Strategic human resource management: The evolution of the field

This review takes an evolutionary and chronological perspective on the development of strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature. We divide this body of work into seven themes that reflect the directions and trends researchers have taken over approximately thirty years of research. During this time the field took shape, developed rich conceptual foundations, and matured into a domain that has substantial influence on research activities in HR and related management disciplines. We trace how the field has evolved to its current state, articulate many of the major findings and contributions, and discuss how we believe it will evolve in the future. This approach contributes to the field of SHRM by synthesizing work in this domain and by highlighting areas of research focus that have received perhaps enough attention, as well as areas of research focus that, while promising, have remained largely unexamined.     

Strategic human resource management: a conceptual approach

In this paper conceptual issues associated with strategic human resource management are addressed. The rapidly expanding international interest in strategic human resource management is first highlighted. The article then explores some of the broader issues around the debate on SHRM that can inform thinking at a macro level. Firstly, the progress made towards understanding the meaning of SHRM is analysed, then a brief overview of the major models of SHRM to date is presented. This overview is used to highlight the key variables and interrelationships that need to be included in a model of SHRM, and a more detailed critical analysis of the contribution of the literature in each of these areas follows. A summary of the most important research questions arising out of the literature is followed by a model of the SHRM process, which attempts to remedy the major weaknesses in existing models of SHRM. The ways in which this model may be used as a basis for empirical research are then noted.

Strategic human resource management     

Job analysis: a strategic human resource management practice

This study examined the impact of job analysis on organizational performance among 148 companies based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Gulf-region country. Survey results indicated that a practice of proactive job analysis was strongly related to organizational performance. This relationship was strongest to the extent that companies maintained HR information systems, accorded HR greater involvement in strategic planning and emphasized competency-based characteristics of employees in the job analysis approaches they used. The findings suggest that a company-wide policy of job analysis is an important source of competitive advantage in its own right, and merits due attention of HR professionals, line managers and top management. The study extends the findings of the HR–performance research pursued in Western countries to a non-Western context.     

Assessing the value of human resource certification: A call for evidence-based human resource management

We are delighted that our article on the value of human resource (HR) certification (Lengnick-Hall & Aguinis, 2012) has generated so much interest. In this brief response, we identify two key similarities across all of the articles published in this special issue (including our own). First, all commentators care deeply about the field of human resource management (HRM). Second, all commentators believe that additional empirical research is needed to assess the value of HR certification for stakeholders inside and outside of the field of HRM. We offer a concrete course of action. Specifically, we issue the following challenge to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation: Issue a call for proposals for empirical research on the value of HR certification. Such a call would provide funding so that teams including both researchers and practitioners are encouraged to conduct research on this topic. Moreover, such a collaborative approach involving the SHRM Foundation, the HRM scholarly community, and the HRM practitioner community is likely to elevate the field of HRM and produce valuable knowledge about the value of HR certification for stakeholders inside and outside of the field, which in turn will also help narrow the much-lamented science–practice gap.     

Clarifying the construct of human resource systems: Relating human resource management to employee performance

Strategic human resource management researchers have strongly advocated a system perspective and provided considerable evidence that certain systems of human resource practices have a significant impact on individual and organizational performance. Yet, challenges of understanding the construct of human resource systems still remain in the literature. Specifically, few efforts have been made to explicate the internal fit in human resource systems referring to how the practices in human resource systems work together. For the purpose of clarifying human resource systems construct, we review the components of human resource systems and delineate how the parts of human resource systems work together to influence employee performance. Theoretical and empirical implications for future research are also discussed.     

Reframing human resource management in Africa: a cross-cultural perspective

Current approaches to understanding the management of people in Africa are often framed within a pejorative 'developing/developed' world paradigm that not only paints a negative view of management in Africa, but also assumes the need to develop towards the 'developed' world approach. Cross-cultural analysis that focuses first on historical and current cultural interaction across continents suggests a difference between an instrumental view of people as a resource to serve the ends of the organization and a humanistic view which sees people as having a value in themselves. This offers a more useful paradigm for progressing both research and practice in this area. Both a conceptual model and a typology of management systems are offered as a way forward. Research should also focus on cross-cultural difference and interactions at cross-national and interethnic levels. This will facilitate a cross-cultural approach to management development and team building through developing synergies in organizations in Africa     

Introduction: human resource management in Africa

This article introduces the special issue that seeks to spur the debate on the challenges of managing people in organizations in Africa. The debate on HRM in Africa has proceeded with tentative steps and now clearly needs to be located firmly within the international management context. It is not the purpose of this special issue to discover or develop an over-arching model of HRM. That has been attempted elsewhere. Our purpose is to bring together the various threads that characterize the on-going debate and hopefully move towards a more specific research agenda which captures the complexity of managing on the African continent. Some of these threads include the formulation of new perspectives on HR research, finding common ground with diverse disciplines and tackling enduring problems like ethnicity and discrimination.     

Human resource management in foreign-owned workplaces: evidence from Australia

Multinational companies have assumed a position of considerable prominence in the Australian economy. Drawing on the 1995 Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey, this paper examines the character of human resource management in multinational companies operating in Australia. The findings suggest that investments in the human resource function and the utilization of human resource practices were generally more widespread in foreign-owned than Australian establishments. This was especially the case for workplaces belonging to American and British-owned firms. It is concluded that the more strongly regulated industrial relations environment as well as the legacy of protected domestic markets have not made multinational companies reluctant innovators in human resource management in the Australian context.     

对人本理念下企业人力资源管理策略的几点探讨

文章对企业人力资源管理进行了概述,说明人本理念的理论基础,并以实际案例说明了人本理念下企业人力资源管理策略的实施过程。笔者认为,人本理念在企业人力资源管理中的应用,可以用人本管理进行概括,人本管理的具体策略,不仅应该体现在企业环境和企业文化建设方面,更应该重视员工个人管理和员工个人价值观的建设。希望能够为我国企业人力资源管理工作的进一步发展提供帮助和建议。     

The conditions for international human resource management: two case studies

A move towards the transnational or global corporation is widely canvassed. Rather less attention has been devoted to how the multinational company

actually organizes its HR activities or to the conditions which permit a transnational form of organization to emerge and survive. The paper explores these two issues, using case study evidence from two British-owned companies. The model of the transnational suggests that authority is devolved and control is dispersed. The paper shows, however, that central control was greater than is often thought. As for the conditions for transnationality, key immediate influences were the length of time for which the firms had been multinationals and the routes taken to attain this state; these influences were underpinned by differences in market structure. Even where a transnational approach had been developed, future competitive trends suggested that it might be under threat. The implication is that the‘transnational solution’may be attainable only in certain types of firm and that it may prove to be unstable.     

村级企业的人力资源管理

我国村级企业尚处于刚起步状态,主要表现在观念差异,信息滞后和制度不完善等方面。对于如何加强村级企业中的人力资源管理,文章将对这个问题进行初步的探讨。     

村级企业的人力资源管理

我国村级企业尚处于刚起步状态,主要表现在观念差异,信息滞后和制度不完善等方面。对于如何加强村级企业中的人力资源管理,文章将对这个问题进行初步的探讨。