Human resource management - a strategic approach

Human resources is considered to be one of the key ways of gaining competitive advantage which is hard to imitate. Yet human resources strategy offers little concrete guidance to practising managers on the process of developing human resources-and in the context of a strategic plan. Strategic Human Resource Planning and Development ('Strategic HRPD') may give general managers and human resource managers a better steer on this underdeveloped territory on the borders of strategic management, organization behaviour and human resources management. Strategic HRPD involves linking business strategy and organizational strategy to the current and emerging pool of management skills, thus identifying key shifts and gaps and areas for intervention. This involves developing future business and organizational mini-scenarios, examining possible options for organizational structure change and generating stretching ideas on developmental moves for key managers. Above all, it involves examining the implications of key strategic HR investment decisions, including their interdependencies, the potential value added, diluted or destroyed by key appointments-and against a backdrop of uncertainty. The Strategic HRPD process is illustrated by the case study of Amersham International's Life Science Division and the lessons for implementation and HR infrastructure-building drawn out. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.