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Topic:

HRM (Managing Strategic Human Relationship Style)

Essay Instructions:
Managing Strategic Human Relationship Style - Topic 11 Q.1 What are the ingredients that make up Leidtka's ‘integrated' approach to producing metacapabilities? And what is the method of achieving these as outlined in the article? a) Learning, participative leadership, collaboration, TQM, strategic thinking Linking strategic HR (business concerns) and people processes - linchpin role b) Relational process approach - involving community of practice method and ‘ethic of care' value-driven practices Q.2 Doorewaard & Benschop outline what they call a ‘differentiated' approach to Strategic HRM. What is this? And what are they reacting to? This is a flexible, adaptive approach which recognises that people and systems don't operate in terms of narrow rationalist terms as the market model suggests. In contrast they advocate what they call a process-relational approach (paralleling Liedtka) where the whole person is taken into account in terms of needs and behaviours. This approach recognises that actions/behaviours, described as rational, in reality incorporate emotional responses to situations and that emotions are a positive force for people and organisations not just negative. Hence we see, as Fineman et al suggest, that people, like organisations, don't operate in singular mechanical ways but rather are driven by various demands, which can be messy, ambiguous and conflict driven. This requires a much more sophisticated understanding of human behaviour and organisational context in relation to SHRM operations. Q.3 What are the 3 factors Leidtka names as required for organisations to survive in the new economy knowledge focused era? ‘Meaning' - beliefs, values (e.g. Omtanke, deep dive) as a source of coherence; ‘Purpose' - worthwhile intent, shared purpose; ‘Learning' - individual and group Q.4 How do Doorewaard & Benschop (& Leidtka) say meaning is made in the organisation? Through the intersection of the three factors above which means for the organisation it occurs through the subroutines of the everyday organisational life. People make meaning through their bodies not just their minds as emotions embrace ideas, actions, experiences, assumptions. For organisations to capitalise on this source of coherence they need to ensure they have intrinsic values that are acted out not just paid lipservice to. Hence authenticity, integrity, moral values - are terms and practices organisations are beginning to contemplate in more substance than Wray Bliss and Salaman previously document. Q.5 How does Leidtka's relational-process model, which utilises soft and hard academic theory and research, compare to the fads and fashions approach? We learn through a multitude of imports, ie - by doing, by observing, by listening to.., by witnessing by modelling, by reading first-hand narrative accounts (soft theory), like the life of Richard Branson, and finally reading research studies as comprised of the material for 7022EHR. Liedtka shows how we can combine those various methods into a comprehensive learning framework which incorporates the best of the traditional strategy approach with more contemporary understandings and underlying values ethos to produce a comprehensive new economy SHRM managing people model. In contrast, the commodified human resource (market) approach introduces short-term, quick fixes, in a superficial manner in top-down ways that tend to produce disaffection, alienation and resistance, which means they are inevitably unsuccessful. Consequently, they are soon replaced by the latest fad. Researchers like David Collins demonstrate this has been going on throughout the industrial era to ill effect for both people and the organisation involved. Q.6 Leidtka outlines a shift from strategic planning to strategic thinking. What does this mean? Does this link to content in other articles on the course? Strategic planning tends to be top-down, reserved for senior management, prescriptive and thus increases bureaucracy which in turn kills initiative and creativity through the overly controlled character of such change projects The plans tend to be set in stone with any variation that portrayed as a witness. Context is rarely considered adequately enough. Strategic thinking on the other hand, operates in a much more open ended, democratic way, recognising the interdependencies between people, systems, and the wider environment. ‘Design thinking' is a popular way of describing this new economy approach. It rests on the acceptance of testing options through risk-taking, and holistic understandings which lead to wisdom leadership. There is also recognition that individuals at every level should have the power to make decisions and the courage to challenge ineffective ones. Watson, Jones & Kriflik, Lowry and Senge & Carstedt all contribute ideas to the ‘strategic thinking' model and Scandic, IDEO, IBM and Westpac, to name a few, operationalise the ‘stewardship leadership' concepts outlined. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Essay Sample Content Preview:
Differences between Human Resource Management and Strategic Human Relations
Introduction
There have been gradual changes in the way organizations manage their affairs and the relationship between staff. These have had great impact in the outcome of performance of organizations as well as management of people. Most companies have one HR departments within their organizations to ensure their success. There are many branches of HR but the main ones are Human resource strategy and HR planning. This article is aimed at evaluating the components of Human Resource management and Strategic Human Relations and their areas of application.
Discussion
Human Resource Strategy is the process collecting people plans and programmes of activity within an overall framework, designed to deliver against organization’s objectives. According to Kanter (1997), it involves a compromise of those decisions and actions which concern the management of employees at all levels in the business and which are related to the implementation of strategies aimed at creating and sustaining competitive advantage.
According to Leidtka, strategic management involves integrated approach towards achieving metacapabilities. The methods involved in achieving these capabilities include learning, participative leadership, collaboration and Strategic thinking.
Strategic Human Resource management involves a community of practice. According to Lave and Wenger (1991) it is an activity system where participants share understandings concerning what they are doing and what that implies to their community. Lave and Wenger explain that the goals of communities are to produce both practical outcomes for customers and learning for members. According to Lave and Wenger, Strategic approach requires participation in the doing, sharing of opinions about the doing itself and the development of mutual and individual capabilities in the process.
According to Peter Senge (1990) in his book “The fifth Discipline”, the pace and unpredictability of today’s business environment requires the ability to learn and gain leverage from that that learning within an organization to ensure future success. Senge explains that creating such an organization requires certain disciplines. These are discipline of strategic HRM. They include system thinking, which recognizes the entire system and recognizing interdependencies within it. It also involves personal mastery which involves personal vision and growth. It also involves personal mastery and balancing inquiry and advocacy modes. Other disciplines include building a shared vision and finding commonality in purpose that involves each individual’s personal vision.
On the other hand, Strategic HRM involves development and implementation of people, strategies which are combined with corporate strategies to ensure that the culture, values, structure of the organization, quality, motivation and commitment of its members contributes significantly to the achievement of its goals. A greater number of companies are proactively involving HR in the earliest stages of developing business plan in place of simply allowing HR to react to it.
HR assumes an underlying assumption of human-resource based view of the firm. According to this assumption, HR is able to make crucial contribution to the success of organizational changes. According to this assumption, human beings are seen as resources such as knowledge and skills which are required to accomplish certain organizational outcomes. This approach does not do justice to complexity of human beings nor the way human beings function in organizations.
Strategic Human Resource consider employees as human beings, consequently their skills and competencies are interconnected with demographic, physical and psychological characteristics such as gender, race, class, social and psychological conditions. Consequently different kinds of rational and non-rational characteristics are brought foreword and their effects on employees is addressed. Hence, to call people’s competencies involves calling on complexity of human beings
Successful companies guide and orient their companies towards the strategies. The tool used to accomplish this strategy is the reinforcing of certain ideas, values and behaviors and discouraging others by means of human resource management activities.
On the other hand, this concept of fit has been found to be one of the most ambiguous definitions of HRM. Despite these ambiguities, personnel management is seen as a short-term solution, reacting to stimuli, HRM is founded on the idea that an organization includes human resource factors that includes interaction between people in the business set-up.
According to Benschop (2003) HRM is based on the belief that people are commodities of a firm in relation to changes in organization. Hence the employees’ reactions and emotions are not considered during implementation of various policies within the organization. Benschop further explains that Strategic Human Resource approach towards this issue is done in present businesses by incorporating emotional reactions of human beings during implementation of certain policies within the business set up.
Diversifying HRM
Usually, HRM is represented as a process and practice of managing people. But the discussion on the top...
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