Categories of SHRM
Broadly speaking, the SHRM literature can be divided into two categories.
The first consists of work which is concerned with identifying and seeking to understand the features of organization that are regarded as determinants of organizational performance. The task is to identify key causal connections and to assess their impact on the capability of the organization and on the behaviour, attitudes, and skills of staff. This line of work can itself be further differentiated into two forms. On the one hand, there are the academic, research-based analyses and assessments of the factors which may influence levels of performance (selection processes, competences, types of training, changing structural forms, various employment strategies, the resource-based view and so on). And on the other hand, there is the consultancy literature which advocates particular ‘solutions’ and seeks to sell their merits to managers.