Unit 1 - Guest Model

A second ‘soft’ HRM model came from David Guest in 1987. Guest argued that HRM in the UK should be about designing policies and practices to achieve four main outcomes: strategic integration (planning/implementation); high employee commitment to the organisation; high workforce flexibility and adaptability; and a high-quality workforce. Strategic integration means ensuring that the organisation’s business plans are implemented through appropriately designed HR polices and practices. Companies have been criticised for trading HRM and strategy separately, therefore failing to combine HRM with the business strategy.

He proposed that these four HRM outcomes will lead to the desirable organisational outcomes of: high job performance, stronger problem solving, greater change consistent with strategic goals and improved cost-effectiveness, while also reducing employee turnover, absences, and grievances. However, Guest warned that these outcomes will be achieved only if an organisation has a coherent strategy of HRM policies fully integrated into the business strategy and supported by all levels of line management.

Guest’s model is similar to the Harvard but has seven HR policy categories instead of four.

Policy formulation and implementation/management of change means establishing HR policy to explicitly identify the nature of the change required in a business and manage the process of change. Employee appraisal, training and development involve both informally and formally evaluating employee performance and the need for training and development. Once these have been evaluated, policies must be in place to ensure that timely and appropriate training and employee development occur. Communication systems are the various processes and media that the organisation uses to encourage two-way flows of information between management and employees.

Guest described progress in the UK towards HRM as being somewhat slow and ‘crab-like’. British trade unions, he wrote, have started to become more positive about HRM and will work more openly and productively with management; however, many senior managers still retain a short-term perspective on their businesses. The result is that many HR initiatives appear to employees to be management fads rather than a genuine long-term commitment to the organisation and its people.

Guest’s model constitutes soft HRM for the same reasons that the Harvard model does: both give strong recognition to the needs of employees (for example, motivation and development) in the running of the organisation. Also, both are committed to employees’ needs as long as the measures taken to meet those needs remain consistent with the strategy of the organisation and management aims