Best Practice
Is apparent ‘best practice’ people management likely to deliver best possible performance in the context of an organization you are familiar with?
Introduction
What apparent best practice people management is (200)
Schuler & Jackson (1987), state that strategic human resource management (SHRM) is a term used to signal the view that human resource management (HRM) should enhance organisational performance. It is argued that a firm’s HRM is a potentially powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage for an organisation and the notion of ‘best practice’ people management is concerned with the importance of ‘soft’ HRM (a humanistic and developmental approach to HR) as a driver of, and contributor to, improved business performance (Marchington & Grugulis, 2000).
Adopting a soft approach to HRM is a seen as a consensual approach to people management based upon its intention to develop a mutual level of commitment between employee and employer. Guthrie (2001) suggests that a focus on people is important, emphasising that utilising a system of management practices giving employees skills, information, motivation and latitude, results in a workforce that is a source of competitive advantage for a business. This perception implies that by investing in it’s people and seeing them as being proactive, capable of development and worthy of trust, forms the basis of a strong psychological contract whereby upon feeling that expectations are shared, the employee will give back to the organisation. This is further evidence by the concept of the employee chain (Boxall & Purcell, 2011) and the positive relationship between people management and the implicit objective of maximizing shareholder value.
A ‘best practice’ model of HRM promotes a idealistic model of people management that promotes mutuality between a firm and it’s employees but, such an optimistic model assumes universal applicability (Purcell, 1999), whereas a ‘best fit’ model argues that HRM is actually more
Introduction
What apparent best practice people management is (200)
Schuler & Jackson (1987), state that strategic human resource management (SHRM) is a term used to signal the view that human resource management (HRM) should enhance organisational performance. It is argued that a firm’s HRM is a potentially powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage for an organisation and the notion of ‘best practice’ people management is concerned with the importance of ‘soft’ HRM (a humanistic and developmental approach to HR) as a driver of, and contributor to, improved business performance (Marchington & Grugulis, 2000).
Adopting a soft approach to HRM is a seen as a consensual approach to people management based upon its intention to develop a mutual level of commitment between employee and employer. Guthrie (2001) suggests that a focus on people is important, emphasising that utilising a system of management practices giving employees skills, information, motivation and latitude, results in a workforce that is a source of competitive advantage for a business. This perception implies that by investing in it’s people and seeing them as being proactive, capable of development and worthy of trust, forms the basis of a strong psychological contract whereby upon feeling that expectations are shared, the employee will give back to the organisation. This is further evidence by the concept of the employee chain (Boxall & Purcell, 2011) and the positive relationship between people management and the implicit objective of maximizing shareholder value.
A ‘best practice’ model of HRM promotes a idealistic model of people management that promotes mutuality between a firm and it’s employees but, such an optimistic model assumes universal applicability (Purcell, 1999), whereas a ‘best fit’ model argues that HRM is actually more