Describing the Elements of Business and Human Resource Strategy Statements

Abstract

Five hundred-thirty (530) companies supplied us with their business and human resource strategies. Eighty-eight (88) percent of the business strategies were formal documents, whereas 65 percent of the human resource strategies were formal documents. A content analysis of the formal business strategy statements shows that the majority of firms mention quality and profitability. The most common elements on the formal human resource strategy statements are employee development and recruitment and staffing; however, these are mentioned on only about one-fourth of the HR statements. Generally, different business goals did not produce different elements on the HR statements. We use our results to make suggestions on how to improve HR strategy statements.