Strategic Human Resource Management – An Indian Perspective
Volume 19, Number 3 Article by Padmaja Palekar September, 2007
Strategic Human Resource Management – An Indian Perspective : By Anuradha Sharma and Aradhana Khandekar, Response Books, 2006, pp 264, Price: Rs. 340.
The notion that human resource management (HRM) is key to providing sustained competitive advantage to organisations has been accepted the world over. Organisational researchers have consistently shown relationships between a range of human resource management (HRM) practices and organisational effectiveness. Research in HRM has grown in the realm of strategy, leading to the development of a new field of research – Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM). This book analyses the conceptual development in the field of SHRM and the perceptions of HR managers about the role of SHRM in Indian global organisations and foreign global organisations operating in India.
The book is divided into six chapters. The introductory chapter deals with the evolutionary stages of HRM over a period of approximately eight decades, bringing out the shifting paradigms in the field of human resource management from a reactive to a proactive approach. It also describes the evolution of the concept of SHRM and the influences that caused the changes in the approach to HRM. The authors have tried to deal with these two phenomena separately, suggesting a disconnect in the shifting paradigms in HRM and the evolution of SHRM. I would like to think that these two are highly related – the influences that caused the changes in the approach to HRM led to the field crossing over a chasm over a period of time, thus shifting paradigms.
Chapter 2 captures most of the approaches and theories related to Personnel Management, HRM and SHRM – the pathway leading to the development of the concept of SHRM. This chapter has rigorously reviewed the existing literature in all three major areas. An exclusive focus on managing human resources in international locations completes the review of literature in the field. They have also identified various dimensions of SHRM, namely management of change and flexibility, leadership, organisational culture, organisational commitment, organisational learning, organisational structure and coherence, organisational capability, participative management and empowerment and communication. The biggest drawback of this literature review is that it states what is given in the existing body of knowledge, but fails to consolidate the literature into a conceptualisation, which is sorely needed in SHRM.
The third chapter deals with the development of the field of HRM in India, neatly capturing its evolution, and then moving on to develop a model of SHRM for Indian corporations and a model for integrating HR strategy with corporate strategy. Neither of the models is very clearly described in the book. Some of the relationships suggested in the model of SHRM are counter-intuitive given the current state of literature, and thus there is need for robust arguments to support the model. This chapter also gives a state of the art review on the major studies in HRM in India. The authors have identified a few challenges for HRM in India and have carried out a survey of HRM in the Indian context through a quantitative survey and case studies. They have chosen global organisations of both Indian and foreign origin to understand HRM in this context in the recent years. The choice of global organisations gives a new dimension to understand the state of HRM in the Indian context.
Chapter 4 presents the findings of the survey carried out by the authors. The study is carried out using a two stage sampling technique and responses to the questionnaire were collected from 300 managers from all the levels in nine organisations. Variables or dimensions identified in Chapter 2 were of primary interest in the study. The study tried to capture the impact of these dimensions by studying the relation between organisational correlates and the perceptions of strategic HRM by Indian managers. The study found that organisational background variables such as age, size and turnover serve as important factors in analysing the impact of SHRM. The study also found that strategic HRM practices, organisation structure and coherence are positively related to SHRM variables. Rather than restricting itself to manpower planning, HR planning has a broader objective to deal with. All in all the study found a positive relationship between all the variables and the SHRM variable.
The next chapter reports three case studies of which one is an Indian global organisation and two are foreign global organisations operating in India. Case studies have been conducted on the basis of interviews with a cross section of managers in these organisations. These case studies support the fact that the role of leadership, flexibility, management of change, HRM practices especially training and development, organisation performance and competitive advantage are derived from strategic HRM. However, the case studies seem to be very superficial. They could be written more tightly to make them feel real. Chapter 6 summarises the findings of the study and discusses the implications for the Indian IT industry.
It is not very clear to the reader what is meant to be the central theme of the book. It seems that the main purpose of writing this book was to present the findings of the study carried out by the authors. The style of the book is fairly academic. If this is an attempt to present a dissertation in the form of a book, the efforts of the authors must be applauded. However, there are several issues with respect to the study that need clarification. Firstly, there is no clear identification of and argument for the need for the study. There are no hypotheses that the authors seem to have had in mind when they went ahead with the study. The authors have also failed to detail the differences between HR practices and SHRM variables. Providing references to the instruments that they have used to measure the different variables would have helped readers to appreciate the results better. Also, there is no justification for including the case studies. The conceptual model developed towards the end of the book is not something new. It already exists in the literature. There are quite a few loose ends to the work that need to be tightened.
The study, in some sense, has focused on verifying what exists in the literature. Indian organisations provide a very unique context to study the outsourcing phenomenon. It would have been more interesting if the study could have focused on understanding the SHRM challenges faced by organisations in this unique context. This context has the potential to refute some of the models of SHRM. The results of this kind of a study could potentially contribute to the body of knowledge in the field of SHRM. But given the lack of studies in the Indian context, this work does make a contribution to the existing literature in the field.
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