In order to remain competitive in a constantly changing environment,
organizations are making human resources a significant part of their
long-range business and strategic planning.
Corporate Business and
Human Resources Planning
Practices: Strategic Issues
and Concerns
Elmer H. Burack
nterest in human resources planning (HRP)
has grown dramatically over the past two de-
cades. In part, this has been a response to the
rapidly changing social, legal, and economic
environments of many corporations, as well
as to the need to develop more comprehen-
sive plans and thoughtful, consciously de-
rived strategies. These developments have in-
cluded environmental changes, increasingly
complex competition, the growing web of
governmental regulation and legislation,
growing sensitivities and interdependencies
between corporate actions and community
welfare and consumer interests, and less com-
petitive production methods. At the same
time, however, many corporations now real-
ize that the success of long-range planning
and strategic approaches rests on the corre-
many
sponding organization of human resources
and their linkage to these business-related
analyses. Various studies show that an in-
creasing number of organizations are includ-
ing a human resources component in their
long-range business/strategic planning pro-
cesses. They are doing this in order to stay
competitive in their current market as well as
viable in a newer, more competitive world
market system (see Lester Thurow's "Revital-
izing American Industry: Managing in a
Competitive World Economy," California
Management Review. Fall 1984).
The challenge of the 1980s will be to
effectively link human resources planning to
business planning and strategic activities.
Much of recent popular literature on manage-
ment, such as In Search of Excellence, Theory 73
 Z, The Change Masters, Corporate Cultures,
and Renewing American Industry, is really
concerned with making the most of human
resources or bringing about a direct relation-
ship between corporate performance and cor-
porate human resources planning and devel-
opment. Before this integration can take
place, however, a sound base of concepts —
working relationships including cultural and
political considerations, information, and
procedures — must be developed.
As our study shows, many key cor-
porations are trying to make human re-
sources planning part of their long-range and
strategic business plan; however, much re-
mains to be done. The issues go beyond link-
age matters and relate to such basic factors as
the organization and the relative effectiveness
of business and strategic planning approaches
and human resources planning and manage-
ment. This study reports on the progress,
problems, and issues faced by some 60 cor-
porations in the United States and Canada in
establishing comprehensive strategic busi-
74
ness and human resources planning systems.
Experiences in many companies,
confirmed by much of the available literature,
indicate that integrating human resources
planning with long-range/strategic business
planning will be a slow process. Indeed, the
degree of recognition and utilization of hu-
man resources planning factors has varied
widely. The introduction of human resources
planning as an integral part of the business
planning process is radical compared with
more traditional, reactive responses. A com-
mon example of the reactive approach was
the all-too-common "list of positions" needed
by line managers who expected the personnel
department to fill them the following month.
Rarely did personnel have any lead time to re-
cruit those new employees, nor did they have
any idea of such workers' availability in the
current community job pool until after the
fact. These requisitions typically were not
tied into a general planning strategy; indeed,
they reflected the lack of mechanisms for in-
tegrating HRP with the otber areas of busi-
ness planning.
CORPORATE STRATEGIC PLANNtNG AND
H U M A N RESOURCES
The central focus of this study was on the
structure, systems, and relationships affect-
ing tbe linkage of business and strategic plan-
ning and human resources planning. In years
past, long-range plans and strategic analysis
were largely restricted to the economic or
financial realm. Many newer developments
have made human resources considerations
part of the strategic picture. Strategic think-
ing has brought the following major ques-
tions (all of which have important human re-
sources dimensions) into the central arena of
corporate concerns:
 1. Where are we now as a corporate enter-
prise (in regard to marketing, finance, etc.)?
2. Where are we planning to take the busi-
ness? What are our strengths and weaknesses,
opportunities and threats? What is our cor-
porate philosophy, and what are the goals
and objectives that emerge from it? What are
our plans for achieving these? Correspond-
ingly, do we have agreed-on means (quantita-
tive and qualitative) for measuring our at-
tainment of goals while recognizing the
inherent risks in these considerations?
3. Who will make the decisions on the in-
dicated questions, recognizing that the an-
swers and further developments may take
years to unfold? What are the risks of making
a decision now even if it proves faulty later?
What are the costs of delaying a decision?
4. Are our services/products/product-mixes
appropriate to customer market segments
and reflective of our competition? What are
probable future directions in the light of op-
portunity and threat?
5. How are we going to achieve what we
are planning for the business? What are the
trade-offs, and how will we organize for
change? Will we appropriately infuse plan-
ning with programming thinking?
6. How well have we developed our im-
plementation strategies regarding a) the most
critical assumptions related to the future
business environment and b) the major ac-
tions to be taken this year?
All firms need to resolve these major strategic
questions.
Related Human Resources Issues
These strategic concerns have led to a group
of issues or planning objectives showing the
interplay of long-range/strategic planning
and human resources planning. Representa-
tive of these are the following:
• Facility closing and the redevelopment
or outplacement of employees.
• Succession planning for key officers, se-
nior managers, and high potentials with ma-
jor impacts on corporate survival, renewal,
and growth.
• Management development strategies to
deal with the expansion of international oper-
ations.
• Merger, acquisition, and/or reduction in
activities, and the redesign of organization
and job structures.
• Introduction of major new technologies
involving information, robotics, or work au-
tomation.
• Enterprise productivity and newer
quality-of-work-life experiments and designs.
• Corporate cultural matters as a basis for
solidifying internal activities and gaining
added thrust in business undertakings.
Thus interest has naturally grown in
bringing about comprehensive planning and
strategic systems that effectively involve hu-
man resources components. Success in these
75
 undertakings directly affects the "life cycles"
of organizations: that is to say, their survival,
growth, and renewal, and their possible
decline.
THE EMERGENCE AND ADVANCEMENT OF
HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING
Strategic human resources planning (SHRP)
has been a relative newcomer to the policy
planning and strategy area of organizational
activities. For many years, the advancement
of human resources management functions
persistently lagged behind the maturing of
business planning and the more recent strate-
gic activities. To some extent this was natural,
given the degree of maturity of the knowl-
edge, structure, and methods underlying
these business fields. It has been a compara-
tively short time since the first major HR
professional society, the Human Resources
Planning Society, was founded (1978). How-
ever, dedicated journal issues regarding hu-
man resources matters have already become
commonplace.
In a study of 200 human resources
planners, personnel managers, and managers
of training and development. Miller and Bu-
rack found that more than half of the par-
ticipants had had less than one year's ex-
perience and more than four-fifths had had
less than three years' experience. This sug-
gests that human resources strategists may
have brought only limited knowledge, under-
standing, and maturity to business and strate-
gic planning procedures; however, this area is
also changing rapidly.
Recent articles have stressed the need for
human resources specialists to develop their
knowledge of skills in human resources, cen-
tral organizational activities, and strategic
76 business-planning processes. However, top
management also needs to develop involve-
ment with and close support of strategic hu-
man resources processes. Needless to say, this
has involved a substantial and critical learn-
ing experience for top corporate officials.
This growth in mutual understanding plays
an important role in evolving a comprehen-
sive business planning system.
OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY
The study dealt with in this article describes
the development of human resources plan-
ning as part of the total business system. In
addition, it describes likely future directions
for the linkage of human resources and
business-planning activities. The results also
include a comparative study involving 9 firms
in which the views of both business and hu-
man resources planners are compared. In to-
tal, 53 corporations from the United States
and Canada were involved in the survey
study from a variety of businesses—including
finance, insurance, high technology, and heavy
and light manufacturing. Responses were
provided by 66 human resources planners
and 9 corporate business planners. Back-
ground information was provided from on-
site analyses at 9 additional corporations.
Most of the surveyed companies
were involved in human resources planning
and some form of strategic planning. Cor-
porate concerns with linkages in these areas
often demonstrate some sophistication in
such systems (Burack and Mathys, Chapter 1,
1980). Human resources planning may be de-
fined as "planning for the corporation so as to
have the right number of people at the right
time, at the right place, and with the right
skills." This is a simple definition, but it is not
so simple to put into practice, as human re-
sources and business planners know.
 A second aspect of the study related
to long-range business planning (LRBP). For
the study, LRBP was defined as "forecasting
for (at least) three or more years in the future
and identifying corporate opportunities and
threats in the light of organizational strengths
and limitations." Strategic business planning
(SBP) was considered as "identification of ac-
tivities and alternative approaches for the
achievement of the long-range business plans."
The last two, LRBP and SBP, are closely
related, but they are not the same thing.
Several previous studies have based many of
their interpretations and conclusions on the
assumption that long-range business plan-
ning and strategic business planning were in- Elmer H. Burack is currently a professor of
distinguishable. In fact, most of the compa- management at the College of Business Ad-
ministration at The University of Illinois at
nies we surveyed treated LRBP and SBP as
Chicago. He has also taught at Illinois Institute
being closely identified with each other and of Technology, Northwestern University, and
virtually indistinguishable in most cases. Af- San Diego State University. Burack has been a
ter recognizing the two aspects of planning, consultant for a number of organizations in-
however, we saw that an evolutionary pro- cluding Westinghouse. Digital Equipment Cor-
poration, Holiday hns of America, Kitchens of
cess was taking place with the introduction
Sara Lee. and Nationwide Insurance Company.
and refinement of strategic capabilities as an He has served as president of such professional
extension o/LRBP. Ninety percent of the sur- groups as Midwest Human Resources Planners
veyed companies had some form of long- Croup. Illinois Management Training Institute,
range business planning capability, and most and the Health Care Division of the Academy
of Management. Burack is the author or
had a strategic capability as well. Of the
coauthor of seventeen books including Manage-
ninety percent, most firms had had LRBP for ment: A Career-Oriented Approach (1983),
at least four years, and many had had it much Personnel Management {1982). and tivo works
longer. In contrast, formal strategic business in the human resources field. Human Resources
planning had begun for most firms only Planning {1980) and Career Management in
Organizations {1980). He is currently at work
about one to three years previously.
on Strategic Planning for Succession and
As most business managers and Management Development, which will be pub-
planners who have been writing long-range lished by Prentice-Hall.
business and strategic plans will acknowl-
edge, the two types of plans are quite differ-
ent. Strategic planning is much more than establishment of potentially feasible targeted
forecasting the necessary inputs and outputs objectives for the future. Alternatives are pre-
of the corporation; it involves a more causal sented that will play a central role in imple-
or active approach to planning. Strategic anal- menting long-range plans. The study of these
yses require an intimate understanding of alternatives requires considerable coordina-
the way the business works today and the tion and interaction between departments 77
 and business units; these activities must also
be tied in with comprehensive environmental
scanning (internal and external) and the in-
terpretation of these developments.
Though long-range business plan-
ning has pretty much become an integral part
of life in these corporations, strategic business
planning is often still in its formative stages.
To the extent that these new strategic proces-
ses call for newer "partners" to carry out the
analyses and business plans, important ad-
justments, rebalancing of working relation-
ships, and even conflicts are becoming part of
the scene in these organizations.
Our study results indicate that a
move to more strategically focused planning
approaches is much more than a procedural
change or a "natural" evolutionary step. Sub-
stantial changes are indicated in an organiza-
tion's culture involving its philosophy of
management, methods of decision making,
and often changes in the seats of corporate
power. Thus, not surprisingly, organizations
78
new to both LRBP and SBP would have more
difficulty adjusting to these new approaches
than organizations with an established LRBP
capability. Yet even with an LRBP system in
place, major adjustments were needed. As a
further complication in change, many organi-
zations were also developing human re-
sources planning departments that were in
turn trying to find their place in corporate
practices.
Thus despite the rash of recent liter-
ature focussing on the integration of human
resources planning with strategic processes,
we found that both aspects of business sys-
tems (HRP and SBP) were emerging. This
continuing evolution has added much to the
complexity of planning developments, and
thus to the time needed for a functional in-
tegration of the two types of planning.
THE SURVEY RESULTS
Endorsement of Human Resources Planning
Both human resources and business planners
emphatically endorsed the concept that stra-
tegic and long-range business plans should in-
clude a human resources component. In fur-
ther support of the human resources role, the
respondents indicated that business plans
should not be finalized before being reviewed
by the human resources planners. In other
words, the participants felt that analysis
could benefit from a more interactive process
with human resources planning. These re-
sults generally confirm results in Devanna
et al.'s study (1982).
How Critical is HR Planning in
Long-Range Business Planning?
There is, however, only modest agreement on
whether the HR contribution to LRBP is a Consistent with the other findings,
critical part of the long-range plan's success. the respondents felt that the corporations
One-fifth of the respondents were unsure of currently benefited most from HR planning
the role of HR inputs in the success of strate- in management succession, but only moder-
gic and long-range planning. Though all ately in effective human resources utilization,
agreed that human resources planning is cost savings, employee job satisfaction, and
growing in importance, it seems that long- development. However, the respondents ex-
range business planning still resists functional pected the latter areas fo receive much greater
integration with human resources planning. attention in the future.
Another unclear area is the nature If the expected benefits from HR
of the working relationship between business planning are attained, the respondents be-
and human resources planners. Many re- lieved that the partnerships of HRP and LRBP
spondents appeared to rely on informal con- will continue to improve. But the inability to
tacts and communications; however, they clarify the specific contributions of the HR
were unsure whether these were preferable to function to the other components of LRBP re-
more formal meetings and approaches. These mains an obstacle to the more complete in-
responses may reflect a lack of confidence in tegration of HRP. The intuitive sense of offi-
giving the human resources department a full cials that business plans will benefit from
interactive role in the analysis and discussion some type of HR component should be re-
of major organizational problems and issues. placed with more well-defined ideas and
results. The respondents indicated this need
by their desire for better assessment tech-
Relative Strength of Human niques to judge the contribution of HR plan-
Resources Activities
In organizations in which human resources
planning is somehow involved with the stra-
tegic business plan (60 percent of the compa-
nies), there is almost always coverage of
succession planning and management devel-
opment, and there are frequently high poten-
tial analyses for top- and middle-manage-
ment positions. Forty-five percent include
first line management and technical em-
ployees as part of their approaches; 30 per-
cent also include skilled positions; and ap-
proximately 20 percent include clerical and
unskilled personnel. However, human re-
sources is far from being an equal partner in
the general business planning analyses pre-
ceding these —only about one-fifth of these
companies had highly interactive planning in-
volving HRP. 79
 ning to the success of LRBP. They also indi-
cated a need for more definitive areas of HR
responsibility in the planning proi^ss, speci-
fication of measurable objectives, and more
structured relationships with the business
planning process.
Other Important Areas of Concentration for
Human Resources Activities
As mentioned before, succession planning for
officers and key managers, managerial and
executive development, and forecasting fu-
ture personnel staffing needs were considered
"very important" activities in the respondents'
organizations. Career management, cost con-
tainment, and productivity were generally
considered "important," while general per-
sonnel development was rated as only "some-
what important."
Though the respondents were asked
to rate the importance of different HR plan-
ning activities, relatively few had thought
through and/or had the background to estab-
lish priorities for these activities. Few ranked
the importance of human resources plans as
they related to "performance," "cost contain-
ment," and "productivity." The lack of re-
sponse also suggested a need for better com-
munications and integration between the
business planners and enterprise needs, and
the role played by human resources planners
in meeting those needs. The difficulty in
ranking the major areas of HR concentration
may also show the lack of human resources
thinking or sensitivities in more general busi-
ness and strategic planning.
The General Role of Human Resources
Planning in Long-Range Business Planning
HR plans were not included in some 40 per-
cent of the long-range business plans (see Ex-
80 hibit 1). Of the companies using HRP in some
manner in their long-range or strategic ap-
proach, 30 percent of the respondents indi-
cated that HRP was "vertically integrated"
with LRP. By "vertically integrated," the
respondents meant that HRP was a specific
part of the procedure but that it assumed a
facilitative rather than an equal interactive
role. Almost one-third of the companies (30
percent) used HRP as a part of general plan-
ning, but only after the completion of long-
range business analysis. In this application it
became another general consideration or
potential adjustment factor. Few companies
used HRP in a highly interactive way with
business planning. Only about one in five
companies using HRP in connection with
long-range strategic approaches did so in an
interactive working arrangement before
LRBP was finalized. The remainder of the
companies using HRP used it "informally."
These results clearly indicate the formative or
tentative nature of HRPs involvement with
the more well-established business planning
activities. Strategic business planning, too,
was moving through a formative stage of its
own, a point further developed in the discus-
sion section of this paper.
Another consideration in the study
was the seat of responsibility for the human
resources planning system. A large number of
companies (30 percent) failed to perceive that
the responsibilities for planning and devel-
opment of the human resources system lie
necessarily within the department itself. Al-
ternate approaches cited included seating the
responsibility with top management or stra-
tegic business planning, major business units,
or divisional management.
The Integration of HRP with the Personnel
Functions: A Matter of Basics
Quite understandably, virtually all the re-
sponding companies carried out human re-
 Exhibit 1
BUSINESS AND HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNING LINKAGES BASED ON STUDY

Strategic Managerial Line Management

Level Level

Environmental Evaluation:
Scanning Operational Cost
• »
Strategic
(external) & & conlainmenl
Long-Range [mplennentation Quality
Business Perlormancc
Planning Attainment
(90%)* ol goals

Human Resources reactive

Approaches link
Areas of Concentration
Top tc middle
^ management 65%
Long-Range I'lus firsl-line Personnel
Reliance
management 45% Adminislration
on —• Human Evaluation?
Internal Resources Plus technical
employees 45% RecruitmenI
Data Planning
Plus skilled Training/
60%"
position 30% development
Plus clerical''
unskilled 20%

line Management

Unit planning for

staffing and
organization
Implementation

Internal Data

For

Notes
Linkages and responsibility suggested by research
* 90% of those surveyed use strategic business planning (SBP)/long-range business planning (LRBP)
• " 60% of the 90% include human resources planning (HRP) in SBP/LRBP. Of the tO%:
40% consider HRP as an integral par( of SBP/LRBP
25% request HR data before finalizalion of SBP/LRBP
35% involve HRP after finalizalion of SBP/LRBP 81
 sources planning activities involving the per-
sonnel function, but the nature and degree of
integration with personnel differed widely. It
may at first seem that a discussion of integra-
tion within the personnel human resources
department would be unnecessary. But with-
in any large department the diverse planning
aspects may be carried out through a coordi-
nator's role. In many cases, however, person-
nel human resources functions may for plan-
ning purposes involve related but separate
staffs for employment, compensation, indus-
trial relations, management development pro-
grams, and performance evaluation. Without
integration of personnel human resources
subplanning functions, the high priority as-
signment to linking business and human re-
sources planning should be seriously ques-
tioned.
The personnel application areas
receiving the respondent companies' greatest
attention were recruitment relative to mana-
gerial staffing, high potential progress, devel-
opment of upper management and technical/
professional staff, and (to a lesser degree) sal-
ary administration related to the reward
structure in managerial incentives.
Although all companies were en-
gaged in some phase of HRP, a significant
group (almost one-fourth) were unsure of
'Virtually all the responding companies
carried out human resources planning
activities involving the personnel function,
hut the nature and degree of integration
82 with personnel differed widely.''
how it should be integrated with their person-
nel functions. As was the case in the failure
to establish a solid working relationship be-
tween LRBP and HRP, an almost equivalent
number of HR units were still some distance
away from a fit with their sister function, per-
sonnel.
HUMAN RESOURCES FORECASTING: THE KEY TO
STAFF PLANNING
Human resources forecasting is considered
not only a basic HRP activity by HR experts,
but also a crucial one for forward planning.
The main forecasting applications for the
study companies were succession planning
for officers and key managers, managerial de-
velopment, and overall future staffing. How-
ever, a surprisingly large group of respon-
dents (some 40 percent) were unfamiliar with
various HRP approaches such as data man-
agement (including computerized personnel/
management data files) and various cross fil-
ing and categorizing processes to facilitate
business and HR planning. Many were un-
familiar with planning procedures and the
applications of the planner's data. Further-
more, this lack of familiarity with HR fore-
casting specifics is striking because most of
the company personnel included in this study
were officials or senior managers charged
with the organization's general HR planning
process.
This lack of familiarity with HR
specifics commonly has several causes. First,
senior people frequently delegate responsibil-
ities to specialists and may get out of touch
with what is happening. In addition, techni-
cally complex procedures inhibit communi-
cations. A common organizational problem
was the high degree of division of responsibil-
ities and specialization involving planning
units, personnel management, and line man-
agement. Finally, some individuals were sim-
ply uninformed. The lack of knowledge con-
cerning currently available HR forecasting
procedures and uses of information, coupled
with poor internal organizational arrange-
ments involving key company people, repre-
sented a major obstacle to a more compre-
hensive strategic business planning process.
To the extent HR planning/forecast-
ing data were available, they often failed to
show the scope of developments and change
frequently occurring in contemporary sys-
tems. The results of the study indicated that
much emphasis was still placed on internal
data rather than on external sources of infor-
mation. Trends such as the current availabil-
ity of specific job skills in various locations
and future trends were often unavailable or
not included. There were deficiencies in the
following areas: HR data commensurate with
or derived from long-range business planning
and approaches; environmental scanning
capabilities and the interpretations derived
from scanning information; and user-orient-
ed models (which were largely unavailable to
line managers). Thus line managers, who had
to be committed to planning decisions, were
often actually "built out" of the process. En-
vironmental scanning methods and know-
how and user-oriented personal computer
systems are inextricably linked with LRBP in
contemporary approaches. This is clearly a
highly undeveloped area that will receive
much more attention in the future.
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS: BUSINESS VERSUS
HUMAN RESOURCES PLANNER
Background
As stated earlier, a particularly informative
feature of the study was the inclusion of eight
companies from which both business/strate-
gic and human resources planners partici-
pated. This subsample involved 19 respon-
dents and included small to large (over 5,000
employees) corporate units. The views of bus-
iness and human resources planners, which
were at times conflicting, provided a unique
opportunity to begin examining perceptions
of planning linkage issues and effectiveness.
The outlook often indicated two decidedly
different approaches. As a matter of informa-
tion, the characteristics of the subsample of
human resources planners closely resembled
the features of the entire sample of HR plan-
ning people.
The Nature of Human Resources Acceptance
As a generalization, the previously described
lack of mutual understanding, confidence,
and trust seemed to apply equally well to
these internal relationships. Although the
lack of understanding appeared more evident
in the relationships between the business/
strategic planners and HRP, the need for
strengthening these relationships holds true
regardless of the source of the problem.
This subset of business planners was for the
most part "somewhat unsure" of how and
where human resources planning fit into the 83
 business planning process. Most felt intui-
tively that it should be part of a comprehen-
sive business planning, but the nature of the
fit and the role to be played were frequently
undefined.
Both the human resources and business
planners agreed that HR planning was be-
coming increasingly important, and that stra-
tegic business plans should without exception
include a human resources component. Both
groups felt strongly that HRP should be in-
corporated into LRBP before the finalization
of the business planning. But each group had
different feelings about the role actually be-
ing played by HR: six of the HR planning
groups felt their inputs were included, but
only four of the business planners from the
same organizations had a similar response.
Thus in some companies business planners
were unsure whether HR planning was cur-
rently included, although HR planners felt it
was. It must be remembered that these were
corporate units quite advanced in planning.
An important and factual issue clearly re-
mained unresolved, with negative connota-
tions for the participants and the utility of the
HR inputs.
The outlooks of both HR and business
planners provided other important insights
into the need for integration of HRP and
LRBP. Everyone accepted the need for a hu-
man resources component in the LRBP.
Nevertheless, to get from this level of recogni-
tion to full acceptance and implementation
was a major step in internal change. Part of
the solution to the problem of "building the
bridges" would be some type of generally
agreed-on criteria that could be used to evalu-
ate the effectiveness of HR planning contribu-
tions. Many companies were not ready for
this step since their systems were in a forma-
tive stage; in the future, however, companies
84 will be paying more attention to measure-
ment issues. The development of these
criteria will probably be a slow process. A
good example of the attempts to "build the
bridge" can be found in the approaches of a
large insurance company. In this company,
top management acknowledged the impor-
tance of HR planning and development ap-
proaches. Yet they also recognized that this
newer perspective was largely foreign to the
company's culture and traditional ways of do-
ing things. A span of three years was estab-
lished as a grace period to provide for gradual
systems implementation and acceptance be-
fore starting a process of measurement and
evaluation. Only the most general measure-
ment approaches —e.g., attitude surveys —
were to be used in the first three formative
years.
Summary and Implications
Many firms want to increase their organiza-
tional effectiveness and bottom line results
with comprehensive forms of long-range plan-
ning. An important feature of this develop-
ment has been the integration of human re-
sources planning with the overall strategic
business plan. Tough competitive conditions
and a new era of problems, trends, and issues
have forced attention to these types of ap-
proaches. "Human resources planning today
is proactive, and the officials and specialists
who are a part of these processes need to be
knowledgeable about business functions and
operations. The collaboration between busi-
ness planning and human resources planning
is gaining recognition as a sensible and neces-
sary approach to long-term corporate sur-
vival, growth, and renewal. (E. Burack and R.
Smith, Personnel Management: A Human Re-
source Systems Approach, John Wiley &
Sons, 1982). Progress, however, has been
highly uneven. Since many integration efforts
have been unplanned, such efforts lack a con-
scious internal strategy sensitive to the prob-
lems and issues involved.
THE CHALLENGE IN CHANGE
A common dimension underlying many of
the problems and issues in the movement to-
ward comprehensive strategic planning sys-
tems can be interpreted as a challenge in
change. In past years corporate planning and,
more recently, strategic planning were re-
sponsibilities frequently assigned to a group
of specialists within corporate finance or to
separate planning units. In either case, "plan-
ning" was heavily oriented to finance or mar-
keting and tied closely to committees made
up of the top corporate officials. For the most
part, human resources was factored in after
the basic long-range plans were developed,
with the possible exception of some top posi-
tions. The head personnel or human re-
sources officials were often absent from these
processes when they were at the basic concep-
tual, discussion, or scenario states.
More comprehensive strategic planning
also necessitated a vast reshifting of internal
power and authority assignments in addition
to creating distinctly different interactive
activities —notable changes in corporate cul-
ture. Existing power structures and long-
standing relationships were challenged to
change. Corporate units that in past years had
strong cultures with a human resources
orientation found the challenge in change less
demanding and more of a procedural accom-
modation.
However, the lack of workable processes
in many organizations inhibited corporate
adaptation to needed changes in organiza-
tional relationships and arrangements. To
some extent, the failure to change may well
have shown a lack of confidence in the poten-
tial contribution of personnel/human re-
sources officials. Resistance to change may
also have implied the following viewpoint:
"Why should I cooperate, let alone take the
lead, in planning arrangements that are likely
to lessen considerably my current authority
(power)?"
The Learning Factor
The challenge in change, or internal adapta-
tion and the potential linking acceptance of
HRP, is likely to be a long, drawn-out pro-
cess. The corporate environment does not
change overnight. Companies must learn new
ways of doing things, in addition to dealing
with the considerable problems in the accep-
tance of HRP and new roles and relationships
for planners and/or power holders. For exam-
ple, two companies had almost identical ex-
periences in this area. The first year that com-
prehensive strategic processes were tried,
they were a near disaster. The second year was
more successful in the sense that there was
less internal conflict and a few signs that per-
sonnel/human resources was able to avert
some potentially costly decisions. By the
third year, the number of procedural discus-
sions had decreased greatly, most key offi-
cials were concentrating on major issues, and
personnel/human resources started to play a
more active role. By the fourth year, person-
nel/human resources was asked to participate
in the scenario development process. It ac-
complished this by helping to fashion person-
nel scenarios that were incorporated with
financial and marketing information, thereby
becoming part of the comprehensive strategic
and long-range planning "materials." In this
instance the companies needed a corporate
learning period of some four years for the
adaptation to new roles, relationships, and
processes. 85
 Smoothing the Way for Change
Experiences in a broad cross-selection of or-
ganizational units, including some outside
this particular study, indicated that adapta-
tions to change may be improved through
such developments as the following:
1. Getting active top management support
and participation.
2. Involving a broad cadre of management
in strategic processes. To the extent that they
carry out strategic plans, line managers need
to maintain an active planning role and be
committed to the specific approaches.
3. Anticipating the redistribution of rela-
tionships, decisions, and authority, and giv-
ing particular attention to those officers/peo-
ple most affected or likely to be most resistant
to change.
4. Arranging for good internal communi-
cations with feedback assuring that people
stay informed about developments and that
difficult points are identified in timely fash-
ion. Many difficulties arise in expanding
planning to incorporate strategic thinking —
key officials need to stay in touch with this.
5. Being prepared to make adjustments in
the system or approaches as need dictates.
Initial assumptions may have been faulty
and/or new needs may arise. The need to fine
tune or occasionally dramatically retune ap-
proaches is the rule, not the exception,
6. Emphasizing the why of the strategic ap-
proaches as opposed to the what or how.
7. Assuring that groups and their key peo-
ple have command of the needed perspectives
and crucial knowledge, skills, and abilities re-
quired in new roles. This is an important
prescription for HRP.
The challenge in change exists. We are in
the midst of an emerging corporate strategic
and human resources planning process. Be-
86 cause of its comprehensive nature and the
systems' ability to cut through and coordinate
many key elements of the corporation, the in-
tegration of strategic business and human re-
sources planning systems has potentially
valuable consequences. It may provide a
unifying framework in the fast-changing cor-
porate environment of opportunity and
threat.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I am pleased to acknowledge the assistance of
Robert Breen, research assistant, in some of the
analysis related to this paper and the draft itself,
and Richard Itami, research associate, who did
some of lhe initial research analysis.
// you wish to make photocopies or obtain reprints
of this or other articles in ORGANIZATIONAL DYNAMICS,
please refer to the special reprint service
instructions on page 80.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Strategic planning matters and changes relating to
them are cast in a complex context that Includes
environmental and internal corporate develop-
ments. Broadly viewed, the refurbishing of Ameri-
can industry is a major theme underlying many
of these developments as brought out in Lester
Thurow, "Revitalizing American Industry: Man-
aging in a Competitive World Economy" (Califor-
nia Management Review, Fail 1984); Thomas J.
Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr., In Search of
Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Com-
panies (Harper & Row, 1982); William Ouchi,
Theory Z; How American Business Can Meet the
Japanese Challenge (Addison-Wesley, 1981);
Rosabeth M. Kanter, The Change Masters: Inno-
vation for Productivity in the American Corpora-
tion {Simon and Schuster, 1983); Terrence E. Deal
and Allan A. Kennedy, Corpomte Cultures: The
Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life (Addison-
Wesley, 1982); and Paul R. Lawrence and Davis
Dyer, Renewing American Industry (Free Press,
1983). These trends are affecting all kinds of com-
panies as brought out by James Craft, "A Critical
Perspective on Human Resource Planning" (Hu-
man Resource Planning, August 1980); Gerald Al-
pander, "Human Resource Planning in U.S. Corpo-
rations" (California Management Review, Spring
1980); Harvey Kahalas et al., "Human Resource
Planning Activities in U.S. Firms" (Human Re-
source Planning, August 1980); Mary Anne
Devanna, Charles Fombrun, Noel Tichy, and Lynn
Warren, "Strategic Planning and Human Resource
Management" (Human Resource Management,
Spring 1982); and Edwin Miller and Elmer Burack,
"A Status Report on Human Resource Planning
from the Perspective of Human Resource Planners"
(Human Resource Planning, June 1981).
Of growing importance has been the in-
terpreting and factoring of external change into
long-range and strategic business planning and hu-
man resources processes as brought out in John
Sheridan, "The Relatedness of Change: A Compre-
hensive Approach to Human Resource Planning
for the Eighties" (Human Resource Planning, June
1981) and Noel Tichy, Managing Strategic
Change: Technical, Political, and Cultural Dy-
namics (John Wiley & Sons, 1983). There are prob-
lems in forging these linkages, however; some of
them may be seen in James Walker, "Linking Hu-
man Resource Planning and Strategic Planning"
(Human Resource Planning, Spring 1978); Gerald
Alpander and C. Botter, "An Integrated Model of
Strategic Human Resource Planning and Utiliza-
tion" (Human Resource Planning, December
1981); E. Kelleher and John Cotter, "An Integrative
Model for Human Resource Planning and Strate-
gic Planning" (Human Resource Planning, June
1982); Lee Dyer, "Bringing Human Resources into
the Strategy Formulation Process" (Human Re-
source Management. Fall 1983); Lee Dyer, 'Xinking
Human Resource and Business Strategies" (Human
Resource Planning, June 1984); and Harish C. Jain
and V. V. Murray, "Why the Human Resources
Management Function Fails" (California Manage-
ment Review, Summer 1984); Raymond E. Miles
and Charles C. Snow, "Designing Strategic Human
Resources Systems" (Organizational Dynamics,
Summer 1984); and Eddie C. Smith, "Observations
on SHARPS Implementation" (Human Resource
Planning, March 1984). Nonetheless, a general
blueprint for organizing top management actions
is needed as described by Ron Charan, "Strategic
Blueprint for Business" (Special Colloquia on Stra-
tegic Human Resources Planning, April 1983) and
James Craft, "A Critical Perspective on Human Re-
source Planning" {Human Resource Planning, Au-
gust 1980); and Mary Anne Devanna, Charles
Fombrun, and Noel Tichy, "Human Resources
Management: A Strategic Perspective" {Organiza-
tional Dynamics, Winter 1981). However, organiz-
ing actions require a solid base of well-organized
personnel activities, described in Elmer Burack
and Robert D. Smith, Personnel Management: A
Human Resource Systems Approach (John Wiley
& Sons, 1982) and functional human resources
processes as noted in Elmer Burack and Nicholas
Mathys, Human Resource Planning: A Pragmatic
Approach to Manpower Staffing and Develop-
ment (Brace Park Press, 1980).
The references listed above clearly show
that the incubation, form, and thrust of strategic
human resources planning approaches cannot be
divorced from a complex context of external and
internal considerations. Finally, I should note that
the identification and growing understanding of
organizational culture provides important insights
into rationalizing strategic processes. Excellent
discussions of this vital factor can be found in
two articles by Edgar Schein: "Coming to a New
Awareness of Organizational Culture" (Sloan
Management Review. Winter 1984) and "Organiza-
tional Culture: or. If Organization Development Is
Culture Change, Is That Possible and/or Desira-
ble?" (Sloan School M.I.T. Working Paper Series,
circa 1983). 87