Strategic Human Resource Management, a balanced approach by Paul Boselie (second
edition)
Glossary of key terms and summary from the ends of each chapters
Chapter 1 - introduction
Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-American model: is an approach in IR and HRM that is typical for the USA,
which mainly focuses on the added value of people management to shareholder value
Balanced approach: blends the insights from an economic perspective with the insights from an
institutional perspective in order to create a balanced and sustainable position within the
organization
Competitive advantage: is the relative stronger position of an organization in comparison to other
organizations in the (geographical) region or in the same branch of industry
Human Resource Management: involves management decisions related to policies and practices
that together shape the employement relationship and are aimed at achieving individual,
organizational and societal goals.
International HRM (IHRM): is the sub-field of HRM aimed at studying the shaping of the employment
relationship in an international context, with special attention to HRM for expatriated, HRM in large
MNCs and HRM in international governmental organizations (IGOs)
Micro HRM (MHRM): is the sub-field of HRM aimed at studying the shaping of the employment
relationship at the individual employee level.
Organizational change: represents the process between two different situations that affect an
organization and its HRM
Rhineland model: is an approach used in IR and HRM that is typical for many western European
countries that acknowledges multiple stakeholders affecting the employement relationship in
organizations
Stakeholders: are all relevant groups inside and outside an organization that affect strategic
decisions making and strategic HRM within an organization
Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM): is the sub-field of HRM aimed at studying the
shaping of the employment relationship considering the internal and external organization context.
Summary:
Organizational change is inevitable for most contemporary organizations, including MNCs,
SMEs and not-for-profit organizations
Organizational change affects one of the most valuable assets of an organization: its
employees
HRM can be a source of gaining competitive advantage and supporting organizational change
HRM consist of three sub fields: MHRM, IHRM and SHRM.
MHRM is mainly focused on the shaping of the employment relationship on the individual
employee level and had strong roots in organizational behaviour and occupational
psychology
, IHRM is focused on HRM in different countries and has a comparative nature
SHRM is mainly focused on the alignment between HRM and the organizational internal and
external context and has strong roots in strategic management and organization studies.
Anglo-American approaches mainly focus on the added value of HRM to create stakeholder
value (financial performance), while Rhineland approaches apply a much broader view of HR
goals, including the interest of employees and trade unions.
Some countries are more institutionalized with regard to labour than other countries. The
degree of institutionalization in a country affects the shaping of the employment relationship
in an organization and HRM
Stakeholders are internal and external groups that affect the strategic decision making of an
organization, including its SHRM. Influential stakeholders potentially include, shareholders,
top management, trade unions, work councils, employees, line managers and the
government.
The balanced approach blends economic and institutional interest in an attempt to create
sustained competitive advantage.
Chapter 2 – strategic human resource management and context
Best-fit proposition: states that specific HR practices are not universally applicable and successful
when used, but can only be successful in case of a fit between HRM and the context.
Best-practice proposition: states that specific HR practices are universally applicable and successful
when used.
Business strategy: is the system of an organization’s important choices; a system that could be well
integrated around common concerns or which might have various links and foul-ups.
Configuration: is the cultural administrative heritage of an organization.
Context: represents the internal and external organizational environment.
Environmental fit: is the alignment between HR strategy and the institutional environment of an
organization.
General environment: represents the broad external context of an organization, for example,
represented in the macroeconomic situation in which an organization is situated.
HR strategy: is one of the functional silos of the business strategy specifically aimed at achieving the
organizational goals through optimal HRM.
Institutional mechanisms: are mechanisms that stem from legislation (coercive), professional norms
(normative) and imitation as a result of uncertainty or fashion (mimetic).
Internal or horizontal fit: is the alignment between individual HR practices
Market mechanisms: are mechanisms that stem from the markets in which an organization
operates, the products or services an organization creates and the technological developments.
Organizational fit: is the alignment between HRM and other organizational systems and the
configuration.
, Population environment: represents the external context of an organization that is directly linked to
the population or organizational field.
Population or organizational field: is a community of organizations that partakes of a common
meaning system and whose participants interact more frequently or fatefully with one another than
with actors outside the field.
Strategic choice: is the degree of leeway organizations have in strategic decision making given the
organizational context.
Strategic or vertical fit: is the alignment between business strategy and the HR strategy
Strategic human resource management: is focused on the alignment or fit between the strategy of
an organization and the HR strategy of that organization.
Strategy: is an organization intention to achieve certain goals through planned alignment between
the organization and its environment.
Summary:
The shaping of an organization, for example, reflected in its structure, culture, systems and
HRM, is affected by the context of that specific organization
A better fit between the organization and its context is thought to be more effective than the
lack of fit or a misfit
Fit is an important feature of strategic HRM aimed at the alignment of HRM with the
organization context.
The strategy is an organization’s intention to achieve certain goals through planned
alignment (fit) between the organization and its environment (context)
Strategic HRM is focused on the alignment or fit between the strategy of an organization and
the HR strategy of that organization.
The ‘best-practice’ school assumes that certain HR practices are universally applicable and
successful.
Context represents the set of facts or circumstances that surround the organization.
The internal organization context consists of market mechanisms and institutional
mechanisms.
A further distinction can be made between the general environment (or general external
context) and the population environment (or external population context)
There are three institutional mechanisms: coercive, normative and mimetic
The internal and external context determines the degree of leeway in the strategic decision
making of an organization, including HR decision making. This is called strategic choice
Strategic or vertical fit refers to the alignment between the business strategy and HR strategy
Internal or horizontal fit refers to the alignment between individual HR practices towards a
coherent and consistent HR system
Organizational fit refers to the alignment between HRM and other organizational systems
Environmental fit refers to the alignment between HRM and the institutional environment of
an organization
HR strategy scan can be applied to analyse the organization’s context and the degree to
which HRM is aligned to it. The model builds on the assumption that more fit(s) leads to
better organization performance. In other words, better fit is associated with better
organization performance.
High performance of an organization according to the best-fit school in HRM is reflected in:
strategic fit + organization fit + internal fit + environmental fit
