Strategic non-HRM— a viable alternative?

Abstract

This article argues that the strategic management of people does not automatically involve the implementation of practices associated with human resource management (HRM), e.g. sophisticated selection methods, extensive communications, teamworking, extensive training, employee involvement and performance-related pay. The article begins by defining HRM and, in particular, the soft and hard variants of the concept. Soft HRM is defined as a bundle of practices aimed at securing high commitment and high performance from employees whereas hard HRM is defined as a group of practices based on the premise that human resources (HR) are a cost to be minimized. The empirical data are derived from a survey of personnel policy and practice amongst engineering companies in the east Midlands. Respondents are mainly from small and medium-sized establishments and the article concentrates on those who reported the existence of a formally-endorsed HR strategy. The survey finds evidence of bundles of practices that could be labelled as predominantly soft or hard HRM. However, the findings also identify a number of establishments that have an HR strategy but do not appear to have adopted either approach. The article goes on to identify the practices common to this middle approach, tentatively labelled ‘strategic non-HRM’. It concludes that firms may adopt a strategic approach to the management of HR which is neither commitment maximizing or cost minimizing but somewhere in between and suggests that this middle ground should be explored in its own right rather than dismissed as merely the ad hoc or piecemeal adoption of HRM. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.