Workshop 15 (Half Day)
Business and HRM Strategy: Aligning Policies
and Making it Happen
Jack Militello
University of St. Thomas
John Delery
University of Arkansas
Most business scholars and HR practitioners agree that an
organization’s HRM policies and practices must support its marketplace activities. In
fact, over the past decade the focus on HRM strategy development in the context of
business partnership and change leadership has received as much attention as
administrative and employee advocate activities within the HR function. However, both case
studies and empirical research have indicated that it is far easier to ascribe a strategic
role to the HR function and design an HRM strategy on paper than achieve a fully
integrated system of business and HRM policies and practices.
This Workshop will integrate three topics dealing with the synergy of
business and HRM policies and practices. In the initial segment, the presenters will
describe approaches for framing an organization’s business design that lead
rationally to specific HRM policies and practices. A specific approach, "core/risk
analysis," will be discussed in detail. The second segment will present
state-of-the-art information relative to HRM systems (i.e., bundles of policies and
practices that form coherent gestalts within an organization affecting both specific
employee behavior and overall organizational effectiveness). In the final segment, a model
for aligning competitive strategy and HRM policy and practices will be presented and
reviewed in detail. Within each segment of the Workshop, participants will be provided
with measurements and encouraged to apply the assessment to their own firms as a learning
experience.
John E. Delery is an Associate Professor of Management in the
College of Business Administration at the University of Arkansas. He received his Ph.D. in
Management from Texas A&M University. His current research interests include the
strategic management of human resources, the structure of human resources management
systems, and the selection interview. Specifically, he is interested in how the management
of human resources influences organizational performance and profitability. His research
has been funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of
Transportation.
John has published articles in the Academy of Management Journal,
Human Resource Management Review, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal
of Applied Social Psychology, and the International Journal of Selection and
Assessment. He serves on the editorial board of Quality Management Journal and
has served as an ad hoc reviewer for the Academy of Management Journal, Human
Resource Management Review, and Journal of Organizational Behavior, and Personnel
Psychology.
Jack Militello is an Associate Professor of Management at the
University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He is also a Principal with Pinnacle
Consulting Group in Eagan, Minnesota. He holds a Ph.D. in Business and Applied Economics
from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Communications from
the University of Colorado and a B.A. in Philosophy from Boston College. Before entering
the academic and consulting fields, he enjoyed 10 years of business experience, including
5 with the Consolidated Rail Corporation in Philadelphia where has was involved in
organizational restructuring. He now teaches strategic planning and business policy at
both the undergraduate and graduate levels.
Jack’s recent research and publications focus on issues of
strategy and business design. During 20 years of consulting he has worked with over 50
organizations from the business, government, and nonprofit sectors.
Coordinator: Mick Sheppeck, University of St. Thomas
1999 Conference Registration Information
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