The top four, in order, were training and development, contingent pay and reward schemes, performance
management (including appraisal), and careful recruitment and selection. These might be seen to reflect
the main objectives of most conceptualisations of a „strategic‟ HRM programme (e.g. Batt, 2002: 587):
namely, to identify and recruit strong performers, provide them with the abilities and confidence to work
effectively, monitor their progress toward the required performance targets, and reward them well for
meeting or exceeding them. Interestingly, some of the often-cited core elements of „strategic‟ HRM that
are also likely to be of benefit to employees seem to feature rather less in empirical research, notably good
pay, discretion over work tasks, employment security, diversity and work-life balance. Additionally, very
few studies examined practices associated with the „exit‟ phase of the employment relationship (e.g.
redundancy management). This remains a neglected area of HRM - perhaps because it is one of the
subject‟s, and the function‟s, „darker‟ sides (Redman and Wilkinson, 2001). In sum, the dominant
impression of authors‟ selections for HRM items is of a highly management-centric standpoint