SOTA 2004 Managing for Value(s) in a Commoditized World

Since its inception in 1995, Human Resource Planning Society’s State of the Art/Practice study has become an important way that the Society seeks to generate and disseminate information critical to effective HR strategy decision making. The study began as an effort to identify the major issues driving organizations and causing transformations in HR (Caimano, Canavan, & Hill, 1998; Ulrich & Eichinger, 1995; 1996; Wright, Dyer, & Takla, 1998). More recently, the SOTA/P has focused on drilling down more deeply to understand HR’s role in critical strategic issues such as e-business (Wright and Dyer, 1999) and using HR to build a customer-focused company (Overholt and Grannell, 2002). The 2004 SOTA/P returns to the original roots, and seeks to describe the competitive landscape, and the implications of these trends for HR

Partner or Guardian? HR’s Challenge in Balancing Value and Values

[Excerpt] Is HR at a crossroad? A number of signs seem to be pointing that way. Increasingly HR executives are faced with a critical decision: Will they continue on their journey to be business leaders, , with full sway and equal influence in organizational decision making, or will they take the short-cut by sacrificing professional ethics and values for a seat at the table. This challenge is exemplified by the story of Delta Airlines

Toward a Unifying Framework for Exploring Fit and Flexibility in Strategic Human Resource Management

This paper presents a framework for studying the concepts of fit and flexibility in the field of Strategic Human Resource Management (Strategic HRM) focusing on HRM practices, employee skills, and employee behaviors and reviews past conceptual and empirical work within that framework. A model of Strategic HRM is presented and this model is used to explore the concepts of fit and flexibility as they apply to Strategic HRM. The concepts of resource and coordination flexibility are applied to Strategic HRM, and the implications of the framework for both the practice of and research on Strategic HRM are discussed

Human Resources Strategy: The Era of Our Ways

The purpose of this chapter is to discuss some of the main features and trends in human resources (HR) strategy. Inasmuch as people are among the most important resources available to firms, one could argue that HR strategy should be central to any debate about how firms achieve competitive advantage. But this “people are our most important asset” argument is actually fairly hollow in light of the evidence. Far too many articles on HR start with this premise, but the reality is that organizations have historically not rested their fortunes on human resources. The HR function remains among the least influential in most organizations, and competitive strategies have not typically been based on the skills, capabilities, and behaviors of employees. In fact, as Snell, Youndt and Wright (1996:62) noted, in the past executives have typically tried to “take human resources out of the strategy equation--i.e., by substituting capital for labor where possible, and by designing hierarchical organizations that separate those who think from those who actually do the work.

A Resource-Based View Of International Human Resources: Toward A Framework of Integrative and Creative Capabilities

Drawing on organizational learning and MNC perspectives, we extend the resource-based view to address how international human resource management provides sustainable competitive advantage. We develop a framework that emphasizes and extends traditional assumptions of the resource-based view by identifying the learning capabilities necessary for a complex and changing global environment. These capabilities address how MNCs might both create new HR practices in response to local environments and integrate existing HR practices from other parts of the firm (affiliates, regional headquarters, and global headquarters). In an effort to understand the nature of such capabilities, we discuss aspects of human capital, social capital, and organizational capital that might be linked to their development. Page

Current Approaches to HR Strategies: Inside-Out vs. Outside-In

In an effort to determine the best practices with regard to Human Resource (HR) strategies, we conducted interviews with HR executives knowledgeable about their HR strategies from 20 companies, and gathered archival materials such as the HR strategy documents from 9 of the companies. We found that the content, process, and evaluation of the HR strategies can each be classified as focusing primarily on the HR function, the people of the firm, or the business. We provide some examples of ways that firms can move from an HR focused to a business-focused HR strategy

Comparing Line and HR Executives’ Perceptions of HR Effectiveness: Services, Roles, and Contributions

This study compared HR and line executives’ evaluations of the effectiveness of the HR function in terms of its service delivery, roles, and contributions to the firm. Survey responses from 44 HR and 59 line executives from 14 companies indicated that (a) HR executives consistently rated the functions effectiveness higher than did line executives, and (b) the greatest differences were observed on the more important and/or strategic aspects of HR. Implications are discussed

Measurement Error in Research on Human Resource Decisions and Firm Performance: How Much Error is There and How Does its Influence Effect Size Estimates?

Recent empirical research finds that the relationship between human resource (HR) decisions and firm performance is significant in both statistical and practical terms. However, the typical research design in this area relies upon on a single respondent to validly assess firmwide HR practices. To date, no study has adequately addressed the reliability of such measures, a basic requirement of construct validity. Previous efforts have either defined reliability so narrowly as to miss a major source of measurement error (raters) or have estimated the unreliability due to raters using incorrect methods. In both cases, the result is upwardly biased estimates of reliability. We estimate reliabilities using intraclass correlation and generalizability coefficients. Our reliability estimates suggest substantial measurement error in the types of HR effectiveness and HR practice measures typically used to predict firm performance. We discuss how this degree of measurement influences research and policy implications

Flow structures and sandbar dynamics in a canyon river during a controlled flood, Colorado River, Arizona

In canyon rivers, debris fan constrictions create rapids and downstream pools characterized by secondary flow structures that are closely linked to channel morphology. In this paper we describe detailed measurements of the three-dimensional flow structure and sandbar dynamics of two pools along the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon during a controlled flood release from Glen Canyon Dam. Results indicate that the pools are characterized by large lateral recirculation zones (eddies) resulting from flow separation downstream from the channel constrictions, as well as helical flow structures in the main channel and eddy. The lateral recirculation zones are low-velocity areas conducive to fine sediment deposition, particularly in the vicinity of the separation and reattachment points and are thus the dominant flow structures controlling sandbar dynamics. The helical flow structures also affect morphology but appear secondary in importance to the lateral eddies. During the controlled flood, sandbars in the separation and reattachment zones at both sites tended to build gradually during the rising limb and peak flow. Deposition in shallow water on the sandbars was accompanied by erosion in deeper water along the sandbar slope at the interface with the main channel. Erosion occurred via rapid mass failures as well as by gradual boundary shear stress driven processes. The flow structures and morphologic links at our study sites are similar to those identified in other river environments, in particular sharply curved meanders and channel confluences where the coexistence of lateral recirculation and helical flows has been documented

Using individual tracking data to validate the predictions of species distribution models

The authors would like to thank the College of Life Sciences of Aberdeen University and Marine Scotland Science which funded CP's PhD project. Skate tagging experiments were undertaken as part of Scottish Government project SP004. We thank Ian Burrett for help in catching the fish and the other fishermen and anglers who returned tags. We thank José Manuel Gonzalez-Irusta for extracting and making available the environmental layers used as environmental covariates in the environmental suitability modelling procedure. We also thank Jason Matthiopoulos for insightful suggestions on habitat utilization metrics as well as Stephen C.F. Palmer, and three anonymous reviewers for useful suggestions to improve the clarity and quality of the manuscript.Peer reviewedPostprintPostprintPostprintPostprintPostprin