please explain the meaning of a “partnership perspective for managing human resources.” Is it
realistic to expect organizations to be strategic in managing human resources? What
organizational and individual barriers are likely to make it difficult to adopt a strategic approach?
Be specific and support your logic with examples.
Solution
HR business partners are HR professionals who work closely with an organisation’s senior
leaders in order to develop an HR agenda that closely supports the overall aims of the
organisation. The process of alignment is known as HR business partnering and may involve the
HR business partner sitting on the board of directors or working closely with the board of
directors and C-suite.
The idea of HR business partners was popularised by academic and consultant David Ulrich,
who sees HR business partners as part of a successful modern HR function, along with shared
services and centres of expertise. HR business partners are often the most senior HR
professionals within the department, with experience of putting points across to senior leaders on
a regular basis.
Communication skills are very important for HR business partners as they need to communicate
the financial value and future worth of person-centred HR policies to the company’s leadership,
as well as communicate high-level decisions down to other members of the HR department and
the whole organisation.
HR business partnering is becoming more popular as organisations become people-focused and
see the value in aligning agendas toward a common goal. Commentators talk of a ‘breakdown of
traditional silos’ and greater collaboration between departments, such as HR and marketing.
HR business partners are seen as important in this process as a progressive way to connect the
HR department to other functions – since HR business partners often have experience in senior
positions they are well-placed to communicate effectively with other senior leaders.
the very best HR business partners have:
Although many HR functions have begun to play a strategic role in guiding succession
management, knowledge retention, and other enterprise-wide initiatives, there is still opportunity
for such functions to improve and truly transform key influencers and decision-makers. The
pressing need for organizations to maintain a diverse pool of talented leaders, capture expertise
from exiting employees, and outsource transactional activities to focus on core capabilities has
heightened the importance of the HR function. Those who want to remain relevant will focus on
strategically supporting their organizations and the customers they serve.
The corporate HR function sets the strategic tone and provides specialized knowledge and
direction while HR generalists implement and adapt to fit the needs of specific business groups.
A healthy tension exists between the policy directives determined by corporate HR and the
diverse needs of various business units, but the best practitioners are able to .
please explain the meaning of a “partnership perspective for managin.pdf
1. please explain the meaning of a “partnership perspective for managing human resources.” Is it
realistic to expect organizations to be strategic in managing human resources? What
organizational and individual barriers are likely to make it difficult to adopt a strategic approach?
Be specific and support your logic with examples.
Solution
HR business partners are HR professionals who work closely with an organisation’s senior
leaders in order to develop an HR agenda that closely supports the overall aims of the
organisation. The process of alignment is known as HR business partnering and may involve the
HR business partner sitting on the board of directors or working closely with the board of
directors and C-suite.
The idea of HR business partners was popularised by academic and consultant David Ulrich,
who sees HR business partners as part of a successful modern HR function, along with shared
services and centres of expertise. HR business partners are often the most senior HR
professionals within the department, with experience of putting points across to senior leaders on
a regular basis.
Communication skills are very important for HR business partners as they need to communicate
the financial value and future worth of person-centred HR policies to the company’s leadership,
as well as communicate high-level decisions down to other members of the HR department and
the whole organisation.
HR business partnering is becoming more popular as organisations become people-focused and
see the value in aligning agendas toward a common goal. Commentators talk of a ‘breakdown of
traditional silos’ and greater collaboration between departments, such as HR and marketing.
HR business partners are seen as important in this process as a progressive way to connect the
HR department to other functions – since HR business partners often have experience in senior
positions they are well-placed to communicate effectively with other senior leaders.
the very best HR business partners have:
Although many HR functions have begun to play a strategic role in guiding succession
management, knowledge retention, and other enterprise-wide initiatives, there is still opportunity
for such functions to improve and truly transform key influencers and decision-makers. The
pressing need for organizations to maintain a diverse pool of talented leaders, capture expertise
from exiting employees, and outsource transactional activities to focus on core capabilities has
heightened the importance of the HR function. Those who want to remain relevant will focus on
strategically supporting their organizations and the customers they serve.
2. The corporate HR function sets the strategic tone and provides specialized knowledge and
direction while HR generalists implement and adapt to fit the needs of specific business groups.
A healthy tension exists between the policy directives determined by corporate HR and the
diverse needs of various business units, but the best practitioners are able to achieve a healthy
balance because of their deep understanding of current HR practices, corporate strategy and
divisional business objectives. For example, at Texas Instruments (TI) the leadership and HR
have engaged in a strategic initiative aimed at reducing the costs of turnover and low morale
resulting from expansion and contraction associated with the business cycle by using outsourced
workers to provide a more flexible work force.
Consequently, the strategic partnership created between executive leadership and HR is not an
organic outcome; it is achieved on purpose—usually as the result of some need or business
driver that prompts the organization to take deliberate action to satisfy that need. For HR to be an
effective strategic partner in any organization, the HR professionals must understand two things:
1) the business of the business and 2) that HR work begins with the business, not HR.
Knowledge of the business, support for the strategy, and the ability to translate every activity to
strategic objectives undergird the success of our best practice leaders. Moreover, this process
cannot be completed overnight. For example, the MITRE Corporation (MITRE) began a
transformation process in 1998 and followed with reorganization a year later. They estimate that
the process took 18 months of research and an additional year to pilot the partner model in two
organizations.
Another aspect of becoming a strategic partner with the business is demonstrating support for
organizational/business strategies through alignment with those strategies. Such alignment puts
HR in a better position to deliver value, which thereby demonstrates credibility. Increasing
credibility leads to increased trust, which cements the HR department’s position as a strategic
partner in the organization.
Barriers and Initiatives of Human Resource Strategy Implementation
Before HR professionals can work to implement strategy, they must first ascertain what obstacles
presently exist to prevent the desired changes from occurring in their organization. Strategy
implementation is, in many ways, a systematized process of removing the company’s many
internal roadblocks to change. Every strategy will encounter some measure of resistance, even
when it’s been unanimously agreed that change is imperative; and the more dramatic the change
in strategy, of course, the more struggle there will be.
HR can preempt many of their potential battles by anticipating and addressing some of the
problems that will likely arise
Barriers to the implementation of Hr strategies:
Each of the factors are essential to understand for successful implementation of Hr strategies.
3. These major barriers can be encountered by Hr strategists when attempting to implement
strategic initiatives include:
So Where to start:
The chore of thoroughly managing barriers to strategy is an intimidating one, and given that, the
rarity of effective strategy execution is really none too surprising. Fortunately, every one of those
issues is within the power of HR to conquer.
From a big-picture perspective, there are four vital tasks that all businesses must accomplish.
These four jobs, when properly fulfilled, add up to the bare-bones work of strategy
implementation, and they are
Though invariably all employees must be on board for understanding and committing to the
strategy, this in and of itself is not enough. Implementing a strategy means legitimately changing
work production. In order to achieve the business strategy, all off-strategy work must terminate
and all on-strategy work must proceed with renewed urgency and dedication
The final and most important step in HR strategy implementation is that of realigning
departmental relationships within the system. Implementing strategy means carving deeper
relationships between inter-dependent organizational units, such as sales and manufacturing, or
customer service and distribution. This last job is as challenging as it is critical, because it
demands that employees within discrete work units learn to share and interact across the
traditional boundaries of their job descriptions.
This system of change as organized into four jobs is rather unique among most designs for
strategic HR. Where many plans focus in on how HR can appeal to, motivate, and enrich the
contribution of the individual, the Four Jobs system recognizes the work that must be done on all
three tiers of organization, from the individual to the work unit to the department as a whole.
Implementation of strategy is an all-encompassing procedure, demanding change at all levels of
the business’s social system.