Understanding Strategic Alignment Barriers in Public Organizations: An Application of Q Methodology

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Faculty of Management, University of Damavand Ershad, Tehran, Iran

10.22059/ijms.2024.347933.675343

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to apply Q Methodology to identify the barriers to strategic alignment between the actions of the human resources manager and the organization's strategy in 21 public organizations in Tehran. The similar and conflicting perspectives of the participants, along with 11 Q factors, and mental patterns about different types of barriers were revealed. Based on the tables of arrays and Q factor scores, the indicators of each factor were identified. The indicators include, but are not limited to, the following: less alignment of goals of each unit or department with organizational goals (19% of 81%), non-alignment between job extension and physical and cognitive ability (11.5% of 81%), non-alignment between job description and job specification, and selection and recruitment (8% of 81%), and other indicators, which shows the importance of strategic management, and the necessity of interventions and actions of strategic human resource managers to increase strategic alignment in organizations. Therefore, the contribution of this study is presented through the explanation and interpretation of the determinants of strategic misalignment and in the form of misalignment indicators, which aim to develop researchers' understanding of how to achieve strategic alignment by strategic human resource managers.

Keywords

Main Subjects


Ahammad, M. F., Glaister K. W., & Gomes, E. (2020). Strategic agility and human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1). https://doi.org/100700.
Al-Surmia A., Cao G., & Duan, Y. (2020). The impact of aligning business, IT and marketing strategies on firm performance. Industrial Marketing Management, 84, 39–49.
Andersson, T., Cäker, M., Tengblad, S., & Wickelgren, M. (2019). Building traits for organizational resilience through balancing organizational structures. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 35(1), 36-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2019.01.001.
Aust, I., Matthews, B., & Muller-Camen, M. (2020). Common good HRM: A paradigm shifts in sustainable HRM? Human Resource Management Review, 30(3). https://doi.org/ 100705.
Bean, H. (2019). Mobile technology and the transformation of public alert and warning. Bloomsbury Publishing USABirkinshaw, J., & Gibson, C. (2004). Building an ambidextrous organization. MIT Sloan management review, 45(4), 47-55.
Brown, S. R. (1996). Q methodology and qualitative research. Qualitative health research, 6(4), 561-567.
Chacko, S., & Conway, N. (2019). Employee experiences of HRM through daily effective events and their effects on perceived event-signaled HRM system strength, expectancy perceptions, and daily work engagement. Human Resource Management Journal, 29(3), 433–450. https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12236.
Chakravorti, B., Fillpovic, C., & Chaturvedi, R. S. (2019). Ease of doing digital business 2019. Which Countries Help Expedite Entry, Growth, and Exit of Technology-Based Businesses.
Chan, Y. E., Sabherwal, R., Thatcher, JB. (2006). Antecedents and outcomes of strategic IS alignment: an empirical investigation. IEEE Transactions on engineering management, 53(1), 27-47.
Chandrasekaran, M. (2021). A study on HR policy implementation at unitech plasto components Pvt Ltd chennai, tamilnadu. Annals of the Romanian Society for Cell Biology, 25(6), 1622-1642.
Choi, J. H. (2019). What one thinks determines one’s actions: The importance of employees’ perception in implementing HR systems. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 57(1), 85–102. https://doi.org/10.1111/1744-7941.12146.
Coogan, J., & Herrington, N. (2011). Q methodology: an overview. Research in secondary teacher education, 1(2), 24-28.
Combs, J., Liu, Y., Hall, A., & Ketchen, D. (2006). How much do high-performance work practices matter? A meta-analysis of their effects on organizational performance. Personnel Psychology, 59(3), 501–528.
Cooney, H., Dencik, J., & Marshall, A. (2022). Making the responsibility for practicing sustainability a company-wide strategic priority. Strategy & Leadership, 50(4), 19-23.
Cooney, H., Marshall, A., & Zaharchuk, D. (2022). Five strategic tech and talent trends for 2022 and beyond. Strategy & Leadership, 50(2), 34-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-01-2022-0007.
Darrow, J. B., & Behrend, T. S. (2017). Person-environment fit is a formative construct. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 103, 117-131.
De Zubielqui, G. C., Fryges, H., & Jones, J. (2019). Social media, open innovation and HRM: Implications for performance. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 144, 334-347.
Denning, S. (2022). Crafting a performance-focused strategy of “Deep Purpose”. Strategy & Leadership, 50(3), 29-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/SL-03-2022-0020.
Doz, Y. (2020). Fostering strategic agility: How individual executives and human resource practices contribute. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1). https://doi.org/100693.
Elorza, U., Harris, C., Aritzeta, A., & Balluerka, N. (2016). The effect of management and employee perspectives of high-performance work systems on employees’ discretionary behavior. Personnel Review, 45(1), 121–141. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-07-2014-0167.
Franklin, D. (2019). Aligning Organizational Values and Strategy. Credit Union Management, 42(6), 14-17.
Gelle-Jimenez, M., & Aguiling, H. M. (2021). Leveraging human resources management (HRM) practices toward congruence of values. International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), 10(1), 85-94.
Rubio, D. M., Berg-Weger, M., Tebb, S. S., Lee, E. S., & Rauch, S. (2003). Objectifying content validity: Conducting a content validity study in social work research. Social work research, 27(2), 94-104.
Hewett, R., Shantz, A., & Mundy, J. (2019). Information, beliefs, and motivation: The antecedents to human resource attributions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 40(5), 570–586. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/473/1/012050.
Kaifeng, L., Hongyuan, Z., & Guiyu, C. Z. (2012). Analysis of relationship between China's energy investment and financing and the development of energy industry. Energy Procedia, 14, 655-661.
Kerlinger, F.N. (1986). Foundations of Behavioral Research. 3rd Edition, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York.
Lopez-Cabrales, A., & Valle-Cabrera, R. (2020). Sustainable HRM strategies and employment relationships as drivers of the triple bottom line. Human resource management review, 30(3), 100689.
Lawrence Neuman, W. (2014). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Pröllochs, N., & Feuerriegel, S. (2020). Business analytics for strategic management: Identifying and assessing corporate challenges via topic modeling. Information & Management, 57(1), 103070.
Salmina, M., Ding, A. Y., & Yu, M. (2021). Human Resources Strategy to Improve HR Competencies. The Journal of Worker Competence and Performance (JWCP), 1(02), 1-9.
Storey, J., Ulrich, D., & Wright, P. M. (2019). Strategic human resource management: A research overview. Routledge.
Su, J., Su, K., & Wang, S. (2021). Does the digital economy promote industrial structural upgrading?—A test of mediating effects based on heterogeneous technological innovation. Sustainability, 13(18), 10105.
Ulrich, D., Kryscynski, D., Ulrich, M., & Brockbank, W. (2017). Victory through organization: Why the war for talent is failing your company and what you can do about it. McGraw-Hill.
Wang, Y., Kim, S., Rafferty, A., & Sandersd, K. (2020). Employee perceptions of HR practices: A critical review and future directions. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 31(1), 128–173.
Watts, S., & Stenner, P. (2012). Doing Q methodological research: Theory, method and interpretation. SAGE Publications. DOI: 10.4135/ 9781446251911.
Webler, T., Danielson, S., & Tuler, S. (2009). Using Q method to reveal social perspectives in environmental research. Greenfield MA: Social and Environmental Research Institute, 54, 1-45.
Yu, W., Chavez, R., Feng, M., Wong, C. Y., & Fynes, B. (2020). Green human resource management and environmental cooperation: An ability-motivation-opportunity and contingency perspective. International Journal of Production Economics, 219, 224-235.
Zabala, A. (2014). qmethod: A package to explore human perspectives using Q methodology. The R Journal, 6(2), 163-173.
Zehir, C., Gurol, Y., Karaboga, T., & Kole, M. (2016). Strategic human resource management and firm performance: The mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 235, 372-381.