Work Systems Design and their

links with SHRM

Chandra
Objectives
To understand the design of work systems and
their links with SHRM
Strategic View of Human Resources (Mello, 2005)
Employees are human assets
Increase in value to the organization and marketplace, when
appropriate investments are made in policies and programs by
the company
Effective organizations recognize that employees have value just as
the organizations physical and capital assets have value
Employees are valuable source of sustainable competitive
advantage
(Strategic) Sources of Employee Value
Technical Knowledge
Markets, processes, customers, environment
Ability to Learn and Grow
Openness to new ideas
Acquisition of knowledge and skills
Decision Making Capabilities
Motivation
Commitment
Teamwork
Interpersonal skills, leadership ability
SHRM (Mello, 2005)
Involves development of consistent, aligned
collection of practices, programs, and policies to
facilitate achievement of strategic objectives
Requires abandoning mindset and practices of
personnel management and focusing on
strategic issues rather than operational issues
Integration of all HR programs within a larger
framework, facilitating mission and objectives
A written down strategy facilitating involvement
and buy-in of senior executives and other
employees
HPWS
High Performance Work System (HPWS) (Marler, 2012)
A combination of high involvement work practices and high commitment
employment practices
Configuration perspective: Synergetic effects due to the system of work
practices characterized by a cluster of HR practices
Universalist perspective: Adopting HPWS configuration regardless of context
leads to superior organizational performance
Universalist Perspective
The relationship between HRM practice and organizational performance occurs,
irrespective of the context in which an organization operates
Configurational Perspective
Systems, clusters or bundles of human resource management practices
(configuration of a set of internally aligned HRM practices) interact with each other
to have synergistic outcomes at the organization level than single HRM practices
taken in isolation.
Most studies conclude that HPWS positively influences the firms
performance (Subramony 2009, Batt 2002)

Emergence of HPHRS from HPWS - Ericksen and Dyer (2005)
HROs (High Reliability Organizations) strive to achieve virtually problem-free
performance under the most trying circumstances.
HPWS focuses on organizing systems that HROs use to foster reliability.
HPHRS (high performance human resource strategy) refers to two distinct yet
blurred streams of human resource strategy research: HPWS and best practices.
REHRS (Reliability enhancing human resource strategy) on the other hand centres
around behaviour approach to arrive at HPHRS, thus forming the 3
rd
wing.




Ericksen and Dyer (2005) conclude that reliability-oriented employee behaviours
(ROEB) explain how people contribute to specific organizational goals in specific
contexts and in turn, identify human resource strategies that extend the general
HPHRS in new and important ways.
HPWS Adoption and Perception of Strategic Value
Human capital refers to knowledge, skills, and abilities
embedded within a firms human resources that are
the direct result of learning, education, and training
(Becker, 1962).
Social capital pertains to the strength of relationships
inside the firm and the ability to facilitate knowledge
sharing and employee interaction (Youndt and Snell,
2004).
Guthrie et al (2011) indicate that managers
assessment of the strategic value of their firms HR
departments are significantly influenced by relative
HPWS use
Further this relationship is mediated by workforce
human capital and social capital.
HPWS Chief Operational Constituents
HRP
Staffing, down-sizing, reassignment, training and
development, outsourcing, contractors
Employee participation
Design and redesign of work systems
Performance management and feedback
Compensation (skill-based, group intensive)
Productive employee separation
Management of the global work force
(Baily 1993, Pfeffer 1994, Huselid 1995, Mello 2005)
Work Systems Model (Mello, 2005)
A typical work systems model







Design of work systems
Job specialization, job enlargement, job rotation, job enrichment,
vertical loading
Core Job characteristics model
Skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback
Interdependence
Pooled, sequential, reciprocal, higher levels of interdependence
What do workers need?
Changing demographics and lifestyles
Work-life balance
Representation of their ideas
Safety in the workplace
Focus Aspects in Redesign of Work-systems
Alignment with strategic choice
Down-sizing, changed strategic objectives
More involvement of workers in design and
reengineering of jobs
Applicable in disruptive technologies
Strategically beneficial cross-functional teams
Multi-tasking, functional down-sizing than personnel
downsizing
Individualistic employees are unproductive
Trainings on team-culture
Restructuring requires training and support
Focus Aspects in Redesign of Work-systems contd
Outsourcing of non-core work activities
Offshoring to low-cost countries
Mergers and acquisitions
Address the barriers to change
Natural built-in resistance to change
Focus on benefits
Risk, uncertainty
Bring clarity
Poor coordination and communication
Strategic communication
Issues in Redesign of HPWS
Failure to assign duties in a productive way
Failure to identify overloads
Failure to realize the tipping point of demands
exceeding capacity
HPWS keys a Team Perspective
Value and endorse dissent
Encourage fluidity of membership
Enable teams to make decisions
(Mello, 2005)
Team Development Model (Mello, 2005)
Key References
Marler, J., H. (May, 2012). Strategic Human Resource Management in Context: A Historical and Global
Perspective. Academy of Management Perspectives Symposium, 6-11.
Mello, J., A. (2005). Strategic Human Resource Management. South-Western.
Ericksen, J., and Dyer, L. (June, 2005). Toward a strategic human resource management model of high
reliability organization performance. The International Journal of Human Resource Management,
16(6), 907-928.
Guthrie, J., P., Flood, P., C., Liu, W., MacCurtain, S., and Armstrong, C. (April, 2011). Big hat, no cattle?
The relationship between use of high-performance work systems and managerial perceptions of HR
departments. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 22(8), 1672-1685.
Becker, G., S. (1962). Investment in Human Capital: A Theoretical Analysis. Journal of Political
Economy, 70, 9-49.
Youndt, M., A., and Snell, S., A. (2004). Human Resource Configurations, Intellectual Capital,
Organizational Performance. Journal of Managerial Issues, 16(3), 337-360.
Bailey, T. (1993). Discretionary Effort and the Organization of Work: Employee Participation and Work
Reform Since Hawthorne. Working Paper, Columbia University, New York.
Huselid, M., A. (1995). The Impact of Human Resource Management Practices on Turnover ,
Productivity, and Corporate Financial Performance. Academy of Management Journal, 38(3), 635-672.
Pfeffer, J. (1994). Competitive Advantage through People: Unleashing the Power of the Work Force.
Harvard Business School Press: Boston, M.A.
Batt, R. (2002). Managing Customer Services: Human Resource Practices, Quit Rates, and Sales
Growth. The Academy of Management Journal, 45(3), 587-597.
Subramony, M. (2009). A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Relationship between HRM Bundles and
Firm Performance. Human Resource Management, 48(5), 745-768.