Practicing Human Resource Strategy: Understanding the Relational Dynamics in Strategic HR Work by Means of a Narrative Approach

This article presents the results of a qualitative research project aimed at examining how Human Resource (HR) practitioners interpret HR strategy and strategic change. We will illustrate how they develop HR strategy by relying on a system of shared practices which, in turn, constitute the underlying relational dynamics. We argue that HR strategy is embedded in a (rhetorical) network of middle and top managers from HR departments and corresponding operational departments. This implies that HR strategy happens in a social process, more precisely in practices-in-use. Drawing on a systemic constructionist framework, the article discusses the nature of practices-in-use and presents findings from an inductive analysis of a qualitative HR study. The qualitative nature enabled us to shed light on previously neglected aspects of the field of strategic human resource management (SHRM). We will outline our research approach and method in detail and discuss its suitability for studying SHRM issues. The article concludes by proposing a new understanding of SHRM that will hopefully prove to be fruitful both in theory and practice.