Introduction
As every organization consists of people, it is very important for the organization to be
able to manage their people effectively and efficiently. Therefore, every organization has a
division or department that manages this people-related issue. The department is usually
called human resource department and the way organization manage their people is called
Human Resource Management (HRM).
HRM has changed over the time. HRM has been an issue in academic literature or
organizational context. Many concepts about HRM have been introduced by scholars. One
of them is strategic human resources management (SHRM). This concept uses strategic
approach which means that the HRM plays strategic role in the organization.
The purpose of the essay is to explain the characteristic of the strategic HRM and evaluate
how the strategic HRM can help achieve the organizational objectives by using the
existing theories or model. In this essay, the theories or models used are Harvard Model
and Guest Model.
However, there are some limitations in making this essay. The limitations are time, kind of
sources, and word limit.
The Characteristics of Strategic Approach to HRM
HRM plays an important role in an organization. As nowadays the world environment is
changing and has entered the globalization era, organizations face more competitive
environment. Therefore, practicing HRM using strategic approach has become
increasingly more important. In the old days, HRM is not linked or integrated to the
organizational strategic planning in many organizations. But now, many organizations
practice HRM using strategic approach as Buyens and Vos (2001) suggested that the HR
field has evolved from personnel management to HRM and after that from HRM to
SHRM. HRM practices, even in China which used to be closed economy, has changed in
the past two decades, for instance, strategic HRM has been practiced by many MNEs in
China (Braun and Warner, 2002). Ozcelik and Aydinli (2006) also found that strategic
HRM has been implemented in many companies in Turkey.
In strategic HRM, internal and external environment are considered as factors that affect
HRM so that HR manager need to identify and consider the internal and external
environment of the organization (Stone, 2005). Internal environment is factors that are
from inside the organization, such as organizational structure, strategy, culture, etc. In the
other hand, external environment is from outside the organization such as political,
economic condition, technological, culture, etc. By assessing the internal and external
environment, HR manager can develop effective HR strategies that are not contradicting
