BSMH 5013

Human Resource Management

Book Critique: A Theoretical Approach

Human Resource ManagementLinking Strategy and Practice

By814284 - PRIDHIVRAJ NAIDU

19th May 2013

Content

1 Introduction 1

2 Authors 2

3 Target Audience 3

4 HRM Approaches 3

5 Book Summary 5

6 Strength 8

7 Weaknesses 9

8 Suggestions and Improvements 9

9 Conclusion 10

1. Introduction

This student-oriented text provides a comprehensive coverage of the field of human resource

management (HRM). The author contends that the book’s distinctiveness is framed around the

connection between HRM and the business context in all its guises. As such, it discusses HRM at

different levels: environmental; organisational; strategic and operational (Pate, 2005).

Human resource is the most crucial asset of an organization. The successful performance of an

organization, by and large depend upon the quality of its human resources. The quality of organization’s

human resources depends upon the extent of knowledge through training and education they have

received and their motivational level. Organizations want to utilize their manpower through human

resources management (Mohammed, Bhatti, & Jariko, 2000)

It is also important to understand the strategic HRM before looking at the books layout, as the book

specifically mentioned linking strategy and practices. In the 1980s, original writers in the area of human

resource management (HRM), Beer (1984), stressed that in the face of increasing international

competition, organisations had to focus on the value of investments in human resources as a major

source of competitive advantage. More recently the rise in the status of knowledge workers has

highlighted the focus on human resources as the key to organisational productivity (Tovstiga, 1999).

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) has received a great deal of attention in recent years,

most notably in the fields of human resource management (HRM), organizational behaviour, and

industrial relations(Chadwick, 2005)

2. Authors

The author of the book, Greg L.Stewart is an associate professor and Tippie Research Fellow in the

Henry B. Tippie Collage of Business at the University of Iowa. He received his Ph.D in Human

Resource Management from Arizona State University and has been a faculty member at Vanderbilt

University and Brigham Young University. His research has been published in top academic journals,

including the Journals of Applied Psycology, Personnel Psycology, Acedamy of Management Journal

and Organizational Science. He has taught human resource management courses to undergraduate, MBA

and Executive MBA students. He has also taught in international programmes, focusing on the regions

of South America and Hong Kong. He has worked with a variety of large and small organizations,

including Eli Lily, the National Federation of Independent Business, and the Veterans Health

Administration.

The Co-Author of the book is Kenneth G.Brown, is an Associate Professor and Huneke Faculty

Research Fellow in the Henry B. Tippie Collage of Business at the University of Iowa. He received his

Ph.D in industrial and organizational psychology from Michigan State University. He has thought

courses in training and career development, organizational behaviour and general management to

undergraduate, MBA and Ph.D students. His work using experimental learning was recognised for the

inaugural Academy of Management Human Resource Division Innovative Teaching Award in 2006 and

for the 2007 Iowa Campus Compact Faculty Award. He has published articles in Human Resource

Management ang Organizational Behaviour for both academic and applied audience. His academic work

appears in such top journals as Journal of applied psychology, Personnel Management, and

Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes. His applied work has been published by the

American Society of Training and Development in T & D magazine and by the UK-Based Chartered

Institute of Personnel and Development. His consulting clients have included the Ford Motors

Company, Toyota Motor Credit Corporation, McDonald’s and the University of Iowa (L.Stewart, Greg,

2009)

3. Target Audience

This book is orientated to fulfil academic needs in the classroom; framework of the book helps students

not only to develop a set of human resource tools but also to know when each tool is most appropriate.

The overall objective of the book is to provide students with the understanding of traditional human

resource concept and the framework of decision making when specific practices can be most beneficial.

The link between strategy and practices is necessary for students to be able to correctly apply human

resource tools to improve organization.

4. HRM Approaches

The HRM approaches will be used as an instrument to analyse and critique this book. Using the

approaches provides a platform to look at the point of view of the authors perspectives on each topic.

Four perspectives have been defined in the SHRM literature. The terminology presented by Jackson

(1989), Brewster (1995) and Delery and Doty (1996). We have respectively the Universalistic

perspective, the Contingent point of view, the Configurational approach and the Contextual outlook.

Those four "modes of theorizing" represent four different approaches to the same research question,

each of them emphasizing a specific dimension of the reality of HRM. This criterion allows a complete

and systematic classification of the literature, because the four perspectives together show a spectrum

that encompasses all possible approaches (Martin-alcdzar, Romero-fernandez, & Sdnchez-gardey,2005)

Looking at the origin of the ideas mentioned, and matching with the HR practices of United States

where the authors have derived most of their ideas and examples from, it is most appropriate to use the

first three perspectives, the Universalist perspective, the Configurational perspective, and the

Contingency perspective which emerged in the U.S. SHRM (Marler, 2012)

Universalist Approach

Some authors have adopted a universalistic perspective (cf. Dewar & Werbel, 1979) and argued for a

"best practices" approach to SHRM (Delaney, Lewin, & Ichniowski, 1989) these researchers, like many

micro-level HR researchers, posit that some HR practices are always better than others and that all

organizations should adopt these best practices

Contingency Approach

Contingency theorists argue that, in order to be effective, an organization's HR policies must be

consistent with other aspects of the organization. For example, contingency theorists have attempted to

show how a number of HR practices are consistent with different strategic positions and how these

practices relate to firm performance (Balkin & Gomez-Mejia, 1987)

Configurational Approach

Configurational theories differ from universalistic and traditional contingency theories because

Configurational theories are guided by the holistic principle of inquiry, are usually based on typologies

of ideal types, and explicitly adopt the systems assumption of "equifinality" (Doty, Glick, & Huber,

1993)

5. Summary of the Book Contents

The authors have subdivided the content of the book into four main chapters, namely Part One Seeing

people as strategic resource, Part Two Securing effective employee, Part Three Improving employee

performance and Part Four Motivating and managing employee.

In part one the authors divided three chapters, creating value through human resource, making human

resource management strategic and ensuring equal employment opportunity. Part one is very much

aligned to Configurational perspective. This perspective suggests that a configuration of a set of

internally aligned HRM practices will have a much greater ability to explain variation in organizational

performance than single HRM practices taken in isolation (Delery, 1996).

As mentioned by Delery (1996), the part one of the book is arranged very much in a manner to allow an

interaction between various internally consistent configurations of HR practices, or employment

systems, which maximize horizontal fit, and then link these employment systems to alternative strategic

configurations to maximize vertical fit. The chapters in part one move from various functions of HR, for

example current trends of HR discussed in chapter one looks at the relations between population trend,

labour force trend, employment trend and trends in education and training.

Part Two of the book looks at Securing Effective Employee; the authors have divided into four chapters

namely, designing productive and satisfying work, recruiting talented employees, selecting employees

who fit and managing employee retention and separation. Part two is very much aligned to Contingency

perspective. The choice of HRM practices and the relationship these practices have with organizational

performance depends on external environmental factors as well as on organizational factors, primarily

the strategies the organization formulates and deploys to successfully adapt to a changing external

environment (Galbraith, 1973)

Contingency theory a little bit more evolved and holistic compared to the Configurational theory

actually correlates external factors and internal factors to the success of the HR functions, and in part

two the authors have included the effects of external and internal factors for various developments of

HR in the organization. For example in recruiting process the authors have included internal referral,

internal advertising, internal recruitment and also external intakes and advertisements. In part two the

authors have also included training and development based on internal and external situations and

trends.

Part three, Improving employee performance, the authors have subdivided the section into three

chapter, namely measuring performance and providing feedback, training and improved performance,

and developing employees and their careers. This part is aligned to contingency approach as well. The

organization's strategy is considered to be the primary contingency factor in the SHRM literature. Thus,

a contingency perspective requires a researcher to select a theory of firm strategy and then specify how

the individual HR practices will interact with firm strategy to result in organizational

performance(Delery & Doty, 1996)

As discussed by Delery & Doty (1996), the authors have managed to incorporate the chapter mainly

focusing in the Human Resource Development function in HR to the individual needs and have

constantly emphasised in maintaining individualistic view on the employees. For example the job

appraisal system – even though the authors mention group appraisals as well they are decisively in

support of individual appraisal and training.

Part four of the book looks at motivating and managing employee, the authors have divided this part in

to four chapters, motivating employee through compensation, designing compensation and benefit

package, working effectively with labour and aligning strategy with practices. This part of the book is

taking a Universalist approach. The statement suggesting that the relationship between HRM practice

and organizational performance occurs, no matter the context in which an organization operates, is what

separates this mode of theorizing in SHRM from the others (Marler, 2012).

This part of the book involves compensation and employee-labour relations function of HR. The authors

have taken a very simple lead by using universalist theory, they have significantly mentioned HR as a

sole department of the organization controlling and manning the functions of the organization, without

interference from other functions of the organization. For example compensation through Job based pay

and Skill Based pay, where the training and development plays a major role in deciding the pay of the

employee. The authors have clearly indicated the role of HR as the lead player.

6. Strengths

The book is Practice Orientated, as promised by the title of the book itself – Linking strategy to

practice. The authors in each chapter have listed have given example situation titled: “How do we

know”. This situation allows the students to understand better the practical implications of the lessons

thought in the chapters. And also a section on “Building strengths through HR” is also introduced by the

authors

in these section ideas on how HR can be user friendly, and making the implementation is easy discussed

thoroughly.

The book is Student Orientated, as the authors mentioned in the preface of the book the book is targeted

for academic groups, i.e students. The book is arranged according to the HR functions and is explained

with theories and approaches throughout the book. Apart from theories, the book is well merged with

day to day practices of HR in the industry. The book features a few “recall items” to help student, the

features include Learning Objectives, Key Terms and Definition, End of section review question, End of

chapter summaries and Discussion question. These features are given at the end of each chapter.

The book provides Case Study and clear Analysis, for every chapter. A case study pertaining each

chapter learnt is provided for better understanding of the chapter. The case study is provided with

answers in point form for direct and easy understanding. The cases are elaborate and detailed to allow

critical thinking as well as discussions among students. The book also provides sufficient analysis of the

implementations of styles and approaches thought in academic terms in the industry. There are cases of

best practices of HR functions in the book.

7. Weaknesses

The book is lacking in international appeal, to keep in mind that the book is labelled International

Edition. Regarding the case studies provided in the book, are from United States. These examples are

inclined to the practices and regulations of the US.

The book has missed out in one Human Resource function; the authors have not discussed Safety and

Health in this book. It would be more complete academic package for students if all the HR functions

are looked into thoroughly.

The book also compared to other academic writings in the market has no sections or materials on

Outlook on future HR developments. HR as an ever evolving field of studies highly tied to the human

behaviour and needs should be given some future thoughts. The author throughout the book focused

only on well-established practices and theories to explain and discuss HR.

8. Suggestions and Improvements

The theoretical approach taken to analyse the book shows the author is using most of the HR approaches

to discuss his writings. It will be more systematic and easier to understand if the author can establish

one approach throughout in the book to discuss all the chapters. Using one approach the author would

be able to streamline the topics to be more inclined to one school of thoughts.

The international edition book could be easier to understand if the other could provide more localised

examples and case studies. It would be more user friendly in Asian regions as the American examples

given may not be applicable or not even existing in certain parts of the globe. Suggestion to the authors

to provide two cases for every topic. Cases should be a global case which is applicable in most parts and

a localized case for more specific regions maybe Asia pacific or by countries even.

The book could also open its target audience to industry practitioners. This is because the authors

already very much provide a very comprehensive examples and very detailed examples. If the author

could simplify the content to be simpler to access and extract information, this book could be useful to

the practitioners as well.

9. Conclusion

As a conclusion the book is very user friendly, precise in most parts. The suggestions provided if

implemented could provide the book with higher market value and also academic luxury to students.

References:

Balkin, D. B., & Gomez-Mejia, L. R. 1987. Toward a contingency theory of compensationstrategy. Strategic Management Joumal, 8: 169-182.

Brewster, C. (1995) 'Towards a European Model of Human Resource Management', Journal ofInternational Business Studies, First Quarter: 1-21.

Chadwick, C. (2005). The vital role of strategy in strategic human resource management education. Human Resource Management Review, 15(3), 200–213. doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2005.11.003

Delery, J. E., & Doty, D. H. (1996). Modes Of Theorizing In Strategic Human Resource Management : Tests Of Universalistic , Contingency , And Configurational Performance Predictions, 39(4), 802–835.

L.Stewart, Greg, K. G. B. (2009). Human Resource Management Linking Startegy and Practice (p. v). Wiley: United States

Marler, J. H. (2012). Strategic Human Resource Management in Context: A Historical and Global Perspective. Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(2), 6–11. doi:10.5465/amp.2012.0063

Martin-alcdzar, F., Romero-fernandez, P. M., & Sdnchez-gardey, G. (2005). Strategic human resource management : integrating the universaiistic , contingent , configurational and contextual perspectives. Journal of Human Resource Management, 5(May), 633–660.

Mohammed, J., Bhatti, M. K., & Jariko, G. A. (2000). Importance of Human Resource Investment for Organizations and Economy : A Critical Analysis. Journal of Managerial Sciences, vii(1), 127–133.

Pate, J. (2005). Books for Managers. European Management Journal, 23(2), 260. doi:10.1016/j.emj.2005.02.014

Tovstiga, G. (1999), Profiling the knowledge worker in the knowledge-intensive organization: emerging roles, International Journal of Technology Management, 731-44.