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Strategic Human Resource Management in World Airline Industry

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For over 15 years, there has been an ongoing research on HR strategies and competencies differentiating the business performance. Besides this, HR practitioners have focussed their attention on other important questions as well. Bratton and Gold (2007), for example, tries to question what policies and practices make up HR strategies. Is it possible to identify cluster of bundle of HR practices with different strategic competitive models? What is relationship between different clusters of HR practices and organizational performance? For companies looking for ways to gain a competitive advantage, the implication of HR strategic choices for company’s performance is certainly the key factor. Recently business strategy researchers turned their …show more content…

The competitiveness in world airlines is increasingly dependent on size, market share and geographical coverage. As per Botten and McManus (1999) report, British Airways gain most from globalisation and extended geographical route coverage. A considerable emphasis was been put on developing a strong global brand image, quality and customer service, with cost control measures being introduced to improve efficiency. A radically changed market policy covers its different market segments. British Airways implemented a range of new working practices and strategies (see appendix 2) in response to the challenges of market forces, growing competition, and the increased freedom for employers to reconstruct the employment relationship (Huang, 1999). Human resource management (HRM) principles and techniques are proposed to offer a key for securing these objectives. As cost efficiency increases, there is a substantial reduction in employment levels, new working practices, and wage and salary control. Consequently, there has been a substantial increase in productivity levels but decline in staff morale and motivation (Botten and McManus, 1999). This suggests that there was not been effective use of HR practices earlier. Huang (1999) seconded this and remarked firms practising HR strategies would not show better organizational performance. However, at present its major

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