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Walking the tightrope: strategic issues for human resources

Walking the tightrope: strategic issues for human resources
Walking the tightrope: strategic issues for human resources
Human Resources (HR) managers become victims of ambiguity when they try to determine best practices. The paper points out that a balance is needed and the risk in not looking for the balance is worse than going for the extremes when making tactical and strategic choices in human resource management. It highlights possible benefits and the main pitfalls to avoid when applying this approach in organizational settings. Exploring a variety of dilemmas, the paper describes what these extreme options are, and how a balance may be achieved. It concludes that no clear guidelines are available, and perhaps there cannot be any. Nevertheless, the HR manager needs to focus efforts in finding a sensible choice, in an environment of multiple options. This is why the role of the HR manager may be depicted as ‘walking on a tightrope’.
0024-6301
467-475
Baruch, Yehuda
25b89777-def4-4958-afdc-0ceab43efe8a
Baruch, Yehuda
25b89777-def4-4958-afdc-0ceab43efe8a

Baruch, Yehuda (1998) Walking the tightrope: strategic issues for human resources. Long Range Planning, 31 (3), 467-475. (doi:10.1016/S0024-6301(98)80013-7).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Human Resources (HR) managers become victims of ambiguity when they try to determine best practices. The paper points out that a balance is needed and the risk in not looking for the balance is worse than going for the extremes when making tactical and strategic choices in human resource management. It highlights possible benefits and the main pitfalls to avoid when applying this approach in organizational settings. Exploring a variety of dilemmas, the paper describes what these extreme options are, and how a balance may be achieved. It concludes that no clear guidelines are available, and perhaps there cannot be any. Nevertheless, the HR manager needs to focus efforts in finding a sensible choice, in an environment of multiple options. This is why the role of the HR manager may be depicted as ‘walking on a tightrope’.

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Published date: June 1998

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 486581
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/486581
ISSN: 0024-6301
PURE UUID: dddad809-8233-4113-8061-dc7cc40e6c7c
ORCID for Yehuda Baruch: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-0678-6273

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Date deposited: 26 Jan 2024 17:47
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:25

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