HRM MODELS

Four major models have been identified for human resource management and all these serve many purposes.

1. They provide an analytical framework for studying Human resource management (for example, situational factors, stakeholders, strategic choice levels, competence)

2. They legitimize certain HRM practices; a key issue here is the distinctiveness of HRM practices: “It is not the presence of selection or training but a distinctive approach to selection or training that matters”.

3. They provide a characterization of human resource management that establishes variables and relationships to be researched.

4. They serve as a heuristic device-something to help us discover and understand the world for explaining the nature and significance of key HR practices.

Ther HRM models are:

(i) The Fombrun

The Michigan model by Fombrun (1984) explains strategic HRM that focused on management, professional groups, and the new labor force. The main motive of the model was to align the formal structure of the organization, their new strategies, and policies with the human resource system. This helps to drive the strategic objectives of the organization in a better way. They saw the employees of the firm as a strategic resource to have a competitive advantage. Its elements include selection, appraisal, development, and rewards.

The model interlinks remuneration, assessment, development, and selection implying that there must be a horizontal alignment. The drawback of this model is that it ignores situational factors such as the interest of the stakeholders and the notion of strategic choice. It emphasizes on market performance and organization growth (Mbongaya, 2006).

(ii) The Harvard

Boxall and Beer from Harvard proposed the Harvard Framework of Human Resource Management in 1992 (Beer, Boselie, & Brewster, 2015). They believed in the combination of systems as bureaucrats, markets and clan approach. This can remove the limitations of a single model and hence increase efficiency, innovativeness, and reliability towards the organization’s strategies (O’Riordan, 2017). This model includes the global development of businesses, the power of different stakeholders like government, labor union, management, and link corporates with human resource strategies (Poole, 2015). Hence in the globalized world, where economies are fluctuating, technologies are advancing, and customer demands are changing, organizations are forced to adopt the Harvard model on a practical basis.

This model comprises of several situational factors, interests of the stakeholders, a long-term approach and feedback process. There are various modifications done in the Harvard model from time to time to adapt to the changing environment. Their main objective is to resolve the problem of historical personnel management of traditional and routine functions (Campbell, 2003). Harvard model uses modern techniques and strategic functions. But the limitation of the model is that it ignores the hard HRM approach which shows that there is a high chance of business failures (Brunetto, Farr-Wharton, & Shacklock, 2011).

(iii) The Guest, and 

This model was developed by David Guest in 1997. It explains how HRM is different from personnel management (Morrow, 2000). It works on the assumption that the human resource manager begins with certain strategies, which will result in outcomes. The model integrates HRM practices leading to superior individual and organizational performance (Mbongaya, 2006). It has six dimensions of analysis:

1.         Strategy,

2.         Practices,

3.         Outcomes,

4.         Behavior outcomes,

5.         Performance outcomes and,

6.         Financial outcomes.

(iv) The Warwick.

This model was developed by two researchers, Hendry and Pettigrew of the University of Warwick (hence the name Warwick model). Like other human resource management models, the Warwick proposition centers around five elements

•           Outer context (macro-environmental forces)

•           Inner context (firm-specific or microenvironmental forces)

•           Business strategy content

•           HRM context

•           HRM content

The Warwick model takes cognizance of business strategy and HR practices (as in the Guest model), the external and internal context (unlike the Guest model) in which these activities take place, and the process by which such changes take place, including interactions between changes in both context and content.

(v) The 8-box model by Paul Boselie

A different HR model that’s often used to model what we do in HR, is the 8-box model by Paul Boselie. The 8-box model shows different external and internal factors that influence the effectiveness of what we do in HR.

First of all, you see the external general market context, the external population market context, the external general institutional context, and the external population institutional context. These are external forces that influence how we do HR.

For example, if there is a shortage of certain skills in the market, this influences how we do our sourcing, recruiting, and hiring, compared to when there’s an abundance of qualified workers. The institutional context also changes: legislation impacts the way we work in HR (e.g. the day-to-day impact of HR) while trade unions and work councils limit what we can do.

The HR strategy consists of six parts:

•           Intended HR practices:

The intention we have with our recruitment, training, and other practices matters but this model shows it’s only a starting point.

•           Actual HR practices:

We can have great intentions but the execution of HR practices is a cooperation between HR and the manager. When the manager decides to do things differently, the intention can be nice but the actual practices can be very different.

•           Perceived HR practices:

This is how the employee perceives what’s going on in the organization. HR and the manager can do their absolute best but if their activities are perceived in a different way than they were intended and actually done, the perception will not mirror the actual HR practices.

•           HR outcomes:

The perceived HR practices (hopefully) lead to certain HR outcomes. These are similar to the ones in the Standard Causal Model of HR, described above.

•           HR outcomes lead to critical HR goals (i.e. cost-effectiveness, flexibility, legitimacy, and so on), which in turn leads to ultimate business goals (i.e. profit, market share, market capitalization – all related to the viability of the organization, and other factors that help to build a competitive advantage).

Talent development model

The model is personalizable, updatable, and future-oriented, reflecting the field of talent development now and also five years in the future.

It responds to those trends affecting talent development, such as digital transformation, data analytics, information availability, and partnerships between talent development and business. It also anticipates a future workplace transformed by artificial intelligence and a workforce composed of part-time and contract workers.