Strategic linkages in organizational development

Strategic Linkages

The modern day working environment is the result of decades of evolution. The labor force initially set its basis in the Industrial Revolution, when the people moved from villages to towns and cities in order to become factory workers and pursue better lives. What they found was nevertheless different from a better life, as they were exploited, overworked, underpaid and forced to live and function in unsafe and unsanitary conditions.

Since those times however, the labor force has gained more and more rights, which are enforced through legislations. The modern day employees then are the most valuable asset within the company, as they support the company in attaining its objectives. In such a setting, the role of the Human Resource Department in the organizational setting has become more complex, to be assessed as part of an integrated and multifaceted strategic setting. At this level, it is important to assess three specific dimensions, as follows:

(1) The importance of perceiving HR as a strategic partner in the business

(2) The benefits of this perception to employees, and last

(3) The risks of HR operating as a secluded department, rather than one integrated in the wider organizational context.

The need to perceive the human resource department as an integrant party in the overall organizational system is explained mostly by the recent realization of the role played by the staff members in the attainment of the pre-established business objectives. As it has been mentioned previously, the workforce had initially been perceived as the force operating the machines and implementing the decisions made by the managers. They did not participate in the decision making process, nor did they provide feedback or any real feedback on how the company should proceed to attain its goals.

Throughout the past recent decades however, the staff members have metamorphosed from the people operating the machines into the most valuable assets of the company. Today then, the staff members serve multiple functions and roles, and they are no longer the force that operates the machines and blindly implemented the decisions. Today's employees are more knowledgeable than ever; they provide feedback; they communicate with their employers and they provide solutions to the problems encountered by the firm. The employees are now the ones who ensure ultimate company performance.

In this new setting then, the human resources department cannot be an isolated structure within the entity, but has to be adequately integrated and interrelated in order to best manage the company's relationship with its employees at all organizational levels. In other words, the need to restructure the companies around the HR department is given by the increasing role of the staff members and the increasing sensitivity of firms to the performances and satisfaction of their staff members.

At the organizational employees, this different perception and arrangement generates a series of advantages, some of the more notable of them being revealed below:

More emphasis is placed on the training of the staff members, who, as such, become better professionals. On the one hand, this new trait increases the employees' loyalty to the firm, but also increases their self-confidence and trust in future security -- as they become better professionals, they are more likely to gain more professional opportunities.

Aside from professional development, the new arrangement and importance of the human resource department in the firms also enhances the personal development of the individuals. For instance, the new arrangement stimulates the employees to openly communicate their grievances and have them forwarded by the HR department.

Another advantage of this arrangement is represented by the better promotion of the various needs and wants of the employees at various organizational levels. For instance, the manufacturing department had been separated from HR, and any equipment malfunctions were neglected by the personnel department. Nowadays however, HR notices malfunctions and pressures managers to resolve them in order to enhance employee safety.