HR and
Organization Strategy
Steven V. Manderscheid, Ed.D.
Road Map
 Introductions and course overview.
 Changes in the professional world.
 Strategic HR/strategy alignment and
competencies.
 Leadership and management.
 Strategy management and planning.
 Strategic formation and implementation.
Introduction
o Name.
o Your professional role.
o Why you are interested in this area of
study.
Guidelines for Success
 Share your experiences. You will provide
valuable insight.
 If you are doing something that gets results,
keep doing it.
 Take the concepts you learn here and
incorporate them into your own style.
Syllabus
Syllabus Review
Writing Papers: A Few Tips
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Consider creating an outline before writing your paper.
Include an introduction, body and closing.
Subtitles enhance readability.
Use 10- to 12-point font with 1” margins.
Left-align your paper.
Please include a title page.
Use APA guidelines when citing the work of others.
Proofread your paper and review transitions from pointto-point and from paragraph-to-paragraph.
 Submit paper electronically or on hard copy.
Changes in the Professional World

Work in small groups and identify five
changes in the professional world in the
past 5 to 10 years.

Identify one positive and one negative
implication of each change from an HR
perspective.

Record your changes and select a
speaker from your group to present your
findings to the large group.
Strategic HR Defined
Strategic HR increases an organization’s ability
to achieve its vision, mission and strategic
objectives. This is done by developing (not in a
vacuum) HR strategies (initiatives) that align
with the organization’s direction.
Strategic HR
What does it mean to be strategic from
an HR standpoint?
How Can this Be Done?

One or more HR professionals (leaders) are
involved in the organization’s strategic planning
efforts (best-case scenario).

HR will develop a strategic plan to support the
overarching plan.

HR is asked to lead strategic planning for the
organization.

HR is asked to find a professional to lead
strategic planning for the organization.

HR is an advocate for strategic planning so the
organization has a foundation to develop its
plans.
Effective HR Leaders
 Identify someone you believe is an
effective HR leader. Then identify someone
you believe is a marginal HR leader.
 Identify the attributes and characteristics of
each. Why would you want to work or not
want to work with them in the future?
 Work in small groups. Share your
examples and create a list that shows
marginal leadership characteristics and
best leadership characteristics.
HR Competencies
Professional &
Technical
Knowledge
Business
Competence
HR Professional
Integration
Competence
Ability to Manage
and/or Lead Change
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2000). Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Irwin McGrawHill
HR Videos
SHRM Foundation: Society for Human Resource
Management (Producer). (2003). HR Heroes:
What it means to be a Strategic HR Leader in the
21st Century. (Available from the SHRM
Foundation, 1800 Duke Street, Alexandria,
Virginia, 22314.)
SHRM Foundation: Society for Human Resource
Management (Producer). (2004). HR in
Alignment: The Link to Business Strategy.
(Available from the SHRM Foundation, 1800 Duke
Street, Alexandria, Virginia, 22314.)
HR Leaders
How do you differentiate between
HR leaders and HR managers?
Managers and Leaders
“Management is responsible for
maintaining order; leadership is
responsible for producing change
or movement.”
Kotter, J. P. (1990). What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review, May-June, p. 103-11.
Managers and Leaders
In addition to Kotter’s definition, Bennis provides
the following for differentiating between managers
and leaders:
 Managers administer; leaders innovate.
 Managers maintain; leaders develop.
 Managers control; leaders inspire.
 Managers have a short-term view; leaders, a
long-term view.
 Managers ask “how” and “when”; leaders ask
“what” and “why”.
 Managers accept the status quo; leaders
challenge it.
Bennis, W. G. (1989). On becoming a leader. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Leadership Defined
Northouse defines leadership as a process.
Leadership involves influence; leadership occurs
within a group context; leadership involves goal
attainment. Based on the previous construct,
Northouse further defines leadership as “a process
whereby an individual influences a group of
individuals to achieve a common goal.”
According to Bennis, leaders tend to share some, if
not all, of the following three characteristics: they
establish a guiding vision; they have passion; and
they act with integrity. Bennis further defines
leadership as “a process by which an agent induces
a subordinate to behave in a desired manner.”
Bennis, W. G. (1989). On becoming a leader. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Northouse, P. G. (2001). Leadership: theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Consensus
Consensus is a decision that all team members
can support. It may be--but is not necessarily--the
alternative most preferred by all members. When
true consensus is reached through a process in
which everyone participates, the output is usually
a superior quality decision. Moreover, it is a
decision having widespread acceptance and
support for implementation. Most important, team
members are motivated to see the decision
through to completion (Brilhart and Galanes,
1989).
Brilhart, J. K., and Galanes, G. J. (1989). Effective Group Decisions.
Dubuque, IA: William C Brown Publishers. p. 201-203.
Involvement
Involvement is a key leadership practice to
ensure you facilitate ownership and gain
commitment and involvement. It results in
better decisions before moving forward with
valuable organizational resources.
Know who to involve, when, how much,
how often, etc. Each situation is different
but before moving forward with a strategic
initiative, be sure you have laid a
foundation for success.
What is Strategic Planning?
A strategic plan is a road map to lead an
organization from where it is now to where
it would like to be.
Strategy formation is a set of processes
involved in creating or determining the
organization’s strategies.
Strategy implementation are the methods
by which strategies are operationalized or
executed.
Griffin, R. W. (2002). Management (7th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Strategic Planning
 Clarify or develop a vision, mission and
values.
 Conduct a SWOT analysis.
 Identify four to six key focus areas.
 Develop strategic goals.
 Create action plans.
 Develop a follow-up process and
communication plan.
Two Constructs to Consider
Operational Effectiveness – Is your organization
performing similar activities better than your
competitors?
Strategic Positioning – What actions can your
organization take to distinguish itself from
competitors? What does your organization consider
to be its competitive differentiators in the
marketplace?
Note: It is important to have clarity on these concepts before
starting the strategic formation process because they provide a
guide as the organization develops strategic initiatives.
Porter, M. (1996, November–December). What is strategy? Harvard
Business Review, 74(6), 61–78.
Active Inertia
Active inertia is an organization’s tendency
to follow established behavioral patterns
even in response to dramatic
environmental shifts. Because they are
stuck in the modes of thinking and working
that brought success in the past, leaders
perpetuate their tried-and-true activities.
Sull, D. (1999, July-August). Why good companies go bad.
Harvard Business Review, 77(4), 42-52.
Strategic Plan and Vision
A strategic plan is a road map to lead an
organization from where it is now to where
it would like to be.
A vision is an engineer’s rendering of the
achievement of that map.
HR should have a supporting vision and
strategic plan as well; there must be
alignment.
Vision
 A vision is a depiction of what you would like
your organization and HR department to be
like in the future.
 A vision statement is a brief explanation (one
or two sentences) with some explicit
commentary about why the vision is desirable.
Vision statements should be more than
slogans. They are a distillation of your
organization’s values, dreams and priorities.
Characteristics of an Effective Vision
Imaginable: Conveys a picture of what the future
will look like.
Desirable: Appeals to your long-term interests and
the interests of other stakeholders.
Feasible: Has realistic, attainable goals.
Focused: Is clear enough to help guide decisionmaking.
Flexible: Is general enough to allow for individual
initiative and alternative responses in light of
changing conditions.
Comprehensible: Is easy to communicate; can be
successfully explained within five minutes.
Kotter, J. (1996). Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
Vision Activity
Step one - Work in small groups of three to four
students and answer the following questions:
 How do you want your HR department to be
different or what kind of department do you want
to become?
 What role do you want the HR department to
play in the organization?
 If you could create the organization of your
dreams, what would it look like and what affect
would it have on your stakeholders in 2009?
Vision Activity
Step two - Write a metaphor for success.
The intent is to stretch your mind and think of
different ways to view success.
For example:
“Our organization is like a mariachi
band…all playing the same music
together.”
Mission
Effective mission statements include the
following elements:
 The concept of your organization.
 The nature of your business.
 The reason your organization exists.
 The people you serve.
 The principles and values under which you
intend to operate.
Sample Mission Statements
XYZ is committed to delivering exemplary,
compassionate and professionally rewarding
internal medicine care to patients with complex
multi-system diseases.
XYZ’s HR department is committed to providing
professional, progressive and strategic human
resource leadership to all stakeholders.
XYZ’s HR department provides the organization
with people, policies, processes and practices that
best support a flow of talent capable of meeting
businesses’ needs.
Values
Values are the essential and enduring
tenets of an organization--the guiding
principles that have a profound effect on
how everyone in the organization thinks
and acts.
Types of Values
Core values are the values applied in daily
choices. For example, a core value might be
honesty; you act on it when you consistently tell
the truth and are frank and open with people.
Inspirational values are the values you want
more of in your life. A good example might be to
achieve better work/life balance. If you are not
actively working on it, develop strategies about
how to achieve it.
Why Values?
Why is it important to identify and
articulate values?
Values create alignment and drive
behavior. They provide a framework to
help make decisions, prioritize actions
and interact with each other.
Articulating values is a representation of
the organization to the outside
world…your stakeholders.
SWOT Analysis
A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool
used to evaluate strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats. A SWOT analysis
informs the goal-setting process and provides
a context for future strategic planning
discussions.
Strengths and weaknesses are internal to
an organization.
Opportunities and threats originate from
outside the organization.
A Sample SWOT Analysis Matrix
Negative
External
Internal
Positive
Strengths
Weaknesses
High-quality employees.
Strong, committed HR staff.
Good reputation in the organization.
Location (close to our stakeholders).
Good rapport with other departments.
Work well as a team.
Good technical competence and tools.
Vagueness of role in our acquisition strategy.
Lack of data or measurements.
Poor communication.
HR partner bandwidth.
The volume of HR initiative on the table.
Compensation design and benefit program.
Opportunities
Threats
Stability in leadership.
Expansion of services.
Referral centers.
Integrate talent management systems.
Secure new talent via our merger.
Further develop our self-service model.
Budgetary constraints.
Stagnation/complacency.
Turnover/leadership changes.
Rising health care costs.
Internal conflicts & overworked employees.
Marketplace uncertainty.
Key Focus Areas
Key focus areas are the areas in which the
organization will focus its attention in the next 1-3
years.
Leaders should assign ownership of each key
focus area and identify objectives and action
plans. From an HR perspective, key owners
could be HRD managers, compensation
specialists, HR regional directors, etc.
Note: Ensure consensus on 4-6 key focus areas.
This will increase the likelihood of cross
organizational support.
Kusy, M., & McBain, R. (2000). Putting real value into strategic planning: Moving beyond
never-never land! Organization Development Practitioner, 32(2), 22.
Sample Key Focus Areas
Employees: XYZ Corporation will proactively
attract and retain a committed and qualified
professional staff to meet our clients’ needs.
Programs: The HR department will define HR IT
systems and programs to streamline processes
and better serve our stakeholders.
SMARTS Goals
 Specific: Is the statement clear and concise?
 Measurable: Is the statement quantifiable?
 Attainable: Is the statement realistic?
 Reasonable: Can it be accomplished under
current conditions and with current resources?
 Time Specific: Does have a completion date?
 Stretch: Does it require the employee to
develop new skills or stretch their current
abilities?
Sample SMARTS Goals

By June 15, reduce the average human resource service
center response time by 15 percent.
Performance measure: Response time.

Develop and communicate an organization-wide total rewards
and value proposition by May 1.
Performance measure: A plan with strategies, action steps and measures
that starts in late May.

Conduct two formal manager feedback sessions every three
months and use the feedback to develop a written report with
recommendations to improve the organization’s talent
acquisition process.
Performance measure: A written report that summarizes results and
includes recommendations based on customer feedback.
Template
Owner:
Team:
Key Focus Area:
Strategic Objective #1
Strategic Objective #2
Activities
Completion Date
Measurement
Implementing Strategy
 Ensure that leaders can communicate the plan
and manage performance.
 Assign ownership of key focus areas and
goals.
 Establish interim debrief sessions with owners
and measure the progress.
 Acknowledge and make success visible.
 Link strategic goals and values to the
performance systems.
Manderscheid, S., & Kusy, M. (2005). How to Design Strategy With No Dust—Just Results!
Organization Development Journal, 23(2), 62-70.
Emergent v. Intended Strategies
 An intended or deliberate strategy is an
intended plan which is then realized.
 An emergent strategy is a set of actions or
behavior that is consistent over time; a
“realized pattern [that] was not expressly
intended” in the original planning of strategy.
Most strategies involve a bit of both. A pure
deliberate strategy requires that the outcome
was realized totally as intended (unlikely). An
emergent strategy typically incorporates
consistent actions that will have some
intentionality.
Mintzberg, H. (1994). The rise and fall of strategic planning. New York: The Free Press.
Conclusion
Questions or Concluding Comments?