Strategic Human Resources Management

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the contribution that strategic human resource management can make to promoting and achieving the organisation’s strategic intent;
• aspects of continuity and change embedded in the strategic human resource management paradigm;
• the complex relationships between business strategy and human resource management;
• the main differentiating features and characteristics of the strategic human resource management paradigm;
• different ways in which HRM can be strategically pursued within organisations and its links with organisational performance.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• demonstrate the interventions needed to generate commitment among key Stakeholders and business partners for a strategic HR agenda;
• identify and evaluate key HR issues which critically impact on organisational performance and strategic direction;
• identify relevant metrics in strategic human resource management;
• interpret and integrate human resources management into the strategic thinking, direction setting, planning and operation of the organisation;
• make sense of and critique scholarly publications on HRM.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• develop in-depth and critical evaluation skills using multiple and competing perspectives in written arguments;
• develop effective policies, with regard to e.g. strategic human resource management, with appropriate sensitivity and responsiveness to the current role assumed by the HR function and future aspirations;
• contribute effectively to contemporary organizations in terms e.g. of awareness of the complexity and importance of strategic human resource management.
• recognise the strengths and limitations of contemporary organisations in relation to specific paradigms (e.g. strategic human resource management);
• evaluate the significance of empirical evidence in understanding e.g. strategic human resource management issues;

• Human Resource Management: What and Why? (Chapter 1)
• Strategy and Strategic Management (Chapter 2)
• Strategic HRM: ‘Best Fit’ or ‘Best Practice’? (Chapter 3)
• Strategic HRM and Sustained Competitive Advantage (Chapter 4)
• Building a Workforce: the Challenge of Interest Alignment (Chapter 5)
• Management Power, Employee Voice and Social Legitimacy (Chapter 6)
• Workforce Performance and the ‘Black Box’ of HRM (Chapter 7)
• Chapter 8: HR Strategy in Manufacturing (Chapter 8)
• HR Strategy in Services (Chapter 9)
• HR Strategy in Multidivisional Firms (Chapter 10)
• Chapter 11: HR Strategy in Multinational Firms (Chapter 11)
• Final Thoughts: Main Themes and Next Steps (Chapter 12)

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include:

• Lectures
• Case studies
• Directed reading
• Small and large group discussions
• Organizational Storytelling
• Interactive Group Activities

Learning activities include:

• Case study problem solving
• Directed reading
• Action learning set discussions
• Critical reflection

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

Module Resources. Publications and case studies from Major HRM Professional Associations including CIPD and SHRM Fictional and non-fictional stories and movies that focus on realities of the world of work.

Journal Articles

Human Resource Management Review.

Human Resource Management Journal (UK and US).

The International Journal of Human Resource Management.

Textbooks

Boxall, P. and Purcell, J (2015). Strategy and Human Resource Management. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External