NHRD Network Journal

The article is written to elaborate the meaning of the term ‘strategy’ and the domain it covers. It presents the common views about what strategy is and explains the meaning of each of them. It also argues that one of the views, strategy as an overarching ‘alignment’, is a common thread running through most of the views. Two examples are given to explain this view better. The article is expected to help the reader appreciate the domain of strategy and link it with the other functional areas.

This article introduces the reader to the ‘strategic’ nature of strategic human resource management (SHRM), focusing on research in this area to show evidence for SHRM, but firmly grounding it with examples the author has close knowledge about that can explain how different a conventional/professional HRM practices can be from a strategic HR initiative/policy. The article facilitates the reader’s understanding of the significance of SHRM and ends with discussions on the future of SHRM.

This article provides a snapshot of the challenges and opportunities of emerging small and medium enterprises. It initially provides a brief overview of the categorisation of SMEs across the globe and alludes to the theoretical rationale for the attraction and challenges experienced by a small firm. Further on, it provides reasons for studying this set of organisations. Strategic and practical concerns in the areas of employee attraction and selection, managerial and leadership development, and engagement and retention of talent are elaborated.

Having been a practitioner of strategic HR, I offer some general understanding of the challenges and benefits of a strategic HR orientation and caveats along the way of executing a strategic HR practice, also using the research-based view. I believe strategic HR largely depends on the HR managers themselves, though a supportive leader makes a big impact. I also believe that a sound understanding of why we do what we do plays a central role towards design and implementation of a strategic HR practice.

The concept of sustainability has deeply penetrated in all functions of management such as supply chain, organisational behaviour, human resource, strategic management and so on. But recently, sustainable human resource management (S-HRM) has garnered a significant amount of attention from industry practitioners and academicians due to the escalation of adverse impact of existing HRM approaches on employees, society and the environment (Mariappanadar, 2003, International Journal of Social Economics, 30(8), 906–923; 2014a, Human Resource Management Review, 24(4), 313–329; 2014b, Sustainability and Human Resource Management, Springer). Human resource sustainability is being desired by all because of its notable implications for both the employees and the organisations. Previous literature establishes that human resource management (HRM) practices play a vital role in determining organisational success and survival. Furthermore, the harmful impact of high performance work systems and their existing HRM practices on the well-being of employees and their families has made it even more pertinent for industry practitioners to identify mechanisms to reduce employee harm and increase human resource sustainability for organisational growth and well-being.

A research report by the Society for Human Resource Management in 2010 and a few other scholars claim that S-HRM can help HRM practitioners to reduce the negative impact of business practices on employees, society and the environment (Cohen & Taylor, 2012, HR’s role in corporate social responsibility and sustainability; Daily & Huang, 2001, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 21(12), 1539–1552; Dumitrana, 2009, Human resources role in sustainable development). However, S-HRM has been studied sporadically, and there is a lack of convergence in its understanding. It has been broadly defined with the help of various perspectives borrowed from literature on strategic HRM, corporate social responsibility, Green HRM and sustainable work systems. This article aims to explore the existing literature of S-HRM to develop a deeper understanding of the concept. Through a comprehensive literature review, this article also highlights the evolution of S-HRM along with its implications for employees, HR managers and the organisations that have been studied in the previous literature.

Organisations are going through significant change and strategic transformation in these dynamic times. However, emotions have often been under-leveraged in the process of strategic change management. This article explores how leaders and organisational routines can create appropriate collective emotions to achieve relevant objectives in their strategic transformation. Using a case study approach, this study identified that collective emotions formed are dependent on the type of affective events and the current emotion state of the team, including their ‘identity’ strength, and is mediated by the organisational processes of listening and addressing concerns and the historical learning of the team from similar experiences, and moderated by leader emotion management actions. This article outlines the key emotions of excitement, optimism, gratitude, interest, happiness, pride and dissatisfaction, which are necessary at different stages in the strategic transformation process, and the organisational routines and leader actions needed to build them.

In this article, I outline five different ways in which the talent acquisition function can contribute to strategic business objectives. First, it is necessary to hire employees who are empathetic to the business values, as talent which is able to empathetically connect to end users of business propositions can build enduring value. Second, while building firm-specific human capital has been seen as a difficult project, appropriate talent acquisition practices could signal how specific forms of human capital can flourish in unique organisational ecosystems. Third, talent acquisition can help in building a healthy mix of perspectives by drawing talent from outside to collaborate with internal talent and ensure that there is a constant regeneration of strategic perspectives. Fourth, the talent acquisition function can anticipate technological disruptions and identify talent with high learning agility that can help navigate organisations through such disruptions. Fifth, the talent acquisition practices can resonate with business strategy by being cognizant of business cycles of expansion and efficiency in enabling hiring decisions.