Professional Documents
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HRM in M&S
HRM in M&S
Introduction
In the face of increasing competitive environment organizations have to focus on the
value of investments in human resources as a major source of competitive advantage.
Although business strategy as a means of competition is common conversation in the
executive suite, taking a strategic approach can be especially beneficial for staff functions
within companies, as they often are required to justify their need for resources and their
contribution to the company.
The following report presents the analysis of human resource management (HRM) issues
provided in the case study on Marks and Spencers (M&S) organizational change.
Discusses strategic HRM issues facing the company in deciding to create business units
and adopt structural change, and the extent to which M&S needs to overhaul HRM and its
core business. The author also emphasizes the importance of HRM styles and approaches
for the companys medium term business practices, being integrated into an overall
organizational strategy.
The new changes to business units and flatter company structure are likely to increase
employee empowerment and responsibility, increasing more of the direct contacts with
customers and building new knowledge. Post-Modern theories suggest better flexible
strategies, accommodating change in the structure of power relationships, where they
specialise in their field of tasks (Johnson and Scholes, 2002; Francis, 2003), To become
more flexible M&S decided to apply a more horizontal management organization style.
Through a clear leadership role of appointed heads of business units, centralisation will
also be high only to a certain degree, not to prevent adaptability and flexibility of staff.
Coordination will need to be in a form of a clear structured hierarchy and division of
labour. To encourage job enrichment and staff satisfaction, M&S may establish one or
more specific coordinating roles. Liaisons, individual or departmental, committees, task
forces, project groups, and the like are all examples of possible structural coordinating
devices.
Many modern theorists believe that in order to succeed business culture needs to be
change-oriented and, hence, M&S need to adapt to differentiating changing environments
and internal workforce diversity.
For M&S the commitment of senior management and the assigned heads of the business
units to HRM are crucial to companys effective operation. It would be essential to possess
the knowledge and skills necessary to implement a credible HRM programme within the
organisation. For a medium term success, M&S needs to consider the following HRM
approaches:
Strategic capability is essentially concerned with how the resources (including people)
are deployed, managed, controlled and, in the case of people, motivated to create
competences in those activities and business processes needed to run the business
(Huang, 2001). Bergenhenegouwen (1996) states that the concept of core competences
goes beyond this in a search for those few activities that underpin competitive advantage.
Nevertheless, the starting point of successful strategies for M&S is acquiring, retaining
and developing human resources. Much of the hard side of HRM is concerned with
ensuring that this baseline is maintained in the company. Such HRM activities as audits
to assess HR requirements to support core business strategies, goal-setting and
performance assessment of individuals and teams, the use of rewards, recruitment as a
key to improve strategic capability, and training would assist M&S management in
delivering about the proposed change in the most effective way for business outcomes.
M&S has been always renown for the strength of linking business and human resource
strategies. This tends to bring clarity from the business planning process. However,
operating in a highly competitive environment, with a constant pressure from
stakeholders and external forces impacts the decisions of the management Board, as it
was in this case.
5.0 Conclusion
Every organisation wants to be successful and depends upon its employees to make that
happen. Success should be viewed over the long term. A healthy organisation can go the
distance and the best metric of success should be the health of the employees.
The most important issue of M&S is to build upon the companys already existing
strengths and try to overcome the threats of the change. One of the major benefits claimed
for organizational learning is that it enables organizations to manage change in a timely
and effective manner. The organizational learning and individual development
movement was largely a response to the need for organizations to seek to sustain
competitiveness and survival in a discontinuous environment. Management practice
today is still largely driven by a closed systems view that relies on planning, on a
consensual, top-down implementation of change interventions. M&Ss change requires
time and energy for learning new approaches, but it is necessary to develop new skills
and capacities. M&S has a long history of change management and HRM excellence, but
even for them, resolving their present tensions and changes represent a considerable
challenge.
References
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