Unit 21 Strategic Human Resource Management Assignment

Introduction

Strategic Human Resource management is the part of the strategic approach of the management which will align the business objectives with current situation of the industry it is operating. Competitive advantage and higher return of profits are being focused in the strategic human resource management. The following Unit 21 strategic human resource management assignment will focus on the strategic human resource management for achieving the maximum return and effectiveness.

3: Using appropriate resource based view of Strategic Human resource Management critically evaluate recruitment and selection policies.

Resource based view is the part of the strategic approach applied by the top management in the organisation. The objective of the resource based view is to convert the short-term competitive advantage in to sustainable competitive advantage for achieving long term profit (Millimore, 2010). The speciality of the theory is to address the potential available resources in order to utilize it in an optimum way. The VRIN characteristics of the Resource based view gives emphasis on the factors like valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable. The resources of the organisation must be unique and it cannot be easily copied by other firms which will give actual competitive advantage to the organisation. Strategic  Human resource management  gives an edge to the organisation in the terms of profitability, competitive advantage and efficiency in the work process (Storey, 2011). Thus resource based view is the part of the strategic human resource management which support the core features of the strategic human resource management. As per the context of the recruitment and selection process, resource based view can enhance the process which can help the organisation to attract competent workforce. Recruitment and selection is one of the crucial functions of the human resource department of the organisation as it involves the process of hiring new employees who can productive performances as per the resource based view. Recruitment policy involves the job advertisement, mentioning the steps to apply for the concerned post, job description etc. On the other hand selection is the process that involves preferring and choosing the most suitable candidates among the all (Bohlander and Snell, 2010). For example, Tesco adopts the recruitment policy which involves the advertisement of the concerned post in the internet or they start the recruitment process from the internal sources that is from employee’s referral. Tesco is the supermarket chain of UK and having its highest market share that is around 28.4%. It has observed that the sales of  Tesco services  have fallen down around 0.8% (Butler, 2016). One of the reasons for the drop of the sales can be the recruitment and selection process. The management of Tesco wants to enhance the competency of the workforce in order to attract more customers and also to achieve the competitive advantage. Thus resource based view can be linked with the objective of the management of Tesco. On the other hand the selection process includes the HR round where the recruitment board members will like to study the candidate based on their way of communication, etiquette etc. In the competitive business environment the organisations have to face strong competition where the differentiation factor lacks and that create negative impact on the aims of the resource based view. Comparing with Sainsbury which is also the supermarket chain in UK having 16.8% market share, the process of the recruitment and selection is having some difference which is creating a competitive advantage that supports the Resource based view. The recruitment board adopted the situation based taste by showing the videos and then asked the candidates to interpret the situation for testing the reasoning capability. The candidate with unique and creative ideas will be selected. This candidate can be the valuable asset for the organisation. This process of Sainsbury can be aligned with the Resource based view where the factors like non-substitutable and valuable features can be observed which can convert the short-term competitive advantage in to a sustainable form.

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4: Compare and contrast best fit versus best practice models of HRM. Which one would you think suits best for Sunderland University? Consider the question from perspective of a location, for example the main campus in Sunderland as HQ and a campus of Sunderland University in London. Justify your answer.

The two approaches of Human Resource Management are Best fit and Best practices. “Best Fit” approaches link the Human resource strategy with the business environment in order to increase the level of efficiency in the organisation. On the other hand “Best Practices” model claims the tested and industry benchmarked practices which can be adopted by the organisation in order to maximise the productivity as well as profitability (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2012). One of the objectives of the organisation is to create competitive advantage which must be unique and cannot be copied which is opposing the concept of best practices model. In the context of the Sunderland University the selection of the models to increase the efficiency of the University is the crucial point. For that both the models are needed to be assessed. The students who are having their classes on London need to come on Sunderland for some official purpose. On the other hand the staffs working in the London location should also need to come on Sunderland for some official work as it is the headquarter of the University. The distance between Sunderland to London is 455 km and it takes 3 hours 47 min approximately. Thus the distance can kill the important time. The model best fit can be applied in order to improve the operational process of the University. Best fit model will focus on the area that will support the organisation to operate effectively. The University provides several courses in Management,  Travel and Tourism,  health studies in both the graduate and post graduate programs. The easy access for the students and also for the staffs is prime objective of the University of Sunderland. Thus they will like to adopt the strategy that can effectively fit the objective of the University. On the other hand Best practices are the strategy which is previously being tasted and if it is adopted then the key potential resources of the University can be overlooked. The University will try to utilise the resources which are unique and suited best. For that Best Fit model can be selected which can effectively align the policies and system of the University with the external environment that have an influence (Belcourt &McBey, 2012). The students and the staffs will be comfortable if there is integration between the head quarter and campus which will ease their access and can also able to attract more students. The staffs will also be motivated to give their best performances due to easy accessibility of the headquarter and campus with the Best Fit model. All the Universities will try to ease their operational efficiency by the integrating the Human resource strategy and that can be supported by the Best Fit model. If the combination of the external factors aligns with the strategy of the University then it can able to achieve the competitive advantage whereas Best Practices Model is already being applied by the organisations which cannot give the desired result. Best Fit model can support the competitive strategies like the differentiation, focused approach and low operational cost (Bohlander and Snell, 2010).The easy accessibility between the headquarter and campus will save the time for the students and also for the staffs. On the other hand the University can also maintain smooth process which will help them to lower the cost and also to increase the productivity.

Conclusion

Thus to conclude in both the essay the strategic human resource management is being focused. It is the managers of the organisation who needs to understand the strategies and its effectiveness in order to adopt it. For achieving the sustainable competitive advantage it is the resource based view which can supports the human resource strategy. The last essay has highlighted the effectiveness of the Best Fit and Best Practices model by relating the University of Sunderland.

References

Belcourt, M &McBey, K (2012), Strategic  Human Resources Planning,  Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Bohlander W., G. and Snell., S. (2010). Managing Human resources. Cengage learning.
Butler., S. (2016). Tesco slows sales decline as recovery gathers pace. [Online] Available: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/mar/08/tesco-recovery-sales-supermarket-retail-sector, Accessed as on 11.8.16
Marchington., M and Wilkinson., A. (2012). People management and Development: Human Resource management at work. CIPD publishing.
Milimore., M. (2010). Strategic Human Resource Management: Contemporary issues. Prentice Hall.
Storey., J. (2011). Human resource management: A critical Text. Cengage Learning.