Unit 13 D2

Q2 : Explain the importance of integrating Human Resource Management into a business’s strategic planning process. An organisation’s strategy can be defined as it’s long-term direction and the process involved in achieving goals and objectives. Whittington, R. et al (2010) classes strategy as the allocation of resource necessary for achieving an organisations long-term goals. A business must develop a strategic planning process in order to ensure that it is successful and can compete in current, ever-growing competitive markets. To do this, human resource management must be integrated throughout the strategic process. Human Resource Management is classified by Bratton, J. & Gold, J. (2007) as a strategic approach to managing employment
Globalisation is a large factor. Due to the increased efficiency and lower costs of communicating globally, along with the abundance of communication technology available, such as skype, video calling, fax, etc., organisations are, nowadays, much more likely to compete on a global scale and have premises in other countries. Communication systems between countries are cheap and effective, allowing an organisation to have a head office placed in a country which may be cheaper/easier to operate in. Local managers in their subsidiaries no longer need to see head office face-to-face due to all of these technological advances so there is less requirement for the head office to be in the same country. Human resource management must be integrated into this as this means that practices must continually be developed in order to allow an organisation to keep a competitive advantage over the market. Change within an organisation is something which must be expected and prepared for, and human resource management are used to ensure the organisation is ready for change and to assess which resources can be adapted to allow the firm to perform at it’s best. Torrington, D. et al (2011) states that ‘a capacity for organizational flexibility has become central to the achievement and maintenance of competitive advantage.” An example of a company that has successfully globalised is McDonalds. McDonalds has opened up branches worldwide and has been, as stated by some, given credit for increasing the standard of service in entered markets. In Hong Kong, when McDonalds opened their resteraunt, they were the first to offer customers clean restrooms, which sparked a fuel for change amongst all other chinese resteraunts, as stated by Sparrow, P. et al