B usiness S trategy a nd H uman R esource
M anagement: S etting t he S cene
E d van Sluijs & Frits Kluytmans
M ERIT O pen University
This article is based on a journey through the wilderness of strategic human resource management.
Part 1 gives an overview of the recent literature on this topic, particularly pertaining to the
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two issues which received have most attention until now: the relational aspects and the content
aspects. In part 2, we go deeper into the wilderness and explore the least known aspect of strategic
human resource management, namely the process aspects. This exploration is based on the
simultaneous study of the (scarce) literature and four cases. Finally, the connection between the
t hree aspects is investigated.
I NTRODUCTION
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Increased integration between human resource management and business strategy is one of the most
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important demands that are placed upon modern strategic human resource management. In both the
management and the academic literature, it is generally acknowledged that the strategic deployment
and management of personnel can contribute to the success and continuity of the firm. Some go
even further by stating that a firm’s human resources form the basis of the firm’s competitive advantage.
In this view, the human resources are the most important assets of an organisation. At the
same time, in addition to the importance of the human resources as such, it is believed to be impora
tant that the management of the human resources should be in perfect fit with the management of
t he organisation as a whole and its strategic plans.
However, despite these optimistic accounts, it is clear that the implementation of strategic human
resource management is difficult and to date, has diffused only to a limited extent (Rowland &
Summers, 1981; Lorange & Murphy, 1984; Nkomo, 1984; Golden & Ramanujam, 1985; Mills, 1985;
Buller & Napier, 1993). The literature often refers to a relatively small number of success stories. In
other instances, the literature provides rather normative models of strategic human resource management,
models which are still in need of being the subject of practical experiences and empirical
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testing. Also, in general, most literature is mainly concerned with ‘what’ strategic human resource
m anagement is and much less with ‘how’ to implement it (Truss & Gratton, 1994).