Strategic Human Resource Management Report: Amazon's Business Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) within the context of Amazon. It begins by establishing the relationship between business strategy and HR strategy, emphasizing the importance of aligning HR practices with business goals, illustrated through Amazon's focus on innovation and its alignment strategies. The report then delves into theoretical models of SHRM, including the strategic perspective and best-fit, the best practice, and the resource-based view, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. It examines HR practices like performance management and rewards, discussing their impact and potential redesign for organizational development. Furthermore, the report explores employee relations, covering unitary, pluralistic, and Marxist perspectives, and addresses the changing nature of these relations in the modern business environment. It concludes by highlighting the significance of employee participation and voice in achieving organizational objectives, reinforcing the crucial role of SHRM in fostering a healthy and harmonious workplace. The report uses Amazon as a case study throughout, providing practical examples and insights.

STRATEGIC HUMAN
RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................3
Relationship between business strategy and human resource strategy.......................................3
TASK2 ............................................................................................................................................5
Employee relation.......................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFRENCES...................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Strategic HRM is concerned with the relation between a companies human resources and
its strategies, aims and objectives. It is established for the purpose of enhancing flexibility in the
system, advancement in innovation and acquiring edge over the competitors. Thus, it contributes
in the improvement and advancement of the performance of the organisation. Organisation
undertaken in this report is Amazon which was founded in 1994 and deals in cloud computing
and e commerce industry. It provides various products and services like amazon echo, fire, TV,
music, prime video, app store, etc. This report will explain the relationship between business
strategy and human resource strategy. It will also explain the model of SHRM. Apart from this,
the theoretical perspective of employee relation will be discussed in detail.
TASK1
Relationship between business strategy and human resource strategy.
Business strategy is the combination of decisions and action which supports the people of
the organisation to accomplish business goals and objectives (Zikic, 2015). Whereas HR
strategy is the business overall plan for handling and managing the capital resources of
manpower and labour to align it with the business activities. Therefore, human resources are the
crucial aspects of the successful business strategy. This can be understood easily as the
organisations human resource strategies have the firms strong relationship with the firms
decision making process. For instance, in Amazon, innovation will be considered the most
important aspect for the company so that they can provide innovative and creative products to
their customers as compared to its competitors in the market. For this purpose, the business
strategy demand for more educated and highly qualified personnel and human resource strategy
of recruitment will be used to accomplish the business goals so that the company can hire the
required candidate.
The alignment of strategies in the business is important because to assure that everybody
is moving the same direction as per the plans and policies of the company (Rees and Smith,
2017). Amazon will have two types of alignment strategies namely, vertical and horizontal.
Vertical alignment strategies will insure that these human resource strategies are directly linked
with the mission, vision and value for the organisation. Thus, this focuses on that human
resources are used effectively and efficiently to accomplish the business goals. Whereas

horizontal integration of activities in Amazon will assure that all the strategies like business or
HR will work together towards the attainment of organisation objectives and prevents
competition. This will maintain harmony in the system.
Theoretical model of SHRM
Strategic perspective and best fit : According to this model, it has been claimed that
strategies work more effectively and efficiently and produces more appropriate results when they
are linked with the external and internal business environments of the Amazon (Paauwe and
Boon, 2018). Internal strategies relates to the plans and policies developed and external fit
includes marketing strategies, operation strategy, etc. Therefore, it desires to adjust people
management practices with the competitive business strategies to improve the performance.
Apart from this, the model has the problem of ignoring the needs of the employees as it stresses
on the competitive advantage and also there is a problem of insufficiency of sophistication to the
employees.
Best practice : According to this model, it has been claimed that there are some practices
of HRM which exist universally and such practices considered appropriate and suitable in every
business situation. Thus, Amazon will adopt such practices and it will lead to the improvement in
the performance of the organisation. Therefore, these practice are security of the employment,
self managed team, high compensation, training, motivation, etc. This model also faces the
problem of decline in quality of employee cooperation and it is difficult to decide best universal
practice as well.
Resource Based view : It is the model which considers the resources of the organisation
as most prominent because it delivers superiority in the performance of the Amazon. This further
claims that there are various resources involving human resources which produces the unique
character and develops competitive benefit for the company. Apart from this, it has faced the
problem of limitations on perspective implications and various resources design can provide the
same value to the company and hampers the competitive advantage.
HR practices
Performance management : This is the continuous process which line up the objectives
of the organisation with the employees performance. In Amazon, it will focus on the skill,
abilities, competencies, plans and desired outcomes (Kooij and Van de Voorde, 2015). It aims
the progress and improvement of the individuals with the help of rewards, training, etc. But at

the same time it is a length and time consuming process and sometimes can even lead to the
hindrance in the employee progress.
Rewards : They are the best HR practices because every employee work for the sake of
rewards either in financial or in non financial terms which will motivate and enhance them to
work with full zeal and confidence in the Amazon so that business goals can be accomplished
effectively and efficiently. But at the same time it has the disadvantage that some people
becomes addicted towards the rewards and do not work properly if they did not get reward. It
also maximises the pressure and competition among the employees which can even lead to
conflicting interest and opinions.
Performance management can be redesigned for the purpose of organisational change and
development. It can do so by adopting various innovative methods of training which will be
provided to the employees (Kaufman, 2015). The new means of training includes coaching,
guidance, off the job training, etc. Apart from this, effective motivation will be given to the
people according to their needs and abilities so that they does not become addicted to it.
TASK2
Employee relation.
Employee relation is the relationship between formal and informal nature of employee
and employer in the business organisation. They are related to manage the relationship between
the workers and sub ordinates so that Amazon workers will feel comfortable due to harmony in
surroundings and work effectively for the attainment of business objectives. The following are
the perspective of employee relations :
Unitary perspective : In this, the organisation is concerned with an assumption that
Amazon must have a clear loyalty structure, shared business goals and group of people. It has the
benefit that people working under this perspective must share harmonious relationship and
employee and employer work together for the accomplishment of business goals and objectives.
But at the same time, it experiences the problem of superiority where employer gives themselves
high priority than employees and this may lead to disagreement and conflict.
Pluralistic perspective : According to this perspective, it has been assumed that an
organisation is made up of group of people who are individuals with numerous objectives, values
and interest that can be conflicting in nature compared to others. The benefit of this for Amazon

is that employees does not move away from their beliefs and culture which helps in mobilising
the respect and dignity and encourages their self esteem (Kaufman, 2015). But at the same time,
it can create variations in the attitudes of the employees and management which can create
conflict.
Marxist perspective : According to this concept, it has been assumed that the society is
divided into two segment. The first is capitalist in which it relates to the employer and second is
employees who sell themselves to the capitalist for the purpose of accomplishing their goals and
earn money. It focuses on relations between the employer and employees.
Changing nature of employee relations
Employee relations are very crucial for the present business scenario. Earlier there was
the relation of boss and sub ordinate where orders were given and workers work for the
fulfilment of the assigned task. But in present context in Amazon, the need and requirements of
the employees are taken into full consideration. Apart from this, the organisation is bound with
various laws and legislations which will protect he rights and interest of the employee. This will
create a harmonious and healthy relations between the employer and employee. Apart from this,
employee will feel safe, motivated and work towards the attainment of business objectives. Thus,
it will contribute in the improvement of the performance of the organisation. But many times
these leniency and benefits provided to the employees are also misused by some people. For
instance, some employees can affect the confidentiality of the important information or data that
can directly affect the performance of the company.
Mechanism of employee participation and voice
Employee participation will be very effective for the people as they will get themselves
involved in the activities of the organisation. Apart from this, if they will be involved then it will
make them very clear with the goals and objectives of the Amazon (Cascio, 2015). Apart from
this, it will build good relations with the peers and sub ordinates. Employee voice is the action
taken by the employees for the benefit of the company. In this, employee give their views,
suggestions, ideas that can be used by the company for the betterment and accomplishment of
organisational goals in an effective manner.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that strategic human resources are very
crucial for the business environment. It has focussed on the relationship between the business

strategies that can be like marketing strategy and human resources strategies like performance
management, recruitment, etc. shares a strong link which has been explained with the help of
examples. It has also stress on employee relation which is very important so that organisation
function in healthy and harmonious environment which will build strong relation between
employee and employer.

REFRENCES
Books and Journals
Cascio, W.F., 2015. Strategic HRM: Too important for an insular approach. Human Resource
Management.54(3). pp.423-426.
Kaufman, B.E., 2015. Evolution of strategic HRM as seen through two founding books: A 30th
anniversary perspective on development of the field. Human Resource
Management.54(3). pp.389-407.
Kaufman, B.E., 2015. The RBV theory foundation of strategic HRM: critical flaws, problems for
research and practice, and an alternative economics paradigm. Human Resource
Management Journal.25(4). pp.516-540.
Kooij, D.T. and Van de Voorde, K., 2015. Strategic HRM for older workers. In Aging workers
and the employee-employer relationship (pp. 57-72). Springer, Cham.
Paauwe, J. and Boon, C., 2018. Strategic HRM: A critical review. In Human Resource
Management (pp. 49-73). Routledge.
Rees, G. and Smith, P. eds., 2017. Strategic human resource management: An international
perspective. Sage.
Zikic, J., 2015. Skilled migrants' career capital as a source of competitive advantage:
Implications for strategic HRM. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management.26(10). pp.1360-1381.