Jason Cordier

Citation

Thesis Title
Practicing strategy: Making sense of the activities and approaches of the HR function in a Sri Lankan Commercial Bank.

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Human resource (HR) practitioners have increasingly gravitated towards a greater strategic positioning of their activities. However, progress towards HR practitioner strategic integration has remained elusive. Mr Cordier’s research focused on understanding how the HR function, in conjunction with its organisational partners, attempts to act strategically. He found through interviewing HR practitioners and organisational actors that different business units had unique strategic requirements, and that HR practitioners failed to understand the contextual differences between business units. Stable and fluid environments created strategic requirements that were not homogeneous. To understand strategic intent, HR practitioners drew on patterns of previous activity when faced with ambiguity. Making greater sense of strategy often involved looking at past practices as opposed to current expected practices. This research has provided valuable insights towards understanding how HR practitioners conceive and enact strategic activity, and how this subsequently affects the performance of business units.

Supervisors
Dr Darryl Forsyth
Associate Professor Tony Garret
Professor Bevan Catley
Associate Professor David Tappin