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Assessing Human Resource Practices Alignment: a Case Study

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ASSESSING HUMAN RESOURCE PRACTICES ALIGNMENT: A CASE STUDY
HERBERT G. HENEMAN III AND A N T H O N Y T. M I L A N O W S K I
Research has established the link between HR practices and organizational performance, suggesting that the HR system has great strategic potential to drive organizational effectiveness. To capitalize on this potential, the organization must design and deliver HR practices that focus on necessary employee performance competencies, creating an HR system with vertical and horizontal alignment around those competencies. Doing this requires that the organization first assess how its HR practices are currently aligned and then develop ideas for improving HR practice that will be alignment enhancing. We call this diagnostic process Human Resource Alignment (HRA) assessment. We describe an HRA assessment process we developed and applied in a large public school district for the key job of teacher. The assessment was based on the district’s formal teacher performance competency model used, and was conducted by a group of human resources and instructional job experts from the district. These experts rated the degree of vertical and horizontal alignment and then developed suggestions for HR practice changes that would improve alignment. After describing the process and results, we present a series of lessons learned and directions for future research. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords: strategic human resource management, human resource alignment assessment

Introduction

S

trategic human resource management (hereafter strategic HRM) theory centers on a basic premise that HR practices have the potential to make direct, bottom-line contributions to organizational effectiveness. This is a radical departure from more traditional viewpoints in which HR practices are seen as transactional, administrative, and legalistic

routines. Considerable

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