Human Resource Management Models

Although the term ‘human resources’ had been used before then, human resource
management as a distinctive term emerged in the early 1980s.
Conceptually HRM could be differentiated from the ‘old’ personnel management, even if
the degree and extent of its application have been somewhat variable. The work of Beer
and colleagues at Harvard (Beer et al. 1984) and that of Fombrun et al. (1984) at
Michigan University can be seen as central to this conceptualization.

One of the key differentiating factors of HRM propounded in such models was that it was
linked to the strategic goals of the organization and provided a vital input into achieving
competitive advantage. This can be contrasted with characterizations of personnel
management, which could be viewed as being rather removed from the needs of the
business, largely administrative and tasked with ensuring the compliance of policies and
procedures. To this extent it could be argued that the ‘strategic’ in strategic human
resource management is somewhat redundant, since a key attribute of HRM itself is its
strategic nature. The addition of the ‘S’ in the term, as for example in this book title, does
however serve both to highlight that the focus will be on these strategic aspects rather
than the operational, and that in practice HRM may be applied to functions and activities
that have very little link to strategic considerations.

Four major models have been identified on human resource management and all
these serve as many purposes.

1. They provide an analytical framework for studying Human resource

management (for example, situational factors, stakeholders, strategic choice levels,
competence)

2. They legitimize certain HRM practices; a key issue here being the
distinctiveness of HRM practices: “It is not the presence of selection or training but
a distinctive approach to selection or training that matters”.

3. They provide a characterization of human resource management that establishes

variables and relationship to be researched.

4. They serve as a heuristic device-something to help us discover and understand

the world for explaining the nature and significance of key HR practices.

The four major HRM models are: (i) The Fombrun, (ii) The Harvard, (iii)
The Guest, and (iv) The Warwick.
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1The Harvard Model
Researchers observed that there is a strong need for a longer-term perspective in
Managing people and consideration of people as potential assets rather than merely
variable cost. The Harvard school suggested that HRM had two characteristic
features as given below:
1. Line managers accept more responsibility for ensuring the alignment of
Competitive strategy and personnel policies .
2. Personnel has the mission of setting policies that govern how personnel
activities are developed and implemented in ways that make the more
mutually reinforcing.

 The Harvard model claims to be comprehensive in as much as it seeks to

comprise six critical components of HRM. The dimensions included in the
model are: stakeholders, interests, situational factors, HRM policy choices,
HR outcomes, long-term consequences and a feedback loop through. The
outputs flow directly into the organization and the stakeholders.

 Stakeholders interest - shareholder, management, employee groups, government, unions

 Situational factors- workforce characteristics, business strategy and conduct, management

philosophy, Labor markets, unions, task technology, social and law values,

 Human resources management policy choices – employee influence, hr. flow, rewards,
work system

 Human Resources outcomes- commitment, competence, congruence, cost effective

 Long term consequences- individual wellbeing, organizational effectiveness, societal

wellbeing feedback loop.

The Harvard model: (1984) which use as an as a strategic map to concentrates on the soft
aspect of HRM. It describes employee commitment. It also shows that employees needed to be
competent and cost effective. This model has six basic components. Such as;

The Harvard model emphasizes the quantitative, calculative and business-strategic aspects of
managing human resources in as “rational” a way as for any other economic factor. By contrast, the
soft version traces its roots to the human-relations school; it emphasizes communication, motivation
and leadership.’

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Figure 1 Harvard model

Beer et al (1984) stressed on the role of line managers who in their view, should
accept more responsibility for ensuring the ‘alignment of competitive strategy
and  personnel policies’; and secondly ‘have the mission of setting policies that
govern how personnel activities are developed and implemented in mutually
enforcing ways’.Huczynski and Buchanan (2001) and Loosemore et al (2003)
added that, the Harvard Model provided the needed link between “SHRM
decisions, the business environment and an organization’s performance”. It
provided a more open system model of how SHRM policy influences other
organizational functions and is constrained by stakeholders and situational
factors. According to Boxall (1992) and recorded in Armstrong (2003), advantages
of the model include the under listed:

 It incorporates recognition of a range of stakeholder interests;

 It recognizes the importance of ‘trade-offs’, either explicitly or implicitly
between the interests of owners and those of employees as well as between
various interest groups;
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  It widens the context of HRM to include ‘employee influence’, the organization of work and
the associated question of supervisory style;
 It acknowledges a broad range of contextual influences on management’s choice of strategy,
suggesting a meshing of both product-market and socio-cultural logics;
 It emphasizes choice – it is not driven by situational or environmental determinism. Walton
(1985) expanded on this model by stressing on the importance of mutuality. In his words, “the
new HRM model is composed of policies that promote mutuality – mutual goals, mutual
influence, mutual respect, mutual rewards, and mutual responsibility”. He added that, policies
of mutuality will elicit commitment which in turn will yield both better economic performance
and greater human development. The Harvard Framework has not been without shortfalls.
Loose more (2003) pointed out that, “although it acknowledges environmental and
stakeholder influences, the nature of the causal chain suggested by the model is unclear”. It
explained this by stating that, the framework does not explain how the four policy areas are
influenced by the identified environmental and stakeholder influences and how it does in the
long term affect SHRM. This framework, to a large extent however, informed future
developments of the concept

2 The Warwick Model

Warwick model: was developed by Hendry and Pettigrew (1990). It is on analytical approach to
Human Resources Management. It also recognizes the impact of the role of the personnel
functions on the human resource strategy content. : Outer context, inner context, business
strategy context, HRM context, HRM content

This model was developed by two researchers, Hendry and Pettigrew of University of Warwick
(hence the name Warwick model). Like other human resource management models, the Warwick
proposition centers around five elements

 Outer context (macro environmental forces)

 Inner context (firm specific or micro environmental forces)
 Business strategy content
 HRM context
 HRM content

The Warwick model takes cognizance of business strategy and HR practices (as in the Guest
model), the external and internal context (unlike the Guest model) in which these activities take
place, and the process by which such changes take place, including interactions between changes
in both context and content. The strength of the model is that it identifies and classifies important
environmental influences on HRM. It maps the connection between the external and
environmental factors and explores how human resource management adapts to changes in the
context. Obviously, those organizations achieving an alignment between the external and internal
contexts will achieve performance and growth.
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One of the major setbacks in the conceptual developments of the HRM concept up
to this time was that most of the earlier developments were within an American
Context. Approaches outside of this context required a perspective of the
particular cultural context that exists in different countries. The Warwick Model,
which emanated from the Centre for Corporate Studies and Change at the
University of Warwick by Hendry and Pettigrew (1990) differs from the Harvard
models by reflecting European traditions and management styles.

3 The Guest Model

Yet another human resource management model was developed by David Guest in 1997 and
claims to be much superior to other models. The details will justify the claim. This model claims
that the HR manager has specific strategies to begin with, which demand certain practices and
when executed, will result in outcomes.

The model is prescriptive in the sense that it is based on the assumption that HRM is
distinctively different from traditional personnel management (rooted in strategic management,
etc.).

It is idealistic, implicitly embodying the belief that fundamental elements of the HRM approach
(essentially those of the Harvard map) such as commitment have a direct relationship with
valued business consequences.

However, Guest has acknowledged that the concept of commitment is 'messy' and that the
relationship between commitment and high performance is (or, perhaps, was - given the age of
this material) difficult to establish. It also employs a 'flow' approach, seeing strategy
underpinning practice, leading to a variety of desired outcomes.

Like its American predecessors, this UK model is unitarist (tying employee behaviour and
commitment into the goals of strategic management) and lukewarm on the value of trade unions.
The employee relationship is viewed as one between the individual and the organization.

This model emphasizes the logical sequence of six components: HR strategy, HR practices, HR
outcomes, behavioral outcomes, performance results and financial consequences. Looking
inversely, financial results depend on employee performance, which in turn is the result of action
oriented employee behaviors. Behavioral outcomes are the result of employee commitment,
quality and flexibility, which, in turn are impacted by HR practices. HR practices need to be in
tune with HR strategies which are invariably aligned with organizational strategies.

The claim of the Guest model that it is superior to others is partly justified in the sense that it
clearly maps out the field of HRM and delineates the inputs and outcomes. But the dynamics of

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people management are so complex that no model (including the Guest model) can capture them
comprehensively.

Guest comparative model works on as integrated Human Resources Management practices will
result to superior individual and organizational performance .The concept describes HRM
strategies such as differentiation, innovation, the focus on Quality and cost reduction will
increase good practices which influence the quality of the outcome, commitment and flexibility
by training, appraisal, selection, rewards, job designs, involvement, and security. The final
outcome will be positive productivity, with innovation, and decrees Labor turnover, fewer
conflicts and less customer complaints.

4 The Fombrun,Tichy and Devanna

model
The early HRM model developed by Fombrun emphasizes the interrelatedness and
the coherence of HRM activities. The HRM ‘cycle’ in this model consists of four
key consistent components: selection, appraisal, development and rewards.
The ‘HRM cycle’ is also a simple model that serves as a heuristic framework
for explaining the nature and significance of key HR practices and the interactions
between the factors making up the complex fields of HRM. The four human
resource activities are joined together aiming to increase organizational
performance.
The strength of this model is, however, that it expresses the coherence of internal
HR policies and the importance of ‘matching’ internal HR policies and practices to
the organization’s external business strategy. The weakness of Fombrun model lies
in its apparently prescriptive nature, with its focus on four HR practices. It also
ignores different stakeholder interests; situational factors and the notion of
management’s strategic choice (John Bratton and Jeffrey Gold, 2008).

This model emphasizes according to Human resources management cycle Human

Resources Management activities will be interrelated and coherent .The Human
Resources Management cycle has selection, appraisals, development, and rewards
which links to forms performance.

Forerun (1984) proposed the ‘matching model’, which indicated that HR systems
and the organization structure should be managed in a way that is congruent with
organizational strategy. Forerun proposed the ‘matching model’, which indicated
that HR systems and the organization structure should be managed in a way that is
congruent with organizational strategy.
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Variables (factors) on human resource management
These variables include: Globalization, Profitability through growth, Technology,
Intellectual capital, Change, change and more change. The challenges given above
can be discussed as below:
1 Globalization: This requires organizations to move people, ideas, products and
information around the world to meet local needs. New and important ingredients
must be added to the mix when making strategy: volatile political situations,
contentious global trade issues, fluctuating exchange rates and unfamiliar cultures.
2 Profitability through growth:The drive for revenue means that companies
must be creative and innovative and this means encouraging the free flow of
information and shared learning among employees.
3 Technology: Technological advancements and their adaptation as per the
requirement is an important consideration in technology. The challenge
is to make technology a viable, productive part of the work setting.
4 Intellectual capital: This is the source of competitive advantage for
organizations. The challenge is to ensure that firms have the capability to find,
assimilate, compensate and retain human capital in the form of talented individuals
they need who can drive a global organization that is both responsive to its
customers and ‘the burgeoning opportunities of technology’. They have also to
consider how the social capital of the organization and the ways in which people
interact can be developed. Importantly, organizations have to focus on
organizational capital – the knowledge they own and how it should be managed.
5 Change, change and more change: The greatest challenge companies face is
adjusting to and indeed, embracing a non-stop change. They must be able to learn
rapidly and continuously, and take on new strategic imperatives faster and more
comfortably.

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REFERENCE
STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCEMANAGEMENT
GOOGLE

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Other models of HRM

1. The hard and soft HRM models:

Storey distinguished between the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ versions of HRM. He wrote that: ‘The hard
one emphasizes the quantitative, calculative and business-strategic aspects of managing human
resources in as “rational” a way as for any other economic factor. By contrast, the soft version
traces
its roots to the human-relations school; it emphasizes communication, motivation and
leadership.’
However, it was pointed out by Keenoy that ‘hard and soft HRM are complementary rather
than mutually exclusive practices’. Research in eight UK organizations by Truss indicated that
the distinction between hard and soft HRM was not as precise as some commentators have
implied. Their conclusions were as follows.

2. Contextual model of HRM:

The contextual model of HRM emphasizes the importance of environmental factors by
including variables such as the influence of social, institutional and political forces that have
been underestimated in other models. The latter, at best, consider the context as a contingency
variable. The contextual approach is broader, integrating the human resource management
system in the environment in which it is developed. According to Martin-Alcázar: ‘Context both
conditions and is conditioned by the HRM strategy.’
A broader set of stakeholders is involved in the formulation and implementation of human
resource strategies that is referred to by Schuler and Jackson as a ‘multiple stakeholder
framework’. These stakeholders may be external as well as internal and both influence and are
influenced by strategic decisions.

3. European model of HRM:

Brewster described a European model of HRM as follows:

● environment – established legal framework;
● objectives – organizational objectives and social concern – people as a key resource;
● focus – cost/benefit analysis, also environment;
● relationship with employees – union and non-union;
● relationship with line managers – specialist/line liaison;
● role of HR specialist – specialist managers – ambiguity, tolerance, flexibility.

The main distinction between this model and what Brewster referred to as ‘the prescribed
model’ was that the latter involves deregulation (no legal framework), no trade unions and a
focus on organizational objectives but not on social concern.
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As set out by Maybe the characteristics of the European model are:
● dialogue between social partners;
● emphasis on social responsibility;
● multicultural organizations;
● participation in decision-making;
● continuous learning.

5. The 5-p’s model of HRM:

Philosophy: Expressed in statements defining business values and culture. It expresses how to
treat and value people.
Policies: Expressed as shared values and guidelines. Policies establish guidelines for action on
people related business issues and HR programs.
Programs: Articulated as human resource strategy. These coordinate efforts to facilitate change
to address major people related business issues.
Practices: For leadership managerial and operational role practices motivate needed role
behaviors.
Processes: For the formulation and implementation of other activities these define how
activities are carried out.

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