Human Resource Management Must-Reads: #2

The latest issue of the academic journal Human Resource Management celebrates the prestigious publication’s 50th anniversary. In honour of this celebration, TribeHR is counting down the five most influential papers to ever grace its pages.

Start at #5.
Go back to #3.

#2. On becoming a strategic partner: The role of human resources in gaining competitive advantage.
Barney & Wright. (1998). Human Resource Management 37(1). 31–46.

In a reflective and refreshing essay, Jay Barney and Patrick Wright use the value, rareness, imitability, and organization (VRIO) framework to assess the impact of Human Resources practices on competitive advantage. Offering poignant commentary along the way, they present real examples of HR successes and failures in American companies.

Often presenting more questions than answers, this paper challenges HR to better embrace and define its role in the structure of business. It has been an influential motivator in the millennial attempt to streamline HR and explain why it deserves a seat at the table.

Barney and Wright suggest that HR executives come to understand the value and role of their people, their economic impact, how they compare to competing firms, and the role of HR in building for the future. The VRIO framework is one tool that can help in finding the answers:

VRIO Flowchart

A flowchart of the VRIO framework with assessments of competitive advantage and performance. Adapted from work by J. Barney. Addison-Wesley

The paper concludes by stressing the necessity of HR emerging from its bubble and integrating with the rest of the business community.

“There are far too many HR executives who view themselves as Human Resource people who happen to work in a business, rather than as business people who happen to work in the Human Resource function.”


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