Vision and planning's impact on high performance HR systems

High Performance Human Resource Management

Examine one of the axioms of management and assess its relationship with creating a high performing HR system within an organization.

Management is what a person does and a leader is who a person is. This is reflected in many of the theorists and practitioners of management and leadership theories, with the focus being on how effective transformational leaders are in galvanizing an organization into a common direction (Waite, 17). While there are many areas where management and leadership diverge, the convergence of these two areas as they relate to creating a higher performance human resource (HR) system relate to planning and the ability to define a compelling vision (Goh, Low, 25). There are many implications in creating a high performance HR system based on the convergence of defining a compelling vision, planning and the tactical considerations of transforming these aspects of management and leadership into reality. The intent of this paper is to evaluate how these factors are powerful catalysts for creating and sustaining a high performance HR system.

Defining a Vision and Planning's Impact on High Performance HR Systems

Of the many roles and responsibilities of a leader, the defining and continual reinforcing of a vision for the organization is critical for galvanizing the many disparate systems together to deliver excellent performance. A strong, galvanizing vision sets a foundation for high performance HR systems by making it very clear how each strategic objective, measured and support by HR, contribute to the fulfillment of the vision. In knowledge-centric and service-driven businesses that rely primarily on clarity of roles and tasks for people, a compelling vision is the strongest element a company can have. A company's vision needs to be beyond just being compelling however, it must also allow for every person to see how their contributions matter and congruent with their roles and also with the broader strategic objectives of the company as well (Goh, Low, 25). This is a foundational element of a high performance HR system in that it infuses a sense of accountability and performance with every person in a company and increases the likelihood of visions being transformed into reality.

The second aspect of planning and defining a compelling vision for a company is the focus on how to measure progress. As intuitive as this sounds, it is remarkable how often companies get lost on their way to attaining objectives by not concentrating on analytics and metrics of performance that measure collaboration and shared effort. Just as it is critical for a high performance HR system to translate the vision and planning strategies of a company into individualized accountability and responsibility, the same is true of measuring performance. Too often planning performance is measured in silos and not across an entire organization, which leads to myopic thinking and results (Goh, Low, 22). A high performance HR system will be able to capture analytics and metrics of performance that underscore the need for communication and collaboration, further solidifying a company into a common direction.