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Explain how human resource strategies and competitive business strategies are aligned. 
The core idea of the contingency perspective is the notion that human resource strategies are most effective when they match competitive business strategies. Accordingly, organizations with a cost leadership competitive strategy are expected to do best when they have either a Bargain Laborer or Loyal Soldier HR strategy. Organizations with a competitive business strategy of differentiation are expected to do best when they have either a Committed Expert or Free Agent HR strategy. 
The contingency perspective provides 3 specific insights:
1. Many organizations do have human resource strategies that fit their competitive strategies. 2. Organizations are more successful when they broadly adapt their human resource practices to fit their competitive strategies. 3.Organizations with a cost leadership or differentiation strategy do perform better when they have a matching human resource strategy. 
Organizations that effectively recruit, select, train, and compensate their employees develop an advantage that is hard for other organizations to copy. This advantage is maximized when the organization has a clear competitive strategy and a matching human resource strategy. Organizations whose human resource strategies match their competitive strategies do indeed perform better. A strategic approach to human resource management sees people as an important resource vital to organizational effectiveness. 
Describe how the design of work tasks and roles can align with overall HR strategy.

1.Work design The process of assigning and coordinating work tasks among employees. 2.DifferentiationThe process of dividing work tasks so that employees perform specific pieces of the work process, which allows them to specialize. 3. Integration The process of coordinating efforts so that employees work together. Good differentiation and integration of work helps organizations increase productivity and improve customer satisfaction. 4. Autonomy The extent to which individual workers have freedom to determine how to complete work. 

Greater autonomy provides two potential benefits to organizations:

1. One benefit concerns information: In many cases, front-line workers are closer to customer and products and so they have information that a manager does not have.

2. A second potential benefit of high autonomy is increased motivation. People with a greater sense of autonomy feel more responsibility for their work. High autonomy can create coordination problems.

5. Interdependence The extent to which a worker’s actions affect and are affected by the actions of others.
Greater interdependence often
corresponds with improved performance. When interdependence is high, people tend to feel greater responsibility for completing their tasks. People also report higher work satisfaction when their goals and tasks are interdependent with those of other workers.  

One common form of interdependence is sequential processing: Work organized around an assembly line such that the completed tasks of one employee feed directly into the tasks of another employee. Another is, reciprocal processing, Work organized around teams such that workers constantly adjust to the task inputs of others.  

The best type of interdependence depends on the work situation:
– Individuals and teams tend to benefit from sequential processes when work activities can be broken into small tasks that do not change. These tasks are often physical.

– Reciprocal processes tend to be optimal when activities are complex and require mental rather than physical inputs.

Explain the steps in the process of job analysis.

Job: A collection of tasks that define the work duties of an employee. 1.Job analysis The process of systematically collecting information about the tasks that workers perform.  

Steps in the Job Analysis Process. 1.Determine who will do the analysis and get top management buy in the process. 2.Choose jobs that are critical to the success of the company and have a sufficient number of employees in them. 3.Review what has already been written about the job. One important source of information is the Occupational Information Network. 4.Select job agents, people who will provide job information, such as incumbents supervisors or job analysts. 5.Collect job information through interviews, questionnaires and observations