Strategic Human Resource Management

This course introduces students to different Human Resource practices as well as to a strategic perspective of Human Resource Management (HRM). HRM refers to activities associated with the management of work and people in organisations. Strategic Human Resource Management is concerned with how organizations meet and manage significant threats and challenges in the environment and transform these into human resource strategies. The course wants to provide a general business context in which the human resource strategies will take place.

The course is organized in two sub-courses:

Sub-cource 1: Introduction to SHRM (Introduktion till strategiskt personalarbete), 7,5 hec

In the beginning of the first sub-course – personnel practices such as recruitment, selection, training and development, health and safety, compensation and redundancies, will be dealt with. These practices will be related to the historical and institutional context of strategic HRM, with the purpose to understand the practices from a strategic perspective. Then the first sub-course develops and integrates an understanding of how HRM is linked to strategic management of the business. More specific, we focus on an outward perspective that includes themes such as the work organisation, the cultural aspects, the diversity in organisations, organising HR work, and HRM strategies in different contexts. The course wants to provide insight into “the real HR working life” where managers and coworkers continuously learn and develop themselves and their immediate surroundings.

Sub-cource 2: Strategy and organization (Strategi och organisation), 7,5 hec

The purpose of the second sub-course – Strategy and Organization - is to develop an understanding of the processes leading to strategic renewal as well as an ability to apply this understanding to real current problems. This part of the course aims at preparing students to take part in business development and strategic work as HR strategists and, in later stages of their careers, to lead such processes. Strategic problems and possibilities that arise in organisations will be in focus of this second sub-course. Important aspects are not only the company´s positioning in relation to its market, but also the technological development, the supply of labour, political developments in society and other factors relevant for how organizations manage their business.