Optimizing HR Strategies: A Comparative Study of Best Practices and Best Fit Approaches

Introduction:

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, human resources management is one of the important practices which assist any organisation to set such organisational strategies and human resources planning which will be best suited for the overall condition of the organisation. This essay is going to represent the critical analysis of the statement of Duncan Brown regarding the ‘best practice’ and ‘best fit’ for operating the HR function of an organisation smoothly. Aim of this essay is to highlight the comparative analysis between the 'best practices' and the 'best fit' in term of dealing with the current organisational situation. For students seeking the best and deepest insights into this particular topic, exploring HRM dissertation help resources can offer good guidance and support in navigating all the complexities of this field. With using relevant academic resources, this essay will conduct the critical discussion on the fact that whether HR managers will go for the ‘best practices’ or they focus on setting the ‘best fit’ to gain the better organisational framework in term of dealing with the ever-changing market trend. This essay will also develop relevant themes based on the research question for comparing the best practices with the best fit in terms of showing which one is relevant for developing best HRM strategies in the current business landscape.

Critical evaluation of HRM strategies and how they fit into the organisation:

HRM strategy is one of the most important organisational strategies, which assists an organisation to develop a high-skilled workforce and allocate organisational resources in a systematic manner in terms of enhancing organisation productivity and competitive advantage (Malik, 2018). HRM strategies need to be highly specific and relevant with the organisational needs which will assist HR managers to cope with the everchanging market trend as well as with changing the behaviour of customer or clients. HRM strategies are important for any organisation to not only develop its productivity but also improve the overall competitive position of the business in the international market platform, which assist the marketers of that business to establish its potential market footprint into the international business landscape. Several HRM strategies can be critically evaluated based on statement of Duncan Brown in terms of analysing how the strategies can be best-fitted into the organisational context.

One of the most common and important HRM strategies is recruitment and hiring which will assist the organisation to select the best candidate for their organisation who can meet the organisational goals and enhance the organisation productivity (Croonen et al. 2016). However, if this HRM strategy is analysed by using the concept of Duncan Brown, it can be stated that this HRM strategy can be the best practices for an organisation but cannot be the best fit for its current economic situation. In this context, Aktharsha and Sengottuvel (2016) mentioned that sometimes hiring and selection of new candidates can pose an economic burden of some organisation which is going through a financial crisis. Therefore, it can be stated that, although selection and hiring have been proved to best HRM practice since the last 10 years, it cannot be the best fit for the current financial situation of the organisation. In this context, Singh, et al. (2018) mentioned that HR manager can transform the selection and hiring as best fit to the current situation of the organisation by conducting extensive research on the economic situation, current needs and competitive position of that company. Through using proper research method HR manager can understand whether their organisations can afford the selection of new candidates or it needs to conduct the internal recruitment to select the candidate from the existing staffs to reduce the cost. In addition to this, HR manager also can make the hiring and selection process fit into the current organisation situation by shaping the strategy by selecting limited and high-skilled candidate which will improve the organisation productivity and competitive advantage.

In this context, Budhwar et al. (2019) mentioned that another most important HRM strategy is allocation of organisational resources in systematic manner which will asst the company to make the perfect use of each resource in right time and right quantity. HRM is not only associated with allocating the physical resources but also, they are associated with managing financial, technical, social and environmental resources. On the contrary Koser et al. (2018) argued that sometimes the allocation of other additional resources except the human resources cannot be the best fit for the organisational current situation as it can raise huge financial burden and need more time as well as effort. Therefore, for shaping this HRM strategy in terms of making it relevant to the organisational context, marketers need to analyse whether they need any additional resources allocation rather than allocating human resources. In addition to this, the HR manager can also shape this strategy with using online techniques which will assist the marketers to get prediction about the overall cost and effect of applying resources allocation strategy on the particular organisation.

One of the most common HRM strategies is conducting self-managed and effective team within organisation. On supporting this viewpoint Koser et al. (2018) mentioned that, in maintaining the sustainable success in the international business landscape, an organisation needs to shape up the skills, professional standard and knowledge of is staffs. Through maintaining productive workforce, the HR team can enhance eth overall productivity and competitive advantage if an organisation. On the contrary Greene (2019) argued that, although developing productive and high skilled team is important for any organisation, sometimes prices of enhancing the productivity and skill of workforce are not relevant with the overall organisational needs. For example, sometimes HR manager focuses on enhancing the training time, over-shift and work duration for the staffs in terms of enhancing the professional standard and practice level, which will poser the negative impact on the workforces and indirectly hamper the overall productivity of the organisation. On supporting this viewpoint Brewster (2016) mentioned that, if an organisation intends to fit the strategy of developing high skilled workforces to the organisation needs it needs to focus on such setting which will motivate staffs to improve professional standard such as reward system, promotion, incentive-based training program.

According to Xia et al. (2019), another important HRM strategy is ensuring security for the entire workforce, which is important for maintaining the well-organised environment within the workplace. Several studied have shown that the organisation needs to provide proper security to each staff in the workplace such as health, safety and protection from harassment, bullying, abuse, any kind of discrimination and bias. For fitting this strategy into the organisation context, HR needs to improve the working environment by promoting positive thoughts, values and behaviour within the workplace. Moreover, the HR manager needs to maintain the well-disciplined environment within the workplace to eliminate the chances of any type of wrong practices such as discrimination, physical, emotional and sexual abuse, accidents and injuries. On the contrary, Ashton (2018) argued that sometimes the HRM strategy of ensuring proper safety to staffs is not the ‘best fit’ for the organisational environment as it interferes with overall organisation operation and business process. For example, in the mining industry, although the HR team ensures protection and safety for each staff, accident and injuries can happen due to any negligence of staffs. Therefore, if the HR team needs to ensure the staffs free from any accident or injuries, they need to maintain such surveillance system which will enhance the cost of the company. Therefore, the HR team needs to first analyse the overall organisational financial condition and its needs to make effective changes in this HRM strategy to make it suitable for the organisation.

Comparison between HRM strategy and Strategic HRM (SHRM):

Although the HRM strategy and strategic HRM (SHRM) sound more or less similar, there are sharp differences between their functions and objectives. Strategies HRM is the process in which HR focuses on the long-term business objectives and productivity of the company in terms of improving the overall business performance (Malik, 2018). On the other hand, traditional HRM deals with only hiring suitable candidates based on their merits and utilise their service for improving the overall productivity ad profit of business. Critics of HRM strategy, have mentioned that in traditional HRM strategies is confined to some specific areas which can create issues for the HR managers to deal with ever-changing market trend and new customer behaviour. On supporting this viewpoint Croonen et al. (2016) mentioned that, in terms of dealing with the fast-paced business landscape, it is important for the HR to bring effective changes in the HRM strategies to shape the strategies for making the best fit to the organisational context. This is why Strategic Human resources have been introduced, which changes the traditional concept of HRM and brings about innovative initiatives which assist HR managers to go beyond their comfort zone and invest in the unknown market.

In this context, Aktharsha and Sengottuvel (2016) mentioned that, unlike the traditional HRM strategy which mainly focuses on employee relation, short term goals and organisational profit, SHRM focuses on many important aspects such as maintaining strong external and internal partnership, utilising the skill and ability of staffs, improving the overall knowledge and skill of workforce, prioritising the long term goals and making consistent changes into the strategies foe modernising the overall HRM strategies which will assist the company to cope with current changing market. In this context, Michigan Model of HRM can be used by the HR managers which has prioritised the necessity of Strategic HRM process in terms of dealing with current business needs. Based on this theory, HR team of an organisation needs to focus on managing the human assets in terms of achieving the strategic goals. On the contrary Singh et al. (2018) argued that strategic goals of an organisation cannot be achieved by only managing the human asset, rather than the HR managers need to focus on maintaining proper balance between tangible and intangible assets, which will assist them to cope with any changes in the current market situation. The Harvard Model of HRM highlights the importance of taking strategic approaches in the HRM policies which will assist the HR manager to deals with the six factors such as situation factors, HRM policy choices, stakeholders' interests, long term goals, HR outcomes sand feedbacks. Critics of SHRM have stated that this theory although is able to highlight the importance of strategic HRM planning to deal with long terms organisational goals, it cannot mention that how the organisation focuses on managing short term goals which are equally important for determining the strength and weakness of the organisation. On the other hand, Budhwar et al. (2019) mentioned that strategic HRM although assist the HR managers to focus on people and knowledge for promoting effective changes in the HR policies to deal with ever-changing market, it overlooks some important factors in the HR policies such as employee relation internal needs of company, stringent control over the staffs, capital and products. In this context, Fombrun, Tichy & Devanna Model has mentioned the comparative analysis of HRM and SHRM. Based on this theory, it can be stated that the HR manager of any organisation needs to focus on the three main strategies such as organisational structure, human resources management and mission and strategy. By using the strategic RM policies, HR managers can active the mission, maintain a proper organisational structure and manage proper human resources, which will assist them to improve the overall competitive advantage of their business in the international market (Koser et al. 2018). However, critics of SHRM have stated that organisational structure and human resources management can not be achieved only by using the strategic HRM which prioritise the long terms goals, rather it needs proper involvement of staffs and strengthening of the internal organisational structure which can only be possible by using the traditional HRM approaches.

From the overall comparative study, it can be stated that both the HRM and SHRM are important for any organisation. It can be stated that SHRM is one of the branches of HR which assist HR to make effective changes in terms of modernising the SHRM policies to deal with the current market situation. Moreover, it can also be stated from eth comparative analysis is that through using the strategic HR policies HR managers can set specific rules in their business structure which will assist them to standardise the workforces and entire organisational structure to enhance the competitive advantage.

Role of HR in choosing in organisational strategy:

Human resource (HR) deals with several important organisational aspects such as hiring, recruiting, onboarding, knowledge enhancement, skill shaping and managing resources. Through performing these acclivities HR plays an important role in setting such organisational strategies that will best fit the need and current situation of the company (Greene, 2019). One of the most important roles of HR is to determine the actual picture of the organisation in terms of analysing what are the strength and weakness of the organisation right now. Critics have argued in this context that, sometimes HR is unable to determine the actual picture of organisation which n can mislead hem to take the traditional HRM strategies rather than choosing the strategic HRM plan. On the other hand, HR plays important roles in developing a high-skilled workforce which will assist the company to conduct proper strategic management terms of improving the overall productivity and profit. On the contrary Xia et al. (2019), argued that there are many criticisms regarding the roles of HR in selection and recruitment for a company, in which the selected candidates sometimes are not selected by their merit but by using the personal preference which interferes with moral and ethical and moral values of organisational strategies. Therefore, HR needs to conduct transparent recruitment and selection process which will set effective strategies for an organisation to enhance the skills and knowledge of its workforce. The HR of the company plays important roles in promoting departmental strategies in terms of resolving official issues such as conflict among the staffs and mangers and misunderstanding between the higher official and subordinate staffs. In this context Ayentimi et al. (2018) stated that HR plays important riles in successful strategic implementation which assists the company to gain better outcomes and achieve the long terms goals. On the contrary, Ashton (2018) argued that, although HR plays important roles in selection, recruitment and implementation of strategic planning, the most important things that the HR perform is defined their drivers and monitoring their progress. The HR of an organisation define the drivers of the company which impact of the organisational strategies and decision-making process, such as political, legal, environmental and social aspects of a country. In addition to this HR also determine the internal strength, opportunities and weakness of the company, which assist the HR team to set effete organisation strategies in terms of meeting its needs. In this aspect, Ayentimi et al. (2018) mentioned that HR is associated with introducing new technologies in the administration and recruiting system which assist them to faster both the process by reducing the cumbersome paperwork. In addition to this HR deals with maintaining the proper balance between the cost ad investment and managing account in a better manner.

Influence of HR in organisational performance:

The HR of an organisation is actively involved in its performance enhancement. According to Shen et al. (2018), the HR of an organisation is associated with selecting the eligible candidates who can meet the common organisational goals and enhance organisation productivity. On the contrary Ayentimi et al. (2018) argued that HR of an organisation sometimes selected candidate only based of their score in the test, which is not enough to determine whether the candidate will be relevant to the organisational needs. In this context, HR mangers conduct training and self-assessment program for new as well as existing staffs, which will assist the HR team to analyse whether new staffs can meet the company’s expectation. In addition to this, through using strategic HRM approaches, HR prioritises the skill enhancement, knowledge development and self -evaluation of the workforce which will enhance the overall productivity of the entire workforce that is important for enhancing performance standard of the organisation. On the other hand, HR is associated with maintaining proper administrative function in an organisation which is associated with improving the overall organisational function, operation and decision-making process. On the contrary Shen et al. (2018), although HR is associated with performance management of workforce, for enhancing the organisational performance it is important for the company to enhance its competitive advantage, In this context, HR managers of an organisation needs to focus on shaping the tradition HRM approaches to transform them into strategic HRM approaches which will be best fit to current organisational condition in terms of strengthening its competitive position in international business landscape.

Critical evaluation of best practice and best fit:

From the last few decades, rapid changes have occurred in the business world, which compels HR of any firm to set strategies that would be relevant to the specific needs that will assist them, to grab a strong competitive position into the international market. According to Ayentimi, et al. (2018), ‘Best Fit’ and 'Best practice' models, both are used in Strategic human resource management. The best-fit approach means firms are going to set specific HRM strategies which will be best suited to the definite needs as well as the situation of the company. Through using the Best Fit approach, HR can make the strategic HRM planning more flexible than earlier in terms of providing a proper response to the organisational life cycles changes such as start-up, maturity, growth and renewal. ‘Best Fit’ approach has several criticisms. According to), ‘Best Fit’ approach can not be used in the organisational situation in which the HR team have to change the overall function and decision-making process of the firm. On the other hand, ‘Best Fit’ cannot fit onto specific condition and needs of the organisation, but it is unable to deal with issues that can impact on the entire organisational process. In this context, Paauwe and Farndale (2017) mentioned that, due to changing market trend and changing customer behaviour, HR tea if a firm needs to make frequent changes in their strategies and planning, in which ‘Best Fit’ approach can not be used all times as it can deal with the definite situation.

On the other hand, 'Best practice' approach is the universal sets of strategies that can be commonly used by the firm in term of maximising its productivity and organisational performance. According to Cvenkel (2019), Best Practice model assist HR of an organisation to use some effective common approaches that are required to manage the organisational situation, official issues, managing workforce and promoting overall, organisation growth. Critics have stated the ‘Best practice’ approach has several limitations. This approach although assists the organisation to maximise the productivity and managing the risk, it is unable to assists the firm in enhancing both individual skills and knowledge of the staffs. Moreover, the best practice approach is irrespective of the organisational situation and current market trend, which is unable to provide proper support to the HR to grab the strong competitive advantage in the international market. On this context, Saridakis et al. (2017) mentioned that, for grabbing high-level competitive advantage, company needs to be specific to their needs which can be only achieved through using Best fit approach. On the other hand, ‘Best practice’ approach can be used in setting some common organisational HRM planning which will, assists the organisation to deal with employee relation and short-term goal, but it is unable to assist the company to deal with the specific external and internal partners in the international market.

Conclusion:

From the overall discussion it can be stated that, due to rapid changes in the business landscape, HR tea of a firm needs to use both the 'Best Fit' and 'Best Practice' approach with maintaining perfect balance between them. Through using 'Best Fit' approach a firm can set relevant strategies for dealing with particular issues which will assist the marketers to gab strong competitive advantage. On the other hand, by using the Best practice approach, a firm, can set effective approaches for the overall organisational structure and decision making which will assist the firm to determine its internal strength and weakness.

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