Strategic Human Resource Management
Lecture Notes
Pre-master Human Resource Studies
Tilburg University
2019-2020
,Inhoudsopgave
WEEK 1, LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION (21-10-2019) ....................................................................................... 3
WEEK 2, LECTURE 2: BLACK-BOX DEBATE (31-10-2019) ................................................................................. 7
WEEK 3, LECTURE 3: CONTINGENCY PERSPECTIVE (07-11-2019) .................................................................. 16
WEEK 4, LECTURE 4: DARK-SIDE PERSPECTIVE (11-11-2019) ....................................................................... 26
WEEK 4, LECTURE 5: GUEST LECTURE, BUSINESS CASE (14-11-2019) ............................................................ 37
WEEK 5, LECTURE 6: WORKFORCE DIFFERENTIATION (21-11-2019) ............................................................. 38
WEEK 6, LECTURE 7: HR DEVOLUTION (28-11-2019) ................................................................................... 46
WEEK 7, LECTURE 8: EXAM PREPARATION (05-12-2019) ............................................................................. 49
2
,Week 1, Lecture 1: Introduction (21-10-2019)
Final grade
Written exam → 50%
Team assignment → 35%
Quality of chairing class assignments → 15%
Human Resource Management
• HRM → management of people and work
• An inevitable process in organizations
• HRM is a fundamental activity in any organization in which human being are
employed
Strategic HRM
• Strategic HRM → A concern with the ways in which HRM is critical to the firm’s
survival and to tis relative success
• Employees are considered the organizations (most) important key to organizational
success, and therefore HRM is key management task.
o The aim is not always profit, it can also be quality. It is also relative; when
you are working in a sector which is in a really hard time, here, the relative
success is important. You can make some loss, but as long you are doing
better than your competitors, you can still survive.
HRM leads to organizational success, therefore HRM is a key management task.
HRM/employees the key to organizational success…
• We aspire to have a leading people culture: everywhere in the world. Creating a
culture that attracts and retains outstanding people and helps them thrive leads to
better service for our clients (Ernst & Young)
• …. This result is something we managed as a team, with all the business units and
employees working together… (NS)
• Erasmus MC inspires and is challenging...Together with people, for people: ‘patient-
driven care’
• Increase in attempts to bring HR data and business data together to show the effect
of HR on business outcomes
Starting point of this course
• Key aspects of HRM can have a significant positive impact on organizational success.
• Considerable debate about the nature of this relationship
o How/why? → black box debate
o When? → contingency perspective/best practice-best fit debate (depends
on the context; if there is a relationship between HRM → performance)
o For whom → dark-side perspective + differentiated workforce (for who is
HRM actually beneficial?)
o Who → HR devolution (is the HR department in control, or are they more
administrative and not strategic; what we see is that HR activities are being
re-located towards the line managers).
3
, What is HRM?
• All the activities associated with the management of people at wo
This is quite a broad definition. Because this is such a broad definition, you can see that in
HR research, there is not much consistency and not much agreement on how in should be
measured. But, they agree that there are three domains (skills, empowerment and
motivation).
• Skill → make sure that there is enough quality and quantity (recruitment & selection
or training & development)
• Motivation → motivating employees to put effort in the organization (performance
management, pay & benefits)
• Empowerment → you need to be able to perform. So you need the opportunities.
You can involve employees in decision making and let them know what is going on
in the organization.
What is organizational success?
• So for instance; for these three organizations, different indicators of success matter.
What is important for the one company, is not important for another company. it
depends on the sector and on the strategy. As a HR professional it is important to
know about this.
4
Lecture Notes
Pre-master Human Resource Studies
Tilburg University
2019-2020
,Inhoudsopgave
WEEK 1, LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION (21-10-2019) ....................................................................................... 3
WEEK 2, LECTURE 2: BLACK-BOX DEBATE (31-10-2019) ................................................................................. 7
WEEK 3, LECTURE 3: CONTINGENCY PERSPECTIVE (07-11-2019) .................................................................. 16
WEEK 4, LECTURE 4: DARK-SIDE PERSPECTIVE (11-11-2019) ....................................................................... 26
WEEK 4, LECTURE 5: GUEST LECTURE, BUSINESS CASE (14-11-2019) ............................................................ 37
WEEK 5, LECTURE 6: WORKFORCE DIFFERENTIATION (21-11-2019) ............................................................. 38
WEEK 6, LECTURE 7: HR DEVOLUTION (28-11-2019) ................................................................................... 46
WEEK 7, LECTURE 8: EXAM PREPARATION (05-12-2019) ............................................................................. 49
2
,Week 1, Lecture 1: Introduction (21-10-2019)
Final grade
Written exam → 50%
Team assignment → 35%
Quality of chairing class assignments → 15%
Human Resource Management
• HRM → management of people and work
• An inevitable process in organizations
• HRM is a fundamental activity in any organization in which human being are
employed
Strategic HRM
• Strategic HRM → A concern with the ways in which HRM is critical to the firm’s
survival and to tis relative success
• Employees are considered the organizations (most) important key to organizational
success, and therefore HRM is key management task.
o The aim is not always profit, it can also be quality. It is also relative; when
you are working in a sector which is in a really hard time, here, the relative
success is important. You can make some loss, but as long you are doing
better than your competitors, you can still survive.
HRM leads to organizational success, therefore HRM is a key management task.
HRM/employees the key to organizational success…
• We aspire to have a leading people culture: everywhere in the world. Creating a
culture that attracts and retains outstanding people and helps them thrive leads to
better service for our clients (Ernst & Young)
• …. This result is something we managed as a team, with all the business units and
employees working together… (NS)
• Erasmus MC inspires and is challenging...Together with people, for people: ‘patient-
driven care’
• Increase in attempts to bring HR data and business data together to show the effect
of HR on business outcomes
Starting point of this course
• Key aspects of HRM can have a significant positive impact on organizational success.
• Considerable debate about the nature of this relationship
o How/why? → black box debate
o When? → contingency perspective/best practice-best fit debate (depends
on the context; if there is a relationship between HRM → performance)
o For whom → dark-side perspective + differentiated workforce (for who is
HRM actually beneficial?)
o Who → HR devolution (is the HR department in control, or are they more
administrative and not strategic; what we see is that HR activities are being
re-located towards the line managers).
3
, What is HRM?
• All the activities associated with the management of people at wo
This is quite a broad definition. Because this is such a broad definition, you can see that in
HR research, there is not much consistency and not much agreement on how in should be
measured. But, they agree that there are three domains (skills, empowerment and
motivation).
• Skill → make sure that there is enough quality and quantity (recruitment & selection
or training & development)
• Motivation → motivating employees to put effort in the organization (performance
management, pay & benefits)
• Empowerment → you need to be able to perform. So you need the opportunities.
You can involve employees in decision making and let them know what is going on
in the organization.
What is organizational success?
• So for instance; for these three organizations, different indicators of success matter.
What is important for the one company, is not important for another company. it
depends on the sector and on the strategy. As a HR professional it is important to
know about this.
4
