Review by: Hasanbegovic, Jasmina (2008-01-04)

Translated to the human resource development (HRD) context a stakeholder theory suggests that each stakeholder group has a right not to be treated as a means to some end and should therefore participate in determining the future direction of hu-man resource development activities within the organisation. Thus, the paper high-lights the need for the application of a stakeholder theory to HRD within the organiza-tion. To be able to develop people as part of an overall human resource strategy and to ensure its alignment with the organization's mission and strategic goals, alternative models of stakeholder management within the context of strategic HRD are analysed. Based on a narrow definition of a stakeholder only those groups are treated as stake-holders who are vital to the survival and success of the business/function. The key issue for the HRD function is the need to understand the expectations of different stakeholder groups and assess them in terms of what power they may exercise. The author concludes out of the premises of stakeholder analysis that the validity of the strategies implemented by the HRD function always depend on the assumptions that are made about its stakeholders and about the steps they will take during the planning and implementation of HRD strategies to involve key stakeholders.

The author conducted a detailed analysis of 16 Irish companies using different methods to extract two models which explain how the HRD specialist copes with the diverse priorities of stakeholders and how they structure their strategy formulation and implementation activities to account for the conflicting interests of different stake-holders. The "single sovereign model" of HRD management is based on the belief that the right and power to manage the HRD function is vested in a single ultimate authority of the HRD specialist. Within this model the HRD function tends to be reactive in nature with a strong maintenance philosophy underpinning its HRD provision i. e. the reinforcement of existing values and systems. The steerer model of HRD management acts on the assumption that the right and power to mange the HRD function is distributed among many individuals and groups, each of whom have a vital interest in the function. The HRD specialist as steerer perceives his or her role in terms of guiding the HRD function through diverse pressures and demands and places a heavy emphasis on the business basis of all the strategies which they utilize. The characteristics of both models are described in detail and compared regarding specific comparison points. The results show that many HRD specialists cling to the single sovereign model choosing learning strategies in isolation and shutting off from knowledge of stakeholder claims. The author reasons that such decisions lead to mistakes and create new pressure and conflicts which the learning and development specialist must solve. Thus, he suggests utilizing stakeholder mapping to as-sess the power, dynamism and predictability of the stakeholder groups. He presents two power/dynamism/interest matrices for the internal and external stakeholders and discusses the influence of every stakeholder group. Last, but not least he pinpoints that strategic HRD activities have to be concerned with both strategic and operational requirements and that a stakeholder approach has application at the operating level as well.

This paper highlights the necessarity to integrate all internal stakeholders for the alignement of human ressources into the strategic processes of an organisation. It explores the existing problems and attitudes of nowadays hr specialists and suggests possibilities and methods how to analyse the position of stakeholders and to develop interventions to integrate them.