It is unwise to pursue so-called ‘best practice’ (the ‘universalistic’ perspective of without being certain that what happens elsewhere would work in the context of the organization (Delery and Doty,1996).
Best fit’ is preferable to ‘best practice’ as long as the
organization avoids falling into the trap of ‘contingent determinism’ by
allowing the context to determine the strategy (Paauwe, 2004).
The search for best fit is limited by the impossibility of
modelling all the contingent variables, the difficulty of showing their
interconnection, and the way in which changes in one variable have an impact on
others (Purcell, 1999).
Best fit can be pursued in a number of ways, namely by fitting
the HR strategy to its position in its life cycle of start-up, growth, maturity
or decline (Baird and Meshoulam, 1988), or the competitive strategy of
innovation, quality or cost leadership (Porter, 1985), or to the organization’s
‘strategic configuration’ (Delery and Doty, 1996), such as the typology of
organizations as prospectors, defenders and analyzers defined by Miles and Snow
(1978).
This concept of universality is criticized because it takes no
account of the local context. The concept of best fit emphasizes that HR
strategies should be congruent with the context and circumstances of the
organization. ‘Best fit’ can be perceived in terms of vertical integration or
alignment between the organization’s business and HR strategies. (Armstrong,
2009).It is generally accepted that best fit is more important than best
practice. HR strategies set out what the organization intends to do about its
human resource management policies (Armstrong, 2009).
James Lincoln's reward system is the heart of the successful individual performance working system. In the US, Lincoln employs a highly paid workpiece system that is linked to individual employee results based on a multitude of job-related factors (Björkman & Galunic, 2003).
ReplyDeleteFurther to your comments on reward system,Cappelli (2008: 196) wrote that: ‘When employees fail in their jobs, part of the organization also fails.’Performance management aims to eliminate or at least significantly reduce this possibility. Pulakos (2009: 3) emphasized that: ‘Performance management is the key process through which work gets done. It’s how organizations communicate expectations and drive behavior to achieve important goals; it’s also about how organizations identify ineffective Performers for development programmes or other personnel actions.’
DeleteBoth Best fit and best practices are globally accepted norms which are tried and tested and proven methods. In today’s context of globalisation and diverse workforces, that a tailored combination of best practice and best fit approaches would be ideal. Both approaches has many advantages and also in global context most of the organizations are in to the best practice or best fit, while some of the organizations having combination of both best fit and best practice and according to Barton 2016 is the ideal approach .
ReplyDeleteThis concept of universality is criticized because it takes no account of the local context. The concept of best fit emphasizes that HR strategies should be congruent with the context and circumstances of the organization. ‘Best fit’ can be perceived in terms of vertical integration or alignment between the organization’s business and HR strategies. (Armstrong, 2009).It is generally accepted that best fit is more important than best practice. HR strategies set out what the organization intends to do about its human resource management policies (Armstrong, 2009).
DeleteBest practices in human resource management refer to practices that are connected by the best organizations working in comparable conditions and seeking after comparative objectives. They are connected to achieve continuous improvement of performance by critical assumption of vital and fundamental practices in resource management the board of the best organizations in explicit segment
ReplyDeleteŠikýř 2015)
The approach based on application of best practices in human resource management is one of the alternative approaches to research the link between human resource management and organizational performance and competitiveness (Delery and Doty, 1996,p. 802).
DeleteHi Gabriel,
ReplyDeleteIt is observed that Best-fit model is more realistic than the best-practice model (Armstrong,2008). However, there are limitations to the concept of best fit as this model tend to be static and needs to adapt to contingencies (Paauwe, 2004).
As Richardson and Thompson (1999) commented, ‘A strategy’s success turns on combining vertical or external fit and horizontal or internal fit.’ They concluded that a firm with bundles of associated HR practices should have a higher level of performance, providing it also achieves high levels of fit with its competitive strategy.
DeleteThought this would helpful to explore more deep in to the topic, Resource-based strategic HRM can produce what Boxall and Purcell (2003) referred to as human resource advantage. The aim is to develop strategic capability. This means strategic fit between resources and opportunities, obtaining added value from the effective deployment of resources, and developing managers who can think and plan strategically in the sense that they understand the key strategic issues and ensure that what they do enables the strategic goals of
ReplyDeletethe business to be achieved.
In addition to your comment,a resource-based approach to strategic HRM focuses on satisfying the human capital requirements of the organization. The notion of resource-based strategic HRM is based on the ideas of Penrose (1959), who wrote that the firm is ’an administrative organization and a collection of productive resources’. It was developed by Hamel and Prahalad (1989), who declared that competitive advantage is obtained if a firm can obtain and develop human resources that enable it to learn faster and apply its learning more effectively than its rivals.
DeleteStrategic HRM has earned both credibility and popularity over the past decade, specifically with respect to its impact on organizational performance (Paauwe and Boselie 2003).
ReplyDeleteAgreed.However,the best-practice model are based on the idea of superiority of the organizational performance and Pfeffer’s model is a good example of the set. His model shows seven important HR practices which are employment security,selective hiring, self-managed teams, high compensation contingent on performance, training, reduction of status differentials and sharing information. (Armstrong 2006, p. 65)
ReplyDeleteHi,the best fit enables synergies effect throughout the company, improve procurement, resource allocation, and usage, and improve profitability opportunities. It helps organizations to reduce operational costs, environmental changes, and take advantage of new possibilities such as internationalization (Hsieh and Chen, 2011 & Swoboda, 2016)
ReplyDeleteHi Gabriel, as described by Maloney (2014), the common understanding of both best fit and best practice approaches views Strategic Human Resource Management as having an important role in maintaining and strengthening organizational strategy and objectives. Both agree the reward system is important and should be consistent with other HR practices and plays an important part in attracting suitable applicants and retaining current employees.
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