Integrating HR planning and organisational strategy

5 D uring the past decade, the demands of market competition have placed unprecedented pressure on organisations to ® nd ways to be more ef® cient in their operations and more responsive to customers’ needs. Human resource management (HRM) is increasingly seen as a key to developing and implementing strategic responses to these pressures. Scholars and practitioners have argued that tightening the linkage between HRM and organisation strategy has become essential to competitive viability (Dyer, 1983; Schuler and Jackson, 1987). HR professionals are encouraged by these authors to link their efforts with the strategic planning process and, in effect, create a strategic partnership with organisational line managers. As a result of such a partnership, HR efforts will become signi® cantly more congruent with overall strategic objectives (Ulrich, 1992). The use of specialised HR planning has been advocated by academics and practitioners for many years. Despite the perceived importance of the topic and the widely publicised value of the HR planning process, very little empirical research has been undertaken to determine how such planning is actually being carried out by organisations. In addition, little is known about how the planning process combines with its objectives to integrate with organisational strategies. The focus of HR planning ± its objectives ± and how that planning is carried out are treated independently in the literature. This research therefore seeks to further understanding of how HR planning objectives and the level of formality of the HR planning process ® t together in determining the usefulness of HRM to organisation strategy.