Adobe Systems
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023
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HRM in perspective
seminar
Petr Smutný

Adobe Systems
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023
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Agenda for today
̶What is HRM and why is it important?
̶Perspective 1: STRATEGIC
̶Perspective 2: ORGANIZATIONAL
̶Perspective 2: CULTURAL and BEHAVIORAL
̶HRM for beter PERFORMANCE
̶Q & A
̶
̶

Adobe Systems
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023
3
What is HRM and why is it important?
… everything associated with employment relations in an organization.
̶
Why have people/employees become (arguably) the most important asset of a company?

Adobe Systems
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023
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Perspective 1: STRATEGIC
There are two competing perspecitves of SHRM
-best practice (univeralistic) approach
-best fit (contingency) approach
Some people argue that „best fit“ model is better than „best practice“ model.
̶What dose the concept of „best fit“ mean?
̶Are there any potential problems with the concept of „best fit“? If so, what are they?
̶

Adobe Systems
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023
5
Perspective 2: ORGANIZATIONAL (1/2)
Span of Control
= the number of employees (who can be effectively and efficiently) directly supervised by a
manager.
What is the current trend in org. design: towards tall (narrow span of control) or flat (wide span
of control) organizational structures?

Adobe Systems
Source: Raghuram G. Rajan and Julie Wulf, “The Flattening Firm” (The Review of Economics and
Statistics, November 2006); Maria Guadalupe, Hongyi Li, and Julie Wulf, “Who Lives in the
C-Suite?” (Harvard Business School Working Paper, 2011)
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Perspective 2: ORGANIZATIONAL (2/2)
The trend is towards flatter organizations (wider span of control).
How does this influence human resource management in companies?

Adobe Systems
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023
7
Perspective 3: CULTURAL and BEHAVIORAL
Organizational culture influences how people, teams and organisations behave.
Some people suggest that the most effective organizations have the stronges cultures.
§What do we mean by the „strength“ of org. culture?
§What factors affect it?
§What possible problems are there with a strong org. culture?
§What are the implications for HRM?
Organizational CULTURE is a living creature

Adobe Systems
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023
8
HRM for better PERFORMANCE (1/2)
Progress and performance need to be measured. That allows for evidence-based decisions.
That requires data to be collected in a regular and systematic ways.
Data-driven analyses can support decision making and strategy formulation.

Adobe Systems
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023
9
HRM for better PERFORMANCE (2/2)
With the sample data structure on the left:
-Which measures can you construct?
-Which metrics can you derive?
-How can the metrics be used:
-for analysis to facilitate decision making and/or strategy formulation processes?
-to demonstrate HRM performance?

Adobe Systems
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023
10
Q & A

Adobe Systems
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THANK YOU
AHRM/EHRM seminar - spring 2023