Strategic Human Resource Management

Strategic Human Resource Management

In general, human resource management has adhered to one of two major models in the workplace; the "best fit" and "best practice" model. To determine which of these is best, companies should carefully examine the advantages and challenges of each. For each company, the outcome should adhere to the needs and culture of the personnel base involved.

Morris and Maloney (2) offer an overview of both models. The best fit model, for example, aims to match human resources strategy with the existing strategy of the corporation. In other words, the strategy of the corporation remains static, while human resources strategy is modified to obtain a good fit. This is then assumed to improve organizational effectiveness.

According to Armstrong (2008: 40), the best practice approach, on the other hand, assumes that there is a set of HRM practices that will inevitably lead to superior organizational performance. This model is the opposite from the best fit model, in that HRM practices are not necessarily flexible, but that there is a set of best practices that will universally have the desired effect. These practices include strategies such as employment security, selective hiring, self-managed teams, high compensation matched with performance, training, sharing information, and so on. According to the author (Armstrong 2008: 44), some have been critical of the best practice model. The notion of a single set of best practices, for example, does not necessarily adhere to the best possible strategy for HR managers. According to the critics, for example, each firm has its own distinctive management practices. To subvert these to a specific and commonly accepted set of rules is not necessarily "best practice" as such. At the core of the criticism is therefore that the best practice model does no provide sufficient flexibility to be viable in the reality of the business world.

The best-fit approach, on the other hand, allows for much more flexibility. In this model, as seen above, the context, circumstances, and type of organization differ among different organizations, but remain internally static, while HR strategies are modified to fit in with these. While there are various approaches that can be taken, such as the life cycle, competitive strategy, and strategic configuration, the main important factor here is that companies have a much wider variety of choice in terms of the specific strategies and approaches chosen. In the differentiated business world today, it might therefore be assumed that this would be the best approach to take in terms of human resources management.

At the core of this argumentation is that businesses are as individual as human beings themselves. Not all businesses ascribe the same level of importance to each business strategy. Hence, to use a best practice model in a "one size fits all" approach is much less viable than choosing an approach that provides for greater flexibility.

Because the best-fit approach offers a variety of different ways in which to achieve a best fit between the company's goals and objectives and human resource management, one might therefore assume that, for today's business world, this is the best approach. A static approach is as unviable today as attempting to provide all human beings with one size or color in clothing or shoes and claiming that it's the "best practice." Regardless of how many opinions this satisfies, there will always be those who disagree, or those with whose lifestyle or body type the practice simply does not fit.