in depth the impossibility of the outsourcing provider to function properly in the outsourced firm without making use of the tacit knowledge of experience employees; who as a result of their length of work experience with the organisation have social and technical knowledge of how processes within the outsourced organisation are managed effectively- this fact reveals that management knowledge is often context specific and cannot be easily codified and transferred as some literature on knowledge management postulate(explicit knowledge)-something most of the literature studies neglect in their research analysis.

With reference to the above critical analysis on the content of the aforementioned article, reference should be made first; on the source of findings, such as the interview with the principal people in the outsourcing provider firm. That is to say, the researcher failed to provide more informations, from the interview; on the reason why these outsourcing providers fail to train their own managers as alternative to these experienced employees (in the outsourced organisation) to take over this newly acquired businesses . And to also find out from the principal staffs interviewed ( from the outsourcing provider company), if there was other reason they refuse to train these managers other than cost and the time frame involved in the process. For the most part, this should have been an interesting area to explore and understand the problems these outsourcing providers confront from their own end, in the course of the business relationship. This is because the literature studies on outsourcing most often fail to extend further, their research analysis on this subject issue. In most cases what you find in academic text is that: after portraying outsourcing companies as solution providers to complex issues confronting big businesses– they conclude and do not extend further in their analysis: to provide insight on the problems these outsourcing providers encounter in the course of managing these extensive portfolio from different client organisations.

Furthermore, the hypothesis drawn from the research work tends to be a bit focus on what the research was about. In other word, although the research question of “The Changing Role of Managerial Workers in Managing the Public/ Private Outsourcing Relationships” tend to contain what the reader expects from the researched work- yet the understanding of the question tend not to be a closed question but a question making way for a mass of loosely linked descriptive issues, that are very broad in their own making, if one wants to further explore them individually. Nevertheless, with its loosely linked nature, it becomes more focused as the study progresses. Moreover from a critical perspective on the heart of the principal line of thought in this article- the understanding of the nature of strategic alliance, management task( as define in the article), and interorganisational relationships, demands more detail analysis than that derived from the use of this method (Indepth Interview). Under this circumstance, it is not surprising that it did have been appropriate to use both qualitative and quantitative method together in a complementary fashion to bring about indepth understanding of these organisational phenomenons. This is because the loosely linked issues that emerged in the course of the research, requires quantitative analysis to dissect their constituent form to help understand their nature more. For instance, clarification on the issues underneath the rationale behind the quotation below would have been better explained using both method (qualitative and quantitative method).

“Supervisors in housing benefit are now taking – work – home, in their spare time, whereas before “they switch off” once they finish work for the day. This new approach to work gives a sense of ownership and satisfaction, but the invisible pressure is constantly presents as one supervisors said: you feel that you have to make an impression on the company”.

A formal quantitative testing of the root causes of the above excerpt would have helped standardise and evaluate the robustness of this causal hypothesis. Another critical area in question, in the use of this method in the article is in the generalisability of the representative sampling which strengthen the claims and findings in the article. For instance in page 272, the writer asserted that the source of most of the data inherent in the research findings was from over 60 semi structured interviews, carried out with senior managers, junior managers, middle managers, supervisors, trade union representative and other staffs. Moreover a total of 27 managers were interviewed face-to –face. In addition to the above, the writer described the categories of the managers interviewed: that 12 of those interviewed were senior or middle managers. But the researcher failed to provide more information on this group of individuals interviewed- more information as (i) How long have they been with the organisation and (ii) How long have they served in management positions within the organisation. In this way the researcher, thus allows the reader to note the similarities and differences between the settings, which is analysed, in the research.

On the contrary, the researcher has carefully taking into account clarity in describing the methods used to sources the research findings- one area the researcher has demonstrated to the reader that careful considerations has been given to the above subject, in this method of interview, is the way and manner a pragmatic categorisation of the three managerial groups interviewed was singled out for the research interview (Page 273). It was a perfect segmentation of the particular individual whose nature of work and career prospect has been affected by this inter-organisational relationship (outsourcing). The impact of this careful selection process- to some extent, has contributed to the robustness of many new flag up issues introduced in the course of the research findings; that was never discussed in most outsourcing literature studies. For this reason, in qualitative research literature studies, readers needs to know how the data sourced, were categorised for analysis. In particular Britten etal (1995) reiterated that readers need to be reassured- that the researcher did more than glanced through their field note and transcript, and then look for examples which will confirm those ideas. Readers are looking for evidence of rigorous and systematic analysis. That is, the reader should be confident that where researchers wants to make a claim on the basis of their data- there is evidence in the study that this data was sourced systematically.

Above all, in all research methods, the ability to present ones method and findings clearly and succinctly is of central importance. This means that clearity in the categorisation of the data sourced, clearity in the data analysis, and clearity on how this data was chosen- like for example, if quotations were properly referenced providing clarification on the source of the statement etc. In the same way, just as quantitative researchers present the data in their report in the form of tables and statistics so also do qualitative researchers present their datas in the form of quotation from transcript or excerpt from field note (Nicky etal 1995). A good description of the above illustration in the article is the quotation below.

There is no real love in between the trust and the private firm but we still scratch each others back and try to get the best out of each other… middle managers are often the scape goat and get sacrificed when things go wrong ( A Supervisor).


With the introduction of raw data as the above in the article, the researcher has to some extent demonstrated understanding in thinking clearly on the above subject by skilfully referencing the particular source in the organisation who made this statement – no name was attached. In this way it has been possible for the reader to tell who made that statement, and what is the source authority- within that organisation to come up with such claims- usually failure in this area of writing clearly demonstrates the analysis has not been sufficiently well developed.

Furthermore, the findings generated from this research work has to some extent demonstrated the significance of its result and how this apply to particular practical /theoretical problems in managerial capacity within an organisation- surely this to some extent, did contribute to the literature studies on this subject(outsourcing). In particular the study provides evidence that the adoption of information technology in management of organisational activities as seen as major cause of recent demise in middle management (Scarbrough and Burrell 1996) is not sufficiently true and valid. Infact, technology to some extent serves as a good source of competitive advantage but the tacit knowledge of managerial workers is more – a core competitive source of advantage that organisations will do all they can to acquire, retain and develop these individuals and their body of knowledge to add value to the organisations performance.

Consequently wide academic research literatures exist to demonstrate the practical application of indepth qualitative interview in organisation research study. However as has been discussed in the dynamics of its application process. It is the researcher that holds the balance of power in managing the outcome of the conversation, it must be their role, in the course of the conversation and the method of interview applied- which gives direction to what the interviewee says, and ultimately the strength of the research findings.Accordingly, success in this area will involve having to make a number of adjustments (as it applies to the article discussed previously) to the detail accounts of methodology applied, data analysis and assumptions they bring to carry out their research.


















REFERENCE.

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A REPORT ON THE STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT APPROACH TO CENTRALIZING THE PERSONELL DEPARTMENT OF AMPERSTAND CLOTHING COY AND AMPERSTANDPLUS

Stoik Musah,
LBS,East Midland,
United Kingdom.
25 July 2006.



TABLE OF CONTENT




Section one. Page No

1.1 Executive Summary 1

1.2 Introduction and Terms of Reference 1

Section Two.

2.1 People Management 2

2.2 Strategic Human Resource Management 3

Section Three.

3.1 Centralizing People Management in an Organization 4

3.2 Debates on Strategic Human Resource Management. 5


Section Four

4.1 Conclusion. 7

4.2 Recommendation. 8

4.3 References 9




















SECTION ONE


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The subject of this report is to provide insight on Strategic Human Resource Management application to people management practice for Ampersand Clothing Company. The Management intends to centralize the operations of the personnel department in the two companies (Ampersand and Ampersand Plus Clothing Company).The report discuss in depth, Strategic Human Resource Management and People Management practice in organizational development. It introduced possible strategies to affect the centralization process strategic intent, with line managers saddled with the responsibility of enforcing these strategic policies on the operational level. Possible areas of conflict was identified in the process, with suggestive management tools to proffer solution to these conflicts. In understanding the ways these conflicts emerge, discussions on the latest debates on Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) was introduced. It is believed that, a comprehensive understanding of the idea behind each criticism and debate will help inform better judgment on the subject.




INTRODUCTION:
This report centers on the strategic change management process for centralizing the operation of Ampersand Clothing Company and Ampersand Plus. It explores the transformation process of People Management techniques and Strategic Human Resource Management policies required for this process. For this reason, after understanding what is it about people, that translate into value for the organization of which they are part with. Strategic Human Resource Management help to build the operating environment and organizational structure, to facilitate a best fit for the desired configuration process, to bring about the desired organization structure, required for Ampersand Clothing Company, to achieve this strategic organizational and people management objective.
The first section of this report discussed people management and strategic human resource management .The subsequent section provides insight on how the two companies: Ampersand Clothing Company and Ampersand Plus, can centralize their operation to operate as one organization .In the same way, to understand the complexity involve in this process, the report introduce and analyzed the conflicting views of reknown proponents of the strategic human resource management debate. In the end, recommendations on the best possible cause of action to go about the change management process was highlighted to serve as guide for individuals acting as change agent, for this organization reengineering process.




SECTION TWO


PEOPLE MANAGEMENT:
People management involves the range of methods and approaches used by employers in resourcing their organization in such a way that they can meet their key goals .This comprises of a set of management activities that facilitates the achievement of four fundamental groups of personnel and development objectives , which are : staffing, performance, administration and change management(Taylor 2005).Staffing objectives involves making certain that an organization is able to call on the services of enough numbers of staff to meet its set objectives. These staffs may be employed in a variety of different roles but one way or the other they must be able to carry out the task and duties needed for the organization to function effectively. Performance objective begins where the staffing objectives have being achieved .The purpose of performance objective is to effect all the range of methods used by employers to motivate the staffs and make them willing to perform to the best of their abilities .While administration process on its part is concerned with managing employment relationships which has being established with these staffs in accordance with the law and professional ethics. In order to achieve these aims, it is necessary for the management of Ampersand to write out personnel and development policies, accepted work procedures and other documents relating to employment of individuals like job description, offer letters, contracts, weekly expected work hours, targets and disciplinary warnings for staffs, which will serve as guideline to their work operation. The change management aspect of people management ensures that proper recognition is given to the importance of change in the organization and its management process. Basically organization management has its arguments embedded in the organizations business environment that is subject to continual change .Take for example, when two companies’s come together during merger and acquisition. In the integration stage, some certain parts of the organization structure is more open to environmental influences, and they in turn react sharply to it (Lawrence and Lorsch,1967 cited in John Walton,1999:495).This phenomenon to the organization sometimes, can be devastating. Therefore there is need to align these managerial practices and organization structures with environmental demands so that the desired work behaviors arise(Schuber and Jackson 1987).Alternatively effective people management practice by the management of Ampersand can function as an important change agent to redress this situation when the need arise(Taylor 2005).





STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT:
Strategic Human Resource Management cannot be discussed comprehensively without understanding the concept of Human Resource Management studies. This is because both SHRM and HRM do have areas of convergence in their operation. In other words, Human Resource Management concerns the human side of the enterprises and the factors that determine workers relationships with their employers, it covers, among other factors: management and workers communication, element of work psychology, employee relations, training and motivation, alongside conditions of work (Hannagan,1995:294).Similarly Strategic Human Resource Management is said to be the sum part of Human Resource Management with in depth insight of the organizations direction, a study on its environmental analysis, and organizational strategy formulation , together with this organizational strategy implementation and evaluation(Bratton and Gold 1999).It is also said to be the craft knowledge of the changing nature of work, to develop new human resource policies, to involve employees at all levels in the change process, to determine the most effective work process, and to build teams with the capacity to learn and become self managed. Strategic Human Resource Management also help managers to learn how to read and analyze their organization by: understanding and explaining the organizations problems retrospectively, restructuring an organization or part of it, identifying existing and preferred behaviours in the organization in order to improve work process and relationships(Jim Grieves 2003).Understanding how an organization Human Resource Strategy links with these different aspect of the organization will help to present a strategic map intended to guide all managers and change agents in their relationship with employees(Manson 2006).In the case of Ampersand Clothing Company and Ampersand Plus , the SHRM policies should be related to the internal operations of both company’s , from the composition of its activities in terms of product line in the shop floor and service undertaken, to the technologies on which these activities are based , and the shared behaviour/culture of the people in each organization, alongside the manner in which the organization is structured and controlled. This is important, since the central objective of the strategic human resources intent is to centralize the operations of both companies. To affect this objective the strategic planning should be jointly developed by the head of the central authority and business unit managers. Planning is centralized with the central authority or Head Office having the final say. The Head office further arrange and direct the HRM strategy development by setting and coordinating organization wide priorities- here people management has already being spelt out as both companies set objective to reposition the organization .This should be followed by a corporate vision of long-term perspective which requires central coordination and control. This vision should be realistic, feasible, simple and clear in the strategic human resource management objective. And then efforts are made centrally to create cross business synergies.



SECTION THREE



ADOPTION OF SHRM AS SOLUTION FOR CENTRALIZING PEOPLE MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS IN AN ORGANIZATION.

Here, Ampersand clothing company should move from an organization based on autonomous business units to an organization based on centralized coordination aimed to capture efficiencies and combine resources in innovative ways. One resolution of this structural shift is to substitute diverse processes in functional areas such as Human Resources with policy umbrella which permits bringing under the control of a central authority (Andrew Mayo 1995).The task of the Strategic Human Resource Management unit in the central unit is to determine the frame work of the best practice of work routine , which will enable linkage with the structural process, system, and strategic issues, and also to provide consultant help built around this items from the top.
This entails focusing initially on top officials like the weekly Monday morning meetings held with the management team by the Managing Director. This top officials who then operate as coaches and guide for their subordinates, who in turn were responsible for facilitating the Strategic Human Resource Management Policies among those who report directly to them (Burack 1991).As these Strategic Human Resource Management policies are being delegated down the organizational social hierarchy, at the operational level sometimes, these policies are met with constraints which sometimes disrupts its original intent. In the process consensus will be created among key managers .In a centralized organization the balancing process of this constraints can be institutionalized through the restructuring of relationship between the people at the top and those below. This can be done using a wide variety of management tools, which must be applied from the top, and down the line management, to manage the unit heads and the roots of the conflicts. In the same vain ,for each decision these conflicting sets of tools have to be traded off against the other, depending on the decision ,while overtime, from decision to decision an overall balance has to be maintained as the process continue(Dos and Prahalad 1984).For example if the conflict is considered necessary to deal simply with organizational roles, procedures and operational process, then the management tools to be applied for this particular situations will be to specify, and then slice up into roles, definitions for persons and groups in the organization. And if on the other hand it is considered that the problem is more fundamentally behavioural in origin e.g motivation, team, relationships, leadership issues, stress related work roles. Then the management tools should be geared towards dealing with emotional behavioural issues, and this requires appropriate social – psychological expertise (Jim Grieves 2003).
A successful centralized authority blends an array of these tools into a consistent management process. A company who fails in the appropriate application of these tools consistently will face difficulties in effecting coordination of its organizational resources, process and values. Jim Grieves (2002) makes it clear that it is very much important that Strategic Human Resource Development views the organization from a pluralistic perspective which sees agreement between the various sub cultures and units as a state of permanent negotiation .It is this internal development within organizational development that has given direction to the debates in the study of Strategic Human Resource Management to recognized the importance of proactive change in the organization.


DEBATES ON STARTEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT;

Strategic Human Resource Development perspective is informed by four debates on issues relating to organizational development .First is the argument that internal changes to an organization should be considered in relation to key contingencies and possible future event and from technology in particular. This is the views of those authors in support of the contingencies theory thesis (Burns and Stalker, 1961cited in Jim Grieves 2003:93).The second conflicting view of reason is that change results from the internal movement of forces in more than one organizations in which different interest groups seeks changes that maximizes their own interest, and resist changes that minimizes their interests. This is the labour process approach .The third thesis, is the argument that change is driven by well informed consumers whose insatiable appetites have force organizations to replace mass-produced goods and services with segmented market products. This the flexible specialization thesis .While the fourth view is represented by the fact that organizations are managed by key players – which are called managers , who make decisions .These decisions appears to be rational in reality, and its very convincing and fair, but is itself circumscribed by political boundaries(Woodward,1965 cited in Jim Grieves 2003:98).
The contingency approach emphasize technology as the most important variable in any organization .Here the organization structure was seen to be determined by the requirements of technology, as it applies to its resources, which are define as tangible assets: people, money and also intangible assets: relationships, brand name e.t.c .In this context decision about resources includes staffing and retention issues (Bower2001). This is to say, the staffing and retention issues, in the integrating organization should aim at retaining the local managers at the newly acquired company (Ampersand Plus) since they are knowledgeable in the local operational issues of the firm even before the acquisition. This is ideal for the acquiring company to enable the central authority keep tab with event in this company’s operating unit at the local level. Also in the area of retention , a key factor by the Malaysian company in obtaining successful people management structure in place at Ampersand will be instituting effective mechanism of a resourced based SHRM practice to facilitate the transfer of knowledge individuals from the acquiring firm to the newly acquired firm(Jackson 2001).Here a slow assimilation process should be encourage in the integration process over time .This will go a long way to redress Ampersands difficulty in recruiting and retraining quality employees to replace the skilled machine operators retired.#

Further more the change management process emphasis on technology should be reflected in every area of the organization work operation. In other word, a re-engineering of every area of its operation will be a better alternative, from accounting and stock control unit, ordering and distribution unit to clerical services and personnel. The personnel department should move from its traditional function to getting more involved in the implementation of SHRM practices that involves organizational development. Effort from the part of the central authority would be to link the personnel department functions with the organization business strategy. This approach is also known as the Best fit school of SHRM practice. The personnel department should aim at building employee behaviour in line with the firm’s strategic objective. Broader functions as employment security, work teams, performance appraisal, incentive compensation, employee ownership, competitive strategy, and advice on organization structures, should be embedded in the personnel department work routine. In this context Bower (2001) in his work argued that for two firms to integrate successfully, they need to align their HRM strategy with their integration strategy. He stressed that it will be of great importance for the organization to have a clear understanding of the integration strategy to be able to specify the role SHRM should play.
By contrast, the labour process approach challenges the assumptions that technology determines change. Rather, organizational change was seen to result from the attempt to control the labour process. As a result management control systems emerge as direct result of management intervention in the inevitable contest between the interest of capital on one hand, and labour on the other. In this way, whereas technology was the main determinant for the contingencies debate authors as John Woodward and other researchers from the labour process perspective saw the key determinants as control of the workforce with technology viewed as a mechanism in this process. In the works of Jim Grieves (2000), he stress in support of this claim that, when new technology is used, it is used as a strategic weapon in the struggle to maximize profit, principally through the deskilling of the job content and secondly by the attempt to remove control over the execution of task by workers themselves.
While the flexible specialization thesis has its debate, viewing change as a result of transformations in markets and products .Here the use of technology was seen as enhancing design and work process. As Mcloughlin and Clark(1994) argued ,that the approach viewed technological innovation as an attempt to separate the unintended consequences of mass consumer goods, by replacing them with relatively low volume, efficient process , and segmented markets. Perhaps the central core of Mcloughlin and Clark’s position was the attempt to resolve the unfavorable politics of the work place that had emerged as a result of the era of mass production of goods, when organizations were only concern with increasing production unit output.
The assumptions of the strategic choice perspective differs from the other three perspectives, this is because of its choice of methods used in selective fields of the organization. This approach was name by John Child (1972) who according to Mcloughlin and Clark, introduced the concept of “strategic choice” as a means of emphasizing the role of managerial choice rather than technology in shaping work process and organization (Mcloughlin and Clark 1994).Child suggest that the major focus should be with the process of decision making in an organization .He draws attention to the question of – who makes the decision in an organization and why these decisions are made. Strategic choices suggests that an organizations strategic choices are made in three general areas, which are (a) the domain, e.g country of origin, alongside the limitations and the constraints facing the organization (Potter1990).(b)its structures and systems e.g. this refers to choices of how centralized and standardized an organizations activities will be.(c)performance standards, which partly determines the extent of flexibility an organization has within its economic environment.
An organizations country of origin tends to influence its organizations structure and development. Take for example when two firms of the same country of origin, come together. The Human resource management strategic fit will be far different in the integration process, than when the two merging firm belongs to two different country group (Aguilera and Denker 2004).Thus we hear distinction in organizational operational practice between Liberal Market Economies like Britain,Canada,USA,Australia and Coordinated Market Economy like Germany ,France , Switzerland and Japan , where integral re-engineering process of the organization has to take into consideration the influence of environmental contingencies from these economies . For example issues like shareholders capitalism culture, national models, customers and financial institutions, are part of the context, judgment on strategic issues will be made .Thus the market for corporate governance is such that the network of relationships among stake holders will restrict centralization in a number of ways. A recent example highlighting this differences in corporate governance of the aforementioned illustration of two company’s of different country of origin is the successful take over bid of Mannesmann(German) and Vodafone (English) in 1999.Vodafone had to deal with entirely different ownership structure influence by banks , opaque accounting and disclosure rules, different company’s laws ,German corporate culture with strong orientation towards production and engineering (Hopner and Jackson 2001).However in the case of Ampersand clothing company ,there were no such issues ,stating in precise terms, the country of origin of the newly acquired company Ampersand plus to discern if the same principle apply .
Furthermore organization structures and decision making systems maybe participative or authoritarian .This system determine the nature of strategic choice decisions in an organization .In the views of Child(1972),he emphasized his position on this subject that decision making is a political process whereby strategic choices on issues such as long-term organizational objective , the allocation of the resources and organization design are normally initiated by a “a power holding group” or “dominant coalition “ within the organization .These are a group of individuals whose interest forge the direction of an organization strategic decisions.
On the other hand, performance standards on its part relate the organization within its economic environment.It partly helps to determine the extent of flexibility the organization has within its economic environment For example, performance standard based on innovativeness will lead to organization decision relating to technological literature and research and development, while performance standard based on market share will lead to organization strategic decision relating to competitor monitoring. Similarly, an organization performance standard based on reducing costs will lead to the development of cost control systems. A better approach in understanding how strategic human resource management can add value to business performance with concentration on what constitute organization performance was introduce in the US best practice model of HRM; where the application of professional human resource techniques –if when implemented by an organization will have the potential to improve employee attitude and behaviour to work (Holden etal 2004).
Taken together, these three strategic choices constitute an organizations strategic configuration and once a particular configuration has been chosen, it will be very difficult to transform it, under this circumstances the organization tend to experience extended periods of equilibrium. Therefore a change in any of the subcomponent within the configuration will lead to the need to effect transformation of the entire configuration. It is advisable that the application of strategic human resource management should not be zero down to one approach alone. But a combined application of different model approach at every stage of Ampersands people management centralization process life cycle


SECTION FOUR



CONCLUSION.
In this report, we highlighted in depth, the understanding of the concept of SHRM, HRM and the different variables embedded in the operations of people management practice in an organizational context. Basically the central objective of this report is to highlight possibility of how both organization (Ampersand Clothing Company and Ampersand Plus) can operate as a central organization .This was discussed in details by highlighting the need to effect a top down approach of the strategic human resource management practice in the organization structural hierarchy, with line managers saddled with the responsibility of enforcing this strategic policies at the operational level. As this SHRM policies is delegated down the organization structure ,the report highlighted possible causes of conflicts in the process , and suggestions was made on the effective management tools required as solution for each possible emergent conflict. In understanding the forms these conflicts sometimes identify with, the report introduce the various debates and criticisms by scholars and researchers in the field of organization development. Individually, stating clearly, convincing assumptions based on real issues, on why they strongly belief in their position. An understanding of these different views is required by any organization change agent if the individual intends to view SHRM and organizational development from a pluralistic perspective. This will help to facilitate better judgement on strategic choices and decision.






RECOMMENDATION
The management of Ampersands Clothing Company should be aware that the coordination and integration of an expanding organization requires greater central control of its SHRM, if its determine to achieve its set objective of integrating the people management of both companys.This is because a centralized SHRM is advantageous since it can plan its own activities independently by coordinating work process and maintaining a communion of shared ideas, thereby achieving more synergy and a identity as a group. This can be done by defining broader roles to the personnel unit as succession planning and strategic staffing among staff and in relation to organization positions, since the bulk of the work for this strategic process will rest in the desk of the personnel units and the line managers. The managers at all level should be aware of the benefits - centralizing people management can provide for the organization and the techniques that are applied for this process. It is generally recommended that these processes should begin small at the onset. An initial seed project is useful for trying out the methods and demonstrating the benefits in the early stages .This is because the organization changes may take some experimenting and modifying, before a comfortable structure is found; for you can’t expect everything to run smoothly from the beginning. Starting small lets people practice and get used to the idea slowly. This is preferable to a diverse intervention that tries to uproot the existing process and organization. Such a disruptive approach will likely alienate employers and managers. By beginning slowly and making changes in small increments event will unfold to result in an efficient development process and organizational structure.











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Stoik Musah writes from LBS,EastMidland,United Kingdom. Email: stoik_joy@yahoo.com

The Contribution of the Resource Based View of Strategic Human Resource Management on Organisational Performance.

by

Kehinde Songonuga,
LBS,East Midland.
United Kingdom.






The resource-based view to strategic human resource management (SHRM) focuses on the costly to copy attributes of the firm as the fundamental drivers of performance and competitive advantage (Cooner 1991). Linking to the understanding of the resource based view of the firm; Barney (1991) described competitive advantage as “when a firm is implementing a value creating strategy not simultaneously being implemented by any current or potential competitors”. The task is to maintain this competitive advantage in such a way that competitors’ efforts to replicate that advantage are frustrated and eventually cease. The resource-based view focuses on the promotion of sustained competitive advantage through the development of the human capital rather than merely aligning human resources to current strategic goals (Torrington et al 2002). This essay will show various ways on how the resource-based view of SHRM in organisations can contribute to enhanced organisational performance.


Human resources can provide competitive advantage for the business, as long as they are unique and can not be copied or substituted for by competing organisations, competitive success not coming from simply making choices in the present, but from building up distinctive capabilities over significant periods of time (Boxall 1996). Torrington et al (2002) argue that the focus is not just on the behaviour of the human resources, but on the skills, knowledge, attitudes and competencies which underpin this, and which have a more sustained impact on long-term survival than current behaviour. The central theme emerging in the SHRM resource-based literature is that privately held knowledge is a basic source of advantage in competition. The resource-based view generally addresses performance difference between firms using asymmetries in knowledge. A resource based theory of a firm thus entails a knowledge-based perspective; it blends concepts from organisational economics and strategic management (Barney 1991). According to this perspective, a firm’s ability to attain and keep profitable market positions depends on its ability to gain and defend advantageous positions in underlying resources important to production and distribution (Cooner 1991). Though the field of SHRM was not directly born of the resource-based view (RBV), it has clearly been instrumental to its development (Wright et al 2001). This was largely because of the RBV shifting emphasis in the strategy literature away from external factors towards internal firm resources as sources of competitive advantage (Wright et al 2001). The RBV view of competitive advantage differs from the traditional strategy paradigm in that its emphasis is on the link between strategy and the internal resources of the firm, and it is firm-focused, whereas the traditional strategic analysis concept has had an industry-environment focus (Schuler and Jackson 1999). Boxall (1996) argues that resources are not simply understood as assets in the formal accounting sense, but include any feature of the firm with value creating properties. This means that aspects of the business that are not formally owned by it, such as the talents and interactions of the people who work in it, are not ignored but come within the area of systematic interest. This justifies Barney (1991) argument that business excellence is not just about best- practice but about the intellectual capital and business intelligence to anticipate the future.


From the resource based view, in order for an organisation’s resources to contribute to enhanced organisational performance and maintain sustained competitive advantage, four criteria must be attributable to the resources: the resource must add positive value to the firm, the resource must be unique or rare among current and potential competitors, the resource must be inimitable and the organisation needs to ensure they are organised, this is also known as the VRIO framework (Golding 2004). Therefore, given resource heterogeneity, resource immobility and satisfaction of the requirements of value, rareness, inimitability, and organisation, an organisation’s resources can be a source of sustained competitive advantage (Schuler and Jackson 1999). Barney (1991) states that RBV makes it clear that firms can not expect to buy or purchase sustained competitive advantages, in that the advantages, if they exist, can only be found in the rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable resources already present in the organisation. Firstly, in order for human resources to exist as a sustained competitive advantage, they must provide value to the firm. Firms create value through either decreasing product/service costs or differentiating the product/service in a way that allows the firm to charge a premium price. Thus the ultimate goal of any HR executive is to create value through the HR function, but the first question that an HR executive must address is “How can the HR function aid either decreasing cost or increasing revenue?” (Barney and Wright 1998). Value to customers is an essential element of competitive advantage; therefore, for a resource to be a potential source of competitive advantage, it must be valuable or enable the creation of value (Fahy 1999). The HR function must be capable of making a difference in the organisation in the sense that it adds value in some way (Marchington and Wilkinson 2002). This is where the demand for labour is heterogeneous, and where supply for labour is heterogeneous-in other words where different firms require different competencies from each other and for different roles in the organisation, and where the supply of potential labour comprises individuals with different competencies (Torrington et al 2002). The suggestion of the RBV is that if HR wishes to be a “strategic partner”, they need to know which human resources contribute the most value that leads to sustainable competitive advantage in the business, as some human resources may provide greater influence for competitive advantage than others (Golding 2004). On this basis value is created by matching individual’s competencies with the requirements of the organisation and/or the job. Barney (1991) points that a resource must permit the firm to conceive of or implement strategies that improve its efficiency and effectiveness by meeting the needs of customers. This implies that though resources may meet other conditions, if they do not enable the creation of value, they are not a prospective source of advantage. The value of resources in an organisation is not enough to create sustainable competitive advantage, because if any other organisations hold the same value, then it will only provide competitive parity (Golding 2004). Therefore an organisation needs to consider the next level of the framework: rarity.


Rarity means there must be a shortage of these particular resources in the market to the extent that there are insufficient to go round all organisations (Marchington and Wilkinson 2002). The HR executive needs to consider how to develop rare characteristics of an organisation’s human resources to gain competitive advantage (Golding 2004). In some circumstances, the first organisation in an industry to implement an HR strategy can obtain competitive advantage over other firms (Barney 1991). If the HR strategy has value but no form of rarity, other organisations may develop an identical strategy or even something more unique, thereby displacing the first mover of sustained competitive advantage. A firm enjoys sustained competitive advantage when it is implementing a value-created strategy not simultaneously implemented by large numbers of other firms. If a particular valuable organisational resource is possessed by large numbers of firms, then each of these firms have the capacity of exploiting that resource in the same way, thereby implementing a common strategy that gives no one firm a competitive advantage (Barney 1991). Torrington et al (2002) argues that due to the normal distribution of ability, human resources with high ability levels are, by definition, rare. The goal of virtually all selection programs is to ensure that the organisation is hiring only the highest ability individuals. The issues then, are the validity of the selection system and whether or not the organisation is able to attract and retain those applicants considered to be of the highest quality (Torrington et al 2002). To observe that sustainable competitive advantage only accrue to firms that have valuable and rare resources is not to dismiss common organisational resources as unimportant. Instead, these valuable but common resources can help ensure a firm’s survival when they are exploited to create parity in an industry (Barney 1991). How rare a valuable firm resource must be in order to have the potential for generating competitive advantage is a difficult question. It is not difficult to see that if a firm’s valuable resources are absolutely unique among a set of competing firms, those resources will generate competitive advantage and have potential for creating sustainable competitive advantage (Barney 1991). Valuable and rare resources can create above normal profits for the firm in the short term; however, if other firms can imitate these qualities, then over time the characteristics will provide no more than competitive parity (Barney and Wright 1998).


In order for a resource to be considered a sustained competitive advantage and enhance organisation performance, human resources must be inimitable. The inability of competitors to duplicate resource endowments is a central element of the resource based view (Fahy 1999). Also competitors will not be able to duplicate the exact resource in question, as they will be unable to copy the unique historical conditions of the first firm. Wright et al (1992) use the concepts of unique historical conditions, casual ambiguity and social complexity to demonstrate the inimitability of competitive advantage stemming from human resources. Wright et al (1992) noted that this history is important as it will affect the behaviour of the human resource pool via the development of unique norms and culture. thus even if a competing firm recruited a group of individuals from a competitor they would still not be able to produce the same outcome in the new firm as the context is different. Causal ambiguity describes a situation where the causal source of competitive advantage is not easily identified and social complexity recognises that in many situations competitive advantage stems from unique social relationships that cannot be duplicated (Mahoney and Pandian 1992). Another reason that a firm’s resources may be inimitable is that they may be very complex social phenomena, beyond the ability of firms to systematically manage and influence (Peteraf 1993). When competitive advantages are based in such complex social phenomena, the ability of other firms to imitate these resources is significantly constrained. Lastly, to ensure the HR function can provide sustainable competitive advantage, the organisation has to be organised so that they can develop valuable resources that are rare and inimitable (Golding 2004). The organisation requires having in place the systems and practices that allow human resource characteristics to bear the fruit of their potential advantages. The question of organisation focuses attention on systems, as opposed to single HR practices (Barney and Wright 1998). This means a focus on horizontal integration of HR practices, rather than viewing each in isolation and the organisation ensuring that their policies and practices in the HR functional areas are coordinated and coherent, and not contradictory (Golding 2004).it is therefore clear that the employment of highly qualified and talented people can be useless without effective processes to ensure that they work well in combination and wish to contribute to organisational goals (Lado and Wilson 1994). According to the VRIO framework aspects of human resources that are valuable, rare, inimitable and appropriate HR systems in place could bring about sustainable competitive advantage.


Although RBV is of great use in helping to understand why differences exist between firms and consequently how certain organisations may be able to gain competitive advantage, it has notable potential limitations. Firstly it neglects the forces that lead to similarities in the same industry (Marchington and Wilkinson 2002). Barney and Zajac (1994) argue that RBV is tautological and does not generate testable hypotheses, recognising that most research applying the RBV has failed to test its fundamental concepts. Critics also point out that RBV focuses strongly on the internal context of the business. Some writers have suggested that the effectiveness of the resource-based view approach is inextricably linked to the external context of the firm (Golding 2004). There have been recognitions that the RBV approach provides more added value when the external environment is less predictable (Golding 2004). Priem and Butler (2001) argue that the static argument behind RBV is descriptive: it identifies generic characteristics of rent-generating resources without much attention to differing situations or resources comparisons. How the organisational resources generate sustainable rent is still not known other than through their heterogeneity. Although applications of RBV has taken variety of forms, ranging from high performance work systems and stocks of talent, to fit between employee skills and strategy it has employed a common underlying logic: human resource activities are thought to lead to the development of a skilled workforce and one that engages in functional behaviour for the firm, thus forming a source of competitive advantage (Wright et al 2001). Becker and Huselid (1998) note that this results in higher performance, which translates into increased profitability for the organisation. While this theoretical story is appealing, Wright et al (2001) notes that it is important to note that most of the empirical studies assess only two variables: HR practices and performance. While establishing such a relationship provides empirical evidence for the potential value of HR to firms, it fails to adequately test the RBV in two important ways (Wright et al 2001). First, no attempt has yet been made to empirically assess the validity of the proposition that SHRM practices are casually ambiguous, nor whether they are actually difficult to imitate. Boxall and Steeneveld (1999) argue that while instinctively obvious and possibly supported by subjective data, the field lacks verifiable quantitative data to support these declarations. That virtually anything associated with the organisation can be a resource suggest that prescriptions of dealing in certain ways with certain categories of resources might be operationally valid, whereas other categories of resources might be inherently difficult to measure and manipulate, one example of a resource that might be difficult to measure is tacit knowledge (Lado and Wilson 1994). Some have argued for tacit knowledge-that understanding gained from experience but that cannot be expressed to another person and is unknown to oneself-as a source of competitive advantage (Lado and Wilson 1994). Lado and Wilson (1994) argue that this may be descriptively correct, but it is likely to be quite difficult for practitioners to effectively manipulate that which is inherently unknowable. Mabey et al (1998) argues that in various researches carried out, there has been no strong statistical correlation between HR programmes supported by senior management and company performance. Other authors have anticipated this evidence as confirmation that managerial policies have no significant impact on an organisation’s economic performance (Mabey et al 1998). Priem and Butler (2001) also noted that in RBV studies, researchers sometimes take a frequently research strategy subject area, relabel the independent variables as “resource” and the dependent variables as “competitive advantage” and use measures common to much cross-sectional strategy research as operationalization. Together, these issues suggest that the current high level of abstraction found in the static approach to the RBV might be one thing that could limit its usefulness for strategy (Priem and Butler 2001).


In a response to criticism from the resource-based theorists, Porter(1991) argues that resources are not valuable in and of themselves, but because they allow organisations to perform activities that create advantages in particular markets, add that it seems safe to suggest, however, that what the resource-based view has stimulated is a re-balancing of the literature on strategy in a way that stresses the strategic significance of internal resources and capabilities and their historical development. Boxall (1996) argues that those organisations which combine high levels of competence in multiple modes of strategy making appear to be the highest performers, and not only those organisations with astute leadership at the top but those that can combine this strength with deep employee involvement in strategic decision-making appear to be more effective. In this way the resource based view suggest an integration of theory on strategy process and strategic content. (Boxall 1996). RBV can provide a strong base for strategic HRM. The aim of RBV is to improve resource capacity-achieving strategic fit between resources and opportunities and also obtaining added value from the effective deployment of resources (Peteraf 1993). The RBV theory provides a rationale for strategic HRM and in line with intellectual capital theory, RB theory emphasises that investment in people add to their value to the firm (Armstong and Baron 2002).


The resource-based approach provides a framework for examining the pool of human resources that may be either able or unable to carry out a given strategy during the formulation phase of SHRM. Thus the resource-based view may demonstrate the fact that strategies are not universally implementable, but are contingent on having the human resource base necessary to implement them. RBV focuses on the analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses, paying particular attention to the ways in which firms can develop valuable resources and erect barriers to imitation of them. It is however, without conceptual weaknesses. Strategy analysts should remember that the firm exist in environments: resources are not ends in themselves but are useful when they create value markets.































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Stoik Musah and Kenneth Songunuga writes from LBS,United Kingdom. Email stoik_joy@yahoo.com