Strategic Human Resource Management

• Author: James L. Perry
• Published date: 01 October 1993
• DOI: 10.1177/0734371X9301300405
• Date: 01 October 1993
• Subject Matter: Articles

59

TRANSFORMING

FEDERAL

CIVIL

SERVICE

Strategic Human

Resource

Management

JAMES

L.

PERRY

Thegrowing

importance

of human

resources for organizational

success

has

led

to

increasing

interest

in

making personnel

management

a

more

integral,

strategy-driven

activity

in

organizations.

This

trend

is

particularlyrelevant forthe

federal government

where

personnel

activities

are

often

perceived

as

constrained,

complex,

and separate from the

manage-

ment

process.

This

article

proposes

changing

the

relation-

ship

between

the

Office

of

Personnel Management

(OPM)

and federal

agencies,

redefining

their

respective

roles,

and

altering

the

roles

of

personnel

specialists

and

line

managers.

uman

capital,

the

knowledge,

skills

and

experience

H

possessed

by

individuals,

has

become

pivotal

for

the

~~&dquo;&dquo;a

successful

performance

of

the

federal

government’s

~ ~

missions

(McGregor,

1988).

Because

human

resource

’―――――――

management

focuses

largely

on

the

acquisition

and

utilization

of

human

capital,

it

too

has

attained

new

significance

for

federal

organizations.

In

fact,

many

management

scholars

argue

that

human

resource

management

is

now

an

important,

perhaps

the

most

important,

determinant

of

organizational

effectiveness

(Devanna,

Fombrun,

and

Tichy,

1984;

Schuler,

1990).

As

human

resource

management

has

acquired

greater

importance,

the

research

and

professional

literature

has

increasingly

distinguished

between

conventional

human

resource

manage-

ment

practice

and

strategic

human

resource

management

(see

Lengnick-

Hall

and

Lengnick-Hall,

1988

for

a

comprehensive

review

of

this

literature;

McGregor,

1988, 1991).

The

distinction

is

intended

to

differentiate

between

conceptions

of

human

resource

manage-

ment

as

functionally

or

administra-

tively-oriented

activities

as

opposed

to

integrated

or

strategy-driven

activities.

One

idea

associated

with

strategic

human

resource

management

is

that

the

style

of

human

resource

management

is

consistent

with

the

strategy

of

the

organization

and

that

human

resource