Strategic Human Resource Management in Sport Organizations

1. Chapter 2 Strategic Human Resource Management

2. Learning Objectives • Identify the origins of SHRM and how it relates to broader developments in the practice of management • Understand the difference between the concept of personnel management, human resource management and strategic HRM • Understand developments in theories of strategy and how these emphasise the importance of efficient internal processes such as strategic HRM within sport organisations • Describe a model of SHRM and identify key elements of SHRM good practice • Outline key theoretical approaches linking SHRM and sport organisation performance

3. 6 Steps of Strategy • Clarification of corporate mission, goals and values • Analysis of the organisation’s external competitive environment to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (a SWOT analysis) • Analysis of the organisation’s internal operating environment to identify strengths and weaknesses (again using a SWOT analysis) • Selection of strategies that build on the organisation’s strengths and correct weaknesses, to take advantage of external opportunities and counter external threats • Strategy implementation • Strategy evaluation with corrective feedback to the implementation phase

4. SWOT

5. PEST analysis • POLITICAL • Government commitment to increasing participation in sport eg current concerns about obesity have led to governments increasing spending on children’s and youth sporting programs in many countries • Government targeting of certain ethnic/age or gender groups for increased participation • Government funding for sport infrastructure eg the Olympic games in Sydney generated many improvements in local sports facilities which greatly assisted many sports federations in their development • ECONOMIC • The potential of sport to create employment • The potential to use sport as an adjunct to promoting tourism eg Golf in Ireland, Surfing in Hawaii • SOCIAL • Aging populations, health issues, diversity agendas, population growth etc. • Urban/rural growth and decline and the need to rebalance sporting infrastructure in changing communities e.g. The decline of small rural towns in many countries which leads to the loss of players for town sporting clubs • TECHNOLOGICAL • Competition from computer games vis a vis children’s sport • Use of the internet to better promote sport e.g. advertise and sell tickets online • Alternative technologies e.g. online sports betting or virtual football

6. The 5 forces • Overall industry rivalry • Barriers to entry • Buyer power • Supplier power • Threat of substitutes

7. Resource based view • an organisation’s competitive advantage lies in its internal resources • resources include any aspect of the sport organisation with value-creating capabilities • HRM has tangible (HR performance, planning, training, selection systems etc.) and intangible resources (shared mindsets, team synergies etc.).

8. Attributes • a resource must be valuable – a capability to exploit opportunities and/or neutralise threats in the organisation’s environment • It must be rare among the organisation’s current and potential competition • there cannot be strategically equivalent substitutes for this resource that are valuable but neither rare nor imperfectly imitable • it must be imperfectly imitable

9. The Strategic Human Resource Management Process • SHRM .. ‘the pattern of planned human resource deployments and activities intended to enable an organisation to achieve its goals’ (Wright and McMahan, 1992: 298) • emphasises the importance of an organisation’s internal resources and capabilities in helping it achieve its strategic objectives • employees and volunteers are investment assets, who through a series of organisational practices develop a strong commitment to the organisation and ways of working together that deliver superior performance

10. Strategy Implementation Strategy Formulation HR Practices - Work / job design - Recruitment and Selection - Performance management - Employee relations - Training & development - Rewards Management External Analysis -Opportunities -Threats Organisational Performance -productivity -service quality -financial results Mission Goals Strategic Direction (Purposive strategy) HR Needs -Skills -Behaviour -Culture Strategy evaluation Internal Analysis -Strengths -Weaknesses HR Capability -skills -abilities -knowledge HR Policies and Practices -Behaviours -Results (eg turnover, retention) Figure 2.2 The Strategic Human Resource Management Process Source: Adapted from De Cieri et al (2003) p.50

11. Issues to be considered when implementing strategy : • allocation of sufficient resources (financial, time, technology and support) • an appropriate organisational hierarchy or some alternative structure (such as cross functional teams) • delegating responsibility of tasks/processes to individuals/groups • managing the process

12. Linking HRM practices & organisational performance The ‘good practice’ approach • Selective recruitment • Developing a decentralised organisation which supports self managed teams • Providing employment security • Providing high rewards relative to other organisations - but based on performance • Extensive training • Sharing information • Reducing status differentials in the workplace

13. The ‘contingency’ approach • HR practices should be closely integrated with organisational strategy and different behaviours may be required to enact different competitive strategies • identify behaviours required by staff to achieve the organisation’s goals and ensuring these are consistent with the overall business activities of the sport organisation

14. Configurational approach • Use of 'bundles' of HR practices which can be mixed and matched • groups of HRM practices can create a synergistic focus for organisation effort • key HR practices are: selective hiring, performance based reward systems and sophisticated training and performance management systems

15. Summary • SHRM theory is aligned with general strategy literature • There should be a strong link between the goals of the organisation and the need for congruence in the HR system. • There are 3 competing theories explaining the links between SHRM and organisational performance :1. best practice, 2. contingency and 3. configurational