...Center for Effective Organizations HR AS A STRATEGIC PARTNER: WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE IT HAPPEN? CEO PUBLICATION G 03-2 (430) EDWARD E. LAWLER III SUSAN A. MOHRMAN Center for Effective Organizations Marshall School of Business University of Southern California January 2003 Center for Effective Organizations - Marshall School of Business U n i v e r s i t y o f S o u t h e r n C a l i f o r n i a - L o s A n g e l e s, C A 9 0 0 8 9 – 0 8 0 6 (2 1 3) 7 4 0 - 9 8 1 4 FAX (213) 740-4354 http://www.marshall.usc.edu/ceo HR as a Strategic Partner: What Does It Take to Make It Happen? by Edward E. Lawler III & Susan Albers Mohrman A number of articles, books and studies have argued that HR needs to become a strategic partner (Ulrich, 1997; Brockbank, 1999; Lawler & Mohrman, 2000a). But is HR becoming a strategic partner? What does becoming a strategic partner entail? And is the HR function more effective when it is a strategic partner? The answers to these questions are critical to the future development and direction of the human resource function in organizations. A number of forces have converged to support the idea of HR being more of a strategic partner. Corporations are undergoing dramatic changes with significant implications for how human resources are managed. Perhaps the most important of these changes is the rapid deployment of information technology and the increasing amount of knowledge work that organizations do. Also important are the rapidly changing...
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...Split Up HR? Mind the Talent Management Gap: HR-A and HR-LO Abstract Human Resources has gone through ever-evolving changes over the years. They have been transitioning from transactional to becoming a strategic business partner with the high level executives of businesses. They are moving towards becoming the corporate centers of excellence by developing the right metric and analytics, the right talent and understanding how much human capital impacts successful business results. This paper analyzes the trends, contributions, skills and challenges that HR professionals have been and are going through to become the effective Strategic Partner. Mind the Talent Management Gap: HR-A versus HR-LO Ram Charan, a worldwide business adviser and speaker, suggests to eliminate the position of Chief Human Resources Officer and split human resources into 2 strands for the sake of practicality in helping HR build business intelligence to help organizations perform best. One strand would be called something like HR-A for administration, would manage compensation and benefits, and report to the CFO. This strand would view compensation to attract talent and not just a large cost. The other strand would be called something like HR-LO for leadership and organization, would focus on talent development and performance and report to the CEO. High potential line managers from operations or finance with business expertise and people skills would lead HR-LO. Leading employees from HR-LO would...
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...Zachary Denning Week 1 Strategic Linkages HRM-310 1. A strategic partner linkage between HR department and the business operations creates a mutually beneficial relationship. Our text book states that strategic human resource management creates a clear connection between the goals of the organization and the activities of the people who work there (DeCenzo, Robbins, & Verhulst, 2009). What this means is that the employees are able to see the direct connection between what they do and how it helps the organization achieve their objective. When these goals are aligned, it means the departments can work in unison and synchronize their needs. When the HR is a strategic partner, they will be able to recruit employees from the right sources to ensure they are selecting people with the right skills and abilities. In addition, the HR will be able to focus the efforts of training and development towards the organizational objective. This means that they are not only recruiting the right people for the job, but they are using a strategic method to keep them properly trained. On top of the training of new skills, an HR strategic alignment helps employees develop those skills necessary for the organization to achieve its goal. As a strategic partner, HR masters all of the functions to find and keep a force of proficient employees. In fact, research shows that companies that link strategy with human resources show increased profitability and shareholder value ((DeCenzo, Robbins...
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...I need this by Thursday by midnight sir please Week 1: Strategic Linkages Assignment View the "Strategic Linkages" presentation before working on this week's assignment. There are four different kinds of linkages HR functions can have with the organizational strategy.Check out this tutorial; find out more by clicking on the image to the right. | Overview You will remember from the lecture that in today’s business world many organizations’ HR departments are viewed as strategic partners within the organization. HR works with senior management in establishing the strategic direction of the organization. This exercise will engage you to go beyond the traditional administrative view of HR and to begin linking the vital, strategic role an HR department plays within an organization. Here are several tips for successfully completing this case study: * You should incorporate information from the textbook, the lectures, and/or the discussion threads to support your position. * Make sure to fully explore your thoughts with each question. * Your answer for EACH question must be within the range of 250 to 350 words (use MS Word’s "Word Count" feature on the "Review" tab to ensure that your answer is not too brief or too verbose). Be sure to answer each question fully as you are subject to point deductions for incomplete answers. Use 1.5 line spacing. Also, please remember you will be using information supporting your position from sources such as our textbook, articles...
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...28 Allama Iqbal Open University, Sector H/8, Islamabad. Tel: (051) 9057611, 9057612 Mohammad Majid Mahmood Bagram Course Coordinator ALLAMA IQBAL OPEN UNIVERSITY, ISLAMABAD (Department of Business Administration) WARNING 1. 2. PLAGIARISM OR HIRING OF GHOST WRITER(S) FOR SOLVING THE ASSIGNMENT(S) WILL DEBAR THE STUDENT FROM AWARD OF DEGREE/CERTIFICATE, IF FOUND AT ANY STAGE. SUBMITTING ASSIGNMENTS BORROWED OR STOLEN FROM OTHER(S) AS ONE’S OWN WILL BE PENALIZED AS DEFINED IN “AIOU PLAGIARISM POLICY”. Course: Human Resource Management (5532) Level: MBA Semester: Autumn, 2010 Total Marks: 100 Pass Marks: 40 ASSIGNMENT No. 1 (Units: 1–4) Q. 1 Why HR is called the most important asset and competitive advantage of any organization in the world? (20) Your Solutions 2 Helping Material HR and Competitive Advantage In order to have an effective competitive strategy, the company must have one or more competitive advantage, factors that allow an organization to differentiate its product or service. Wal-Mart builds its low cost leader strategy on the dual competitive advantage of a satellite based inventory and distribution system, and on employment policies that help it to achieve extraordinary low employment costs. Southwest Airlines achieves low cost leader status through employment policies that produce a highly motivated and...
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...1. Why do you think is it important for HR to be a strategic partner to the business? Strategic partners (also called strategic allies) are two or more companies that work together in joint ventures. Strategic partners often share long-term relationships and all parties within the partnership strive towards similar goals. Partners also do not get in the way of each other. Instead, they reinforce one another in order to obtain their set business objectives. For an HR department to be a strategic partner for a business, they must understand the strategic plan of that business, and vice-versa. Strategic planning produces fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it. It requires broad-scale information gathering, an exploration of alternatives, and an emphasis on the future implications of present decisions. Planning simply improves decision-making. And, all levels of management and partnership engage in planning. It is important for an HR department to be a strategic business partner because it allows them to be able to work in (and with) every other department in an organization. There’s even a strong need for the HR function to adopt a more strategic and business-like approach too. Due to this type of involvement, workers at all stages of employment will become familiar with, and trust, the HR team. Some corporations may even find it beneficial having HR members present in corporate business meetings, so that...
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...their processes with the organizational goals. HR works as a guiding force to help organizations achieve these goals. Strategic HR as stated by Mello (2014), “involves the development of a constant, aligned collection of practices, programs, and policies to facilitate the achievement of the organizations strategic objectives” (p. 150). Strategic HR has an administrative focus which involves being a strategic partner, change agent, administrative expert, and employee champion. This gives the individuals involved with HR the advantage to partner with top manage to decide on what is needed to get different task done. HR professionals can demonstrate how a competitive advantage can be achieved by putting the right people in the right place. Strategic HR planning is essential for keeping the organization on track and making sure current processes meet current needs. Aggregate planning helps the accomplish goals which follows a sequent of processes for competition. Succession planning is what help keep the organization going when key positions become vacant. Strategic planning establish key processes within the organization and steps to taken to ensure that these process sustain to meet objectives. Reyes Fitness Centers, Inc. (RFC) want to bring more strategic value to their organization, employees activities, and employee projects. Analysis RFC is looking to increase their customer experience while retaining their current employees. HR is looking to keep and increase their budget...
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...think it is important for HR to be a strategic partner to the business? Within a business the Human Resource department is a strategic partner, also there will be appropriate utilization for the human resources in any company, in order to direct the business to achieve it appropriate goals. Utilizing this can result into an asset, or advantage for all individuals involved. In my opinion it is important for HR to be a strategic partner for a business because HR partners help Motivate, and help retain worthy hard working employees for the company. This is achieved by the right Training curriculums in order to aid in enhancing employee’s skills set or provide new skills that are necessary to help improve the company’s capability and functionality at that given time. Also it help’s in architecting incentive plans for employees in order to motivate them and somewhat modify in working environment. HR is strategic partners due to the fact that there are boundaries between the employees and employers. Guidance is given between the two entities in respect to dealing with matters in an appropriate matter according to company standards or rules. They also participate incorporating the company beliefs on the importance of the corporation’s plans in its entirety. HR instilling in every individual the corporation’s policies and procedures throughout and making sure that it is being followed to its entirety. In all HR is a great strategic partner in any company because they...
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...1. I think that it is important for HR to be a strategic partner for a business because HR partners help Motivate, engage and help retain exceptional employees for the company. They also help to do this by having the right Training curriculums to help enhance employee’s current skills or provide them with new skills that are in line with the businesses activities which will help in time improve the company’s capability and functionality. They also help in the design and guidance of creating incentive plans for employees in order to motivate them and help give them a push to improve in the work environment. HR is strategic partners because they are the bridge that lies between the employees and the employers. They are the guidance between the two entities as to how to do things or handle matters in an appropriate matter according to company standards or rules. They also take a great part in incorporating within the company its beliefs on the importance of the corporation’s plans in its entirety. HR is set in place to help the company by instilling in everyone the corporation’s policies and procedures throughout and making sure that it is being followed. In all HR is a great strategic partner in any company because they help keep the company in order and help implement rules and regulations in order within for the company to run properly and according to company standards. They are the backbone you can say to a company that will help them achieve their goals internally by providing...
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...Change agenda THE CHANGING HR FUNCTION THE KEY QUESTIONS Introduction The HR function and its evolution have been identified as key areas within the CIPD’s research programme. Despite a wealth of information that exists on the HR function, its role and its structure, and a vast amount of literature on the link between people management practices and organisational performance, there is little definitive evidence, either from the CIPD or from academic researchers, which gives a clear indication of the impact of HR structure and staffing on organisational outcome or performance. In particular, as many organisations embrace and implement the so-called Ulrich model, questions on the extent to which it meets their particular needs and what difference it has made to HR performance, stakeholder satisfaction and HR staff aspirations, have not been answered. This Change Agenda is based on the scoping stage of a larger piece of work, and it examines what we know about the impact of new structures and roles on the HR function, on the implications for skills and development of HR staff, and on the relationships with line managers. We will also look at how HR has measured its performance against this background. The result of this exercise will be to throw up a number of unanswered questions that will form the basis for the next phases of research. Phase one For this segment of the project we have undertaken two main pieces of work: we have explored the literature around the...
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...Why do you think it is important for HR to be a strategic partner to the business? It is important for HR to have a strategic partner business in order to build a maturing process. Through time the business will growth if done properly. According to the presentation, very few companies make it in the real world. In my opinion, it’s all due to the organization they have internal and external with their stockholders. The Human Resource plays a major role in organizing and designing well structure organization that will favor the business. With a HR as a strategic partner it will let you know the needs of the company and will analysis the week point in order to improve the company. What benefits do you think the employees derive from this arrangement? There are many benefits that the employees can derive from this arrangement. If the business can decide to expand, which creates more opportunities for work and even a promotion if need to. Another example is that if the business keeps up with the latest technology, the employee will work less since technology makes life easier. As machinery innovates as the year passes. With a HR, the employees will have several more benefits and will be protective in case of an accident where to occur at work. What do you think are the risks involved (to HR and the organization as a whole) if HR does not make this a priority and instead remains a purely task-oriented department mostly administrative in nature? In a business everything...
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...(Re)Designing the HR Organization Amy Kates, Downey Kates Associates M 22 any HR functions have gone through the process of transformation over the past decade. This redefinition of the work of HR is intended to allow a more strategic focus on talent management and organizational capability while systematizing HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING 29.2 and controlling the cost of transactional work. Little formal consideration has been given, however, to how these new complex HR organizations should be configured to best achieve these goals. This article highlights the operational challenges created by the most common organization design used by HR departments—the business partner model—and presents an emerging model— the solutions center—that is intended to address these flaws. Each model is described and discussed and a set of considerations for the HR leader is offered in order to maximize the effectiveness of the chosen organization design. Over the last decade there has been a profound shift in the work of the HR function. The publication in 1997 of David Ulrich’s Human Resource Champions spurred HR leaders across various industries to realign their organizations in order to undertake “strategic business partner” work. At the same time, a focus on cost-cutting and efficiency aimed at staff functions in general—and at HR in particular—has pushed much HR transactional work into shared services or to outsourced vendors. For many HR departments, this process of “transformation...
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...1. Why do you think it is important for HR to be a strategic partner to the business? It very important for HR to have a strategic partner business in order to build a maturing process. Through time the business will growth if done properly. According to the presentation, very few companies make it in the real world. In my opinion, it’s all due to the organization they have internal and external with their stockholders. The Human Resource plays a major role in organizing and designing well structure organization that will favor the business. With a HR as a strategic partner it will let you know the needs of the company and will analysis the week point in order to improve the company. 2. What benefits do you think the employees derive from this arrangement? There several benefits the employees can derive from this arrangement. For instants, the business can decide to expand, which creates more opportunities for work and even a promotion if need to. Another example is that if the business keeps up with the latest technology, the employee will work less since technology makes life easier. As machinery innovates as the year passes. With a HR, the employees will have several more benefits and will be protective in case of an accident where to occur at work. 3. What do you think are the risks involved (to HR and the organization as a whole) if HR does not make this a priority and instead remains a purely task-oriented department mostly administrative in nature? I think in a business...
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...maintain this elevated position the Human Resource Department aims to help by streamlining functions of the department and move to a centralised Business Partner model. It is hoped this will bring added benefits to the Snow Mountain Hotel in a number of ways by standardising operations and creating a base for excellence. This report aims to analyse the proposed Business Partner model in the context of the Snow Mountain Hotel and explore the disadvantages and advantages of the aforementioned model and evaluate the potential setbacks. It also aims to set out clearly the implementations of the model in practical terms going forward. The Business Partner model first put forward by Ulrich (Ulrich 1997), is sometimes referred to as the “three-legged stool” model. This maintains that all three components of the HR Business Partner model must work cohesively and in tandem for the model to be effective and workable. Within the model there is an HR Business partner who takes on five roles (Ulrich & Brockbank 2005). These are specified as being a “strategic partner,” a “change agent,” an “administrative expert,” an “employee champion” and an “HRM leader.” Leading from the HR Business partner are “Shared Service Centres” and “Centres of Excellence,” hence the reference to a “three-legged stool.” The HR Business partner aims to be strategic in following closely the business organisational goals and core strategies. From historically being on the periphery of...
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...human relations at the organization. We note that the entire system used by global enterprises is basically outdated and completely technology less. Their process of employing staff to filling positions within the company seems to be handled across the board of supervisors per department alternative to the Human Resource department handling the entire process of staffing the organization. The process used currently makes not room for the actualization of the Human resource department or function rendering their services to almost no value. This shift form the Administrative look at the human resource department is imperative for the growth of Global Enterprises. In an technologically age we take note to the various programmes available to organizations the advancement of the Human Resource management, both technically and legislatively proves that there has been leaps and into the future of Human resource management and the application of HRM in today’s business. Global Enterprises Human resource functions need to move to a more Strategic operational function into to keep up with the changes. Human Resources needs to play a more vital role in the business function and gain the creditability that comes with this management function. -2- There is a vast need for strategies and polices to be implemented to progress the management of staff. Further due to the...
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