Human Resource Thesis Sample

Dissertation Sample Title: The effect of cost leadership strategy on

human resource management.
Introduction
The corporate strategy guides organizations positioning in terms of
responsiveness, cost leadership and product differentiation. In broad terms,
corporate strategy is concerned with the broad decision making like choosing the
business network, capacity utilization etc.
The corporate strategy dictates the detailed strategies for each functional area
such as Human resource, Operations, Finance, and Marketing. The changes in
corporate strategy has often lead to downsizing ,unbundling ,and increased
subcontracting of the workforce .The human resources are aligned with overall
strategy of the organization to gain competitive advantage(Johnson and
scholes(2003) relation between corporate strategy and human resource strategy
is being reactive ,so human resource strategy is dependant on corporate
strategy.
This project is aimed at analyzing the relationship between the corporate strategy
and human resource management by analyzing a cost leader strategy used by a
multinational firm. Basically, study is aimed at studying the effect of corporate
strategy on the all aspects of human resource management. (Ritson.N (1999))

Aim
To investigate the effect of cost leadership strategy on the human resource
management function in an organization. The project is aimed at studying the
effect of organizations overall strategy on the human resource strategy.

Objectives
To investigate the relationship between corporate strategy and human resource
management
To analyze the effect of cost leadership strategy on the human resource
planning.
To find out the effect of cost leadership strategy on recruitment and selection.
To evaluate out the effect of cost leadership strategy on human resource
development
practices
like
training,
knowledge
management.
To explore out the effect of cost leadership strategy on job and role designing.
Recommendation and conclusion.

Background
Miller (1989, p. 49) defines all strategies are market related, the demand dictates
the organization direction and also indicates the strategic choice of an
organization. There are two main aspects of business such as cost and work
force, which affect the productivity of an organization. The corporate strategy is
concerned with the high level decisions like product development, market
development decisions the unique business requirements need unique set of
workers Porter (1985).
Corporate strategy has a direct effect on business level strategy, which are firms
major activities or core competencies .The business level activities are supported
by the function level activities such as human resource, marketing, sales,
administration.Porter (1985)
The human resource management is concerned with activities such as
philosophies, programs, policies, relationships with managers, customers and
suppliers.( His.S&Yun.H 2005)
The HRM focuses on using people skills and intellectual assets to provide
competitive advantage to the firm (Barney 1991).There is no direct relation
between the corporate strategy and human resource but there is a strong indirect
relationship, which is very important for the success of a business. The issues of
flexibilities with business are directly proportional to the skills and flexibility of the
work force .To implement new business plans, it is very important for
management to optimize the cost ,time scales and workforce requirement .So the
corporate strategy and human resource strategy integrate to respond the
changing business requirement .(strategic hrm 2007)
The corporate strategy find outs the product and market potential for its
business ,in accordance with, it has to use adequate measures to increase and
evaluate the performance of workforce .The corporate strategy prepare the
guidelines for the human resource strategy ,about time scales and requirement .
(Alister.A 2005)
The corporate strategies can also be defined as crafting strategies (Mintzberg
1987) provides the formulation of all plans for business activities .The corporate
strategies have wide spread effects on the functional activities ,like the human
resource strategy plans its just in case strategy by integrating with the business
strategy .For example if the corporate strategy of a firm is cost leadership ,it
reduces its cost based in business level activities ,for functional activities such as
human resource the corporate strategy influences the decisions such as out

sourcing .To sum up ,the aim behind the project is understanding the implications
of corporate strategic choices on the firms human resource management .
A global firm will be used as a case for finding out the effect of corporate strategy
on the various aspects of human resource management, like performance
management, recruitment and human resource development. Nestle is well
known for its corporate strategies and known for running different human
resource management programs .The firm has presence in almost 117 countries
and has a workforce of 30500 employees . By studying about this firm we can
find out, how important the corporate strategy is for the development of human
resource of an organization.

Research Question
The research will find out what is the relationship between human resource
management and corporate strategy? .We know that human resource
management supports business activities and business activities are guided by
corporate strategy. The research will figure out the effect of one corporate
strategy (cost leadership) on all aspects of human resource management.

Research Design
To answer the research question secondary data will be used like raw data and
the published summaries. To collect this secondary data, the secondary data
collection methods will be employed like data from documents that includes
books, magazines, DVDs, CDs, newspapers. Once the secondary data will be
found, Data will be evaluated by setting the data set variables and their
definitions with the explanation of each variable. These data set variables will be
used to put all the data in a tabular form or in graphical form so that to make the
comparison to reach at the decision and to give our findings with a more general
context. According to Saunders and Philip secondary data can provide
conceptual and comparative data, so that we can triangulate our findings.
Stewart and Kamins (1993) argue that researcher using secondary data is at
advantage than using primary data as it saves a lot of time.
To answer the research question the qualitative data method will be used. The
author will collect the qualitative data and then will analyze the data to develop
the theory from the data. The project may use the software tool, CAQDAS
(computer aided qualitative data analysis software) to analyze the data like
spreadsheet, NVivo.
Nestle is a big organization with wide range of products and having 15
competitors world wide (Nestle 2007). Therefore it will be appropriate to use a

case study method. According to Robson (2002), a case study research aims to
study a real life phenomenon and answer the question why and how. The use
of multiple data sources not only ensures validity but facilitates triangulation.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2007) describe triangulation as the use of diverse
data collection techniques for a specific study in order to establish validity. The
research will employ analysis using case study and triangulation. These data will
be analyzed differently and the results compared to maintain validity. The overall
aim of this approach is to access the effect of corporate strategy of on human
resource management of an organization whether positive or negative. In order
to analyze case study and multiple data collection methods triangulation will be
provided. Each case will be analyzed separately and the differences and
similarity with each case will be arranged in tables. The corporate strategy and
human resource strategy will be analyzed and conclusions will be drawn based
on the detailed study.

Research plan
This project will be completed in the time period of four months. , hence this
research is divided into four phases .Each phase of the project is connected to
the next phase of project. It is not possible to start next phase without the
completion of the last phase.
Module 1(1st month )
The module 1 will comprise data collection which will take at least 30 days .The
annual reports, case studies, journals, editorials will be collected in order to find
out broad view of organization and its competitors.
Module 2(2nd month)
All the relevant information will be collected and reviewed. The background of the
firm will be reviewed and important information will be analyzed.
Module 3(3rd month)
The module 3, the activity will be researching the validity of the case studies
.This will be carried out to find out the relevance of the gathered case studies.
The time allocated to it will be at least 15 days. The compilation of the gathered
data and analysis will be done in second and third module.
Module 4(4th month)
We will study and analyze the gathered data .The module 4 will be further divided
into three phases in which we will spend 10 days on background, literature

review and conclusions and findings. The next 15 days will be devoted on
documentation of the whole report.