Kent Institute Business Strategy: Critical Review of Journal Articles

This report presents a critical review of three journal articles focused on various aspects of business strategy. The first article examines the link between individual performance and business strategy, analyzing how companies can achieve sustained competitive advantage by aligning employee capabilities with strategic goals. It highlights the importance of effective human resource practices and the role of employee surveys and interviews in understanding this relationship. The second article delves into corporate governance and diversification strategies, particularly in light of global economic crises. It explores the principles of corporate governance, the impact of diversification on risk management, and the relationship between corporate governance and corporate diversification, emphasizing the need for transparency and social responsibility. The third article investigates the role of corporate culture in strategic human resource management (SHRM). It discusses how corporate culture influences the effectiveness of SHRM practices, particularly in Chinese enterprises, and emphasizes the importance of aligning corporate culture with SHRM to achieve organizational goals. The review synthesizes the key arguments and findings of each article, offering a comprehensive understanding of the interconnectedness of these strategic elements.

Business strategy

Business strategy
Critical review of the articles
In this essay, the brief description will be made on the different articles. The overview of the
articles will be given with the supporting arguments. The articles for the task are related to
individual performance, corporate governance and the role of corporate culture. From the articles
the key main areas will be identified and according to that the critical review of the articles will
be done.
Article 1: LINKING INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE TO BUSINESS
STRATEGY
It has been analyzed that one of the key challenge for the company relates to deliver the
sustained competitive advantage in the short term. It can be stated that the sources of
maintaining the competitive advantage not only emphasizes on finance but it also focuses on
delivering the business strategy such as customer satisfaction and rapid innovation. This article
also elaborates that there is a link between the performance and business strategy (Collings,
Wood and Szamosi, 2018). The information has been collected from the large UK companies
such as BT payphones and Lloyds bank. The article states that interview has also been done of
37 people in the seven businesses. There are three types of interviews such as semi structured
interview that helped to gather the opinion of the employees in relation to business strategy. All
the interviews that are taken are taped and recorded before marking it is in the top cases of the
company (Gratton et al., 1999).
The employee’s survey has also been conducted through the questionnaire. The questionnaire
was given to 20% of the employees and the response rate that was considered is of 60% that
organizational performance is related with the business strategy. The emerging map states that
there is a link between the business strategy and the performance of the people that takes place
by focusing on the capability of the company to create and embed the people. The process of the
company has also important link between people process and business strategy (Gratton et al.,
1999).
The strategies of the business are enormous and important for the HR practitioner and there are
many companies that are skillful at embedding the same. One of the factors relates with the
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Business strategy
different across the process and it has been seen that due to this there are many reasons that
mainly takes place due to the complexity of embedding the process and also the short term view
of the organizations. The next is complex interventions that relates with developing the human
resource strategies that reshape the view of the company and also create the alignment. So, it can
be stated that there is a link between individual performance and business strategy. There are
many people process in the company that is strongly link to the strategy of the business. It is
important for the companies to focus on effective strategies so that positive outcome can be
attained and also it will help in focusing on set goals and objectives. If the strategies of the
company are effective then it would be easy for the employees to be efficient towards the
activities which will also help in meeting the set goals. So, it can be concluded that the
companies should focus on aligning the business strategy by emphasizing on the performance of
the employees in the workplace (Delery and Roumpi, 2017).
Article 2: Corporate governance and diversification strategies
The article will highlight about the relation between the corporate governance and corporate
diversification strategies in relation to the global economic crisis. In the present era, there are
many people that focus on the social responsibility of the company when they start investing or
working with the company. On the global platform there are many companies who are involved
in the financial scandals such as WorldCom, Parmalat, Enron, Alder Hey and Xerox. The major
causes of the scandals that took place relates to the incompetence, the greed of the manager,
inefficiency of the external auditor, defective repartition of responsibilities, lack of respect in
relation to the procedures, ignoring the risk management and also neglecting the
recommendations given by the internal auditors (Cretu, 2012).
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Business strategy
Source: (Cretu, 2012).
It has been examined that the World Bank are focusing on the corporate governance in the larger
approach but they are not limiting themselves with the relation between the owners and
managers. According to the World Bank corporate management is considered as a combination
of rules and laws that helps in maintaining the human capital ad also focuses on managing the
activities.
The major theories of corporate governance are Agency theory, stewardship theory,
stakeholder’s theory and policy of the company. If the corporate governance is effective then it
helps in reducing the risks and also enhances the performance and improves the managerial style.
It is important to focus on corporate governance as it helps in showing transparency and also
social responsibility among all the activities of the company. The corporate governance can
assist in building the structure that allows the high freedom and also consist of the changes in
context to the international transparency standards. There are various principles of corporate
governance such as integrity, transparency and responsibility (Cretu, 2012).
There is also a relation between corporate governance and corporate diversification. The
company’s focuses on the different type of business that focuses on the resources and expertise
that helps in maintaining the degree of diversification. It can be seen that companies consider
the diversification strategies from 1960’s to 1970’s. Diversification also has an important role in
minimizing the risk without impacting the incomes. The corporate diversification also focuses on
the transfer of the new segment that helps in generating the changes (Cretu, 2012).
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It can be stated that corporate diversification helps in creating the value of the business among
the shareholders. Therefore, it can be stated that corporate diversification focuses on showing
the passage of the company to a new activity segment by internal development. It can be stated
that there is a link between corporate governance and corporate diversification as it helps in
considering the different resources that will help in boosting the market growth of the business. It
is necessary for the companies to emphasize on corporate governance and corporate
diversification so that activities can be completed smoothly in relation to the operational
activities of the business. So, it can be stated that these factors can help in controlling and
maintaining the growth in the competitive market (Noe et al., 2017).
Article 3: The role of corporate culture in the process of strategic human resource
management
It has been examined that strategic human resource management has an important role in the
overall success ratio of the company. The companies who are considering the HRM practices
focus on the superior performers. The SHRM has a connection with the HRM practices with the
strategy of the company and it also mobilizes the organizational employees towards the
company’s goals. The corporate culture can be stated as the basic assumptions that are
considered by the leaders to boost the success criteria of the company. The corporate culture also
focuses on the patterns of management behavior that helps in maintaining the strategic decisions
of the company (Bailey et al., 2018).
But on the other hand it can be stated that the values and orientation are considered by the
company culture that are infused by the strategy of the company. It can be stated that SHRM
also focuses on considering the invisible corporate values and beliefs of the employees. It can be
stated that corporate culture is known as the type of social control that helps in considering the
behaviors and attitudes of the employees. If there is proper organizational identity then it can
facilitate to manage the organizational functions effectively. In this the overall data has been
collected by the questionnaire in relation to the executive managers in China. There are 586
questionnaires that were mailed. By overall analysis it has been stated that corporate culture and
SHRM has a link with each other. It is important for the management to maintain these aspects
so that it could be possible to accomplish the set goals in the highly competitive market (Wei et
al., 2008).
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The overall results that are examined also states that if there is good culture then it could be easy
to adopt the effective management practices such as SHRM and also it can help the company in
availing the benefits in the highly competitive market. It can be stated that there is a he
importance of building the corporate culture in the Chinese enterprises. The corporate culture
positively impact the performance of the company and also it helps the employees to give their
best towards the organizational activities. Corporate culture can be stated as the critical adoption
of the different management practices such as SHRM. The Chinese companies should upgrade
the human resource management practices so that corporate culture can be built and also it will
help in maintaining the internal relations of the management. It is also necessary for the
management to focus on considering the life cycle theory so that it could be easy to accomplish
the set goals and also it maintains the link with corporate culture and SHRM (Wei et al., 2008).
It can be concluded that the articles has provided in-depth understanding of the different aspects
such as corporate culture and SHRM link, individual performance and business strategy
connection and also the link between diversification strategies and corporate governance. It can
be stated that these aspects should be considered by the management so that it could be easy to
accomplish the positive outcome in the highly competitive market.
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References
Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic human resource
management. Oxford University Press.
Collings, D.G., Wood, G.T. and Szamosi, L.T., 2018. Human resource management: A critical
approach. In Human Resource Management (pp. 1-23). Routledge.
Cretu, R.F., 2012. Corporate governance and corporate diversification strategies. Revista de
Management Comparat Internațional, 13(4), pp.621-633.
Delery, J.E. and Roumpi, D., 2017. Strategic human resource management, human capital and
competitive advantage: is the field going in circles?. Human Resource Management
Journal, 27(1), pp.1-21.
Gratton, L., Hope‐Hailey, V., Stiles, P. and Truss, C., 1999. Linking individual performance to
business strategy: The people process model. Human Resource Management: Published in
Cooperation with the School of Business Administration, The University of Michigan and in
alliance with the Society of Human Resources Management, 38(1), pp.17-31.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource management:
Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Wei, L.Q., Liu, J., Zhang, Y. and Chiu, R.K., 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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