This module is not currently running in 2024 to 2025.
This module aims to provide learners with a rigorous framework of knowledge and understanding concerning the process of strategy formulation and implementation. It seems to enhance their understanding of the context in which businesses and public sector organisations operate, and how the HR function can enhance overall capability.
Topics of study are as follows:
- Fundamentals of strategy and its defining characteristics. Differences between strategy and implementation.
- The role of context in shaping strategy
- How the HR function supports the process of strategy development and implementation
- How enhanced people management skills and processes support the management of change and foster a culture of adaptability
- Leading culture change, and the key challenges that organisations and individual managers face
- History and origins of Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM)
Total contact hours: 24
Private study hours: 126
Total study hours: 150
Main assessment methods
Individual essay (2500 words) (40%)
Examination, 2 hours (60%)
Reassessment methods
100% Exam
Armstrong, M. (2016). Armstrong's Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management. 6th Edn. London: Kogan Page.
Boselie, P. (2014). Strategic Human Resource Management. 2nd Edn. Columbus: OH, McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Boxall, P., Purcell, J., & Wright, P. (2008). The Oxford Handbook of Human Resource Management Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Boxall, P., & Purcell, J. (2015). Strategy and Human Resource Management. 4th Edn. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Truss, C., Mankin, D., & Kelliher, C. (2012). Strategic Human Resource Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
- Explain and critically analyse the concept of strategy in shaping the HR function.
- Identify a number of approaches by which the HR function can enhance strategic capability within organisations.
- Critically analyse and evaluate the relationship between the HR function and strategic implementation.
- Show a knowledge of how the HR function can enhance overall organisational capability with reference to improving employee engagement.
- Demonstrate an improved awareness of how contextual factors and forces shape business strategy and the HR response.
- Appreciate how HR policies are developed, and impacted by organisational structures, to meet changing contextual pressures.
The intended generic learning outcomes.
On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
- Set HR strategy in the wider context of general organisational management.
- Develop abilities to critically assess and evaluate the impact of Strategic HRM on the performance of organisations.
- Develop analytical skills by linking theoretical perspectives on Strategic HRM to contemporary organisational situations throughout the course of the module.
- Plan work, working independently, and in groups.
- Write coherently and write critically.
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