MMH331 Strategic HRM: Case Study Analysis of PAC Resources, Inc.

This report analyzes the strategic human resource management issues at PAC Resources, a company facing challenges related to poor communication, staff management, and declining sales. The report identifies key HR problems such as perceived inequity, biased staffing practices, and ineffective communication strategies implemented under the HR Director, Patricia Harris. It discusses the impact of these issues on employee morale, productivity, and the overall business culture. Drawing upon strategic HRM theories like the Harvard Analytical Framework and the Universalistic theory, the report proposes solutions such as improving communication processes, providing training and development opportunities, and restructuring compensation systems to address the identified problems and enhance organizational performance. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and study tools for students.

Running head: STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Strategic human resource management
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Executive summary
The report demonstrated about the strategic human resource management considering
the business organisation named PAC Resources, which was facing several issues related to
the poor communication, lack of staff management and decline in sales. The performance of
business deteriorated and this created stir among the employees regarding inequity and unfair
means of staffing people within the organisation. From the report, it could be understood that
proper communication process should be managed along with providing proper training and
developmental sessions for enhancing their skills, knowledge and improve the business
functioning too.
Table of Content

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s
Executive summary...............................................................................................................................2
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................4
Strategic human resource management..................................................................................................4
Workplace scenario...............................................................................................................................6
HR issues...............................................................................................................................................6
Theories related to strategic human resource management....................................................................9
Relevant solutions to overcome the issues...........................................................................................11
Recommendations...............................................................................................................................15
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................16
References...........................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
The strategic human resource management is one of the major aspect of managing
human resources centred on the implementation of strategies for successfully managing the
human resources and at the same time, facilitate business performance for aiming to gain
competitive advantage and higher revenue generation too. There have been currently some
issues that are associated with the human resource management at PAC Resources and it will
be beneficial for resolving the issues as soon as possible for managing business expansion
along with effective cost containment and reduction of staffs too. PAC resources is one of the
organisation that has been one of the victims of inappropriate human resource management,
which not only has affected the overall business culture, but also has created com0elxities for
the HR department, furthermore contributing to the poor staffs’ management and formation
of an inappropriate culture within the organisation’s workplace (Bailey et al. 2018). The topic
will also present the recommended solutions that can allow PAC Resources to overcome the
issues and achieve flexibility, form an appropriate culture and improve the business
performance and effectiveness too. The strategic human resource management enables
formation of a link between the management of human resources inclined with the strategies,
goals and objectives required to manage flexibility, innovation and gain competitive
advantage in business as well as develop a fit for purpose organisational culture at PAC
Resources (Armstrong and Taylor 2014). The report will present an idea about the major
issues faced by the company during the management of human resources and how can it be
resolved with the possible recommended solutions to achieve heights of success in business.
Strategic human resource management
The human resource management strategies are inclined with the strategic goals,
objectives and structure to make sure that the right organisational policies and procedures are

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created and implemented. The strategic human resource management also includes various
business activities such as recruitment, selection, training provided to employees for
improving their skills and knowledge along with providing rewards to them for keeping them
motivated and encouraged all throughput (Alfes et al. 2013). To ensure an effective strategic
human resource management, the human resources have played a major role in acting as a
strategic partner to form company policies and manage the recruitment, training and
rewarding processes with ease and effectiveness (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014). The HR
personnel needs to adopt an effective strategic approach for selecting and retaining the
employees for fulfilling the standards of recruitment and selection at the organization based
upon the company policies, furthermore implement long term plans for accomplishing the
business goals and objectives with efficiency.
The importance of strategic HRM is that it can allow the companies to work together
by forming teams aiming towards a shared vision and objectives. The strategic HR olds the
responsibility of analysing the employees and determine the actions that are needed to
enhance the value creation, furthermore use the analysis results for developing useful HR
techniques to address and resolve weaknesses of employees furthermore (Marler and Fisher
2013). This would lead to higher job satisfaction along with the formation of an effective
culture and better customers’ services delivery too for creating satisfaction among them, thus
leading to a proactive approach to manage employees and enhance the production level too.
The major steps that are needed to be followed by PAC Resources to ensure effective
strategic HRM include developing an understanding of the business goals and objectives,
evaluating the capability of HR, analysing the present capacity of HR based upon the goals,
determining the future HR requirements of the organisation, analyse the tools required to

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enhance employee performance, implement the human resource management strategy and
finally evaluate and undertake corrective actions (Kramar 2014).
Workplace scenario
PAC Resources is a small sized organisation that focuses on delivering specialised
components to the computer industry and it is run by David Dukakis. The quality of products
and services is good considering its fulfilment of ISO quality certification according to the
International Organisation of Standardisation. Most of the sales revenue are generated from
the development of original speciality components for one of the major manufacturers in US
(Budhwar and Debrah 2013). The company aimed at the management of hiring freeze and
thus the sales budget and marketing are focused on increasing the customer base largely
while on the other hand, it was found that the employees were nervous. There were situations
related to the unrest of employees and poor management of human resources due to the
implementation of poor policies and procedures associated with the change in job conditions
and regarding the employee movement within the organisation (Alfes et al. 2013). The
company possessed a good public relations management, though a letter representing the
company flaws and poor management was provided by an employee of the organisation to
the editor of a local newspaper. For addressing the concerns of employees, even a program
named “Talk-to-the-boss” was initiated for making the employees address their issues to the
higher level of management without fear of getting any penalty. The management of training
sessions for the employees along with the reorganising of lower level supervisory positions
further contributed to the addressing of these kinds of issues associated with the strategic
management of human resources (Purce 2014).

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HR issues
From various evidences in the case study, it could be understood the main faults arose
when Patricia Harris was the HR Director of PAC Resources. The management of
employees’ style that was followed by her was different and ineffective while her favourite
persons at the workplace were provided with the most benefits like perks and other non-
monetary benefits too. She was unfair and discriminating towards other employees
(Nankervis et al. 2016). There was also a bonus plan that should have presented each and
every employees’ performance goals on an annual basis and it was set by Patricia only, rather
than what the employees should have set for achievement (Sikora and Ferris 2014). It create
misunderstanding and conflicts among the people and this resulted in perceived inequity. It
was also found that the benefits coordinator of PAC Resources named Kathy Davis managed
the employees only present within her department properly and they were not much focused
on the accomplishment of a project, still they were paid high amount of wages and bonuses
every year. The employees within the HR department felt that the management did not
provide enough support, which was one of the major causes of poor feedbacks and opinions
regarding the movement towards organisational goals and objectives (Bratton and Gold
2017). There were biased situations, which further contributed to the animosity and poor
cooperation among employees at the functional areas within the workplace. There was
communication issue too, due to which bridging the gap between employees and influencing
collaborative exchange was difficult, which hindered the successful management of research
and development along with poor manufacturing, production and engineering processes
associated with the management of strategies and human resources at PAC Resources
(Nankervis et al. 2016).

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The company has been facing several issues such as lack of human resource
management like poor staff management and also inappropriate organisational culture. The
staffing department was known mostly for its aggressive hiring and there were no such active
plans for a layoff, because it was believed that the layoff could result in damaging the
business’ reputation and create issues for the growth in economy as well. The compensation
system at PAC Resources was effective, until it was re-structured by banding 14 grade levels
of paying wages (Brewster 2017). This was opposed by many because it made loss of various
levels of promotions and also resulted in manipulating the entire system. There was
discrimination as well, due to which, few of the favourites were paid with rewards and other
benefits without considering their actual performance and longevity as well. Another major
issue was the employee benefits, which turned out to be more expensive over time and this
created every packages to get enquired for cost efficiency (Hoque 2013). A whole health
coverage was paid earlier by PAC till the year 2006 to the full time employees and soon after
that the increase in double digit premium resulted in making necessary changes all
throughout.
Steve Wilson found it difficult to cope up with the pressure of managing good
employee relations and there were several union issues as well, which made him believe that
once employees become dissatisfied and concerned with these kinds of matters, those mind
sets never go away and they tend to provide negative opinions every time something would
be done for their benefit while working at the organisation (Kehoe and Wright 2013). Based
on the case study, it could also be understood that there are issues associated with the
unionisation and it could also result in cutting of costs furthermore. The company wanted to
remain free from unionisation and maintained freedom of association as well, which further
created complexities related to the compensation structure (Messersmith and Wales 2013). A

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survey was conducted as well to evaluate the performance and feedbacks from employees,
which showed the utilisation of skip level interviews that allowed the workers of the
organisation to raise issues two levels up. It was allowed for the employees to raise their
concerns and state about the issues to the leader of bosses of the organisation, which also
created a stir among the managers and higher management level people. They felt threatened
with the responses of the candidates who might provide some negative views and opinions
about them to the higher authority and this could even result in making unfavourable
decisions made by the higher management (Albrecht et al. 2015).
Theories related to strategic human resource management
As stated previously in the case study, there was communication issue, which was a
major cause of the business decline. Albrecht et al. (2015) stated that based on the Harvard
Analytical framework for HRM there are various aspects like the stakeholders’ interests that
are necessary to be communicated and included in the organisational policies whereas the
HRM policies would include influencing the employees and managing proper rewards
systems to enhance the efficiency of workforce of PAC. He better the communication will be,
the better will be the HR outcomes such as cost effectiveness, high level of commitment of
employees and furthermore allow the workers to engage themselves together in working
towards a shared vision (Brewster et al. 2016). The long term consequences include
employee wellbeing and safety, social wellbeing and the situational factors are the
characteristics of workforce, labour market unions and managing proper social values and
ethics to ensure successful business functioning.

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Figure: Harvard analytical framework for human resource management (Brewster et al.
2016)
The Universalistic theory is another effective HRM theory that defines various w0rk
practices and then selects the best and most suitable practice that can result in delivering high
performance and at the same time, manage linear relationship between the HRM practices
and business performance. The best practices are to be accepted by each and every one
working at the organisation and it is also necessary to make sure that the success of the
company is measured according to the performance of employees and business along with
how well they have been communicating and engaging with each other to work as a
dedicated workforce and team aiming to accomplish the business goals and objectives with
convenience (Sheehan 2014).

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There is also contingency theory that considers the size and nature of company, its
age, technologies used and assets owned along with the capital intensity and level of
unionisation, helping to maintain consistent connection between the variables. The
organisational issues were mainly about the poor implementation of organisational policies
and procedure and lack of proper communication process, because of which, there was poor
fit for purpose and thus the company needs to follow the contingency theory for determining
the need to achieve the most suitable or best fit between what the organisation currently is
and what it wants to achieve in the culture. This will though consider the organisational
structure, maintenance of a positive work culture along with the external environment based
on which, the performance of the organisation and its operations and processes will be
determined as well (Marchington et al. 2016).
Based on the case study, the workers were unsatisfied with the amount of wages paid
to them while few of them were paid higher because of good relationship with the higher
management regardless of the amount of efforts that they have put in for enhancing the
business performance. According to Delery and Roumpi (2017), there are various ways and
approaches that are responsible for keeping the workers of the organisation named PAC
Resources motivated and encouraged and make them commit themselves fully to the
achievement of business goals and objectives with ease and effectiveness (Delery and
Roumpi 2017). The hierarchy of needs theory by Maslow has represented the various sources
of human motivation and how it can affect the way the employees are influenced and
engaged together to become a part of the organisation and commit themselves fully. There
are various needs at different levels and it is necessary to fulfil the needs at first and then
proceed on to the next stage where the other needs are required to be fulfilled. The
physiological needs form the foundation of human motivation where the basic needs are met

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such as the need for food, shelter and then safety needs where they could feel secure working
at the organisation (Hohenstein, Feisel and Hartmann 2014). The job security fall in the
safety needs, while the love and sense of belonging appears with the recognition within the
workplace, better communication with the colleagues and friends and creating strong
relationships to get a job well done. The self-actualisation needs are fulfilled when the
employees of PAC Resources would feel that they have gained achievement and this further
enhances the level of confidence and allow focus on high performance goals with ease (Stone
and Dulebohn 2013).
Relevant solutions to overcome the issues
From the case study, it could be clearly understood that there had been several issues
such as poor communication within the workplace, providing benefits to few of them
specially and thus all the employees are not treated equally and there had also been poor
management of staffs, which has resulted in misinterpretation of sales into the accounting
system. This has further contributed to the poor performance of the business and resulted in
sales decline along with improper human resource management (Paillé et al. 2014). Thus,
PAC Resources, needs to immediately enable proper strategic human resource management
for ensuring that the communication process of management wisely and cautiously to ensure
successful management of issues and improved business functioning. To resolve the issues
associated with the misinterpretation of sales data and records, it is important to manage the
accounting for all the bonuses that are being paid to the staffs associated with the sales
management (Purce 2014). The extra bonus i.e., the amount of money that has been used for
the fictitious orders should be returned to the organisation immediately. It is also to be noted
that the forecast of staffing is purely dependent on the numbers of sales and the company
should keep abundant labour supply to meet the demands in the market and ensure that the