Strategic Human Resource Management: A Literature Review Report

This report delves into the realm of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM), emphasizing its pivotal role in attaining a competitive edge for business organizations. The report examines SHRM through a literature review, drawing insights from three key sources: Anderson (2009), Holland, Sheehan, and De Cieri (2007), and Mitsakis (2019). The core argument posits that the Resource-Based View (RBV) should be augmented by a knowledge-based perspective. The report highlights the significance of aligning human resource development (HRD) with business requirements, while acknowledging the practical limitations of complete alignment. It explores the importance of talent management, employee skills, and the impact of both internal and external factors on HRD feasibility. Furthermore, the report discusses the need for organizations to attract, retain, and develop skilled employees in a knowledge-based economy, emphasizing the implications of failing to do so. The final section underscores the necessity for SHRM strategies to foster employee engagement and integration within evolving market conditions. The synthesis of these concepts reveals that human resources are paramount for maintaining organizational competitive advantage. This report serves as a valuable resource for students on Desklib.

Running head: SHRM
Strategic Human Resource Management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

1SHRM
Introduction:
Overview of the topic:
Strategic human resource management is one of the most important competitive
advantageous factors which business organizations have to attain. The aim of the research would
be exploring the importance of the SHRM through the lenses of three literary sources.
Sources being reviewed:
The three sources which would be reviewed are, ‘Desperately seeking alignment:
reflections of senior line managers and HRD executives’ by Anderson (2009), ‘Attracting and
retaining talent: Exploring human resources development trends in Australia’ by Holland,
Sheehan and De Cieri (2007) and Modify the Redefined: Strategic Human Resource
Development Maturity at a Crossroads by Mitsakis (2019).
Main themes of issues covered:
SRHM, competitive advantage, RBV, knowledge based economy
Overarching line of argument:
RBV should be substituted by knowledge based view.
Discussion:
Part 1.
Anderson (2009) mentioned that human resource development undoubtedly requires to be
strategically aligned with the business requirements of the business organizations. However, total
alignment of HRD with the business requirement is not feasible and desirable in the

2SHRM
environmental contexts of some business organizations. The author in this respect mentioned
that, ‘Alignment is problematic, however, both conceptually and practically.’ The statement
of the author is of great significance in today’s business environmental contexts. Strategic human
resource management refers to the alignment of the manpower of business organizations with in
their respect business requirements. These organizations have to develop their respective human
resources by acquiring, training and mentoring their respective employees. This is because
employees at the senior management level make decisions while the employees down the
hierarchy implement the decisions. The employees are responsible for acquisition, management,
sharing and implementing knowledge, which itself is an intangible capital. The employees
interact with the external stakeholders like customers and gain information about their needs and
expectations. They then communicate the needs and expectations of the customers to the middle
level managers who ultimately communicate the information to the senior management which
ultimately incorporates the feedbacks from customers in making future decisions to the extent
possible. The employees, especially the middle and the lower level employees play crucial roles
in serving customers and ensuring their satisfaction. For example, the lower level employees
meet the customers and provide services to them. The lower level employees in the
manufacturing firms generate lead from the downstream supply chain parties like dealers and
wholesalers. The middle level managers solve the issues faced by the customers, dealers and
suppliers to the extent possible. Thus, it transpires that from the discussion that highly skilled
and competent staff members are extremely important to ensure superior market performance of
the business organizations. It also transpires that companies should adopt talent management
strategies like training and mentoring their employees to enable them perform highly in the
market. Thus, considering the fact that employee performances are empirical to performances of

3SHRM
the companies, it is clear human resource development is an absolute necessity to achieve talent
management and ensure high performances of companies. Alignment of human resources
management with business requirements of the company in other words is an absolute necessity.
However, in reality this total alignment and its potential is not feasible in totality. The feasibility
of total alignment is neither desirable nor achievable. This can be explained in both internal
organizational context and external organizational context.
The internal organizational aspects may either make human resource development either
not desirable or achievable in the short term or in the long term. For example, business
organizations may not be in a position to offer training to employees for the time being because
of the lack of financial resources. The business organizations may not be able to train employees
owing to lack of infrastructure like availability of venue, trainer or training facilities. The
management of these organizations may adopt HRD strategies (including talent management)
after acquiring these resources like training room and technology. In this, the training of
employees at the moment is not feasible. Certain business requirements may make HRD
undesirable at the moment. For example, the marketing department of a company has received an
urgent order to deliver large volume of finished goods to one of its important clients at a
premium rate. Thus, diverting even a small percentage of employees to training would result in
scarcity of employees to produce the finished goods as per the urgent order. Thus, in this case,
training is not desirable considering the business requirement and have to postponed.
External business contexts may also make HRD either not feasible or desirable. For
example, the preferences of customers are extremely volatile and keep on changing extremely
fast. Thus, it is not feasible for sales personnel to align their knowledge and skills totally with the
customer preferences. Thus, in this case training is not feasible. Again, the business

4SHRM
organizations may have to cancel their foreign expansion plans owing to owing political
tensions. They may have to cancel the training of the employees who were supposed to be
deployed in the new foreign market. Thus, in this case, the training becomes undesirable. Thus,
one can finally establish on the grounds of the discussion that though HRD is a necessity which
business organizations have to meet, it may be rendered either undesirable or impossible owing
to certain environmental conditions both in the internal organizational context and the internal
organizational context.
Part 2.
Holland, Sheehan and De Cieri (2007) mentioned business organizations were concerned
about attracting, recruiting and selecting skilled and talented employees. However, there was
scarcity in the lack of resources and strategies to retain and develop employees. There could be
several implications if the business organizations limit themselves towards acquisition of talent
but fail to take sufficient steps to retain employees. The authors in order to explain the
implications of failure of business organizations to retain talents by taking into account the
resource based view or RBV. They point out that, ‘The RBV focuses on how organisations
build unique ‘bundles’ of resources that generate sustained competitive advantage.’ The
authors mention that business organizations within a particular industry have similar non-human
resources like financial resources and technology. This is because business organizations can
replicate this aspect of resources. For example, firms can acquire technology to leverage their
technological asserts in comparison to their competitors. Thus, here one firm to a certain extent
has the capacity to compete with the other firm in the long run. The authors then went on to shed
light on the importance of human resources in maintaining competitive advantages in the firms
they serve. The employees acquire, manage, share and implement knowledge pertaining to

5SHRM
important business areas like innovation. The employees serving particular business
organizations have specific skills which enable them to perform specific operations to a certain
level which employees serving other organizations cannot replicate. For example, the employees
of certain organizations are highly skilled of acquisition, management and retaining customers in
comparison to the employees of their competitors. Similarly, employees in certain organizations
may be more skilled in risk management compared to their competitors. Thus, in other words,
the employees of the companies are the key to their competitive advantage. The authors then
went on to point out that economic giants like France, the United Kingdom and Australia are
suffering from shortage of skilled labour. Thus, the firms operating in this nations are suffering
from shortage of skilled labour. The skilled workers owing to their high demands within these
economies should shift from one company to the other in events their employers fail to retain
them. One can also point out that by failing to retain employees, the firms would actually fail to
retain the knowledge, experience and skills of these employees, all of which come together to
form their respective knowledge capital. The companies by losing their employees and the
knowledge, would also lose their competitive advantages associated with the employees and
their bodies of skills and knowledge. Thus, implications of failure to retain employees would
have dire consequences which would include losing of their knowledge capital and competitive
advantage to their competitors. The authors finally emphasizing on the importance of retention of
employees and knowledge capital associated with them point out that nations should shift from a
RBV to the concept of ‘knowledge-based economy’.
Failure to retain and develop employees can lead to knowledge based organizations in the
service sector can result in losing of competitive advantages to competitor organizations. This
happens owing to management of the concerned firms not taking up appropriate SHRM

6SHRM
strategies like training and failing to provide appropriate ambience like a secure and safe
working environment. One can also point out that customer service in the service sector
industries like telecommunication and medical treatment depends on interaction of the staff of
the concerned service providing companies to interact with the customers to gain information
about their needs and providing appropriate services based on the needs. The staff members of
the service firm interact with the customers to gain information about their needs using their
specific customer management skills and knowledge. Then these employees provide services to
the customers using their skills and knowledge. For example, in house doctors serving certain
hospitals treat patients owing to their degrees earned, skills and experiences acquired over time.
Now, if the management of the concerned hospitals fails to retain the doctors, they would lose
them to their competitors. They would also lose the knowledge capital (skills, knowledge and
degree of the doctors) and the associated competitive advantage to their competitors. This failure
to retain talent may also occur owing to the failure of the employers (hospital in this case)
management bodies offer proper salaries and incentives to employees (in-house doctor in this
case).
Part 3.
Mitsakis (2019) mentioned that most of the human resource development models fail to
operate in the face of continuously evolving market conditions and emerging business
challenges. The author then went on mention that business organizations should build the
capacity among their employees to participate in strategic partnerships and integrate them with
their business environments. The business organizations can form strategic partnerships with
their employees by perceiving them as stakeholders having interests in the business operations.
The management bodies of the organizations should encourage the employees to participate in

7SHRM
the making of the business strategies. This would create a perception of belonging to the
company among the employees. They would as a result take more proactive participation in the
implementation of the strategies. The management of the companies should provide training to
the employees to enhance their knowledge about the market conditions like competitors and
changing customer preferences. This would enhance the knowledge of the employees and they
would take steps in operating in alignment with the market environment. Thus, training would
enable the organizations integrate their employees with their business environments.
Conclusion:
Synthesis of the discussed concepts:
The three parts of the discussion can be synthesized to establish that human resources are
the most important resources which organizations have to retain in order to retain their
competitive advantage. It is because human resource or employees make the decisions and
deploy all the other resources like financial resources and machinery.
Implication of the theories and concepts:
One can imply from the theories like RBV and concepts like knowledge economy that
business should form strategies to retain manpower. This would lead to retention of knowledge
capital and the associated competitive advantages.

8SHRM
References:
Anderson, V., 2009. Desperately seeking alignment: reflections of senior line managers and
HRD executives. Human Resource Development International, 12(3), pp.263-277.
Holland, P., Sheehan, C. and De Cieri, H., 2007. Attracting and retaining talent: Exploring
human resources development trends in Australia. Human Resource Development
International, 10(3), pp.247-262.
Mitsakis, F., 2019. Modify the Redefined: Strategic Human Resource Development Maturity at a
Crossroads. Human Resource Development Review, 18(4), pp.470-506.