INTRODUCTION TO SHRM &

EMPLOYEE MORALE
 Human resources refer to the people who
work in an organization.
 Human resource management is
concerned with a holistic approach
towards the management of people
working in an organization, who contribute
to the achievement of organizational
objectives.
 Strategy is the determination of the long
term goals and objectives of an
organization, and the allocation of
resources necessary for carrying out these
goals.
 Like strategy, HR strategy is concerned
with two key elements:

1. Determining the strategic objectives

(what goals is the strategy supposed to
achieve? For example, the goals may be
high productivity, reduced accidents,
etc.)
2. Developing a plan of action (how will the
human resources be organized and
allocated to accomplish the objectives of
the organization?)
 Human resource strategy, therefore,
involves the planned and effective use of
human resources by an organization to
help it gain or maintain an edge over its
competitors.
 An organization is said to achieve
competitive advantage when it is able to
gain and maintain edge over its
competitors by differentiating its products
or services from those of its competitors,
thereby increasing its market share.
STRATEGIC HRM: Definition and
Components
 Strategic HRM is concerned with the relationship
between HRM and strategic management in an
organization.
 Strategic human resource management is an
approach which relates to decisions about the
nature of employment relationship, recruitment,
training, development, performance
management, reward and employee relations.
 Wright and McMahan defined SHRM as ‘the
pattern of planned human resource
deployment and activities intended to enable
the firm to achieve its goals’.
COMPONENTS
 It focuses on an organizations’ human
resources (people) as the primary source of
competitive advantage of the organization.
 The activities highlight the HR programs,
policies, and practices as the means through
which the people of the organization can be
deployed to gain competitive advantage.
 The pattern and plan imply that there is a fit
between HR strategy and the organization’s
business strategy (vertical fit) and between all of
the HR activities (horizontal fit).
 The people, practices, and planned pattern are
all purposeful, that is, directed towards the
achievement of the goals of the organization.
 An organization uses a combination of several
resources- tangible and intangible- in the
pursuit of its objectives. These resources can
be grouped into three basic types:
1. Physical capital resources- the plant,
equipment, and finances.
2. Organizational capital resources- the
organization’s structure planning, hr systems
history, and organizational culture.
3. Human capital resources-the skills, judgement,
and intelligence of the organization’s
employees.
 An organization may have huge capital
and most advanced machinery, but if it
does not have capable, motivated, and
high performing employees, the
organization is not likely to demonstrate
sustained levels of high performance.
Since all physical and capital resources
depend on people for their efficient use,
maintenance, and management, the
quality of the people of an organization is
important in attaining competitive
advantage.
 Strategic HRM is based on HRM principles
incorporating the concept of strategy. So if
HRM is a coherent approach to the
management of people, strategic HRM
now implies that what is done on a
planned way that integrates organizational
goals with policies and action sequences.
Objectives of SHRM
The major objectives of SHRM are as follows:
 To ensure the availability of a skilled, committed,
and highly motivated workforce in the
organization to achieve sustained competitive
advantage.
 To provide direction to the organization so that
both the business needs of the organization and
the individual and collective needs of its
workforce are met. This is achieved by
developing and implementing HR practices that
are strategically aligned.
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR STRATEGIC HRM
Strategic HRM is most likely to be practiced in organizations
with the following characteristics:

•Strong, visionary and often charismatic leadership from the

top.
•Well articulated missions and values.
•A clear expressed business strategy which had been
implemented successfully.
•A positive focus on well understood critical success factors
•The organization offers a closely related range of products
or services to customers.
•A cohesive top management team.
•A personnel/HR director who plays an active part in
discussing corporate/business issues as well as making an
effective and corporate/business-oriented contribution on HR
matters.
EVOLUTION OF SHRM
 The HR function has evolved over time.
 In India, the Tata Iron and Steel Company
(TISCO) was one of the first organizations to set
up a personnel department in the year 1947.
 The history of the function pre-dates Taylor’s
theory of scientific management and Fayol’s
administrative theory. However, it was only
during the 1930s and 1940s that the function
grew in significance, largely due to war-time
imperatives.
Evolution of the HR Function

1. PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT
2. HRM (early 1970s)
3. SHRM (early 1908s)
1. PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

 Part of mechanistic organization

 Bureaucratic
 High centralization
 High formalization
 Low flexibility
2. HRM (early 1970s)

 Part of organic organization

 Cross-hierarchical and cross-functional
teams
 Decentralized
 Low formalization
 Flexible
3. SHRM (early 1980s)

 Convergence between HRM and business

strategy
 Proactive HRM
 Concerned with organizational
effectiveness and performance.
EVOLUTION OF SHRM THOUGHT
 The success of Japanese firms in the 1980s was
attributed mostly to their Human Resource
practices and organizational and national
cultures.
 This realization attracted attention to the crucial
role of the HR function in providing sustainable
competitiveness.
 There is growing fusion of personnel
management, industrial relations, human
resource development and knowledge
management which combinedly constitutes the
field of Strategic Human Resource Management.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL HRM & SHRM

Basis Traditional SHRM

HRM
Responsibility Staff personnel in Line mangers; all
for HR the HR managers
programmes department. responsible for
people are HR
managers.
Focus of Employee Partnerships with
activities relations-ensuring internal (employees)
employee and external
motivation and (customers,
productivity, stakeholders, public
compliance with interest groups)
laws. groups.
Role of HR Reactive and Proactive and
transactional. transformational,
change leader.
Initiative for Slow, Fast, flexible, and
change piecemeal, and systematic, change
fragmented, not initiatives
integrated with implemented in
larger issues concert with other
HR systems.
Time Short-term Consider various
horizon time frames as
necessary (short,
medium, or long-
term).
Control Bureaucratic Organic control
control through through flexibility,
rules, as few
procedures, and restrictions on
policies employee
behavior as
possible.
Job design Focus on Broad job
scientific design, flexibility,
management teams and
principles- groups, and
division of labor, cross-training
independence,
and
specialization.
Important Capital, People and
Investments products, their
technology, and knowledge,
finance skills and
abilities.
Accountability Cost centre Investment
centre
BENEFITS OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
 Allows identification, prioritization and
exploitation of opportunities.
 Provides an objective view of
management problems.
 Represents a framework for improved co-
ordination and control of activities.
 Minimizes the effects of adverse
conditions and changes.
 Allows major decisions to better support
established objectives.
 Allows more effective allocation of time
and resources to identified opportunities.
 Allows fewer resources and lesser time to
be devoted to correcting erroneous or
adhoc decisions.
 Creates a framework for internal
communication among personnel.
 Helps to integrate the behaviors of
individuals into a total effort.
 Provides a basis for the clarification of
individual responsibilities.
 Give encouragement to forward thinking.
 Provides a co-operative, integrated and
enthusiastic approach to tackling problems
and opportunities.
 Encourages a favorable attitude towards
change.
 Gives a degree of discipline and formality
to the management of a business.
 HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING:
An Overview
 Manpower Planning which is also called as Human
Resource Planning consists of putting right number of
people, right kind of people at the right place, right
time, doing the right things for which they are suited
for the achievement of goals of the organization.
Human Resource Planning has got an important place
in the arena of industrialization. Human Resource
Planning has to be a systems approach and is carried
out in a set procedure. The procedure is as follows:
 Analyzing the current manpower inventory
 Making future manpower forecasts
 Developing employment programmes
 Design training programmes
 HRP helps in determining the HR requirements
of firms and develop strategies for meeting
those requirements so that the organization
achieves its objectives. It seeks answers to
questions such as:
 What are the implications of proposed strategic
plans with respect to human resources?
 What are the implications of proposed strategic
plans for staffing, training and development, and
management succession?
 How will a projected shortfall in the supply of
skilled employees impact various HR practices
of the firm?
 What are the implications for attracting,
retaining, motivating and rewarding workers with
skills that are in short supply?
 The HRP process cannot be carried out in
isolation. The HRP process examines the
implications of business strategies and
goals on human requirements.
 HRP is a proactive process. It anticipates
the changes in industry, marketplace,
economy, society and technology to
ensure that the organization is well
prepared to meet these changes when
they occur.
Employee Morale
 Employee morale is an overall positive attitude that manifests
in every aspect of a worker's performance. Motivation is a
more targeted approach to working well, one that generates
efforts geared towards specific outcomes.

 The only way to get people to like working

hard is to motivate them. Today, people must
understand why they're working hard. Every
individual in an organization is motivated by
something different.”
Morale: An Overview
• A person’s or group’s state of mind, level of enthusiasm and
amount of involvement with work and with life

• Morale can make or break an individual or an organization.

• Morale is always present.

• Management’s responsibility is to keep morale as high as

possible and to be alert to signs it may be dropping.

• Good or high morale is a can-do attitude.

Indicators of Morale Problems
• Lack of productivity, enthusiasm and cooperation

• Absenteeism

• Tardiness

• Grievances

• Complaints

• Excessive turnover
Reasons for Morale Problems

• Poor management

• Job dissatisfaction

• Failure to meet important individual needs

Building Morale
The individual most able to raise or lower individual
and departmental morale is the manager/supervisor
through leadership and open communication.
Key considerations in building morale:
 Salary
 Quality of supervision
 Organizational and public support
 Physical conditions at work
Here are some steps to building that type of
commitment and involvement
 Identify any problems that might stand in the way.
 Share your vision and the mission of the business.
 Give some power to employees.
 Encourage risk-taking.
 Use reward systems.
 Plan social and athletic activities