A New Mandate for Human Resources by Dave Ulrich
A New Mandate for
Human Resources
by Dave Ulrich
Harvard Business Review
Reprint 98111
S
h ould we do away with HR? In recent years, a number of people who study and write about business – along with many who run businesses – have been debating that question. The debate arises out of serious and widespread doubts about HR’s contribution to organizational performance. And as much as I like HR people – I have been working in the field as a researcher, professor, and consultant for 20 years – I must agree that there is good reason for HR’s beleaguered reputation. It is often ineffective, incompetent, and costly; in a phrase, it is value sapping. Indeed, if HR were to remain configured as it is today in many companies,
I would have to answer the question above with a resounding “Yes – abolish the thing!”
But the truth is, HR has never been more necessary. The competitive forces that managers face today and will continue to confront in the future demand organizational excellence. The efforts to
124
achieve such excellence – through a focus on learning, quality, teamwork, and reengineering – are driven by the way organizations get things done and how they treat their people. Those are fundamental
HR issues. To state it plainly: achieving organizational excellence must be the work of HR.
The question for senior managers, then, is not
Should we do away with HR? but What should we do with HR? The answer is: create an entirely new role and agenda for the field that focuses it not on traditional HR activities, such as staffing and compensation, but on outcomes. HR should not be defined by what it does but by what it delivers – results that enrich the organization’s value to customers, investors, and employees.
More specifically, HR can help deliver organizational excellence in the following four ways:
! First, HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy execution, helping to
ARTWORK BY MICHAEL WOLOSCHINOW
Human Resources
by Dave Ulrich
Harvard Business Review
Reprint 98111
S
h ould we do away with HR? In recent years, a number of people who study and write about business – along with many who run businesses – have been debating that question. The debate arises out of serious and widespread doubts about HR’s contribution to organizational performance. And as much as I like HR people – I have been working in the field as a researcher, professor, and consultant for 20 years – I must agree that there is good reason for HR’s beleaguered reputation. It is often ineffective, incompetent, and costly; in a phrase, it is value sapping. Indeed, if HR were to remain configured as it is today in many companies,
I would have to answer the question above with a resounding “Yes – abolish the thing!”
But the truth is, HR has never been more necessary. The competitive forces that managers face today and will continue to confront in the future demand organizational excellence. The efforts to
124
achieve such excellence – through a focus on learning, quality, teamwork, and reengineering – are driven by the way organizations get things done and how they treat their people. Those are fundamental
HR issues. To state it plainly: achieving organizational excellence must be the work of HR.
The question for senior managers, then, is not
Should we do away with HR? but What should we do with HR? The answer is: create an entirely new role and agenda for the field that focuses it not on traditional HR activities, such as staffing and compensation, but on outcomes. HR should not be defined by what it does but by what it delivers – results that enrich the organization’s value to customers, investors, and employees.
More specifically, HR can help deliver organizational excellence in the following four ways:
! First, HR should become a partner with senior and line managers in strategy execution, helping to
ARTWORK BY MICHAEL WOLOSCHINOW