Editorial

Citation

Nolan, S. (2012), "Editorial", Strategic HR Review, Vol. 11 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr.2012.37211caa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Strategic HR Review, Volume 11, Issue 3

Strategy

This issue of Strategic HR Review focuses on the theme of strategy. Some authors focus on the strategic role of HR and how to improve HR’s strategic positioning. Others look at specific strategies relating to HR policies, including organizational design, leadership and rewards, and how organizations have and can be successful in strategy design and implementation.

“The practice of strategy”, by Peter Reilly, tackles the topic of HR making a strategic contribution to the organization. While this has been a goal for some time, the author identifies obstacles to achieving it, with deficit in the three key areas of strategy definition, HR skills and management support. He goes on to look at ways of overcoming those obstacles and provides practical steps on aligning the people strategy with business priorities. Two case studies provide insight into how two very different organizations are working to improve the strategic contribution of HR. One is following a framework to help prioritize, so that it does a few things well rather than poorly implement many different initiatives. The other is focusing on measurement using a model that links strategy to HR activities and, importantly, outcomes.

“From shared services to professional services”, by Dave Ulrich and Joe Grochowski, addresses the question of how to approach the next stage in organizing the HR department. With shared services now a common strategy for the organization of HR, particularly for large companies, the authors argue that the next stage is to transform HR from shared services to professional services. This means approaching HR service delivery in a way that is similar to how professional services companies approach their clients and turning HR knowledge into productivity and value to solve client needs. There needs to be a shift from a power mindset to an end-to-end service mindset that involves relationship building and the offering of choices rather than prescribed solutions. The authors discuss this transition within a five-step process that provides a practical framework for HR professionals ready to move forward.

The case study feature from Niranjan Kalyandurg and K.B. Akhilesh, “Emerging team practices in global product development”, examines a global product development team to find out strategies for success in managing a global team. The authors put forward a framework that they believe encompasses the factors necessary for success in this environment and use it as a benchmark against which to examine the case organization over a five-year period. The result is a series of best practices and the identification of challenges that are discussed with a view to providing HR professionals with guidance on managing global teams. Areas examined range from recruitment through to structure, learning and development, knowledge management and leadership support.

In their paper, “Leadership fit for the information age”, Dr Jonathan Trevor and Professor Martin Kilduff put forward the case for a new leadership strategy. The days of the heroic lone leader are gone, and with them many of the notions of what makes good leadership and how good leaders come about. Future organizations will require knowledge-intensive networks of connected and autonomous talent that is empowered to act quickly. Therefore bureaucratic vertical organizations with central command and control will no longer prosper. Instead a network strategy of collective or dispersed leadership is required, encompassing self-direction that is guided by shared values and common purpose. To achieve such a network means putting in place a new approach to development, that acknowledges that good leaders are not born, but can be made, and can be found throughout and outside the organization at all levels. A case study puts forward an example of a public sector organization adopting this network approach as part of its transformation to a leaner, more agile model.

In “A strategic approach to rewards helps Vinci restructure”, the author, Colin Jellicoe, demonstrates how a strategic approach to rewards and benefits can be a significant tool in engaging employees and increasing their motivation. This case study shows how Vinci Construction benefited from taking a strategic approach to rewards during a time of great change when three organizations – and three sets of T&Cs, benefits and benefit providers – were being merged into one. This change followed a period of acquisition and took place in the midst of the recession. Yet the company emerged with a strong employer brand, improved engagement and the majority of its employees signed up to new T&Cs. The strategy taken was to offer fair and transparent policies to all employees in order to ensure they felt valued by the newly merged organization. As part of this there was a complete overhaul of the current varying benefits on offer, which were replaced by a flexible benefits scheme developed in conjunction with employee consultation committees. This employee involvement was a key factor in the success of the strategy taken.

Sara Nolansaranolanshr@emeraldinsight.com