HRM3704 PAST EXAM PAPERS.

HRM3704 PAST EXAM PAPERS. Contemporary Issues In Human Resource Management. Discuss strategies for dealing with the 'war for talent' from a human capital/resource based perspective: Human capital perspective - links investment in the organization’s key asset, (its employees), to increased productivity and sustained competitive advantage. The strategic aspect is the longterm enhancement of the firm's resource base by linking employee skill development with retention through training and development, career management and progression The resource based view (RBV) perspective - The focus is on an organisation retaining and developing these human resources through investments such as human resource development (HRD) strategies. This will ensure that these assets become valuable, rare and difficult to imitate, enhancing further the organization’s competitive advantage. List 10 leadership managerial roles: (Mintzberg) Interpersonal Roles: Figurehead role Leader role Liason role Informational roles: Monitor role Disseminator role Spokesperson role Decision roles: Entrepreneur role Disturbance-handler role Resource-allocator role Negotiator role Write a short paragraph on the aging of workforce’s effect on HR: In the past companies were reluctant to employer older workers because they were seen as less productive flexible and more expensive. However with the lack of skills in numerous areas, companies are again employing older workers because of their experience and maturity. The only implication is that younger managers may find themselves threatened when managing older staff. HR managers must arrange for these managers to undergo training in managing teams and communication skills in order for them to extract the best efforts from older teams. At a strategic level, HR professionals fulfil their strategic partner role and are involved in corporate and human resource planning. Identify the four features of this role, according to Casio. ● Senior human resource professionals meet regularly with their counterparts in line management to formulate and to review broad human resource strategies (those designed to promote innovation, quality enhancement, or cost control). ● Senior human resource professionals participate fully in all top-level business strategy sessions. This permits early evaluation of proposals in terms of their feasibility and desirability from a human resources perspective, as well as an early warning of upcoming human resource management issues. ● Human resource professionals at all levels work closely with line managers on an ongoing basis to assure that all components of the business strategy are implemented adequately. ● The human resource management function itself is managed strategically. It has its own departmental strategy that identifies priorities, directs the allocation of resources, and guides the work of various specialists (e.g. compensation, labour relations). How would you go about implementing the balanced scorecard within your organisation answer? Once the process of compiling the balanced scorecard has been completed, the organisation needs to implement the balanced score, i.e. cascade it down the organisation to all levels. However this process is not so simply because most employees have no idea what a balanced scorecard is, and how to use it. Thus, for successful implementation organisations need to undertake some staff training. One way of doing this is by making articles on the topics available to the staff. And then employees can attend an information session which can address issues such as the origin of balance scorecards, the perspectives and implementation principles. Proper communication between everyone is essential. No scorecard can work unless managers link it to the budget of the company. The linkage of the employers pay to performance will also play an important role. Define the role a psychological contract plays in regulating the employment contract. A psychological contract is an unwritten contract that defines the employment relationship and manages mutual expectations. In the past employees had a lot of job security. However, this has changed in the new environment where change is inevitable due to the changing economic environment. The employers who understand and uphold the psychological contract promote employee trust in management as well as higher job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and the intension to remain with the employer- the desired state. Briefly discuss the benefits of an HR scorecard - It reinforces the distinction between HR doables and the HR deliverables - It enables you to control costs and create value - It measures leading indicators - It assesses HR’s contribution to stategy implementation and ultimately, to the ‘’bottom line’’ - It lets HR professionals effectively manage their strategic responsibilities - It encourages flexibility and change David Feeny suggests that companies that are interested in e-business shoud first construct a coherent map identifying the areas where web-based technology could be introduced. Discuss briefly: Three core areas are suggested, namely e-operations, e-marketing and e-services. David Feeny suggests that the e-operations and e-marketing should receive the most urgent attention as they provide the most certain rewards. He further suggests that it is important to distinguish clearly between these three areas as they each require their own distinctive framework for identifying ideas that can bring a competitive advantage to context.  E-operations- covers web-based initiatives that improve the creation of existing products. Aspects of importance is the way the business manages itself & its supply chain  E-marketing- covers web-based initiatives that improve the marketing of existing products. Aspects of importance are the way the product is delivered and the scope of support services  E-services- covers web-based initiatives that provide customer-affiliated services. Aspects of importance are new ways to address an identified set of customer needs. Explain the major differences between financial flexibility and procedural flexibility: Financial flexibility – a compensation system to facilitate the development of flexible patterns of work, in particular numerical and functional flexibility Procedural flexibility – the central tenet in the development of flexible work patterns, particularly in the highly regulated labour markets and it is concerned with the establishment of consultative mechanisms for introducing changes or negotiating variations in work practices, primarily through changes in both legal and traditional practices covering employment Write a brief essay on the attributes of the four mindsets needed to retain the competitive advantage in the new competitive landscape: There are 4 mindsets needed my all managers to convert potential threats within the operational environment of companies to opportunities. The first mind set includes the global mindset needed to convert globalization threats into growth opportunities. This can be achieved by thinking beyond geographic boundaries, valuing integration across borders and appreciating regional and cultural diversity. The second mindset includes the innovation mindset which is needed to foster development and the implementation of new ideas as well as to transform rapid technological change threats into opportunities by valuing constant generation of new ideas and business models. The third mindset includes the virtual mindset which empowers managers to be able to hand over their companies activities to external providers, which will in turn hypercompetition into prospects for growth through flexibility and responsiveness The fourth mindset is a collaboration mindset which refers to the willingness to engage in business partnerships which can lead to synergy by combining business complementarities. Distinguish between the term learning organisation and organisational learning: The term ‘the learning organisation’ is used to characterize an enterprise in which learning is open-ended, takes place at all levels, and is self-questioning. ‘Organisational learning’ is a descriptive device to explain and quantify learning activities and events taking place within an organisation. Thus, a critical distinction between an organisation that learns and the learning organisation seems to be that in the latter, individual learning activities feed and integrate with broader and deeper learning processes in the organisation while this is not the case with organisational learning. Discuss the issue that should be addressed in formulating a company’s policy on employee privacy: Employees have the right to privacy and human resources should take the following actions to ensure that this privacy is respected in the workplace: - Ensure that there are procedures in place to protect the employee’s data - Ensure that dues process is followed in video surveillance procedures - Ensure that due process is followed in testing, drug testing and generic screening practices. - Encourage work-life balance - Email access notification An individual’s right to privacy should always be respected. Included in the notion of privacy are psychological privacy, physical privacy and autonomy to determine when, how and what information is communicated about yourself to others. When conducting psychometric tests HR professionals must safeguard the interest of enterprises and candidates by upholding the rights of those tested to: - informed consent - Not be harmed or unfairly disadvantaged by the process of the assessment - Full information about the purpose and results of the assessment - Suitable preparation of the process of assessment - Confidentiality - Destruction of results when no longer needed List the characteristics of a learning organisation:  Learning is accomplished by the organisation as a whole  Employees within the organisation recognize the importance of current and future success of ongoing learning  Learning is a continuous, strategically used process that is integrated and runs parallel to work  There is a focus on creativity and generative learning in the organisation  Systems thinking Is fundamental in a learning organisation  The organisation climate encourages, rewards and accelerates individual and group learning  Employees network in an innovative manner that resembles a community both inside and outside the organisation  Everyone is driven by a desire for quality and continuous improvement  Employees have uninterrupted access to information and data Discuss some of the benefits an organisation can achieve when moving towards a learning organisation: - Anticipates and adapts more readily to environmental influences - Accelerates the development of new products, processes and services - Becomes more proficient at learning from competitors and collaborators - Expedites the transfer of knowledge from one part of the organisation to another - Learns more efficiently from mistakes - Makes greater use of employees at all levels or the organisation - Shorten the time required to implement strategic changes - Attracts the best workers - Increases worker commitment and creativity Discuss the roles and responsibilities of the chief learning officer (CLO) found in many organisations today: CLO’s (also known as CKO – chief knowledge officer) normally forms part of the HR department structure and report directly to the head of human resources and the CEO of the company. The CLO plays a vital role in building and sustaining the high-level learning organisation. Characteristics of a CLO: - They must be able to energize the organisation and function as cheerleaders to build momentum behind knowledge initiatives - They should have circulated through the company and should have developed a holistic perspective - They must be able to withstand a multitude of pressures - They must feel rewarded by the accomplishments of other people - They must have a good relationship with the head of human resources Role of the CLO: - Design and implement a knowledge-learning culture and a knowledge-learning infrastructure - Building and sustaining the high-level learning organisations - Generating new knowledge, ideas, and solutions to problems throughout the organisation by means of the information technology we mentioned earlier. - Use technology to support knowledge capture, sharing and retention. Write a short essay on numerical flexibility: Numerical flexibility is a quantitative approach to the utilization of the workforce. It is based on the principle of relating the size of the workforce to the levels of economic activity easily and at short notice. As the workload fluctuates, management has the option to adjust or redeploy its human resources accordingly. Discuss the factors that enable HR to operate on a global level (enablers of HRM)  HR affordability- this is about the need to deliver global business strategies in the most cost efficient manner. Thus, as cross-national organisations have to be increasingly aware of their competitive position and that they reduce their costs to a minimum consent with organisational efficiency.  Central HR philosophy- this consists of two elements centralization of HR decisionmaking and industry-wide convergence of HR practice. The transfer and mutual learning from potentially very varied global practice is critically important.  E-enabled HR and knowledge transfer- this is an increasingly critical component in terms of IHRM positioning. The HRM’s departments roles as knowledge management champion has 3 key elements: capitalizing on the e-enablement of HRM, the pursuit of knowledge transfer management, and the building of a global HRM presence Define the concept of ‘talent’ Talent is the sum of the person’s abilities- his or her intrinsic gifts, skills, knowledge, experience, intelligence, judgement, attitude, character & drive. It also includes the ability to learn and grow. Identify the important concepts involved in the definition of business ethics. How are these concepts relevant in the context of South Africa? Business ethics (or management ethics) focuses on moral standards as they apply to organisations and the behavior of organisational members. Most decisions in business, particularly those relating to human resources, have an ethical component. Business ethics thus require an integrated approach to decision-making. An integrated approach recognizes that managers must take the moral point of view as well as make economically sound decisions and act within applicable law. If ethics are about relationships between people then business ethics are about relationships between stakeholders and the recognition their divergent interests must be accommodated. Decisions must be understood as involving different levels of analysis, including on the individual, the organisational, the professional, the business-system and societal levels. Employment equity is a case in point. In South Africa business ethics have two important anchors both in the public and private sector: - First anchor is the constitutions founding values of human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights. - Second anchor is the king’s reports on corporate governance which have been instrumental in moving ethics onto the agenda of corporate boards in south Africanbased enterprises. Explain what e-HR involves: When defining e-HR it implies that human resources need to do some groundwork, executives should participate in the process and there needs to be an appreciation of technology and the use thereof. Key to the success is the existence of a well-developed HRIS and the need to use various networks of technology wisely. E-HR ties and integrates HR activities to other corporate processes such as finance, supply chain and customer services. Write an essay on the ''drivers' of global human resource management: - Efficiency: involves the outsourcings of business processes and a high degree of centralization. - Global provisions: this comprises two key elements; building a global presence and eenabling management. Organisations are striving to build a global presence, while Eenabling allows everyone around the globe to access the same material. - Information exchange and organisational learning: this comprises of two key elements; knowledge transfer and management, and the forging of strategic partnership. - Core business process convergence: this involves the HRM response to the creation of core business processes and the movement away from country-based operations towards business-line driven organisations. - Localization: not many firms seem to incorporate the option of decentralization into their strategic drive recipe. However, although not common it does exist in the non-profit and charity sector. Discuss transactional and transformational leadership with regard to the relationship between leader and subordinate Transactional leadership – here, leaders are characterised by contingent-reward and management-by-exception styles of leadership. Exchanges or agreements with followers are developed which point out that the followers will receive if they do something right (or wrong). Transactional leadership approach thus lasts only as long as the needs of both the leader and follower are satisfied by the continuing exchange process. One can say that a purely transactional style of leadership may be counter-productive. Transformational leadership – this approach raises both leaders and followers to higher levels of motivation and morality with a view to changing the present situation by focusing primarily on the external consists of 4 behavioral components: - Charisma: process though which leaders arouse strong emotions in followers - Inspiration: refers to leaders behaviors such as creating an appealing vision - Intellectual stimulating: encourages followers to be creative in solving problems - Individual consideration: includes leader behaviors that provide special support to followers Briefly discuss the typical symptoms of the resistance to change, from an employee’s perspective: Symptoms of resistance to change include the following: - Withdrawal - Aggression - Arguing - Negativism - Blaming - Gossip - Slowdown of work - Sabotage of the change effort - Increased absenteeism A number of workplace alternative options are available to tailor work arrangements to personal needs. Discuss these  Placing workers on different shifts or travel schedules: this enables them to share the same desk and office space  Replacing traditional offices with open-plan space  Implementing the concept of ‘hotelling’: ‘hotel’ work spaces are furnished, equipped, and supported with typical office services. These spaces can then be reserved by the hour, day or week instead of being permanently assigned.  Creating satellite offices: such offices are the result of breaking up large, centralized facilities into a network of smaller workplaces that can be located close to customers or employees’ homes  Introducing telecommuting or virtual offices: this is one of the most commonly recognized forms of alternative workplace and has been used for some time. Telecommuting supplements the traditional workplace rather than replacing it. Advise the management about 9 organisational and management principles that can assist them to determine their readiness to establish flexible work arrangements:  Policy- are there specific policy & strategy statements approved and communicated by top management that endorse flex work as a component of the employment relationship  Employee commitment- how deeply are employees committed to the success of the organisations mission and to high achievement in their own jobs  Management commitment- do the actions of managers as well as its communications to employees reinforce management support for flex work  Workforce planning- hoe good is the organisation at forecasting projects, deadlines, production quotas, and workloads?  Technology- are information-technology and communication systems in place to support flex work in smooth, efficient, consistent ways  Training and orientation- how effective are training content and delivery mechanisms for meeting the ongoing needs of flex workers  Teamwork- to what extent is work done in teams, and is there sufficient coordination to ensure coverage and to compensate for having team members on different schedules.  Performance management- are there methods for performance measurements, employee appraisal, and staff development that are equivalent, if not identical, for flex works and others  Decision making- who holds decision rights in course of everyday work Models of Leadership styles: (organisational models)  Transactional based approach – leaders are characterised by contingent-reward and management-by-exception styles of leadership  Transformational based approach- raises both leaders and followers to higher levels of motivation & morality  Charismatic-based approach- seeks to keep followers weak and dependent and to instill personal loyalty rather than commitment to ideals  Managerial-based approach- combination of transactional & transformational. This combination allows management to diagnose the organisational situation and deploy the appropriate leadership response.  Strategic-based approach- a persona ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think strategically, and work with others to initiate changes that will create a viable future or the organisation.  Institutional leadership- closely related to strategic. What has emerged is the application of a special kind of leadership that appears to be critical during discontinued organisation change  E-leadership approach- a social influence process mediated by advanced information systems to produce a change in attitudes, feelings, thinking, and behavior with individual/groups. Identify 4 different types of change that can occur within an organisation (Nadler et al):  Tuning- here organisations initiate incremental in anticipation of environmental events. Thus no need for immediate change  Adaption- while tuning is initiated internally and is proactive in nature, adaption takes place as a result of external conditions and is reactive in nature  Reorientation- here the company initiates change as a result of an emerging environmental shift that is perceived. This will involve redefining the companies identity, vision, and mission  Recreation- as companies do not always have visionary leaders, they are sometimes caught unaware regarding certain changes that are taking place. In this situation they must move quickly and change all the basic elements of the organisation system if they want to survive. Advise the new dean about the strategic-based approach to leadership and the benefits thereof for the business school Strategic leadership can be defined as a person’s ability to anticipate, envision, maintain flexibility, think strategically, and work with others to initiate changes that will create a viable future for the organisation. It is clear that this approach will enable an organisation to achieve superior performance when competing in turbulent and unpredictable environments. This can create a competitive advantage for the organisation. Advise the management on how to leverage the existing talent. Leveraging talent is a priority throughout the company; developing a sound EVP, and ensuring your sourcing strategy is a powerful one, will do much of what is needed to make your position in the talent market compelling. The reality is that people learn by being put in situations that require skills that they don’t have- a truth poorly served when ‘who can do this job best right now’?’ often dominates staffing decisions. Rebuilding talent banks and replacement will cost money and take time therefore organisations must leverage the talent they have. Differentiate between competitive advantage and a sustained competitive advantage in an organisational setting Competitive advantage exists when a particular company consistently outperforms other companies in the same industry. A company is considered to be outperforming others if profits are higher than the competition's profits. The competitive advantage is thought to be stronger when it lasts for a longer period of time. Those companies who are able to maintain a competitive advantage for many years are thought to have a sustainable competitive advantage. If sustainable competitive advantage is dependent on maintaining a higher profit margin than other companies in the same industry, how does a company set out to develop a strategy to both achieve and maintain competitive advantage? The two main components of profit are that customers both value the goods and services and will pay for them and that a company can keep production costs related to goods and services low, so that there is a higher profit margin. Discuss 4 types of intranet sites that show different levels of website development  Brochureware- Company posts most of its written material on the site and uses the sight as an electronic bulletin. This does not take advantage of the integrated, interactive ad personalized capabilities of web technology.  Transactional- by allowing employees to conduct transactions online, the site moves up. Typical online transactions include changing personal information, registering for courses, submitting expense reports, etc.  Integrated- multiple sites are linked together to create a seamless experience for the user. The challenge here is how to integrate various services in a way that makes sense to the employee  Personalized- the ultimate goal is to create a truly individualized experience for each user by proving unique content based on the person’s profile. Discuss the ethical issues that may arise within the traditional HR activity of promotion, compensation and selection: Promotion: key ethical issue in managing the promotion of employees is fairness. The difficulty is in determining the criteria that should serve as the basis for fair promotion procedures. Promotion should normally be on the basis of job-related criteria, especially performance. Employees might not have the right to a promotion but they have the right to a fair evaluation & consideration. Another issues related to promotion is performance management. The criticism is that performance-management systems raise issues of privacy, dignity, discrimination, and power and control over employees. Compensation: the right to fair compensation, often referred to as the right to a living wage, is derived from the right to life, the right to employment and the right to respect. Recently performance pay and other contingent systems are reward have been implemented, as have the flattening of pay scales with fewer, but broader pay grade, and flexible cafeteria-style benefit systems. The new approach to compensation, referred to as ‘new pay’ is more suitable in today’s changing organisational environments and structures. New pay is ‘strategic pay’, that is, it both flows from and implements an enterprises business strategy, from an ethical perspective the developments in compensation are potentially flawed as they represent a ‘movement towards greater risk in remuneration’ because employees perspectives, salaries and benefits are less secure and predictable. Principles of ethical pay management help to identify acceptable levels of risk and the task of minimizing harm while maximizing benefits of all stakeholders. Selection: effective and fair selection practices for the strategic development of highly motivated and competent employees are an important vehicle for enterprises to gain competitive advantage. Considerations of justice and rights play an important role in ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly and are assured equal employment opportunities. In making selection decisions, HR practitioners must ensure that all job applicants are treated fairly. Selection practices include: - Screening: begins with a job description and a job specification. A successful screening process is one that ensures there is a pool of suitable candidates who have been treated fairly. The screening out of less suitable candidates must be done on the basis of jobrelevant criteria to be considered fair - Employment interview: most widely used. First point of formal contact. Vary from unstructured to semi-structured to structured. Structured interviews are considered to be fair as it is a set of formal standardized questions. Critical component of ethical employment interviewing is the standardization and objectification of the interview - Psychometric testing: most common types measure agility and personality, but also include drug testing, health screening and more recently genetic tests. The ethical implications of genetic testing’s are huge, mostly because there is a danger that ‘the risk of disease will be treated as a disease’ Discuss the employee-employer relationship in the new work environment: There is no job security, the employee will be employed as long as he or she adds value to the organisation, and is personally responsible for finding new ways to add value. In return the employee has the right to demand interesting and important work, has the freedom and resources to perform it well, receives pay that reflects his or her contribution and gets the experience and training needed to be employable here or elsewhere Explain Ulrich’s multiple-role model for HRM According to Ulrich, for human resources to be successful it will have to play at least 4 different roles: - Strategic partner: management of strategic human resources - Administrative expert: management of firm infrastructure - Employee champion: management of employee contribution - Change agent: management of transformation and change Describe the present ways in which HR professional can be successful: - Become involved with line managers in strategy formulation and implementation - Become an expert in the way work is organized and executed - Become involved in reducing costs through administrative efficiency - Becoming a reliable representative for employees when putting their concerns to management - Becoming involved in efforts to increase employees’ contribution to the organisation - Become an agent for continuous transformation Give a brief explanation of the evolving role of HRM during the four periods of organisational change as described by McKee  The mechanistic period- (1940s-1950s) this period saw birth of the personnel/industrial relations professions. This period also saw the emergence of benefit programmes as an area of interest  The legalistic period: (1960s- 1970s) saw an unprecedented amount of legislation in the social and employment areas. Training and development began to emerge as a separate and specialized area of HRM.  The organistic period- tremendous organisational change started to take place in the 1980s. This period can be seen as the height of HRM. During this period the movement towards cost and profit centers become important issues.  The strategic period: (1990s) during this period strategic thinking and planning emerged as the most prominent activity to deal with the continual change faced by organisations Discuss major issues that will play a role in the catalytic period - Increase in cross-border employment - Workforce that will be comfortable in and with other cultures - Fewer organisation as a result of continued mergers and acquisitions - The use of just-in-time professional workers - Increase in outsourcing - More innovative compensation practices - Telecommuting and other forms of flex work being widely introduced - Teams playing a major role Give some examples of the training needs of self-managed work teams - Communication is vital for teams to succeed - Proper listening skills are needed for proper communication - Supervision - Conflict resolution - Decision-making - Running meetings - Time management Four reasons why virtual teams have become important - Organisational structures have become flat/horizontal, previous hierarchies have been substituted with flatter structures - Environments have emerged that require inter-organisational cooperation and also competition between departments in same organisation - Workers expectations regarding their involvement in organisations have changed - Organisations activities and trade in general have globalized According to Barney, imitation can occur in at least 2 ways. Explain briefly  Duplication- occurs when an imitating company investigates what competitors are doing and then attempts to duplicate this  Substitution- means that a similar resource may be found that provides the same results Keep in mind that you can appoint people with similar qualifications & experience but you cannot totally duplicate or substitute this Discuss HR’s role in gaining competitive advantage A number of paradigms in the literature describe the contribution or HR to company performance: 1) The resource based paradigm (RBV): This paradigm assigns value to a company’s stock of human intellectual capital as a way of measuring the contribution of HR to the company’s performance. This approach suggests that HR systems contribute to a sustained competitive advantage by facilitating the development of competencies that are company specific. Biggest problem is the possibility of employee turnover. To limit the damage that can occur as a result of losses, companies can design and implement turnover-management strategies. 3 levels of motivation: -The extrinsic motivation level: rewards for a given behaviuor -The hedonic intrinsic motivation level: enjoyment individuals experience in completing the tasks in the environment -The normative intrinsic motivation level: engaging in behavior that is compliant with the norms and values of the organisation. 2) The best-practices paradigm: Researchers in this movement specify and measure the bundles of typologies of HR practices associated with the high performance of labour. This approach applies that there is a direct relationship between particular HR approaches and company performance. HR practice that are related to company performance are compensation, selection and training activities. The focus is to enhance the skills base of employees through HR activities 3) The process paradigm: this approach is anchored in both RBV and the best practices theory. This approach integrates economic considerations with social-legitimacy aspects. This process is referred to as the deeply embedded company-specific dynamic routines by which a company attracts, socialized, trains, motivates and compensates human resources. Company specific HRM processes are established by developing and exchanging information throughput the entire organisation According to Barney an organisations resources can be classified into four groups. Name them - Financial capital resources: debt, equity retained earnings - Physical capital resources: physical technology, machines, buildings - Human capital resources: knowledge, experience, insight - Organisational capital resources: history, relationships, culture, trust Discuss the 4 questions which determine a resources value: - A question of value: ‘do a company’s resources add value by enabling it to exploit the opportunities and /o neutralize the threats in the company’s environment?’ - A question of rarity: ‘how many other company’s already possess the valuable resources?’ - A question of inimitability: ‘do companies without a resource face a prohibitive cost disadvantage in obtaining the resources other companies already possess?’ - A question of organisation: ‘is a company organized to exploit the full competitive potential of its resources?’ Write a short paragraph on the universal, contingency and configurational approach: - Universal: assumes that there are certain HRM best practices that will contribute to increased financial performance of a company, regardless of the strategic goals of the company - Contingency: it differs from the universal approach in that research undertaken here attempts to link HRM systems to specific organisational strategies. It is the HRM practices that contribute to the attainment of organisational goals. - Configurational: argues that the fit of HRM practices with the company strategy is vital. The configuration with the tightest horizontal and vertical fit would be the ideal type for an organisation perusing the strategy .