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Strategic Human Resource Management and Employment Relations pp 53–62Cite as

Strategic Choice and SHRM & ER

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Part of the book series: Springer Texts in Business and Economics ((STBE))

Abstract

At the end of this chapter, you should be able to:

  • Apply the concept of strategic choice to the study and practice of SHRM & ER

  • Identify the common strategic choice options and its impact on SHRM & ER

  • Analyse the role of HRM and ER in post-merger integration

  • Critically evaluate the contribution of SHRM in M&A contexts

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business and Law, Central Coast Business School, The University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, Central Coast, NSW, Australia

    Ashish Malik

Authors
  1. Ashish Malik
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Correspondence to Ashish Malik .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Business and Law, Central Coast Business School, The University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, Central Coast, New South Wales, Australia

    Ashish Malik

Key Questions and Learning Activities

Key Questions and Learning Activities

  • Question. 1 Explain how strategic choices impact the nature and extent of HRM practices.

  • Question. 2 What HRM skills are necessary for realising value while exercising strategic choice in relation to mergers and acquisitions?

  • Question. 3 In a M&A context, discuss whether the use of a common language at the target firm by the bidder firm is a better strategy for ensuring a successful post-merger integration.

Learning Activity: Analysing Language Issues in Post-merger Integration

Looking at the Japanese cross border M&A and German target employee alienation issues case study by Bebenroth and Bartnik, propose a language strategy that might be most relevant. Ensure you provide a reasoned answer for your choice.

Glossary

Strategic choice

is the extent to which a firm has leeway in making decisions from a strategic perspective

Human Agency

in an organisational context refers to the key individuals tasked with exercising choices and making key decisions that may have an enduring impact on the scope and sustainability of an enterprise.

Post-merger integration (PMI)

refers to the processes through which firms integrate the soft (people, culture, leadership and language) and hard (such as strategy, M&A performance and benefit realization) issues following the merger of a firm.

Language strategies

in a cross-border PMI context refers to a range of language choices that firms may employ to make the integration process more successful. Firms may choose from adopting a common corporate language, such as English, where both the target and bidder firms are non-native language speakers, to a combination of home or host country languages. In some cases, translation services might be deployed as a useful and cost effective language strategy.

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Cite this chapter

Malik, A. (2018). Strategic Choice and SHRM & ER. In: Malik, A. (eds) Strategic Human Resource Management and Employment Relations. Springer Texts in Business and Economics. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0399-9_6

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