HRM: Best Practice, Best Fit, and Contextual Considerations

This essay examines the critical need for employment relations professionals to integrate both best practice and best fit strategies to achieve a competitive advantage in human resource management. It emphasizes the importance of considering contextual factors such as sector, strategy, industry, size, labor market demographics, employment type, and occupations. The essay defines best practice as a set of universal human resource actions that lead to superior business performances regardless of the industry. Conversely, best fit focuses on aligning business strategies and human resource policies to meet organizational and employee needs. The discussion covers various best practices, including employee security, selective hiring, self-managed teams, fair performance evaluations, and relevant training. The essay also highlights the significance of internal and external fit within the best fit strategy. Examples are used to illustrate how HRM policies should be tailored to fit different organizational strategies, such as product differentiation versus cost leadership. The conclusion reinforces the necessity for employment relations professionals to consider both strategies to effectively manage operations and achieve desired human resource outcomes.

Running head: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................3
Best Practices:........................................................................................................................4
Best Fit:..................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
The success of the modern practitioners of employment relations in effectively
managing their operational activities and achieving greater heights in the people management
are considerably dependent on their expertise in incorporating both best practices and best fit
strategies of human resource. The importance of the employment relations is increasing in a
substantial manner for the modern business entities as the senior managers of majority of the
mainstream business associations are putting stronger emphasis towards the incorporating a
scientific method of people of management. According to the esteemed opinion of Saksida,
Alfes and Shantz (2017), the business leaders are largely concentrating on the efficient
handling of their human resources as that becomes critically important for enhancing the
excellence of their services in the sense of production and quality. As claimed by Bartram,
Cavanagh and Hoye (2017), the rapid change in the business environment has played an
immense role for the senior management of the organizations in realizing that the employees
or the human resource are an integral part or asset of the companies. In such circumstances,
the urge of the companies to continuously improve their performance and simultaneously
maintaining an appropriate shape of the human resource management, have influenced the
companies towards the incorporation of the best practice and best fit strategies in the
employment relations actions.
Discussion:
In order to understand the significance of the best fit and best practice strategies for
achieving the human resource competitive advantage, it is important to understand the
concepts as a whole. According to the comments of Townsend, McDonald and Cathcart
(2017), the best practice is particularly focused on the argument that there is a set of universal
human resource actions that have the potential to lead to superior business performances. The

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best practice concept is pretty significant in claiming that there is a certain group of human
resource activities that contribute to the successful achievement of the competitive advantage
for the companies regardless of the industry in which the companies are operating or the
dynamics of the companies. Baluch (2017), mentioned that the human resources interventions
which are recognized as capable of achieving the desired success for any company, have the
potential to develop high performing working environment in their workforces. In addition to
this, Boella and Goss-Turner (2019), mentioned that the best practice strategies place the
companies in a better position for the desired accomplishment of the goals and the objectives.
On the other hand, the best fit strategy focuses on the efficient link up between the business
strategies and the human resource policies. As a result, it is understandable that the strategy is
more focused towards the requirements of the organizations and the needs of the employees.
Best Practices:
In order to understand the necessity faced by the employment relation professionals
for incorporating the best practices in their intervention, it is important to understand that
human resource functions or interventions that the human resource best practices advocates
for. Townsend, McDonald and Cathcart (2017), mentioned that there are broadly seven
human resource practices or interventions that have the potential to build a competitive
advantage with efficient utilization of people and to generate larger profit through putting
people at first in their equation. The first practice in the list is providing sufficient security to
the employees. With a close consideration towards the practices of the employment relations
professionals, it is visible that the professionals have the necessity to ensure accurate
management of the workplace healthy and safety of their employees. Along with that,
Saksida, Alfes and Shantz (2017), mentioned that the employees feel motivated and involved
when the safety infrastructure and security of the employees is maintained inside the
organization in a professional manner.

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At the same time, it is visible that a large section of the modern employees feel
threatened in case their employers are incapable in managing their security. The impact of the
insecurity becomes pretty prominent in their performances. On the other hand, the
appropriate management of the safety arrangement of the employees position them in a
comfortable position for exceeding their performances and that contributes to the collective
betterment of the organization’s performances. The second strategy is the selective hiring of
the professionals. As claimed by Purcell et al. (2008), the selective hiring of the right and
suitable employees is substantially important for the companies when it comes develop a
competent and high performing workforce which has the ability to continuously strive for
improved performance no matter what the situation along with the macro and micro
environmental factors to which the company is exposed. Along with that, the introduction of
the self- managed teams is an important factor for the companies when it comes to develop a
high performing workforce. The human resource best practices voices the necessity of the
companies effective and self-managed teams where the decision making power regarding the
management of the operational activities and the business actions are particularly distributed
amongst the employees and the senior managers.
According to the comments of Paauwe and Boon (2018), the distribution of the power
of decision making is substantially important in enhancing the level of involvement of the
employees with their organizations and in improving the skills of the employees in being
accountable for the management of their own business performances. Baluch (2017),
mentioned that the fair performance evaluation is also a substantially important consideration
for the organizations in developing a transparent and good corporate culture which
contributes to the improvement in the performances of the employees. Bartram, Cavanagh
and Hoye (2017), mentioned that the unbiased evaluation of the performances of the
employees is significantly important for persuading them regarding the excellence of the

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companies in acknowledging their high performances. The fair performance assessment is
significant for the modern organizations when it comes to avoid any sort of employee unrest
or conflicts that can lead to demotivate the employees. One of the noteworthy human
resource best practices is the delivery of the training services to the employees in relevant
skills. As the companies are exposed to massive demands of market and an intense market
competition, it is substantially crucial for them to improve their quality of service at
continuous basis for professional retention of their customers. Having said that, the success of
the companies in formulating efficient training facilities will not only contributes to the
improvement in the skills and expertise of the employees but also encourages and motivates
them for the enhancement of their performances. Hence, it is visible that the companies have
the opportunity to incorporate the human resource best practices for the accurate management
of their employment relations.
Best Fit:
On the other hand, there is a strong argument regarding the appropriate human
resource intervention and that is recognized as best fit. Paauwe and Boon (2018), mentioned
that the effectiveness of the human resource interventions gets increased when the companies
have the ability to design the intervention actions in accordance to the surrounding context or
the environment. Purcell et al. (2008), highlighted that there is two forms of fit in the best fit
strategy which are the external fit and the internal fit. The external fit is interlinked with the
competitive strategies of the entire business operations such as the marketing strategy or the
operations strategy. Through the external fit, the organizations have the scope of connecting
the human resource practices to the employee behaviours for the desired achievement of the
competitive advantage. On the other hand, the internal fit is pretty significant in stating the
necessity of the coherent development of the human resource practices and policies.

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Koser, Rasool and Samma (2018), claimed that the internal fit ensures that the
companies are developing their human resource interventions in an uncontroversial manner
where the direction of policies will not contradictory or opposite to each other. The
significance of the best fit strategy becomes pretty prominent in case it is analysed in context
of the business or the objectives of the companies. For example, an organization such as
Shine for Kids Australia with application of the product or service differentiation strategy
will find the product development to be associated with risks, creativity and cooperative
behaviour (Shineforkids.org.au 2020). In such circumstances, the best fit strategy advices the
practitioners to develop such HRM policies that select highly skilled employees, invest in the
training and development, has minimal control over the actions of the employees and
appraises the association of the employees on long term (Hameed and Mohamed 2016). On
the other hand, a company that is focused on cost leadership, will be more inclined towards
the development of such human resource policies which rewards the high performances or
outputs, puts on many control measures, provides minimum training, requires predictable
behaviour of the employees and executives and appraises the association of the employees on
short term (Koser, Rasool and Samma, 2018).
Conclusion:
On a concluding note, it is understandable that the employment relation professionals
face the necessity to manage their operations in different context where they can or cannot
get provided with the scope of deciding policies in accordance to the business environment or
they may be exposed to a high performance working environments. In such circumstances,
the employment professionals have the necessity to consider both best practices and best fit
for gaining the desired human resource competitive advantages.

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References:
Baluch, A.M., 2017. Employee perceptions of HRM and well-being in nonprofit
organizations: Unpacking the unintended. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 28(14), pp.1912-1937.
Bartram, T., Cavanagh, J. and Hoye, R., 2017. The growing importance of human resource
management in the NGO, volunteer and not-for-profit sectors.
Boella, M.J. and Goss-Turner, S., 2019. Human resource management in the hospitality
industry: A guide to best practice. Routledge.
Hameed, A. and Mohamed, N.S., 2016. HRM practices and organizational performance in
hospitals. Journal of Business and Management, 18(11), pp.33-41.
Koser, M., Rasool, S.F. and Samma, M., 2018. High performance work system is the
accelerator of the best fit and integrated HR-practices to achieve the goal of productivity: a
case of textile sector in Pakistan. Global Management Journal for Academic & Corporate
Studies, 8(1), pp.10-21.
Paauwe, J. and Boon, C., 2018. Strategic HRM: A critical review. In Human resource
management (pp. 49-73). Routledge.
Purcell, J., Kinnie, N., Swart, J., Rayton, B. and Hutchinson, S., 2008. People management
and performance. Routledge.
Saksida, T., Alfes, K. and Shantz, A., 2017. Volunteer role mastery and commitment: Can
HRM make a difference?. The International Journal of Human Resource Management,
28(14), pp.2062-2084.

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Shineforkids.org.au 2020. SHINE for Kids. Supporting Children With A Parent In The
Criminal Justice System. [online] Available at: <https://shineforkids.org.au/>
Townsend, K., McDonald, P. and Cathcart, A., 2017. Managing flexible work arrangements
in small not-for-profit firms: the influence of organisational size, financial constraints and
workforce characteristics. The International Journal of Human Resource Management,
28(14), pp.2085-2107.