Strategic HRM: Too Important for an Insular Approach

• Date: 01 May 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.21735
• Published date: 01 May 2015
• Author: Wayne F. Cascio

Human Resource Management, May–June 2015, Vol. 54, No. 3. Pp. 423–426

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).

DOI:10.1002/hrm.21735

Correspondence to: Wayne F. Cascio, The Business School, University of Colorado-Denver, Campus Box 165,

P.O.Box173364, Denver, Colorado 80217-3364, Phone: 303-315-8434, E-mail: Wayne.Cascio@ucdenver.edu

STRATEGIC HRM: TOO IMPORTANT

FOR AN INSULAR APPROACH

WAYNE F. CASCIO

Strategic human resource management (SHRM) is the choice, alignment, and

integration of an organization’s HRM system so its human capital resources

most effectively contribute to strategic business objectives. Kaufman’s review

(this issue) of four books in the fi eld revealed key differences in two areas: the

intended audience (academics and general managers versus researchers only)

and orientation (the use of fi eld observer and participant observation methods

versus ivory tower scientism). Overemphasis on the latter produces research that

is relevant only to academics and that is not used in organizations. I argue, as

have others, that in addition to rigor, a successful scientifi c discipline must prove

itself relevant to the society in which it is embedded. Hence, the objectives of

SHRM should be twofold: to infl uence academic thinking and conceptualizing,

but also to alter the way managers set priorities and make decisions. To do that,

researchers have to work directly with managers. The challenge is to create mod-

els that refl ect a broader view of performance as well as more complete taxono-

mies of internal and external factors that help shape business and HR strategies.

©2015Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: management history, resource-based view, strategic HR

In his excellent treatment of the evolution

of strategic HRM, Bruce Kaufman (this issue)

neatly expressed its definition and domain:

choice, alignment, and integration of an orga-

nization’s HRM system so its human capital

resources most effectively contribute to strate-

gic business objectives. After reviewing seminal

works by Fombrun, Tichy, and Devanna (1984);

Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills, and Walton (1984);

and a more recent book by Cascio and Boudreau

(2012) and comparing their approaches to that of

another recent book on strategic HRM by Paauwe,

Guest, and Wright (2013), Kaufman noted some

important differences. One such difference is the

intended audience: academics and general man-

agers in the first three books versus researchers in

HRM who focus on describing and understanding

HRM–firm performance relationships in the last

one. According to Kaufman, the Paauwe et al.

(2013) book “is a state-of-the-art depiction of the

modern-day research program in strategic HRM.”

A second key difference is in orientation. Beer

et al. (1984) articulated this clearly: “the objective

of injecting human resource management into

the strategic arena is not to enhance the status of

traditional personnel-resource staff, but rather it is

to alter the way managers set priorities and make

decisions” (p. 26). In contrast, Kaufman (this

issue) characterized the focus on HRM and firm

performance as a “science-based model where

organizations and HRM are studied as if in a lab-

oratory setting with much less priority on expe-

riential contact and practical results, and much

greater emphasis on analytic theory development,