Bridging micro and macro domains: workforce differentiation and strategic human resource management -- Huselid & Becker 2011

8 important questions on Bridging micro and macro domains: workforce differentiation and strategic human resource management -- Huselid & Becker 2011

What is the research aim and question from (Huselid and Becker, 2011)?

Focuses on the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating the macro and micro-domains of the strategic human resource literature. Their specific focus is on the development of a differentiation HR architecture in support of strategy execution as a key organising theme

What are the macro domains in regards to this article? (Huselid and Becker, 2011)

Strategy formulation and implementation processes

What are micro-domains in regards to this article? (Huselid and Becker, 2011)

Designing recruitment, selection, performance, appraisal, reward systems and individual employee responses to those systems
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Scholars not only should integrate the functional and strategic across firms but also should focus on the need for workforce differentiation and integration within firms. The question arises: if the financial returns to HPWS are so substantial, why aren't more firms using them. The first response is accounted for as 'the best practice explanation' however what does this mean? (Huselid and Becker, 2011)

It means the impact of HPWS on performance is both economically and statistically significant but most HR managers are unaware of these effects or unable to persuade their firm resulting in market failure

The second category can be linked to the alignment explanation, however, what does this entail? (Huselid and Becker, 2011)

The key question is whether or not there is a potential source of economic returns to aligning firms HR management systems with its strategy, beyond the potential returns to implementing HR best practices efficiently and effectively

What is said about strategic jobs within this article? (Huselid and Becker, 2011)

These jobs are those that affect a firm's overall business success through developing the requisite strategic capabilities needed to execute strategy. A key attribute of strategic jobs is tat it provides a context for business impact through a focus on improving individual employee performance. A focus on strategic capabilities and strategic jobs as the focal point of workforce management system design represents a significant potential source of value creation for most firms

Key research questions which have to be researched further are the following:

Operationalizing strategy, strategic capabilities and strategic jobs, measuring workforce differentiation. So implementing HR architecture and the impact of workforce differentiation on employees have to be further researched

The conclusions and findings of this article? (Huselid and Becker, 2011) 4 points

  • We have tried to make the argument that human capital theory, transaction cost economics and RBV of the firm all converge on two dimensions of value and uniqueness of employee skills, as the primary determinants of an HR architecture
  • Just as there may be no universally best set of HR practices for every firm, we argue that there may also be no one best set of practices for every employee within a firm
  • the ability to manage the HR architecture itself may actually become a core capability that other firms find difficult to replicate
  • HR architecture as a competitive advantage

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