ams and collaborative work practice and the demand for an environment of continual learning has required an emphasis on longer term goals. These changes have influenced the function of human resource management and required a strategic response to manage these changes. No longer could effective human resource management mean managing the current group of resources without having a strategy for the future! Randy Evans (1999, p.32) emphasises that human resource mangers will play an increasing role in broad strategic and operational decision making. Human resource management traditionally served as the ultimate enforcer of the organisation’s rules and their policies, it was involved in how people were selected, professional development, measurement of performance and reward. The key issue with the traditional role of human resource management was the separation from the development of strategic plans by senior managers (Maxwell 1996, p.6). Human resources appeared to work in isolation. With constant change and tougher competition an organisations success may require that all areas are rationalised and that all rules and policies are in conformance with the organisation's longer-term objectives. The traditional approach of human resource management failed to take into account the management of people either as a whole or in relation to other aspects of the organisation. (Collins, 1987, p.7) Here the old style of human resource management was seen more as an administrative support function rather than a strategic alliance in management. (For example see Laabs 2000, p.52-53. and Perry 1993, p.59-60). This shift from operational human resource management to one of strategic human resource management has been described as moving from a micro to a macro view of the human resource departments role within the organisation (Buhler, 1999. P.16). McLagan (1999) suggests that in the past human resource management practices compared to oth...
