Critical Review of Articles

This critical review provides an analysis of three articles on strategic human resource management, board structure, and the concept of strategy. The first article explores the role of corporate culture in strategic human resource management in Chinese enterprises. The second article examines the impact of board structure on top management team strategic action capability. The third article discusses the concept of strategy and how it emerges in response to business environment pressures. The review highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each article and provides insights for human resource management, corporate governance, and strategic planning.

Critical review
Title: Critical Review
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Critical review
Contents
Article 1...........................................................................................................................................3
Article 2...........................................................................................................................................5
Article 3...........................................................................................................................................7
References......................................................................................................................................10
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Critical review
Article 1
Wei, L., Liu, J., Zhang, Y. and Chiu, R. (2008). The role of corporate culture in the process
of strategic human resource management: Evidence from Chinese enterprises. Human
Resource Management, 47(4), pp.777-794.
There is a buildup body of research on SHRM. People are progressively recognizing that
they are a valuable resource for business triumph also can be an origin of sustainable cut-throat
advantage. However, current research focuses on the content of human resource management
systems, including HRM systems, HRM practices, and best practices. In this article, we will
explore the duty of business culture in the authorization and SHRM implementation. This paper
provides important implications for human resource management in China and further driving
and developing economies. In this article, the author discusses the importance of using human
resources as an origin of the competitive advantage plus an impact on organizational strategy.
Corporate culture (collective, development or grade) has a beneficial impact on the assumption
of SHRM, SHRM Mediation Culture - Corporate Performance Linkage. The execution of SHRM
has an optimistic impact on corporate culture (even if it is group, development or hierarchy), and
the connection between cultural mediation SHRM and corporate performance. This article
investigates the character of the corporate culture within the execution of HRM. In this article
authors also recommend that corporate society promote the approval of SHRM, which consumes
an optimistic impact on company performance. Instead, SHRM can promote the culture of
certain kinds of cultures, which in the shot has a positive effect on company performance. Both
development and group culture have promoted the embracing of SHRM, which had a positive
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impression on company performance. In addition, the development culture has some
uninterrupted up effects on business performance. The company's performance is able to
improve by adopting SHRM or developing a nation. For the execution of SHRM, the suitable
culture, whether it is development or group, may be helpful. “Cultural determinism” argues that
a good society may lead to the approval of actual management rehearses, such as SHRM, which
may profit the organization. The claim that culture is the negotiator of the SHRM presentation
link has not been confirmed. Since the development culture has a thru impact on corporate
performance, we believe that corporate heritage for example development culture and group – is
not only conducive to the SHRM adoption, nevertheless may also straight benefit the
performance of the company. The different influences of development and group culture have
exactly practicalities for the Chinese company’s influences. One major strength of this article
that this article provides good knowledge about how China's transitional economy, the
entrepreneurial spirit, and innovation implicit by development culture might be same important,
because this positioning is not only conducive to the development of unconventional
management practices, for example, SHRM nonetheless also helps to increase the lowest line of
the enterprise. However, the group culture orientation can only promote the SHRM adoption, and
the law orientation of classified culture has nothing to do with the SHRM development.
This article has little weakness for all cross-sectional studies. The major drawback of this
article is that the author is unable to check the reciprocal connection between SHRM and
corporate society created on data composed at the same time. Further longitudinal research is
needed to detention the fundamental relationship between SHRM and corporate culture in
Chinese companies and the corresponding effect on corporate performance. Such as Chinese
companies upgrading their human resource management systems through a broader business
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reform and steadily build a corporate culture, further research on the interaction between human
resource management and corporate society can provide evidence for the inside process-related
factors of Chinese firm performance. Reasonable studies of Chinese companies with changed
historical circumstances and different industries also contribute to the development of theory and
the practice of human resource management.
Article 2
Kim, B., Burns, M. and Prescott, J. (2009). The Strategic Role of the Board: The Impact of
Board Structure on Top Management Team Strategic Action Capability. Corporate
Governance: An International Review, 17(6), pp.728-743.
Boards are usually elite, large groups with occasional functions and part-time
responsibilities. Most board members are external directors and their primary affiliation is
another organization. Because of these unique characteristics, the board more than other groups
faces difficulties in interaction, and its effectiveness may depend to a large extent on the social
and psychological processes that result from participation, interaction, and communication
within the board. This article provides good knowledge about how worldwide board reforms,
corporate governance letdowns, and ambiguous research have provided the impetus for
researching boards from diverse perspectives than the current focus on service roles and control.
In this article authors also point out that the strategic part of organization’s board is
hypothesized; moreover impact of the board diversity, as well as leadership structures on
swiftness and breadth of the senior management team's strategic abilities, is simply illustrated in
this article. The generally prescribed board configuration can be detrimental to company and
industry performance along with the national economy (Kim, Burns and Prescott, 2009). The
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specific board configuration will have different effects on the TMT function and should be
consistent with the environmental context. Those responsible for governance design furthermore
the board alignment should recognize how the range of board plus leadership influences the
speed as well as the breadth of the TMT's planned capabilities. In this article, authors provide
clear evidence that the effectiveness of the company's board of directors has questioned the board
members is the first line of security to protect the interests of shareholders moreover
stakeholders. A strategic board of directors can better fulfill these fiduciary duties, so the impact
of board strategy engagement on the organizational outcomes requires careful review and
empirical verification. While researchers of this article have simply begun to deed the
importance of the board's strategic part, how strategic boards affect strategy and company
performance remains notorious and may vary by company, industry and country context (Kim,
Burns and Prescott, 2009). An essential implication of the model is that the generic prescription
of the board configuration is probable to be detrimental to the company's performance. Given the
growing involvement of regulators in the board structure, authors want to know whether certain
board structures advocated by regulators and reformers are inconsistent with demand in many
modest environments, and thus put detrimental pressure on company performance. In particular,
the board of directors is required to unilaterally adopt the regulatory requirements and reforms of
the integrated board configuration outsider leadership may actually harm the company's
performance.
There are few limitations of this article because the author cannot briefly explain that
changes in industry dynamics and complexity will not appear overnight, but in most cases over
time, changes within the board configuration could gradually occur or lag behind the work
environment. At the same time, the author can also define the effectiveness of the company's
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board members has been questioned. The board of directors is the first line of defense to protect
the interests of stakeholders and shareholders. A strategic board of directors can better fulfill
these fiduciary duties, so the impact of board strategy engagement on the organizational
outcomes requires more careful review and empirical verification (Kim, Burns and Prescott,
2009).
Article 3
Mintzberg, H. (1987). The Strategy Concept I: Five Ps for Strategy. California Management
Review, 30(1), pp.11-24.
In the "production strategy", Mintzberg wrote an incisive article on his views on strategy.
He has systematically explored the traditional way people think of strategy as a strategist such as
a CEO or strategic planning department who plans to be implemented by others. However, he
explained that managers' perceptions of the way organizations should behave can lead to a range
of decisions from which strategies can be generated. In other words, a strategy is not just a
conscious plan, but it gradually emerges as companies respond to pressures in the business
environment and are forced to innovate. Mintzberg uses the symbol of the potter to prove the
involvement of the craftsman, who uses his/her abilities, experience and devotion and makes the
necessary adjustments such as he/she is researching the product, resulting in innovative articles.
In this review, we include some key strengths and weaknesses in the strategic debate (Mintzberg,
1987). There are no fully regulated strategies or fully emerging strategies, many of which are
between these two extremes. The most effective strategy combines organizational learning with
flexibility, deliberation, and control. This indication completely reflects the difficulty of the
business world. Although Mintzberg has a strong preference for emerging strategies, it does not
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Critical review
guarantee that this is the best appropriate or perfect way for companies. In addition, other
analyses demonstrate the significance of integrating autonomy as well as planning in strategic
planning in an emergency strategy model. More specifically, by combining these two models,
organizations can achieve the company's efficiency in strategic planning by adapting to the
random environment in the emergency strategy model as well as coordinating all the business
activities and functions to achieve production adaptability and company best consistency.
Other authors point out that the core of maintaining a competitive advantage is creativity
and different strategic thinking. This new perspective denotes new method managers to consider
or to evaluate organizational operations (Mintzberg, 1987). As Menzberg mentioned, strategic
thinking is reflected through informal knowledge from different sources, including experience,
leading to a comprehensive view of the business, and then integrating learning into a business-
oriented image. In contrast, many administrators only analyze numbers and charts, but these are
the past analysis of data and forecasts, which poses a huge risk to the business. In addition,
strategic thinking demonstrates the overall perspective of the interaction between the various
parts of the company and the relevant situation.
However, this article still has criticism. One major drawback is that Mintzberg
completely failed to address emergency strategy issues in the entire business environment. First
of all, most of the times this strategy can take so much time. Since this process also includes
many experiments, it constantly tries to identify or to determine the new methods until it
succeeds. There is no uncertainty that this is time-consuming because no one can easily find the
right compromise each time. In addition, every time a company tries a new strategy, it spends a
lot of resources, such as labor or machine use, which wastes money. Mintzberg did not consider
the consequences of using the trial and fault in various plans. In reality, this approach is costly,
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as well as research shows that the acquisitions can attain enhanced financial or economic results
by adopting a planned diversification approach rather than trial and error (Mintzberg, 1987).
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References
Kim, B., Burns, M. and Prescott, J. (2009). The Strategic Role of the Board: The Impact of
Board Structure on Top Management Team Strategic Action Capability. Corporate Governance:
An International Review, 17(6), pp.728-743.
Mintzberg, H. (1987). The Strategy Concept I: Five Ps for Strategy. California Management
Review, 30(1), pp.11-24.
Wei, L., Liu, J., Zhang, Y. and Chiu, R. (2008). The role of corporate culture in the process of
strategic human resource management: Evidence from Chinese enterprises. Human Resource
Management, 47(4), pp.777-794.
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