TABLE OF CONTENTS Throughout the earlier chapters I tried to establish how important HR strategy can be. In Chapter 4 we looked at what might actually constitute a real HR strategy and also at some of the practical, policy implications. Now this may seem like getting the chicken and the egg in the wrong order, but before we go any further we need to consider the theoretical underpinnings of any HR strategy. Why is this chapter not the first? Well the logic is this if we do not know what the potential value of an HR strategy might be, why would anyone want to delve any further into the subject?
Theories do not always get successfully translated into practice, but one thing is for certain, if something does not work in theory then it will never work in practice. Sound theories should lead to sound strategies. So, are conventional HR theories robust enough for the job? Is there any coherent theory that binds together all of the strands that could make up a cohesive strategy? Or is the current state of the HR world just a very loose amalgam of disparate ideas?
This, in turn, begs the question of how scientific HR management is. Like most social sciences it is difficult to create the laboratory conditions to test the theories out. So there is an even greater need to make sure the theories are as well founded as they can be. How can we be...
