Question 1.

1
Ulrich (1997) proposed a two-by-two matrix. The vertical axis denotes a focus on
either the current role or the future. People or procedures are the focus of the
horizontal axis. As a result, four positions should be considered: change agent,
employee champion, administrative specialist, and strategic partner.

According to Ulrich, if HR is to have a genuine or significant impact on an

organization, it must fulfil all four of these functions. Ulrich, on the other hand, did not
believe that the HR department alone needed to fulfil all four roles. Its role is instead
to ensure that these tasks are carried out in some fashion. Ulruch's Amazon HR jobs
are listed below.

STRATEGIC PARTNER

This position is responsible for HR actions that support the organization's strategic
direction. Tight working conditions motivate employees to work hard, but at the same
time, a rigid treaty forces many people to leave. From this vantage point, Amazon
appears to be more concerned with its own financial interests than with the well-
being of its employees. Although employee welfare protection is addressed in the
incentive system, as well as other employee development initiatives, these extra
projects may not be as vital as employees' everyday care in the workplace.

Before any interviews, the required job description and personal characteristics are
developed. These stringent restrictions force interviewers to follow the needs rather
than making perceptual errors. This helps the organization's strategic direction by
providing variety and shielding the company from personnel with a bad reputation.
Furthermore, when a person is hired by Amazon, the criteria for this individual
becomes tighter, which means the requirement increases over time, and this is how
Jeff keeps all candidates serious.
This is the Ulrich's model component that gave rise to the concept of HR partner.
This role is associated with a variety of functions such as strategic planning,
organizational development and design, improving organizational productivity,
facilitating mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships, environmental scanning,
recruitment and selection strategy, employee development, benefits and
compensations, management of HR information systems, overseeing trade union
organizations, and legal and regulatory requirements.

Amazon's performance and compensation management are quite stringent. Amazon

has strong performance management rules for every individual in the position.
Amazon has precise standards for every employee, from daily work to job content,
from the basic work outline to work behaviours. This increases the productivity of the
organization. Furthermore, performance management and compensation
management are inextricably intertwined.

They make the recruitment strategy easier. Before any interviews, the required job
description and personal characteristics are developed. These stringent restrictions
force interviewers to follow the needs rather than making perceptual errors. There
are numerous times when different people conduct interviews to prevent self-
centered bias, early information bias, and stereotypes. Ultimately, this procedure
results in more evidence-based decisions. Furthermore, while this organization is
concerned with people's past cases and performance, they do not require people to
have a specific former occupation, allowing for diversity.

Gayle from the case study advises individuals to be properly prepared for the
interview because the interviewers have undergone rigorous training. Amazon
interviewers have a precise job description and rules in mind, and they will assess
candidates in a variety of methods.

ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERT

Ensures that HR activities and tasks are completed swiftly and efficiently in response
to line demands and bringing value to the business. Overall, the necessary workers'
behavior makes it easy to detect Amazon's aggressive strategy. On the one hand, it
is advantageous for Amazon to align staff with the strategic purpose. On the other
hand, critics of Amazon's behavior begin to wonder whether the corporation should
take more risks with its employees in order to better meet the strategic aim.
Amazon's performance and compensation management are quite stringent. Amazon
has strong performance management rules for every individual in the position. In
addition to the important regulations, Amazon executives, from the lowest to the
highest levels, will meet once a year to discuss employee performance. They can
draw conclusions on how to improve performance from the yearly meetings.

EMPLOYEE CHAMPION

Emphasis is placed on the necessity for HR to manage individual employees' well-

being by listening to and responding to them, as well as ensuring that staff are
conversant with the organization's strategic challenges. High work pressures and
extended working hours ensure the company's overall performance, but they are bad
for lowering turnover because employees are not cared for.

Tight working conditions motivate employees to work hard, but at the same time, a
rigid treaty forces many people to leave. From this vantage point, Amazon appears
to be more concerned with its own financial interests than with the well-being of its
employees. Although employee welfare protection is addressed in the incentive
system, as well as other employee development initiatives, these extra projects may
not be as vital as employees' everyday care in the workplace.

The corporation is currently being chastised for having too much work pressure and
not caring for its employees. Amazon's culture is more focused on consumers and
less on employees, therefore if Amazon can focus on employee care, it will help it
retain staff.

CHANGE AGENT
The management of organizational change is emphasized. High work pressures and
extended working hours ensure the company's overall performance, but they are bad
for lowering turnover because employees are not cared for. There are various
reasons to solve this issue. The first technique is to improve work efficiency by
utilizing other technology. Amazon, as a technological company, should spend more
in artificial intelligence technology, so that the job of some machines can be shared
by the machine, rather than the employees bearing the entire workload. The second
strategy is to change the culture of the firm.

Question 1.2
Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the interaction between human
resource management and strategic management (Greer, 2021). SHRM is a process
or approach that tackles a company's competitive problems in terms of human
resource management processes and activities. It leads planned human resource
deployments and activities that integrate with the organization's goals, policies,
procedures, rules, and action sequences to produce a cohesive HRM function

SHRM comprises synchronizing and integrating the organization's strategic business

needs and plans with personnel management characteristics. HR managers are
under pressure to become strategic business partners who help companies adapt to
diverse business difficulties such as downsizing, restructuring, and global
competitiveness by making important contributions to their success (Greer, 2021).

SHRM focuses on HR policies and procedures that can help an organization's future
development and achievement of its goals (Greer, 2021). A well-trained, capable,
and motivated workforce is essential for gaining a competitive advantage. As a
result, SHRM is focused on attracting, supporting, and developing high-quality
employees.

SHRM's essential qualities are integration and alignment. Within organizations that
practice SHRM, people strategies are informed by business strategies. SHRM also
strives to provide direction. Another important aspect of SHRM is planning (Greer,
2021). An organization's strategy guides it in achieving specified goals and gaining a
competitive edge. Furthermore, strategy provides a vision of what and where an
organization want to be (Chams & García-Blandón, 2017). As a result, tactics are
implemented in order to realize the organization's goal.

Strategic leadership in organizations or HRM is the ability to envision the future,

preserve flexibility, think strategically, and collaborate in order to initiate change that
will enable the organization to have a competitive advantage in the future (Chams &
García-Blandón, 2017). The level of competency of an organization's human
resources has an impact on attaining its strategic objectives (Chams & García-
Blandón, 2017). Human resource competitive advantage can be maintained through
strategic human resource management, which connects corporate strategies to
enhanced business performance (Chams & García-Blandón, 2017). This occurs
when HR translates HR business strategy into specific HR priorities, such as
changing the culture, structure or introducing self-directed teams.

Human resource management is in charge of increasing the value of an

organization's production. As a result, HR managers must behave as strategic
partners who play an important role in strategy formulation. This entails coordinating
HR strategy, including rules and procedures, with business objectives and execution.
To meet the organization's strategic goals, HR professionals must be more
imaginative and creative within the organizational culture and climate (Chams &
García-Blandón, 2017).

Organizations constantly define their needs, especially during times of upheaval and
turbulence. These requirements reflect management's strategy for survival, growth,
adaptation, and profitability. SHRM operations include the development of talent
required to carry out organizational strategies. This comprises a specialized strategy
for recruiting personnel, developing talent, rewarding and retaining talent, all while
keeping proper regulations and the influence of a psychological contract in mind
(Chams & García-Blandón, 2017).

SHRM is essential for reaching organizational performance goals. SHRM's essential

components that contribute to competitive advantage are as follows (Armstrong &
Taylor, 2020).:

 Employee qualities and the extent to which they contribute to competitive

advantage
 Workforce composition in an organization
  Values, assumptions, beliefs, and expectations in the workplace
 HR policies and practices, as well as how they assist the organization's
human capital development.

Employee capabilities can provide a competitive edge. Workers are considered a

sort of human capital since they possess knowledge, skills, and abilities that can be
used to add value to enterprises. People's expertise is essential for organizational
development in knowledge-based sectors (Stone et al., 2020).

Companies invest resources in shaping their employees' values, attitudes, beliefs,

and expectations so that they align with business strategy. This is connected to the
concept that the culture of a business can provide a competitive advantage. HR
policies and procedures implemented by enterprises or organizations are an
important source of competitive advantage (Stone et al., 2020).

Policies and procedures help the organization make the best use of its personnel'
knowledge, skills, and abilities. Human resource policies such as selection, training,
development, and performance management help organizations improve their
capabilities.

The process of translating strategic intent into strategic actions is known as strategic
management. Furthermore, it emphasizes a cycle of activities that follow and feed
into one another. Strategic management is a collection of decisions and actions used
to develop and implement strategies that assure a competitively superior alignment
between the organization and its environment in order to fulfil the organization's
goals (Armstrong & Taylor, 2020). Planning, organizing, leading, and controlling are
all aspects of strategic management. At this point, the emphasis is on long-term
organizational performance (Armstrong & Taylor, 2020). Examining the current and
future surroundings is part of strategic management.

Question 2
Jeff has a one-of-a-kind method for identifying talent. According to media, they use
the "Socrates experiment" technique, in which applicants not only pass his interview,
but are also interviewed by other Amazon.com personnel. The Socratic Method is a
type of cooperative arguing discourse between persons that involves asking and
answering questions in order to inspire critical thinking and draw out ideas and
underlying assumptions (Vallortigara et al., 2019). The Socratic Method seeks
general commonly held truths that form beliefs and examines them for coherence
with other beliefs. You will not be employed at Amazon if you have even a little
complaint.

This is a stringent method of recruiting that ensures that the individual hired is
unquestionably the correct person for the job. Most applicants must go through a
series of interviews before being hired. The following are the reasons for this:

Examining credentials: Amazon may conduct repeated interviews to guarantee that

the individuals they see in person are the same candidates that have been
presented on applications and cover letters. Hiring managers may employ screening
or phone interviews to ask you to explain or elaborate on the assertions in your
application materials.

Assessing job capability: Doing many interviews may assist in determining whether
you are capable of performing the work necessary in the available position. No two
occupations or businesses are alike. Hiring managers may have a model in mind for
the ideal candidate for a position, and they may conduct many interviews to check if
you meet that model.

Affirm their decision: Several interviews, particularly third and final interviews, may
assist hiring managers in confirming that they are selecting the best candidate for the
position. Companies may call you back after a few days, weeks, or months to
reaffirm the notes they've collected and choices they've made about you in previous
interviews.

Get additional perspectives: Attending numerous interviews with the same firm may
allow you to meet people other than the hiring managers or your potential direct
supervisors. Hiring managers may solicit feedback and thoughts from those
individuals regarding your encounters.

Personality development: Hiring managers may do many interviews to understand

more about your personality outside of your work as a business professional. They
may want you to become more acquainted with them and comfortable with them in
order to determine whether you have a sense of humour, compassion, or other
positive personality attributes. Furthermore, when a person is hired by Amazon, the
criteria for this individual becomes tighter, which means the requirement increases
over time, and this is how Jeff keeps all candidates serious.

According to Gayle from the case study, who has previously worked for Amazon,
there are three elements that people may keep in mind to boost their chances of
being approved by Amazon. The first tip is to pay close attention to the procedure. It
may take multiple interviews to be fully accepted; the procedure may include phone
interviews, internet interviews, and face-to-face interviews. Gayle advises individuals
to be properly prepared for the interview because the interviewers have undergone
rigorous training. Well-trained interviewers are more consistent in their evaluation of
candidates. They are more consistent in their questioning and ask more rigorous
inquiries overall. Bias is less likely to slip in, opening the path for more equitable
hiring outcomes and a more diverse business.

Amazon interviewers have a precise job description and rules in mind, and they will
assess candidates in a variety of methods. Gayle's second idea is that people
demonstrate leadership. Leadership is a desirable quality that many employers seek
in candidates of all levels. It can indicate skills such as problem-solving,
organization, and good communication. Whether or whether you're applying for a
position that needs you to manage others, emphasizing your leadership abilities can
be beneficial. Patience, active listening, empathy, positivism, dependability, and
team building are examples of leadership talents and attributes. Candidates should
remember the following 14 leadership concepts. Finally, it is suggested that you
prepare for stating personal past cases because people care about their history
because they believe that what they did in the past is what they will do in the future.

The Amazon's approaches to the recruitment and selection process are quite
scientific. Before any interviews, the required job description and personal
characteristics are developed. These stringent restrictions force interviewers to
follow the needs rather than making perceptual errors. There are numerous times
when different people conduct interviews to prevent self-centred bias, early
information bias, and stereotypes. Ultimately, this procedure results in more
evidence-based decisions. Furthermore, while this organization is concerned with
people's past cases and performance, they do not require people to have a specific
former occupation, allowing for diversity.
Question 3
Because of the volatility and constant shifts in modern economies, business settings
have transformed the pursuit of business and is now heavily reliant on performance
in developing and utilizing new information, imagination, creativity, inventions, and
technology (Becker and Gerhart, 2015). In order to preserve competitiveness,
organizations track, monitor, and analyse their performance.

In addition to the important regulations, Amazon executives, from the lowest to the
highest levels, will meet once a year to discuss employee performance. They can
draw conclusions on how to improve performance from the yearly meetings. The
organizational structure of the corporation is flat, with the operation centre calculating
compensation by the hour, new employees, product managers, senior managers,
directors, and core leadership teams. Amazon's promotion is difficult, yet many
employees earn more than the company's CEO, Jeff Bezos.

Performance management systems are frequently implemented as balanced and

dynamic solutions that necessitate a significant investment of both human and
financial resources. Performance management also aids decision-making by
acquiring, elaborating, and analysing information. Performance management is
concerned with comparing planned goals and objectives to the actual output of
(Costa & Andreaus, 2021). Performance management can be defined as a
purposeful and integrated approach to the performance of individuals and teams
striving to provide optimal performance to their organizations (Becker and Gerhart,
2015).

Performance appraisals refer to the ongoing practice of ensuring that organizational

goals are met efficiently (Costa & Andreaus, 2021). Because human resources are
crucial in every organizational entity, performance management is critical to an
organization's success (Costa & Andreaus, 2021). Employees must be informed that
their level of performance will be examined by management in a method that
compares the actual outcomes with the desired results, and that they will be labelled
as an over-performed, satisfactory, or under-performed worker based on this (Costa
& Andreaus, 2021)

Strategic Performance Measurement Systems (SPMS) are widely used to assist with
performance planning, measurement, and control. System design influences the
ability of management control systems to enable change. SPMS provide managers
with financial and non-financial metrics from several viewpoints, presenting a method
of turning strategy into a coherent collection of performance measures (Costa &
Andreaus, 2021). This allows managers to report on past performance and influence
future performance. Financial measurements such as revenue growth, asset
utilization, and cash flows all play a role in assessing the short-term impact of
managerial choices (Mayer & Davis, 2019). Nonfinancial measurements focus on
aspects that may influence future financial performance, such as customer service
and product quality (Mayer & Davis, 2019).

SPMS assists organizations by enabling resource allocations to be strategically

linked with choices. This leads in a rise in shareholder value both during periods of
stability and during periods of strategic change (Mayer & Davis, 2019). Strategic
Human Resource decisions establish standards and competencies for each
employment role (Duggan, 2018). Following that, performance management systems
assess employee performance in reference to these competencies. Management
can utilize performance management systems to assess and reward employee
behaviour (Mayer & Davis, 2019). Furthermore, the strategic human resource
management function includes the processes of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and
developing the individuals required to guarantee organizational goals are met.

As a result, the relationship between performance management and strategic

planning is related to day-to-day operations and the organizational vision
(Almohtaseb et al., 2020).

In high-performance work systems, performance management systems play a

strategic role (HPWS). According to research, HPWS is an essential component that
enables organizations to become more effective and achieve fundamental
competitive advantages (Almohtaseb et al., 2020). HPWS is defined as "a collection
of internally coherent and consistent human resource (HR) practices intended to
improve employee competence, motivation, and commitment.

Employees at HPWS benefit from a variety of desirable outcomes, including

improved job performance and organizational citizenship, higher organizational
commitment, and job happiness (Almohtaseb et al., 2020).
Performance management that is effective allows for a long-term competitive edge.
For organizations to be successful, the performance management system must be
implemented as a strategic tool rather than just an evaluation and documentation
tool. This enables a comprehensive study of performance at the organizational,
process, and person levels for individual satisfaction, commitment, and goal
attainment (Almohtaseb et al., 2020).

References
Almohtaseb, A.A., Shaheen, H.A.K., Alomari, K.M. and Yousef, M.A., 2020. Impact
of talent management on organizational performance: The moderating role of an
effective performance management system. International Journal of Business and
management, 15(4), pp.11-24.

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., 2020. Armstrong's handbook of human resource

management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Becker, B. and Gerhart, B., 2015. The impact of human resource management on
organizational performance: Progress and prospects. Academy of management
journal, 39(4), pp.779-801.

Chams, N. and García-Blandón, J., 2017. On the importance of sustainable human

resource management for the adoption of sustainable development goals.
Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 141, pp.109-122.

Costa, E. and Andreaus, M., 2021. Social impact and performance measurement
systems in an Italian social enterprise: a participatory action research project.
Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, 33(3), pp.289-
313.

Greer, C.R., 2021. Strategic human resource management. Pearson Custom

Publishing.

Mayer, R.C. and Davis, J.H., 2019. The effect of the performance appraisal system
on trust for management: A field quasi-experiment. Journal of applied psychology,
84(1), p.123.
Stone, R.J., Cox, A. and Gavin, M., 2020. Human resource management. John Wiley
& Sons.

Vallortigara, G., Sovrano, V.A. and Chiandetti, C., 2019. Doing Socrates experiment
right: controlled rearing studies of geometrical knowledge in animals. Current opinion
in neurobiology, 19(1), pp.20-26.