1.

Introduction
When conceiving and substantiating organizations activities, an important role is
played by strategies, especially Human Resource Management strategies,
elaborated and implemented by managerial organisms. The essential concretization
of the prevision, the strategies of Human Resource Management contour the
development of each organization in the field of human resources, and their content
often decides the efficiency of the interface with the subsystems to which it
belongs, the extent to which they maintain and amplify the efficiency and
effectiveness of the activities developed. In managerial practice there is a certain
scepticism regarding the necessity and opportunity of Human Resource
Management strategy, considering that the environment where the activity of the
organization takes place is unstable, submitted to some irregular fluctuations, hence
its uselessness, on the one hand; on the other hand it is considered that a plan is
profitable only if it is respected, which does no longer ensure flexibility as an
imperative trait that conditions the survival and development of an organization. In
this respect, the objectives of Human Resource Management define and express
synthetically the aims envisaged and the criteria to evaluate the future activity in
the field of Human Resource Management, and the Human Resource Management
strategy describes explicitly and implicitly the directions to follow, the modalities
or ways to attain specific purposes under the form of the objectives formulated for a
3-5 year span. Only under the circumstances of knowing the specific traits, of
grounding and implementing Human Resource Management strategy, are the
objectives of the organization fulfilled and its competitiveness increased.
2. Concept and specific traits of Human Resource Management strategy

The history of the word strategy began many millenniums ago. In this
respect, the remarks made by American Brian Quinn are interesting: At first,
during early Greek antiquity, the word strategos referred to the role of a
general in charge of an army. Then, it acquired the sense of a generals art,
referring to the psychological and behavioural abilities that enabled a general
to fulfill his role. In Pericles time (450 B. C.) strategy was perceived as a
managerial quality (administrative, leadership, oratory, power), and during
the reign of Alexander the Great (330 B. C.), strategy referred to the ability to
unfold forces in order to overwhelm opposition (the enemy) and create a
unitary system of global government. This sense was used for centuries in
most military approaches, expanding in other fields as well in the 20th
century" (Nicolescu and Verboncu, 2008:130). The idea of strategy appeared
in social sciences around the 40s, with the game theory, designating the
moves thought or played by one of the players. During the 60s the term was
used in order to define some of the most important decisions within
companies. The fundamental work in the field is Igor Ansoffs Corporale
Strategy (1965, original ed.), which had a great influence and was the first in
a series of works that envisaged the foundation, clarification and application

of managerial strategies (Gazier, 2003:30). Since then, things have moved

very fast and starting with the 80s everything or almost everything became
strategy in economy, sociology, psychology, anthropology. Whether they
speak about groups or individuals interests, economic, sentimental, esthetic
options more or less reasonable and elaborated or even 1528 about
sequences and attitudes, more and more authors have started to think in
strategic terms. Referring strictly to the economic field, the results of the
research made by one of the greatest specialists in management, Henry
Mintzberg, signaled the presence of 10 schools of managerial thinking as far
as strategy is concerned, after examining 1495 works dedicated to strategy.
In table no. 1, authors Nicolescu O. and Verboncu I. (2008) present
synthetically which these schools are and their defining traits concerning
strategy elaboration the most important element from the point of view of
managerial practice. In this respect, there are more and more numerous hints
and analyses that show that human resources have a strategic potential and
make the difference in the long run, changing an organizations future.

3. Scope of HRM
The scope of HRM is indeed vast. All major activities in the working life of a worker
from the time of his or her entry into an organization until he or she leaves the
organizations comes under the purview of HRM. The major HRM activities include
HR planning, job analysis, job design, employee hiring, employee and executive
remuneration, employee motivation, employee maintenance, industrial relations
and prospects of HRM. The scope of Human Resources Management extends to:
All the decisions, strategies, factors, principles, operations, practices, functions,
activities and methods related to the management of people as employees in any
type of organization. All the dimensions related to people in their employment
relationships, and all the dynamics that flow from it. 4 Figure 1.1: Scope of HRM The
scope of HRM is really vast. All major activities n the working life of a worker from
the time of his or her entry into an organization until he or she leaves it comes
under the purview of HRM. American Society for Training and Development (ASTD)

conducted fairly an exhaustive study in this field and identified nine broad areas of
activities of HRM.

4. Objectives of HRM
The primary objective of HRM is to ensure the availability of competent and willing
workforce to an organization. The specific objectives include the following:
1) Human capital : assisting the organization in obtaining the right number and
types of employees to fulfill its strategic and operational goals
2) Developing organizational climate: helping to create a climate in which
employees are encouraged to develop and utilize their skills to the fullest and to
employ the skills and abilities of the workforce efficiently
3) Helping to maintain performance standards and increase productivity through
effective job design; providing adequate orientation, training and development;
providing performance-related feedback; and ensuring effective two-way
communication.
4) Helping to establish and maintain a harmonious employer/employee relationship

5) Helping to create and maintain a safe and healthy work environment

6) Developing programs to meet the economic, psychological, and social needs of
the employees and helping the organization to retain the productive employees
7) Ensuring that the organization is in compliance with provincial/territorial and
federal laws affecting the workplace (such as human rights, employment equity,
occupational health and safety, employment standards, and labour relations
legislation). To help the organization to reach its goals
8) To provide organization with well-trained and well-motivated employees
9) To increase the employees satisfaction and self-actualization
10) To develop and maintain the quality of work life
11) To communicate HR policies to all employees.
12) To help maintain ethical polices and behavior. The above stated HRM objectives
can be summarized under four specific objectives: societal, organizational, and
functional and personnel.

5. Functions of HRM Human Resources management has an important role to play in

equipping organizations to meet the challenges of an expanding and increasingly
competitive sector. Increase in staff numbers, contractual diversification and
changes in demographic profile which compel the HR managers to reconfigure the
role and significance of human resources management. The functions are
responsive to current staffing needs, but can be proactive in reshaping
organizational objectives. All the functions of HRM are correlated with the core
objectives of HRM. For example personal objectives is sought to be realized through
functions like remuneration, assessment etc.
6. What is HR strategy?
There are a multitude of schools for what an HR strategy should ideally contain. One
suggestion is that an HR strategy or any kind of a strategy must have two key
elements:
1. strategic objectives, e.g. things the strategy is supposed to achieve, and
2. a plan of action, e.g. the means by which it is intended that the objectives will be
met.
The objectives should be defined in general terms of what needs to be done to
satisfy the aim of the organisation and the individual needs of employees. Strategy
is objectives and action plan HR strategies are simply the process in bringing
together people plans and programmes of activities within an overall framework,
designed to deliver against organisational objectives. The process of strategy
formulation is the process by which many different perspectives come to be
reconciled. The image below illustrates that HRM is directly linked to the core

business of a ministry with the function of providing adequate human resources.

Doing so, HRM is indirectly supporting achievement of the organisational objectives
of the ministry.