Essays.club - Get Free Essays and Term Papers
Search

Strategic Human Resource Management and Knowledge Workers- a Case Study of Professional Service Firms

Autor:   •  September 20, 2017  •  1,766 Words (8 Pages)  •  1,078 Views

Page 1 of 8

...

of organizational goals and consider employees as valuable assets.

Adhering to only one of the approach might not benefit the organization. It is necessary for any organization to understand the need make blend of both the approaches to attain best results. The assumptions made by the author in this case study also exemplifies the two models to some extent. PSF1 values the employees and their contribution, promotion is based on experience and performance. The performance measurement system determines the employees’ remuneration and career progression within the organization, according to the performance targets outlined in their individual business plans, conduct appraisals as per-job-engagements. In PSF2 assessment process is informal. Senior management makes decision on selection. Each employee is required to engage in the personal development planning process, performance review and the annual performance review and applies same performance review process for all positions. PSF1 relates more to Harvard model where the firm controls business through people and client. People management includes developing, inspiring and providing challenging worker by partners due to which partners have changed the way they behave as they realized-own behavior has a significant influence upon the people they work with. Client management includes providing exceptional service to clients through people and forty per cent of partner’s remuneration is based on meeting their client’s expectations.

4. What are the significant empirical/conceptual contributions of or gaps in this article?

 The author has highlighted the difference in human resource function and role in two different professional service firms and the importance of organizational culture which plays a vital role influencing the success of an organization. Despite of the contributions made by the study, it is limited to generalize that the findings from these two firms explain the entire market in general. Following gaps persist in the study.

- The study does not provide sufficient evidence to conclude if strategic human resource management is required for better performance of firm. Although the profits have been displayed higher for the given period for PSF1 (which partially adopted SHRM), it is not proven that the second firm underperformed because of traditional HR approaches.

- It adopts a case study method, the findings of which cannot be generalized to a wider population.

- The case method provides only a limited body of accumulated knowledge.

- The study does not adopt a longitudinal research design to test empirically the relationships between HRM systems, control systems, and firm performance.

- There is no evidence in the case that explains the effectiveness of personal controls in professional service firms.

5. What conclusions does the author draw? Are these conclusions justified in the light of the empirical/theoretical evidence by the author? How important are these conclusions?

 Author derived following conclusions from the study.

- Strategic human resource management is important for firm’s performance.

- HR has to participate in strategic decision making to gain more competitive advantage.

- Organizational culture and personnel controls should be implemented for better firm performance

- HRM function must engage in a business partnership role and provide strategic advice to line managers and senior managers.

- HRM function has to change its traditional role from personnel management to strategic HRM.

- Knowledge workers and investment in HR is must to gain competitive advantage.

The conclusions are drawn by the author are justified in light of the empirical evident shared in the study. Difference in firms’ performance adopting SHRM compared to firm applying traditional HRM is exemplified. Application of self-discovery performance culture by PSF1 also reflects to the need that human resource function has to be changed time and again to get better performance from employees. Author attempts to highlight the important of firms to shift from traditional operations of human resource to participate in strategic decision making and organizational growth. This message is important and fits the current market where HRM is not only recruitment team but a function involved in recruitment, setting up work standards, creating performance appraisal policies, creating development plans for each employee and participating in executive team to create and formulate plans and policies.

6. How could this work be further extended or redefined?

 The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of adopting a strategic approach to human resource management (HRM) in professional service firms (PSFs) and provide the empirical evidence by comparing and contrasting the adoption of a strategic approach to HRM in two Australian PSFs. The findings from the study of two Australian firms cannot be generalized. Thus following additional work could redefine the conclusions from this paper.

- Define SHRM and its approach

- Study the impact of SHRM in different regions of the globe and increase the sample size of study to match the results with American, Australian, European and Asian market.

- Identify and conduct statistical analysis for different fields of HRM to generalize the findings.

- Provide financial figures to prove the inefficiency of firms not adopting SHRM and evidence to prove profitability of applying SHRM

- Study is limited to professional service firms and it does not summarize varied business areas. Thus further study for different businesses is suggested.

...

Download:   txt (11.9 Kb)   pdf (93.3 Kb)   docx (13.3 Kb)  
Continue for 7 more pages »
Only available on Essays.club