The human resource function

The human resource function has consistently faced a battle in justifying its position in organizations (Drucker, 1954; Stewart, 1996). In times of plenty, firms easily justify expen-ditures on training, staffing, reward, and employee involvement systems, but when faced with financial difficulties, such HR systems fall prey to the earliest cutbacks.The advent of the sub field of strategic human resource management (SHRM), devoted to exploring HR’s role in supporting business strategy, provided one avenue for demonstrating its value to the firm. Walker’s (1978) call for a link between strategic planning and human resource planning signified the conception of the field of SHRM, but its birth came in the early 1980s with Devanna, Fombrum and Tichy’s (1984) article devoted to extensively exploring the link between business strategy and HR. Since then, SHRM’s evolution has consistently followed (by a few years) developments within the field of strategic manage-ment. For example, Miles and Snow’s (1978) organizational types were later expanded to include their associated HR systems (Miles & Snow, 1984).