How valuable is achieving excellence in business?
Have you thought of this as an HR?
We all can contribute towards accomplishing business excellence by integrating HR strategy and strategic planning, which is fundamental to achieving business excellence.
The introduction of an effective HR strategy aligned to strategic business planning is thus a prerequisite to ensure that underlying power structures, procedures, practices, values, and norms are in place to facilitate the necessary pace of change that can be sustained within the psychological capacity of the business. There are many different ways of managing the improvement process, including a consultative approach through participation, intervention, education, and communication. The style adopted has much to do with the nature of the change proposed, its pace, and sustainability. The style of management and blend of skills play an enabling role in the development of strategies within companies.
Despite the search for better ways of doing business and the adoption of survival strategies, including business process re-engineering and total quality management (TQM), some organizations continue to struggle to retain their competitive edge.
The long-term failure of companies that have reengineered or attempted TQM is often regarded as an implementation failure rather than a fundamental conceptual failure.
Alternatively, there is the view that the long-term organizational stress that goes with sustained improvement effort is too much for some organizations. As a result, more emphasis is placed on the quick-fix solution and short-term financial gain.
Organizations now have to respond to change faster and with greater risk while operating in an imperfect internal and external climate.
The shift has been towards the knowledge economy, global trading, information management, and the employment of people for their creativity and knowledge. This has emphasized the importance of investment in employee development as the means of retention and reward, rather than crude pay, and a total realignment in mindset about HRM, motivation, reward, and development strategies.
If we extrapolate these trends, we have valuable evidence as to what will succeed in the future. A mixture of short- and long-term strategies underpinned on the one hand by an alignment of aspirations of the business with, on the other hand, the aspirations of the organization's greatest asset, its people.
Many companies do not have a strategic approach to HRM. Most identify current and future staffing needs by discussing training and development needs with the relevant individuals as and when necessary.
Some companies rely on identifying needs based on existing staff profiles and loose projections for new business. Their ability to react to change is thus limited. Time spent on identifying needs at an organizational level would facilitate a more strategic view of requirements. Companies employ different strategies to stimulate and maintain staff, including bonus schemes, share opportunities, and support for leisure activities.
Some companies appear to be addressing the question of management development for the senior team within their overall consideration of planning. Building a team needs to reflect the organizational development priorities which may be part of a management development strategy within the strategic management process.
Harnessing intellectual capacity by truly involving all employees of the organization in the strategy formulation is critical to successful implementation.
The total quality approach calls into question all the traditional approaches to HRM and argues for a more proactive people-focused approach in which HR professionals adopt total quality to become strategic partners in improvement and business planning. The really successful companies have used TQM to put the specter of Taylorism behind them, recognizing that TQM could provide a holistic approach.
To create business excellence with HRM processes that intrinsically add value, all organizations need to develop HR strategies to support the integration of business planning with business excellence. A holistic approach nurtures proactive incremental change. It also avoids the sudden traumatic change that so many organizations endure as a result of radical improvement programs and the inevitable stagnation that follows.
Hope you all like it.
I would be happy if you all share your thoughts on this. :)
Cheers
Archna
From India, Delhi
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115Have you thought of this as an HR?
We all can contribute towards accomplishing business excellence by integrating HR strategy and strategic planning, which is fundamental to achieving business excellence.
The introduction of an effective HR strategy aligned to strategic business planning is thus a prerequisite to ensure that underlying power structures, procedures, practices, values, and norms are in place to facilitate the necessary pace of change that can be sustained within the psychological capacity of the business. There are many different ways of managing the improvement process, including a consultative approach through participation, intervention, education, and communication. The style adopted has much to do with the nature of the change proposed, its pace, and sustainability. The style of management and blend of skills play an enabling role in the development of strategies within companies.
Despite the search for better ways of doing business and the adoption of survival strategies, including business process re-engineering and total quality management (TQM), some organizations continue to struggle to retain their competitive edge.
The long-term failure of companies that have reengineered or attempted TQM is often regarded as an implementation failure rather than a fundamental conceptual failure.
Alternatively, there is the view that the long-term organizational stress that goes with sustained improvement effort is too much for some organizations. As a result, more emphasis is placed on the quick-fix solution and short-term financial gain.
Organizations now have to respond to change faster and with greater risk while operating in an imperfect internal and external climate.
The shift has been towards the knowledge economy, global trading, information management, and the employment of people for their creativity and knowledge. This has emphasized the importance of investment in employee development as the means of retention and reward, rather than crude pay, and a total realignment in mindset about HRM, motivation, reward, and development strategies.
If we extrapolate these trends, we have valuable evidence as to what will succeed in the future. A mixture of short- and long-term strategies underpinned on the one hand by an alignment of aspirations of the business with, on the other hand, the aspirations of the organization's greatest asset, its people.
Many companies do not have a strategic approach to HRM. Most identify current and future staffing needs by discussing training and development needs with the relevant individuals as and when necessary.
Some companies rely on identifying needs based on existing staff profiles and loose projections for new business. Their ability to react to change is thus limited. Time spent on identifying needs at an organizational level would facilitate a more strategic view of requirements. Companies employ different strategies to stimulate and maintain staff, including bonus schemes, share opportunities, and support for leisure activities.
Some companies appear to be addressing the question of management development for the senior team within their overall consideration of planning. Building a team needs to reflect the organizational development priorities which may be part of a management development strategy within the strategic management process.
Harnessing intellectual capacity by truly involving all employees of the organization in the strategy formulation is critical to successful implementation.
The total quality approach calls into question all the traditional approaches to HRM and argues for a more proactive people-focused approach in which HR professionals adopt total quality to become strategic partners in improvement and business planning. The really successful companies have used TQM to put the specter of Taylorism behind them, recognizing that TQM could provide a holistic approach.
To create business excellence with HRM processes that intrinsically add value, all organizations need to develop HR strategies to support the integration of business planning with business excellence. A holistic approach nurtures proactive incremental change. It also avoids the sudden traumatic change that so many organizations endure as a result of radical improvement programs and the inevitable stagnation that follows.
Hope you all like it.
I would be happy if you all share your thoughts on this. :)
Cheers
Archna
From India, Delhi
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Certainly, HR is called to play a greater role in achieving business excellence than ever before.
I thought of listing some high standards expected by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in London, which currently has 124,000 members, for HR practitioners in a business context. They are reproduced below as a note to all who are currently following various advanced studies in HR to incorporate into their own agenda of self-development.
Purpose
Organisations and those responsible for managing them are increasingly subject to environmental turbulence and uncertainty. The external contexts within which businesses, public services, and voluntary organisations operate are no longer stable and predictable but increasingly volatile and subject to rapid change.
As a result, managers have to identify, devise, and implement appropriate strategies to ensure organisational survival, plan to achieve their goals and objectives, and respond to market and contextual uncertainties. Managers also have to take account of the normative values and ethical standards within which organisations and society operate.
The overall purpose of this standard is to identify, examine, and analyse the major contexts within which organisations operate, indicating how managements respond to contextual diversity, continuous change, and ethical ambiguities. There is considerable emphasis within this standard on knowledge and understanding, rather than on skills and competences.
Performance Indicators
Operational Indicators
Practitioners must be able to:
1. Assess current economic and market changes and their impact on organisations.
2. Undertake SWOT and PESTLE analyses and advise on the opportunities and threats arising from this.
3. Provide examples of how organisations are affected by political institutions and processes and how organisations can influence the policy-making process.
4. Advise management on the possible effects of government policies, legislation, and European directives on organisations and their activities.
5. Report on projected demographic and social changes and their relevance for organisations.
6. Identify current technological developments and consider their significance for organisational stakeholders.
7. Identify and comment on indicative international factors affecting organisations.
8. Evaluate the ethical issues facing organisations in dealing with stakeholders.
Knowledge Indicators
Practitioners must understand and be able to explain:
1. The nature of strategy and the main elements within the strategic process.
2. The differences between strategic search, choice, and implementation.
3. The ways in which strategy is determined.
4. Types of strategy adopted by organisations and the importance of strategic review, monitoring, and benchmarking.
5. How the external environment impacts on private, public, and voluntary organisations.
6. The concept of PESTLE and SWOT and the dynamics of the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental contexts on organisations.
7. The main features of the market economy, its structure and processes, and their implications for organisations.
8. Interactions between political and economic systems, including the European dimension.
9. The changing social structure and its implications for organisations and their stakeholders.
10. The nature, sources, and administration of law, especially contract, consumer, competition, and employment law.
11. New technologies, their applications, and implications for organisational stakeholders.
12. Globalisation and competing theories of economic change.
13. The relevance of business ethics and social responsibility for organisations and managerial decision-making.
Indicative Content
1 Strategic Framework
1. The nature and role of strategy and planning within organisations; rational, incremental, and reactive approaches to managing; the concepts of strategy analysis and strategic search, choice, and implementation; SWOT and PESTLE analyses; mission statements, corporate plans, and business plans; the actors in strategy determination and implementation; constraints upon managing strategically: uncertainty, risk, and human judgment.
2. Converting strategy into practice; links between corporate and functional strategies: business plans and operational and program budgets; integration of strategy and policies; cascading processes; monitoring and evaluating strategy; the concept of the learning organisation.
3. Organisational stakeholders (including owners, workers, customers, suppliers, and communities) and stakeholder theory; the implications of stakeholding for corporate decision-making and strategy.
2 The External Contexts of Organisations
1. The economy: changing structure of the national and international economies; types of organisations: businesses, public services, and voluntary bodies; markets, prices, and market regulation; role and functions of the state in the economy and economic management; European Monetary Union.
2. The political system: national and European institutional political structures; forms of governance and the democratic process; citizenship; roles of elections, political parties, and pressure groups (including business and employee groups) in public policy formation; the legislative process.
3. Social structure: main demographic and social trends; social stratification; changing social attitudes, values, and beliefs; education, training, and their relation to economic performance.
4. Legal framework: the legal system; sources of law; contracts: formation, application, and enforcement; legal protections for employees and consumers; competition law.
5. Technology: new technologies and their impacts on people, organisations, and society.
6. International factors: international institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, GATT, WTO, and OECD; transnational companies; regional economic groupings (e.g., EU, NAFTA, ASEAN); globalisation and patterns of international trade.
3 Social Responsibility and Business Ethics
1. Obligations of organisations to owners, workers, customers, suppliers, communities, and the eco-environment.
2. Social responsibility and legal accountability.
3. Ethics and professionalism; ethics and corporate stakeholders.
Cheers
Prof. Lakshman
From Sri Lanka, Kolonnawa
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
I thought of listing some high standards expected by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in London, which currently has 124,000 members, for HR practitioners in a business context. They are reproduced below as a note to all who are currently following various advanced studies in HR to incorporate into their own agenda of self-development.
Purpose
Organisations and those responsible for managing them are increasingly subject to environmental turbulence and uncertainty. The external contexts within which businesses, public services, and voluntary organisations operate are no longer stable and predictable but increasingly volatile and subject to rapid change.
As a result, managers have to identify, devise, and implement appropriate strategies to ensure organisational survival, plan to achieve their goals and objectives, and respond to market and contextual uncertainties. Managers also have to take account of the normative values and ethical standards within which organisations and society operate.
The overall purpose of this standard is to identify, examine, and analyse the major contexts within which organisations operate, indicating how managements respond to contextual diversity, continuous change, and ethical ambiguities. There is considerable emphasis within this standard on knowledge and understanding, rather than on skills and competences.
Performance Indicators
Operational Indicators
Practitioners must be able to:
1. Assess current economic and market changes and their impact on organisations.
2. Undertake SWOT and PESTLE analyses and advise on the opportunities and threats arising from this.
3. Provide examples of how organisations are affected by political institutions and processes and how organisations can influence the policy-making process.
4. Advise management on the possible effects of government policies, legislation, and European directives on organisations and their activities.
5. Report on projected demographic and social changes and their relevance for organisations.
6. Identify current technological developments and consider their significance for organisational stakeholders.
7. Identify and comment on indicative international factors affecting organisations.
8. Evaluate the ethical issues facing organisations in dealing with stakeholders.
Knowledge Indicators
Practitioners must understand and be able to explain:
1. The nature of strategy and the main elements within the strategic process.
2. The differences between strategic search, choice, and implementation.
3. The ways in which strategy is determined.
4. Types of strategy adopted by organisations and the importance of strategic review, monitoring, and benchmarking.
5. How the external environment impacts on private, public, and voluntary organisations.
6. The concept of PESTLE and SWOT and the dynamics of the political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental contexts on organisations.
7. The main features of the market economy, its structure and processes, and their implications for organisations.
8. Interactions between political and economic systems, including the European dimension.
9. The changing social structure and its implications for organisations and their stakeholders.
10. The nature, sources, and administration of law, especially contract, consumer, competition, and employment law.
11. New technologies, their applications, and implications for organisational stakeholders.
12. Globalisation and competing theories of economic change.
13. The relevance of business ethics and social responsibility for organisations and managerial decision-making.
Indicative Content
1 Strategic Framework
1. The nature and role of strategy and planning within organisations; rational, incremental, and reactive approaches to managing; the concepts of strategy analysis and strategic search, choice, and implementation; SWOT and PESTLE analyses; mission statements, corporate plans, and business plans; the actors in strategy determination and implementation; constraints upon managing strategically: uncertainty, risk, and human judgment.
2. Converting strategy into practice; links between corporate and functional strategies: business plans and operational and program budgets; integration of strategy and policies; cascading processes; monitoring and evaluating strategy; the concept of the learning organisation.
3. Organisational stakeholders (including owners, workers, customers, suppliers, and communities) and stakeholder theory; the implications of stakeholding for corporate decision-making and strategy.
2 The External Contexts of Organisations
1. The economy: changing structure of the national and international economies; types of organisations: businesses, public services, and voluntary bodies; markets, prices, and market regulation; role and functions of the state in the economy and economic management; European Monetary Union.
2. The political system: national and European institutional political structures; forms of governance and the democratic process; citizenship; roles of elections, political parties, and pressure groups (including business and employee groups) in public policy formation; the legislative process.
3. Social structure: main demographic and social trends; social stratification; changing social attitudes, values, and beliefs; education, training, and their relation to economic performance.
4. Legal framework: the legal system; sources of law; contracts: formation, application, and enforcement; legal protections for employees and consumers; competition law.
5. Technology: new technologies and their impacts on people, organisations, and society.
6. International factors: international institutions such as the World Bank, IMF, GATT, WTO, and OECD; transnational companies; regional economic groupings (e.g., EU, NAFTA, ASEAN); globalisation and patterns of international trade.
3 Social Responsibility and Business Ethics
1. Obligations of organisations to owners, workers, customers, suppliers, communities, and the eco-environment.
2. Social responsibility and legal accountability.
3. Ethics and professionalism; ethics and corporate stakeholders.
Cheers
Prof. Lakshman
From Sri Lanka, Kolonnawa
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Hi Archana,
It is thought-provoking. The contribution by Prof. Laxman is really great. I would like to add:
Strategic HR is the area/sector that is all about aligning HR strategy with the overall business strategy. Business strategy is the plan/path to achieve business excellence and continue to maintain it - year after year, decade after decade. Offhand, I can think of companies like Microsoft, Intel, 3M, Southwest Airlines, in India Aditya Birla Group, Infosys, Wipro - which have implemented what has been suggested in yours and Prof's write-ups. We can no more think of HR as only a support/allied function. It has to be a partner in any business.
Regards, Kurra Sarat
From India, Hyderabad
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It is thought-provoking. The contribution by Prof. Laxman is really great. I would like to add:
Strategic HR is the area/sector that is all about aligning HR strategy with the overall business strategy. Business strategy is the plan/path to achieve business excellence and continue to maintain it - year after year, decade after decade. Offhand, I can think of companies like Microsoft, Intel, 3M, Southwest Airlines, in India Aditya Birla Group, Infosys, Wipro - which have implemented what has been suggested in yours and Prof's write-ups. We can no more think of HR as only a support/allied function. It has to be a partner in any business.
Regards, Kurra Sarat
From India, Hyderabad
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Hi Kurra Sarat,
Thank you very much for taking the time to read these posts. I completely agree with you that companies like Infosys, Ranbaxy, etc. are implementing what we have mentioned in our write-ups. However, there are many companies that are not following these strategies, which are required for the development of both the people and the company as a whole. I would like to invite other members' valuable inputs on the same.
Cheers,
Archna
From India, Delhi
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Thank you very much for taking the time to read these posts. I completely agree with you that companies like Infosys, Ranbaxy, etc. are implementing what we have mentioned in our write-ups. However, there are many companies that are not following these strategies, which are required for the development of both the people and the company as a whole. I would like to invite other members' valuable inputs on the same.
Cheers,
Archna
From India, Delhi
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Aligning HR Policies to Business Objectives.ppt
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Developing HR for business profitability.d oc