Approaches to HR Strategy and Common Practices
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Explain the universalistic and contingency approaches to human resource strategy, including key characteristics of the commitment strategy.
Researchers have taken two basic approaches in investigating human resource patterns:
- The universalistic approach seeks to identify a set of human resource practices that is beneficial for all organizations. The goal of universalistic research is therefore to find the one best way of managing human resources.
Sets of human resource practices that are internally consistent and that reinforce each other are known as human resource bundles.
Many practices related to hiring and motivating employees cluster naturally into two bundles.
One bundle is based on a control strategy; the primary focus of human resource practices in this bundle is standardization and efficiency.
The second bundle is based on a commitment strategy; the primary focus of practices in this bundle is to empower workers and build a strong sense of loyalty and commitment.
- The contingency approach seeks to match human resource practices with competitive business strategies. In this view, the human resource practices that work best for organizations pursuing a certain competitive strategy will not necessarily work best for organizations pursuing a different strategy.
A different is whether the organization has: an internal or an external labor orientation.
Internal labor orientation seek long-term relationships with employees.
External labor orientation seek flexibility (short-term relationships) and do not make long.
Describe four human resource strategies that organizations commonly use.
The Loyal Soldier: -Hiring people early in their careers and retaining loyal employees that fit the organizational culture.Broad roles and a great variety of tasks. -Efforts to reduce the employees’ turnover. -Extensive training in different skills.Careers with very different positions. -Performance appraisals on cooperation rather than competition. -Compensation with long-term incentives and benefits. -Unions, frequently help to build feelings of unity.
Bargain Laborer: -Hiring employees who do not demand high wages. -Coordination with direct supervision. -Clearly defined simple tasks that do not require developed skills. -Little attention to meeting the long-term needs of employees. -Performance appraisal focuses on day-to-day feedback and rarely incorporates formal measures.-Training limited to on-the-job techniques. -Compensation on hours worked with no benefits and long-term incentives.The lack of consistency among employees tends to make unions somewhat rare.
Committed Expert: -Hiring people early in their careers and retaining specialized ones that fit with the organizational culture. - Employees have freedom to innovate in performing tasks. -Long-term training to be experts in specific fields. -Performance appraisals are designed to balance cooperation and competition. - Careers with numerous promotions into similar jobs with increasing responsibility.Compensation is relatively high and usually includes a benefits package.
Free Agent: -Hiring people with already critical skills.-Work with extensive responsibility and autonomy within specific areas. - Short-term commitment, compensation and benefits. -No training and no long-term careers in the organization. - Performance appraisal focuses on outcomes and results and linked with compensation. -Unions are rarely.