Fombrun Model of HRM – UPDATED 2021 – A Complete Guide

​ Armstrong stated the human resource management (HRM) is a purposeful and cohesive approach to the management of an organization's most valuable assets. These assets are the people who work there and contribute individually and collectively to the fulfillment of its goals. Human resource management is a set of ideas, strategies, policies, processes, practices, and initiatives relating to human resources. HRM models have been developed in a variety of ways.

Fombrun Model ​

​Fombrun's Michigan model outlines strategic human resource management that focuses on management, professional groupings, and the emerging labor force. The model's main goal was to match the organization's formal structure, new initiatives, and policies with the human resource system. This makes it easier to achieve the organization's strategic objectives. They viewed the organization's personnel as a strategic resource for gaining a competitive edge. Selection, appraisal, development, and rewards are some of the components.

It is because the model connects remuneration, assessment, development, and selection, a horizontal alignment is required. The letdown of this approach is that it ignores contextual considerations such as stakeholder interests and the concept of strategic choice. It focuses on market success and company expansion.

Fombrun Model of HRM 

​ This is the first model, and it focuses on only four functions and their interdependence. Selection, appraisal, development, and incentives are the four functions. These four components of HRM are expected to contribute to the effectiveness of the organization. This model is straightforward and serves as a heuristic framework for describing the nature and importance of essential HR activities. The model also emphasizes the interdependence of the four activities and their impact on organizational effectiveness as a whole. This model has the disadvantage of being incomplete because it concentrates on only four HRM functions while ignoring all environmental and situational factors that influence HR functions.

Other important HRM models ​

The Harvard framework ​

​In 1992, Harvard professors Boxall and Beer proposed the Harvard Framework of Human Resource Management. They believed in a system that included bureaucracy, markets, and a clan approach. This can help to overcome the constraints of a single model, resulting in increased efficiency, innovation, and trust in the organization's strategies. This model incorporates the worldwide expansion of enterprises, the power of many stakeholders such as the government, labor unions, and management, as well as the integration of corporate human resource strategy. As a result, in today's international world, where economies fluctuate, technologies advance, and customer needs shift, businesses are required to apply the Harvard model in practice.

This model includes many situational considerations, stakeholder interests, a long-term strategy, and a feedback procedure. Various changes to the Harvard model are made from time to time to adapt to the changing environment. Their main goal is to overcome the problem of traditional and routine function people management in the past. Modern models and strategic functions are used in the Harvard model. However, the model's flaw is that it ignores the hard HRM model, which indicates that there is a high risk of business failure.

The guest model 

​David Guest created yet another human resource management model in 1997. The proof will be in the details. According to this model, the HR manager has certain plans to begin with, which need specific practices and, when followed, will produce results. Behavioral, performance-related, and financial rewards are among the outcomes.

The HR strategy, HR practices, HR outcomes, behavioral outcomes, performance results, and financial ramifications are all highlighted in the model. Financial results, on the other hand, are dependent on employee performance, which is dependent on action-oriented employee behaviors: employee dedication, quality, and flexibility influence behavioral outcomes, which are influenced by HR policies. Human resource practices must be in sync with HR strategy, which is inevitably linked to organizational goals.

The Guest model's claim to superiority over others is somewhat warranted in that it clearly maps out the area of HRM and delineates the inputs and outputs. However, the dynamics of human resource management are so complicated that no model (including the Guest model) can fully capture them.

Warwick model 

​Two University of Warwick scholars, Hendry and Pettigrew, created this model. The Warwick model, like other human resource management models, is built on five components: HRM content, business strategy content, HRM context, inner context, and outward context.

The Warwick model considers business strategy and HR practices (as in the Guest model), the external and internal context in which these activities occur (unlike the Guest model), and the process by which these changes occur, including interactions between changes in both contexts and content (unlike the Guest model).

The model's strength is that it recognizes and categorizes major environmental influences on HRM. It examines how human resource management adjusts to changes in the context by mapping the relationship between external and environmental factors. Organizations that establish alignment between the external and internal environments will, without a doubt, achieve performance and growth.

Fombrun Tichy and Devanna Model of HRM 

​This model was published in 1984. It focuses on only four functions and their interrelationships. Selection, appraisal, development, and incentives are the four functions. These four human resource management core components are expected to contribute to organizational effectiveness.

The Fombrun model is flawed because it concentrates just on four HRM functions while ignoring all environmental and situational factors that influence HR functions.

Fombrun HR Cycle 

The Fombrun HR cycle consists of four generic processes or functions that are performed in the organization. The following are the four generic processes:

Selection: Job matching with available human resources

Appraisal: Management and Performance

Rewards: Focus on the organization's performance for rewards. One of the most underutilized and mistreated administrative tools for increasing organizational performance is the reward system.

Employee development: fostering the growth of high-quality employees.

These are generic processes, and they're all designed to improve performance.

Fombrun Matching Model 

 The authors introduced the concept of strategic Human Resource Management. It was associated with the creation and employment of strategic corporate and business objectives by them. Furthermore, everything is suggested to be managed in a way that corresponds to the organization's strategy. The name comes from this association. The matching model is oriented toward hard HRM, emphasizing the importance of a "tight fit" between HR and business plan. This model deals with a particular company's job matching. On the other hand, the Matching model's HR plan is very calculative. It is dependent on the organization's objectives.Business strategy is the primary focus of this model. Thus, all of the human resources are always treated as crucial assets.

It is presumptively assumed that:

1) People management will differ from one organization to the next and will be influenced by the context of the organization.

2) Unitarian: The belief that in the workplace, disagreements or conflicting viewpoints are unable to exist because everyone (managers and employees) is striving toward the same goal.

3) The model served as the foundation for the 'best fit' school of HRM.

This model is based on strategic control, organizational structure, and people management systems. There the matching model is considered a "hard" form of human resource management. It identifies the important role of motivating and rewarding employees. However, it focuses primarily on human resource management in order to achieve strategic objectives. A longitudinal study of big organizations indicated that employees were firmly managed towards organizational goals. In addition, further empirical research has not found evidence of organizations routinely and consistently using hard HRM. A corporation that practices hard HRM will have a management style that treats employees as a calculated tool for accomplishing commercial goals.

Conclusion

A universally applicable model is the best practice model. Human resource policies must be matched with corporate strategy and objectives for the optimum fit. This can be accomplished by checking on the organization's and employees' needs on a regular basis. The finest practice results in excellent employees in the workplace. These procedures assist the company in gaining a competitive advantage. There are a number of practices that are universal in nature, and implementing those leads to an organization's improved performance.

Soft or hard HRM depends on the business goals, corporate culture, nature of the business environment, and nature of the business strategy. It does not matter how appealing a model appears to you. A skilled HR manager will display both hard and soft talents; thus, the distinction is purely academic. It is recommended that a nice balance of soft and hard HRM styles be used.