Human resource management practice I also available by michael armstrong

Implementing HR strategy

As Gratton (2000: 30) commented: ‘There is no great 

strategy, only great execution.’ Strategies cannot be 

left as generalized aspirations or abstractions. But 

getting strategies into action is not easy: intent does 

not  always  lead  to  action.  Too  often,  strategists  

act like Charles Dickens’s character Mr Pecksmith,  

who was compared by Dickens (Martin Chuzzlewit, 

Penguin Classics, 2004: 23) to ‘a direction-post which 

is always telling the way to a place and never goes 

there.’ It is necessary to avoid saying, in effect: ‘We 

need to get from here to there but we don’t care how.’

If, in Kanter’s (1984) phrase, HR strategies are  

to be action vehicles, they must be translated into 

HR  policies  that  provide  guidelines  on  decision-

making and HR practices that enable the strategy  

to work. These can be the basis for implementation 

programmes  with  clearly  stated  objectives  and  

deliverables.

To a large extent, HR strategies are implemented 

by line managers. As Purcell et al (2003: x) stressed, 

it is front-line managers who ‘bring policies to life’. 

They pointed out that:

Implementing and enacting policies is the task 

of line managers. It is necessary first to involve 

line managers in the development of HR strategy 

– bearing in mind that things done with line 

managers are much more likely to work than 

things done to line managers. Second, ensure 

that the HR policies they are expected to put 

into practice are manageable with the resources 

available. Third, provide managers with the 

training, supporting processes and on the spot 

guidance they need.

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